Lay Claim
[Writer/ Director/ Co-Producer/ Editor]
Synopsis
LAY CLAIM is the film I wrote and directed for my university Final Major Project. The story centers around Charlie Charlton, a gangland boss who is struggling to let go of his past, in a bid to secure his future.
Set in front of a Southern English backdrop, Charlie comes face to face with an old friend- turned rival, Martin Pearson, as a war escalates between them over territory. With the help of loyal but psychotic Jimmy, and the calculating killer Harry, Charlie now has to hold onto what he still has left to call his, and reclaim his territory, yet his long history with Martin hinders him in doing what's necessary for his own survival.
LAY CLAIM is the film I wrote and directed for my university Final Major Project. The story centers around Charlie Charlton, a gangland boss who is struggling to let go of his past, in a bid to secure his future.
Set in front of a Southern English backdrop, Charlie comes face to face with an old friend- turned rival, Martin Pearson, as a war escalates between them over territory. With the help of loyal but psychotic Jimmy, and the calculating killer Harry, Charlie now has to hold onto what he still has left to call his, and reclaim his territory, yet his long history with Martin hinders him in doing what's necessary for his own survival.
Cast and Crew
Crew
Robert Smith: Writer, Director, Co-Producer, Editor Luke Berry: Producer Francesco Bagatti: Co-Producer Alec Green: 1st Assistant Director, Sound Recordist, Sound Editor, DIT Kirk Cousins: Director of Photography, Colour Grading Daniel Franceschini: Camera Operator Moe Aasi: Gaffer, Production Assistant Alex Cook: Assistant Camera Operator Emily Barnes: Makeup Artist |
Cast
Harry Rafferty: Charlie Charlton Billy Reynolds: Martin Pearson Cameron Carmichael: James "Jimmy" Dyer Jack Heath: Harry Allen Sarah Rees: Holly Price Keith Simpson: Police Chief Gallagher Crew cameos Robert Smith: Giles Madison, Charlton Gangster Alec Green: Jimmy's Victim Francesco Bagatti: Gangster in Car Daniel Franceschini: Nicky Gabriel Moe Aasi: Pub Patron Alex Cook: Radio Presenter |
Trailers and Teasers
As a way to promote the film during the early days of funding, we created a short three piece narrative introducing the audience to one of the films most intriguing characters; the cold blooded, psychopathic, loyal gangster James "Jimmy" Dyer.
The narrative depicts him before, during, and after killing a rival mobster, showing his irrational brutality and his terrifying calmness about the situation after committing the crime.
As a way to promote the film during the early days of funding, we created a short three piece narrative introducing the audience to one of the films most intriguing characters; the cold blooded, psychopathic, loyal gangster James "Jimmy" Dyer.
The narrative depicts him before, during, and after killing a rival mobster, showing his irrational brutality and his terrifying calmness about the situation after committing the crime.
|
|
|
Once production was underway, we decided to use a short clip from the film to keep up audiences interest about the film, and to give them a quick look at the type of style of the film. We used a shot from a part of the film that depicts the gang warfare on the streets and gangster getting "whacked" by their rivals.
The final, and main trailer we made for LAY CLAIM was put together after production had been completed. By creating this during the post production, we were able to show our audience that production was completed and that the full film was to be released soon.
Screenwriting, Genre Research, & Character Development
I first got the idea for Lay Claim in April 2017 when I started to think ahead about what kind of film I wanted to make for my FMP. I have always loved crime dramas, especially involving the glamorisation of the gangster lifestyle, and I had always wanted to make one of my own. Seeing the FMP as a golden opportunity to do so, I started to research the genre. Looking into the film that had previously sparked my love for crime drama, I watched a re-watched films such as Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas, Francis Ford Coppola’s three part epic The Godfather, and Chaz Palminteri’s nostalgia fuelled movie A Bronx Tale. This films were quintessential in inspiring my own work, in that they show the glitzy, glamourous side of being involved in organised crime, before revealing the gritty and brutal reality that they face.
I first got the idea for Lay Claim in April 2017 when I started to think ahead about what kind of film I wanted to make for my FMP. I have always loved crime dramas, especially involving the glamorisation of the gangster lifestyle, and I had always wanted to make one of my own. Seeing the FMP as a golden opportunity to do so, I started to research the genre. Looking into the film that had previously sparked my love for crime drama, I watched a re-watched films such as Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas, Francis Ford Coppola’s three part epic The Godfather, and Chaz Palminteri’s nostalgia fuelled movie A Bronx Tale. This films were quintessential in inspiring my own work, in that they show the glitzy, glamourous side of being involved in organised crime, before revealing the gritty and brutal reality that they face.
