A Supermarket Love Song is a short, character-driven drama set in contemporary London. Derrick, an 80-year-old man lives in sheltered accommodation for the elderly. Suzanne, a teenage girl who has recently been released from a young offenders institute, has been instructed to carry out some care in the community by her parole officer. In this film, she has to take this grumpy old man to the supermarket and help him with his shopping. The trip to and from the supermarket is a simple journey in which they discover each other's characters and begin to communicate. It is an enjoyable, sensitive and ultimately moving portrayal of an old man and a teenage girl. It is a love song in a minor key.
THE PRODUCTION
SCRIPT DEVELOPMENT
Daniel Outram: “I first discovered Jack Thorne in November 2003. I read a short script that he’d written called The Mascot, and although it wasn’t what I was looking for at that time I could tell that he was an extremely talented writer. We met a few times after that to discuss ideas for short films and feature films. For a short film I was looking for a simple character-driven story with very few characters and locations. During one of our meetings in September 2004 I started telling Jack about the various intriguing characters that I’d seen while shopping in supermarkets. Two days later he sent me the first draft of A Supermarket Love Song and I absolutely loved it.”
Jack Thorne: “A Supermarket Love Song is a film about two lonely people who half-fall in love. Love stories tend always to be about lonely people being rescued by discovering a love, but the loneliness is a bit more confusing than people give it credit.”
CASTING - Daniel Outram
Casting Derrick:
“The part of Derrick was a difficult one to cast because of the lack of budget. Originally we cast David de Keyser, but a few days before the shoot he suddenly had to fly off to Rome to play a part in a big American drama. So we rescheduled and recast, this time with Ron Moody (Oscar nominee, 1969). All was going very well until he decided to pull out of the production two days before the shoot. Then Jack and I went to see a Paines Plough theatre production at The Menier Chocolate factory called “The Small Things” by Enda Walsh. This is where we spotted Bernard Gallagher, the actor who eventually played the part of Derrick. He is an excellent actor and an absolutely lovely person, and I’m extremely glad that he agreed to act in the film.”
Casting Suzanne:
“I sought the advice of various casting directors who pointed me in the right direction in my hunt for a teenage actress. She didn’t need much acting experience. I was looking for a girl whose natural voice and demeanour fitted the character in the script. I was pointed towards a few agencies, and the most helpful was A&J Management. They read the script, thought carefully about the girls on their books, and then suggested two of them. The second girl I saw was Natalia. I knew straight away that she was the one. As soon as she spoke the dialogue came alive. I loved her voice, and her honest and revealing body language. I didn’t see any other actresses. I was very lucky.”
SETTING – Daniel Outram
The bungalow
“The exterior of Derrick’s home was always going to be discovered in the opening shot of the film so it was very important that it had the right character. I was looking for a bungalow, and I wanted it to have a slightly institutional feel. Derrick had been in prison for half of his life, and I thought it would be nice if we were reminded of this by the location. I also thought it should feel like a care home for one person. Gradually I realised that what I really wanted was a pre-fab bungalow. They were built after the war to meet the urgent need for housing, and most of them have since been knocked down, so it was a bit of a struggle finding one. Luckily my mum checked Alton estate on her way home one evening and struck gold. It’s about five minutes from the hospital where I was born, so I had a strange feeling that I was going back in time every time I drove to the location. We were originally going to use the neighbouring bungalow that had an interior that was already decorated in exactly the right way. But these bungalows were council owned sheltered accommodation for the elderly, and the resident fell ill, so I had to approach his neighbour. As a result we had to repaint, re-carpet and hire lots of props. But in the end we got exactly what I was looking for.”
The supermarket
“I wanted Derrick and Suzanne to be dwarfed by an enormous space in these scenes so I couldn’t have found a much better location than the one we used. ASDA let us film in one of their superstores on the basis that we didn’t interrupt customers, and so long as we had a very small unit. It was rather difficult for the crew dealing with the extraordinary number of morning shoppers, but in the end I think it worked well. I didn’t have time to cover all of the camera positions that I’d planned, and it was rather difficult to block as single long takes, but the actors performed brilliantly under difficult circumstances.”
CINEMATOGRAPHY – Federico Alfonzo
Federico Alfonzo has been working as lighting cameraman, predominantly in the commercials industry, since 2001. He has filmed extensively all over the world and with many of the best commercial companies . . .
