Wild Will Film Spotlight
Today’s film spotlight focuses on the short film Wild Will directed by Alan King as part of the Pendance Film Festival.
What is the title of your film and what inspired said title?
The title of my film is Wild Will. The lead character William Page causes absolute havoc, so the title felt catchy & appropriate.
Tell us a little bit about the story and origins of your film.
The film tells the story of a neighborhood dogcatcher, who is found wandering the streets disorientated and ios brought back to the local police station for assistance where t6hings take a turn for the worse. I shot the film completely solo, so apart from seeing myself you only ever hear the other characters voices. All the violence that takes place is told mostly through the audio with some visuals in blurred reflections. The film was shot entirely in my apartment kitchen and was born from a camera test, I was sitting against a plain white wall and thought this could be an interview room or a police cell and the idea grew from there. The challenge was finding ways of driving the narrative forwards without any crew or other actors, and these restrictions forced me to come up with creative ways to tell the story.
Any films or filmmakers that inspired this film?
I always love filmmakers that try and do something a bit different, push boundaries, step away from the norm a bit. I admire that adventurous spirit, Kubrick, Scorsese, Bergman, Herzog, Thomas Anderson, Penn, Von Trier, I could go on and on. This film is B&W and has a film grain and crackling audio track, which lends itself to the classic 50’s type films of the era, like Psycho, Lord of The Flies, The Seventh Seal etc. There is even a sequence in this film which features the lead characters interaction with a dying blowfly, which upon reflection is reminiscent of Norman Bates and the blowfly at the end of Psycho. So that was a happy co-incidence.
What is the goal of the film for you?
First and foremost, make a film that is engaging to its audience. Secondly, a project that is an interesting and rewarding experience for myself, one that allows me to explore new avenues of storytelling that I can take with me moving forward in my work as a filmmaker.
What has the journey been like getting the film into production?
Shooting this film by myself came with a myriad of restrictions that I wouldn’t have had with a crew & actors – no one to move the camera, no sound recordist, no other actors/characters to engage with during shooting. However, these restrictions also became the film’s strength, as I wouldn’t have found the film’s distinctive narrative style without them.
One thing you learned from this project?
Making realistic blood takes some doing and I have a newfound respect for make-up artists, I got the mix right in the end, but it took some work – tomato sauce, chocolate topping, Worcestershire sauce and the magic ingredient maple syrup, it’s all about the texture! The other thing was to really embrace interesting unscripted elements that potentially come up in the environment you’re working in, for example, one afternoon when I was shooting, I noticed a fly on my window ledge that looked like it was in its last stages of life; I decided to film my character very peacefully observing the fly. The fly then passed away naturally about an hour later and I filmed my character very gently touching the dead fly, mourning its death. This gentle interaction with the fly was inserted in the edit, right after the character has caused the most unforeseen violence upon two humans and it gave the film a whole new level of subtext that was never scripted, and it’s one of my favorite parts of the film.
How can folks find you and your film online?
Wild Will just launched on a new subscription platform that is available worldwide called Vidiverse which was started up by visionary director Alex Proyas (The Crow, Dark City, I Robot). Alex hand-picked each of the 60 short films on the platform, so there’s some amazing films to be seen.
https://www.vidiverse.com
My filmmaker website is
www.whitecubepicturelab.com
Any last pieces of advice for fellow filmmakers?
Keep at it, don’t give up, don’t be afraid to take risks & don’t ever listen to people who don’t believe in you.
The Pendance Film Festival runs from March 10-13, 2022.
For more reviews and content stick with To Tony Productions and don’t forget to subscribe to our blog to stay up to date!