I would study these films, in terms of the characteristics and tropes these characters had (such as, the fiery temper such as Santino “Sonny” Corleone (James Caan) in The Godfather), how the dialogue would flow and the way narrative would interlink with the themes of the film, such as greed and betrayal which is seen a lot of crime dramas. (E.g. Goodfellas). Soon I was ready to start applying what I had learnt into my own work.
I wasn’t happy with my first draft of the script, as the way the characters were written made it too easy to predict what would happen. I decided that I wanted the character of Jimmy to be more of a “loose cannon”, in that his fiery temper and psychotic tendencies makes him as much a burden on the gang as he is an asset, making it hard for Charlie to control him sometimes, creating conflict within his own gang as well as the outside problems he faces with rival mobster Martin Pearson. A big influence for Jimmy’s characteristics was Joe’s Pesci’s portrayal of Tommy DeVito in Goodfellas who, like Jimmy is killed because his actions cause too many problems for the gang. Next, I wanted to turn Charlie into a more multi-dimensional character, from the one dimensional smart, invulnerable, cunning character he was originally written as. Charlie’s lack of vulnerabilities made him an uninteresting character, and wouldn’t make the audience question whether he’d win in the end.
I’ve heard many times that for writers to create a flawed character they have to look at their own flaws and apply them to the personalities of their film to add authenticity. Almost like holding a mirror up to themselves and the audience, so they can relate to the character on a human side. I thought about what kind of personality bad traits I had at the time of writing Lay Claim, that I could apply to Charlie, including vulnerabilities such as heartbreak, cynicism, and a “The end justifies the means” attitude I had for some of the things I did. Just like that, Charlie had become a fictionalised, gang leading, reflection of myself and any audience member who also has these aforementioned flaws. I decided that there should be a part in the film where Charlie opens up about his self-destructive, internal struggles, confiding in Harry that he wanted a different lifestyle, whether he’d ever be able to go back on his decisions and whether, ultimately he’s a good person. The moral struggle Charlie faces throughout the film is whether he can kill his rival after being childhood friends with him for years, and whether he can let go of the nostalgia to secure the safety of his existence.
This level of sympathetic character traits would hopefully make the audience root for him, hoping he’d do the right thing and turn his back on the gang lifestyle whilst he still had a chance. I however, wanted to disappoint my audience, by making Charlie succumb to the evils of the world, giving up his last chance of redemption to take total control of the city. This choice would fit with the theme of greed and sacrifice that runs throughout the film.
Now that I had the characters developed and fitting into the narrative, I wanted to look at some of the technical aspects of the film such as some of the cinematography in certain shots, character representations and soundtrack.
When writing each scene I thought about the cinematography and Directing style of Martin Scorsese’s movies, my biggest influence in filmmaking. This included the cinematography of Michael Ballhaus and the editing of Thelma Schoonmaker. Scorsese once said that [1]“Cinema is a matter of what’s in the frame and what’s out” meaning that what the audience doesn’t see on can have as much of an impact in what they can see on screen. I applied this philosophy in the scene when Jimmy is murdered by his own men. The shot plays out that Jimmy walks from the back of a car, swearing about how “un-fucking-believable” the organisation of their job is followed by Harry who pulls a gun out and fires at Jimmy who is now off-screen where he dies. By not showing the image of Jimmy dying, it emphasises the horror of the situation, which it’s too horrific for the audience to see, and leaves the violence to their imagination.
Whilst I came up with the names for the main characters (Charlie, Martin, Jimmy and Harry), my Director of Photography, Alec Green, came up with the names for the secondary characters such as Holly, Nicky and Giles.
[1] BRODY, R. (2011) Cinephile Follies. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/cinephile-follies.
I wasn’t happy with my first draft of the script, as the way the characters were written made it too easy to predict what would happen. I decided that I wanted the character of Jimmy to be more of a “loose cannon”, in that his fiery temper and psychotic tendencies makes him as much a burden on the gang as he is an asset, making it hard for Charlie to control him sometimes, creating conflict within his own gang as well as the outside problems he faces with rival mobster Martin Pearson. A big influence for Jimmy’s characteristics was Joe’s Pesci’s portrayal of Tommy DeVito in Goodfellas who, like Jimmy is killed because his actions cause too many problems for the gang. Next, I wanted to turn Charlie into a more multi-dimensional character, from the one dimensional smart, invulnerable, cunning character he was originally written as. Charlie’s lack of vulnerabilities made him an uninteresting character, and wouldn’t make the audience question whether he’d win in the end.