“As a Director of Photography I collaborate with the director to tell the story with pictures. I primarily like to have a conversation with the director that is about the emotional needs rather than the technical elements of the film. At an early stage I want to hear how the director visualizes the film in their head. The more I know about all the various parts of the story, for example how the director sees the characters develop, the more I can help. It enables me to work more freely when we are shooting.”
“The look of any project is or should be dictated by the script. With this film Dan and I both believed that a realistic, simple and clean look would help bring the whole feel of the story across. This script is a character driven piece, and after reading it I immediately started to think about how to tell the story in the least intrusive way to let the characters be the centre of attention.”
“After we went to see the location, a very small bungalow next door to the one we ended up working on, all the pieces started to fit together. One of the first considerations regarding the look of the film was the idea to shoot all the scenes within the bungalow with a hand held camera. Dan and I discussed how this would relate to the story. We believed that initially this would allow the audience to feel closer to the characters. And then secondly, on a more practical note, we could make better use of the limited small space by not having a dolly or equipment limiting our shooting area.”
“We worked with a very basic camera package: 1 x 35mm Arricam LT and a full set of Cooke S4 lenses (kindly supply by Movietech).”
“Yet again the camera angles and the choice of lenses were both dictated by two main factors: first of all simple and economic storytelling and secondly the limitation of space at the main location. My approach to the lighting was also minimal and simple. I took into consideration the existing lighting at the location and used the lights that I had to reinforce what already existed. When at all possible I tried to light for the space rather than for the actors, it is one of my ways of contributing by giving both the actors and the director as much freedom as possible to tell the story.”
“The limited size of the location ended up being a blessing in disguise. The closeness that it created helped make the film feel very real and I certainly thought it helped to portray that this really was Derrick's home. There were times while we were shooting that I felt as if I was invading someone's privacy and that I shouldn't have been there.”
“After two days of shooting at the bungalow, we had one final day to film both the supermarket and the street set-ups. This time we used a steadicam to keep the feeling of intimacy with our characters. We used all available light and just a small amount of ‘bounced filled light’ for the actors' faces.”
“This really was a very low budget (perhaps a no-budget) short film and we did not have the luxury of choosing film stocks but rather we had to use whatever film stock we were given. I ended up shooting on more emulsions that I would have liked to. We shot on Kodak 5245, 5248 (day exteriors), 5217, 5218 (living room and supermarket), and 5277 (kitchen). Luckily we managed to shoot entire scenes with the same stock. It was fortunate that it did not present major problems when it came to do the final grading, which we were lucky enough to do at Rushes using C-Reality.”
“I'm happy with the simple and realistic look we've achieved.”
SOUND RECORDING – Jamie Gambell
Having worked in the sound department for five years on features, dramas, and the occasional commercial, Jamie Gambell has been making the move up from boom operator to sound recordist during the last year . . .
“We were afforded a great deal of control during this shoot enabling us to record a clean and effective sound track. The dynamic of two people talking for several pages at a time meant that the only real issues that I would face were ensuring that overlaps were controlled for the sake of the edit, and other normal ambient problems (traffic, airplanes, pedestrians, neighbours’ music etc). Traffic wasn’t too bad since the main road was several streets away, we shot over a weekend, and the bus route nearby wasn’t as busy as it could have been. The residents in the area were fantastically helpful and noise was controlled very well. We were below one of the landing zones for Heathrow airport, and sound windows in these areas are ever shortening as the airport becomes busier – however, we weren’t too badly affected. The main problems that we encountered were in the supermarket where we found ourselves shooting in a live superstore with very little control over tannoy announcements, fridge noise, and the public. Luckily I had just completed a film, which saw the first six days of shooting taking place in this exact environment, so I was aware of what we could get away with. I opted to use radio mics, separated onto split channels, to help reduce some of the background ambient. As this sequence was shot in single shots for each vignette of dialogue, I wasn’t too concerned about the background noise affecting the edit, and to help the blend from sequence to sequence I ran a healthy supermarket atmospheric wild track to under-lap the action.”
