On Campus News

Joseph Lynn discusses his newest short film and its successful screening event

By Naomi Laeuchli
posted Jan 10, 2013, 22:05

Joseph Lynn was previously interviewed about his festival winning, student short film, �Winnie the Pooh�. He returns to discuss what he�s learned since then, his newest short film �The Good, the Bad, and the Ordinary�, its premier screening event and the future plans of Darklake Studios.


Can you tell me a little about �The Good, the Bad, and the Ordinary� and the inspiration behind it?
The film is about a normal guy who wakes up one day to find he has been given an angel and devil to help him make decisions. However he soon realises that having them around all the time only goes to make matters worse with their contradictory advice. The inspiration was to once again use an idea that would be widely recognisable, the image on a angel and demon on someone's shoulder is timeless and easily adopted. We then wanted to take this premise and disfigure it into someone new; so in our film the main character ends up taking the angel and devil with him to therapy, to group help sessions etc. We hope the film moves too quickly for you to question it, one moment you're in a corner shop struggling to decide between full-fat and diet coke, the next you're at a tennis court watching two unearthly beings having a rally. It is really sporadic.

I�ve previously interviewed you on your last short film �Winnie the Pooh�. Did you approach the making of this film any differently? And what areas do you feel you�ve grown in since making that film?
We had to be a lot more efficient. We only had a small space of time in which to film and edit despite having months to write it. We all live in different parts of the country so when we meet up we had to work as fast as possible, it was very tiring. Many days I didn't sleep at all and worked into the next day. all this during the Christmas period as well! But I think we have gotten much quicker at getting what we need and that we no longer have to force our style but it comes naturally. There are four of us mainly at Darklake Studios and we have all got to the stage where we are working on the same wavelength. This film is very similar to 'Winnie the Pooh', we wanted to mainly add to it regarding humour and style instead of creating something entirely different. This year we are going to experiment with other projects though.

What was the venue you used to screen �The Good, the Bad, and the Ordinary? And how did you find it?
The venue is an amazing little shop in an old market which used to be a vintage shop and a cafe but is now ran by Screen Stockport and The Teenage Market. It is called The Glass Umbrella, it's a beautiful grade 2 listed building but has a nice modern interior. I asked if we could use the shop for this reason and I have them as contacts through winning their film festival last year. It was an experiment for both us and them as they had never hosted a cinema event before but we are both glad we did. The space is not huge but it worked perfectly and the atmosphere was palpable.

What was involved in putting the screening event together? And how did it go?
I headed the event and basically just rang up loads of favours to put it together. I am always the first to push our work forward but seeming as it was for people who either already love our work or who helped make this film, people wanted to see it anyway so it didn't take much persuasion to get the numbers up. Preparation consisted mainly of acquiring copious amounts of wine. The evening went down brilliantly, we showed two films and both got roars of laughter and applause. Not only did the film go down as a success but the event itself and is something that I am sure will be a staple for every film we release from now on.

What are your future plans for the film?
This film was a quick taster just so we had material similar to 'Winnie the Pooh' for people to see. We didn't have much scope planned for it but it has been received much better than we thought so we have another screening planned at a cool venue called the Yard in March I think but that needs finalising. I'm doing a couple more interviews and promoting like mad. In early February our friend is releasing a documentary about us as filmmakers, he followed us around at every stage of this film and has some great footage so that should be fun. That can possibly be handed around to some film festivals. For Darklake Studios in general we started writing a larger scale film to be shot this summer, it's going to take things up a level we hope. We have a few composers lined up, construction on a set in the works and a huge list of film festivals to ship it off to around the world when it's finished. So loads coming later this year and I am currently writing a short film about the Easter Bunny (obviously), something which I have yet to convince the other guys to get on board with but I always do in the end.





Resources:

Watch �The Good, the Bad, and the Ordinary� on YouTube

Darklake Studios Official Website

Darklake Studios Official Facebook Page