I’ve heard many times that for writers to create a flawed character they have to look at their own flaws and apply them to the personalities of their film to add authenticity. Almost like holding a mirror up to themselves and the audience, so they can relate to the character on a human side. I thought about what kind of personality bad traits I had at the time of writing Lay Claim, that I could apply to Charlie, including vulnerabilities such as heartbreak, cynicism, and a “The end justifies the means” attitude I had for some of the things I did. Just like that, Charlie had become a fictionalised, gang leading, reflection of myself and any audience member who also has these aforementioned flaws. I decided that there should be a part in the film where Charlie opens up about his self-destructive, internal struggles, confiding in Harry that he wanted a different lifestyle, whether he’d ever be able to go back on his decisions and whether, ultimately he’s a good person. The moral struggle Charlie faces throughout the film is whether he can kill his rival after being childhood friends with him for years, and whether he can let go of the nostalgia to secure the safety of his existence.
This level of sympathetic character traits would hopefully make the audience root for him, hoping he’d do the right thing and turn his back on the gang lifestyle whilst he still had a chance. I however, wanted to disappoint my audience, by making Charlie succumb to the evils of the world, giving up his last chance of redemption to take total control of the city. This choice would fit with the theme of greed and sacrifice that runs throughout the film.
Now that I had the characters developed and fitting into the narrative, I wanted to look at some of the technical aspects of the film such as some of the cinematography in certain shots, character representations and soundtrack.
When writing each scene I thought about the cinematography and Directing style of Martin Scorsese’s movies, my biggest influence in filmmaking. This included the cinematography of Michael Ballhaus and the editing of Thelma Schoonmaker. Scorsese once said that [1]“Cinema is a matter of what’s in the frame and what’s out” meaning that what the audience doesn’t see on can have as much of an impact in what they can see on screen. I applied this philosophy in the scene when Jimmy is murdered by his own men. The shot plays out that Jimmy walks from the back of a car, swearing about how “un-fucking-believable” the organisation of their job is followed by Harry who pulls a gun out and fires at Jimmy who is now off-screen where he dies. By not showing the image of Jimmy dying, it emphasises the horror of the situation, which it’s too horrific for the audience to see, and leaves the violence to their imagination.
Whilst I came up with the names for the main characters (Charlie, Martin, Jimmy and Harry), my Director of Photography, Alec Green, came up with the names for the secondary characters such as Holly, Nicky and Giles.
[1] BRODY, R. (2011) Cinephile Follies. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/cinephile-follies.
Costumes
The costumes for this film had to stick with the standards of the genre, being that the film is about gangsters; men who have built up masses of wealth through illegal, criminal activities. This meant that the costumes would predominately be suits, shirt and tie, black loafers and the occasional hat (trilby, fedora or newsboy cap) to get that timeless, classic look of wealth and high status that surrounds these men who are both feared and respected. This can be seen occasionally in the TV show The Sopranos.
The costumes for this film had to stick with the standards of the genre, being that the film is about gangsters; men who have built up masses of wealth through illegal, criminal activities. This meant that the costumes would predominately be suits, shirt and tie, black loafers and the occasional hat (trilby, fedora or newsboy cap) to get that timeless, classic look of wealth and high status that surrounds these men who are both feared and respected. This can be seen occasionally in the TV show The Sopranos.
As a way to reflect Charlie’s decline into evil, that throughout the film, the colours of his tie changes darker with every evil act he commits, with the last one being red symbolising the all blood he has spilt to get to where he is. This would also make sense as the logo for the film is a suit and red tie, subtly foreshadowing the climax of the film.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack is very important in a movie to reflect the mood of the scene, and to draw a parallel of what’s happening on screen and what a character may be thinking. A lot of films that glamorise the gangster lifestyle are set in the 1950s or early 1960s (A Bronx Tale), or at least have a soundtrack to simulate that feeling of nostalgia, and so I thought it was best to try an match that in my film, to give the audience a familiar, warm feeling that has established in many other films of this genre. For the first act of the film I have chosen to use quite light, upbeat music. 50s music genres such as ‘Doo Wop’ and ‘four chord’ love songs are played during the scenes that establish the main characters lifestyle, giving a sense that they are happy with the choices they have made, and they wouldn’t have things any other way. However, as the film moves more towards the second act, and conflict starts arising, the soundtrack gets progressively darker and eerier, to reflect the tensions and mounting pressures that our character find themselves facing. It is also around this time in the film that the glamorisation starts to peel away to show a more realistic, gritty side of this lifestyle. By the end of the film, the light hearted, innocent music from the start is completely stripped away and replaced with heavy rock music. This is a perfect representation of Charlie’s character progression; starting off enjoying his lifestyle and having a chance of being a redeeming character, to eventually becoming a man who can’t be saved from the evil that he has allowed to consume him. His moral fibre worn away with no chance of returning, and now knowing he has to live with the choices he has made as a consequence of becoming a victim of his own success.
I have found a website; www.audionetwork.com that lets us buy royalty free music that has lyrics in the track, to give a more realistic feel, rather than just having an instrumental track. On this site I have found a lot of the music that I plan to use, in the genres I have already mentioned, from Doo Wop to Heavy Rock. Also, our Co-Producer; Francesco Bagatti has found a composer, Cesare Augusto Giorgini, to create a few scores for the rest of soundtrack, including songs the reflect tension mounting on our characters, and the closing music to our credits.