“On this shoot I recorded onto DAT, using an HHB PDR 1000, mixing a Sennheiser MKH 60 microphone (swung by boom op, Ben Greaves) through an SQN 4S series II four. As the film plays effectively as a two-way dialogue I was sure that there wouldn’t really be too much call for separating tracks, and recorded in mono for the most part. I also used Audio 20/20 diversity radio mics with Sanken lavliers.”
PRODUCTION – Jenny Webb
Jenny Webb currently works as the Production Manager at Moon, a London-based commercials production company. She entered the commercials industry in 2000 in Sydney working as a Production Assistant. She studied at the University of New South Wales, where she completed a BA with a double major in Film & Philosophy. At UNSW she produced a short film “Who’s on top” which won Best Art Film at ATOMFEST 2000, an Australia student video awards . . .
“Dan had done a great deal of work on the film in the areas of script development, locations and the cast as a result of his previous attempts at getting it off the ground. So by the time I came on board it was simply a matter of finding the crew and equipment and concreting everything down. We were really fortunate to work with some really great people and talents on this, and we can’t thank everyone enough for their efforts. I guess, as with all non-funded shorts, the difficulties lay in making magic happen on no budget and making it happen quickly. However, with the combined energies of our fabulous DOP Fede Alfonzo, our guiding force 1st AD Paul Murphy and the dream team at Rushes, we really did manage to create the picture which Dan had hoped to achieve.”
THE CAST
BERNARD GALLAGHER
Bernard has just reprised his role in The Small Things at the Galway Festival, having previously appeared in the same play at The Chocolate Factory (dir: Vicky Featherstone). Prior to this he filmed the role of Caroline Quentin’s father in the ITV drama Footprints in the Snow (dir: Richard Spence). Bernard has acted in plays at various prestigious venues including The National, The Old Vic, The Almeida, The Donmar, and The Royal Court. Theatre directors that he has worked with include Sam Mendes and Antonia Bird. He has acted in films including Photographing Fairies and Red Monarch, and numerous TV dramas including The Bill, Midsummer’s Murders, Doctors, Rose & Maloney, London’s Burning, Heartbeat, Eastenders, Casualty and many others.
NATALIA RUSH
Natalia has been in several student productions and various commercials including a recent one for AOL. She has also performed script readings at both the Royal Court and RADA. She had a featured role in The Bill and will shortly start principal photography on The Blue Tower for director Smita Bhide. The film, to be shot in and around London, is a psychological thriller set within the Punjabi community of Southall. Natalia lives with her parents and three sisters in Wapping.
DIRECTOR – Daniel Outram
Daniel graduated from Glasgow University in 1999 with a Psychology honours degree, and has since been developing a career as a director. He has started directing commercials (his reel is available to view at www.takeagiantleap.com or www.imageevent.com/danoutram/showreel) and is now also heading towards feature film directing. In 2004 he won the Young Directors award at the Cannes advertising festival, and in 2005 one of his commercials won silver at the Golden Hammer advertising festival. By submitting this film to festivals he hopes to find the support of producers and financiers to help develop and produce his feature films that are currently germinating as various exciting ideas. Although his commercials are predominantly observational comedy, Daniel is interested in exploring various genres of filmmaking. He has recently written a surreal, dark and comic short called Gorilla in the Pipes for which he has just begun seeking funding. He is also developing a feature film (working title: Taking the Bus) with Jack Thorne.
WRITER – Jack Thorne
Jack Thorne
Theatre writing includes When You Cure Me (Bush Theatre, reviews at www.bushtheatre.co.uk), Stacy (Tron Theatre), Paperhouse (Flight 5065), Solids (Paines Plough at the Young Vic), and Fanny and Faggot (Pleasance, Edinburgh Fringe Festival). Writing for film includes The Mascot (Film London/Pulse Digital Shorts, London Film Festival 2005). Jack is Development Consultant for Apocalypso Pictures (with director Pawel Pawlikowski and producer Tanya Seghatchian). In 2002, Jack was awarded Royal Shakespeare Company/Marlowe Society ‘Other Prize’ and in 2004 he was shortlisted for the Verity Bargate Award. He is currently under commission to Tiger Aspect/Channel 4 for an original TV drama, and will do an attachment at the National Theatre in the new year.
To read an interesting online article about Jack from Time Out please go to:
http://www.bushtheatre.co.uk/when_you_cure_me_time_out.htm.
