As some of you may be aware, I recently caught the filmmaking bug again. After my last project (a short, no-budget psychological horror film called Safe Space, which you can watch on YouTube here), I turned my attention to A Thorn in Winter, the mystery thriller novel I’d managed to persuade Ireland-based publisher Ring of Culture to roll the dice on. I wanted to make a short documentary to provide more insight into the novel and bring it to life a bit, but how would I go about it?
The limitations of shooting with no budget on an iPhone once again proved a challenge. However, I wasn’t exactly inexperienced. In my previous television job, I’d produced and directed documentary pieces promoting other novels (not mine) or stories featuring dramatic recreations. Of course, in those days I had production budgets. Not to mention professional camera operators, editors, sound recordists, and audio post-production engineers who did the hard work, whilst I flounced around barking instructions. But on this project, since I was the subject, I had to rely on family members for any shots that featured me on camera.
My wife and my children were troopers in this respect. However, directing from in front of the camera is never easy, and this led to setbacks. For example, I opted for a total reshoot of both the main interview and my first set of links out and about in various locations from the novel. In the former, the eyeline wasn’t quite right. In the latter, I’d stupidly worn an unflattering T-shirt that clung to me, adding far more pounds than any camera is legally permitted to pile on. Normally, I wouldn’t care about such things, but I needed people to pay attention to what I was saying, rather than be distracted by unflattering excess chunkiness.
In any event, that reshoot was the first of many, as other spanners were thrown into the works. For instance, I shot this over the summer whilst going back and forth on book edits with the publisher. When it was pointed out that the name Leila Williams had been used for a character in one of the Fifty Shades novels (which I haven’t read), I realised I’d neglected my usual task of googling all the names in my book to make sure there weren’t any unfortunate coincidences. Of course, a name cannot be copyrighted, but the publisher quite rightly expressed concern that we didn’t want readers visualising a character from Fifty Shades whilst reading my novel. Thus, Leila Williams became Leila Wilmond. Unfortunately, I’d shot a bunch of links mentioning the original name, so they had to be reshot. Again.
In my experience, it’s tougher filming a drama than a documentary. However, if you plan the production thoroughly, shooting all the coverage you need (as was the case with Safe Space; no reshoots required), it’s a joy to edit. In contrast, a documentary may be easier to film, but it’s much harder to wrestle into a coherent final cut. I’d initially planned something about 30 minutes long. Yet the more I looked at the material, the more I realised I needed to cut it down drastically. In my judgement, at this point, no one particularly cares about my life story, as I’m not famous (yet). But I did need to get viewers interested in A Thorn in Winter. With that in mind, I ditched almost all the autobiographical footage and kept the focus on the narrative.
The main interview got hacked, slashed, and re-ordered multiple times. Much of what I shot on location ended up on the cutting room floor. Several additional reshoots occurred as the edit evolved. Sometimes I had to reshoot for technical reasons (such as the sound not being up to scratch). Other times, my delivery was wrong (again, it’s extremely difficult to direct oneself). However, one production element did go relatively smoothly: The dramatic recreations set to readings from the novel. For these, I once again persuaded the excellent Abi Stevens, who starred in Safe Space, to play both the aforementioned Leila Wilmond, the main character, and the victim whose murder from decades earlier Leila is investigating. We managed to film all the recreations in one day.
Ultimately, A Thorn in Winter: A Look Inside turned out reasonably well, despite being rather rough around the edges. The final cut clocks in at twelve and a half minutes, and I think it’s pacy enough not to outstay its welcome. In fact, it probably all looks deceptively straightforward, but believe me, a lot of agonising went into deciding what to include, what to cut, and the order in which the various items appear. I hope you find it compelling as something to whet the appetite, and I also hope you enjoy seeing a little bit of southwest England. I should add that whilst the plot is discussed to some degree, there are no ruinous spoilers. You can watch by clicking the embed below.
A Thorn in Winter is out now. Paperbacks and ebooks are now available directly from my publisher, Ring of Culture (click here). Additional retail outlets will follow soon.