Locations
In terms of locations a lot of the script was set in houses, desolated exterior area, and a bar & restaurant. The bar and restaurant were the locations that we first looked into, knowing that these may be the most challenging to secure. The first location that I looked into was The Alexandra Beer Emporium, a place I had been many times before and knew the layout with accommodate some of the scenes in our film well.
On 14 November I went to The Alexandra and asked to speak to the manager, enquiring about whether they’d allow filming, and if so, what their availability would be from late January/ Early February. They said that they’d be happy to let us film in the bar and to just let them know if advance when we have a specific date to film.
The soundtrack is very important in a movie to reflect the mood of the scene, and to draw a parallel of what’s happening on screen and what a character may be thinking. A lot of films that glamorise the gangster lifestyle are set in the 1950s or early 1960s (A Bronx Tale), or at least have a soundtrack to simulate that feeling of nostalgia, and so I thought it was best to try an match that in my film, to give the audience a familiar, warm feeling that has established in many other films of this genre. For the first act of the film I have chosen to use quite light, upbeat music. 50s music genres such as ‘Doo Wop’ and ‘four chord’ love songs are played during the scenes that establish the main characters lifestyle, giving a sense that they are happy with the choices they have made, and they wouldn’t have things any other way. However, as the film moves more towards the second act, and conflict starts arising, the soundtrack gets progressively darker and eerier, to reflect the tensions and mounting pressures that our character find themselves facing. It is also around this time in the film that the glamorisation starts to peel away to show a more realistic, gritty side of this lifestyle. By the end of the film, the light hearted, innocent music from the start is completely stripped away and replaced with heavy rock music. This is a perfect representation of Charlie’s character progression; starting off enjoying his lifestyle and having a chance of being a redeeming character, to eventually becoming a man who can’t be saved from the evil that he has allowed to consume him. His moral fibre worn away with no chance of returning, and now knowing he has to live with the choices he has made as a consequence of becoming a victim of his own success.
I have found a website; www.audionetwork.com that lets us buy royalty free music that has lyrics in the track, to give a more realistic feel, rather than just having an instrumental track. On this site I have found a lot of the music that I plan to use, in the genres I have already mentioned, from Doo Wop to Heavy Rock. Also, our Co-Producer; Francesco Bagatti has found a composer, Cesare Augusto Giorgini, to create a few scores for the rest of soundtrack, including songs the reflect tension mounting on our characters, and the closing music to our credits.
Locations
In terms of locations a lot of the script was set in houses, desolated exterior area, and a bar & restaurant. The bar and restaurant were the locations that we first looked into, knowing that these may be the most challenging to secure. The first location that I looked into was The Alexandra Beer Emporium, a place I had been many times before and knew the layout with accommodate some of the scenes in our film well.
On 14 November I went to The Alexandra and asked to speak to the manager, enquiring about whether they’d allow filming, and if so, what their availability would be from late January/ Early February. They said that they’d be happy to let us film in the bar and to just let them know if advance when we have a specific date to film.
The second location that was secured by the 1st AD and I, on the 26 November, was Gusto, the restaurant that we want to film a scene between two gang bosses. We approached the owner and asked him if he’d allow us to shoot our film there. He said that he’d be fine with that, explaining that other films had previously been made there, and that he could let us in before the restaurant is open, to avoid customers getting in the way.
Some of the most iconic scenes of the film were set in very empty spaces, to show the desolation of a characters empire, or the emptiness in there lives. Two of these spaces were filmed in Southampton and Beaulieu Road (New Forest):
Award
Lay Claim is the first film that I have won an award for. It was the Adam Beckett Fellowship Award, given to us at the Solent Film Awards (SoFia) evening. My team earned this award for the dedication, teamwork, and problem solving we demonstrated throughout the filmmaking process.
A news article was written about the award in my local newspaper, which can be found here.
Lay Claim is the first film that I have won an award for. It was the Adam Beckett Fellowship Award, given to us at the Solent Film Awards (SoFia) evening. My team earned this award for the dedication, teamwork, and problem solving we demonstrated throughout the filmmaking process.
A news article was written about the award in my local newspaper, which can be found here.
Behind the Scenes photos
Lay Claim Noir
I have always loved the way that black and white filmmaking looks, and am a huge fan of the classic Hollywood Noir films of the 40s/50s. The grittiness of the shadows cast across the characters faces and environments really does a lot for the visual storytelling. That’s why I have edited a new version of my award winning short film; Lay Claim, with hopes that the black and white look and shadows will help to emphasis the visual storytelling, as well as the films genre.