On 16th June this year, screenwriter and producer Tom Kerevan has the UK Premiere of his debut feature Tear Me Apart at the Genesis Cinema in London. Shot for just £60k, it world premiered at the Austin Film Festival 2015 and is due for worldwide release on 1st July 2016. www.tearmeapartpremiere.eventbrite.co.uk (use discount code LOVEKILLEAT40 for a 40% discount).
Here, Tom recounts how the London Screenwriters’ Festival was where it all started, and why he believes taking ‘impossible’ risks is the only way to make a debut.
The London Screenwriters’ Festival 2011 was where my life as a screenwriter really began. Such were the connections I made, I can pinpoint it as the exact moment my career went from an ‘if’ to a ‘when’.
It was also where I met newbie director Alex Lightman. Soon after we met cinematographer Ern Herrmann on a short film, and the three of us have been working together ever since. In May 2013 we made the somewhat snap decision to take the plunge and produce a feature film ourselves.
Our thought-process was simple: whatever we try to do, our debut feature is never going to be perfect. Therefore, rather than go for a safe vanilla debut that ultimately says nothing, why don’t we take creative risks that allow us to showcase what we want our brand to be as filmmakers? Better to fall short in the latter than succeed in the former.
With that in mind, the concept for Tear Me Apart emerged in the space of five minutes over a cup of coffee. I had access to post-apocalyptic cinematic locations in Cornwall, Alex liked the idea of exploring survivalist characters within this world, and Ern suggested a love triangle at the heart of it. So there we had it: a post-apocalyptic cannibal love story set in Cornwall. Easy.
Since this was going to be the movie to launch our careers, it had to stand out. We wanted to flex our muscles, both from a story-telling perspective and a filmmaking perspective, to show what we could do with limited resources. Rather than go for a single location claustrophobic thriller (as we were advised!) we wanted to go big: a road movie with multiple locations, over 50 sets, 90% of it outside, aerial shots, complex SFX… the whole shebang!
A few people told us we were crazy, that what we were trying to do was impossible. But we knew the capabilities of the team around us, we knew what we had access to, and we knew that if the stars aligned we might just be able to give people a glimpse of our potential.
And here’s the funny thing: in the three years since we conceptualized the idea, and in the two years since we shot it, film-making has moved on. Some of the risks we took back then are becoming more standard, even necessary, in making indie films. Aerial shots for example – three years ago they were still pretty expensive and stand-out, now they’re everywhere.
The point is this: what we achieved was considered by some to be impossible three years ago. But we did it. And so did countless other filmmakers… To the point where now it’s becoming the norm.
You have to take creative risks just to keep up, because everyone else is! And in one of the most competitive industries in the world, this is arguably the best way to stand out.
So did we succeed?
All we’ll say is that we got the movie we set out to make, we believe it is greater than the sum of its parts, and we think it looks a lot bigger than the mere £60k we splashed on it.
Ultimately though it’s you, the audience that must be the judge.
So we invite you to join us for the beginning of the final chapter of this ‘impossible’ venture – our UK Premiere on Thursday 16th June at the Genesis Cinema in London.
Click here for tickets: www.tearmeapartpremiere.eventbrite.co.uk And because we love LSF, use the discount code LOVEKILLEAT40 for a 40% discount.
Finally, we are always happy to share our experiences and what we learnt to anybody looking to get their first feature off the ground. Feel free to drop us a line at info at cannibalfilms dot co dot uk.
As Chris says, “Onwards and upwards!”
For more information on the film:
www.cannibalfilms.co.uk
@CannibalFilms
Facebook.com/TearMeApartMovie
PS – If you’re thinking of making a debut feature, here’s our top 6 influences on Tear Me Apart that took big risks on a story-telling and/or film-making level:
- Hanna – Starring Saorise Ronan, Hanna follows a 16 year-old girl raised by her father (Eric Bana) in the wilderness of northern Finland to become a lethal assassin. When she can no longer be held in isolation, she enters the real world where a greater force hunts her. Joe Wright’s direction is beautifully crafted – stylised performances, great action and a highly inventive use of sound and music. This film is in its essence a coming-of-age road movie in an action adventure wrapper. It is a film that takes directorial risks at every turn and pulls them off with style.
- Following – The writer/director of Memento, Inception, Interstellar and the Batman trilogy took his first directorial outing for a budget of $6,000 and made $48,000 at the Box Office. Shot on weekends over the course of a year, it’s a unique film that challenges genre convention, took a huge amount of risks with the narrative and tried things even if they didn’t quite work. Nolan clearly set out to be as ambitious as he could with his limited resources but made the point that given more he could deliver something very special. His next feature was Memento and the rest is history.
- The Road – Based on the Cormac book of the same name, John Hillcoat’s The Road is the bleak story of a father (Viggo Mortensen) and his son who travel across a post-apocalyptic world searching for civilisation where Mother Nature has long since died. The desperation and hope are juxtaposed by a beautiful production design that becomes the setting for the best and worst that humanity, if you can call it that, has to offer. Whether you love it or hate it, this honest, brutal and touching film is unfaltering in its vision.
- Pi – Darren Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream, The Wrestler, Black Swan, Noah) shot his first feature for $60,000 and took $3.2mil at the Box Office. Pi is a uniquely atmospheric twisting thriller following a troubled mathematical genius who tries to beat the stock market only to find himself in the middle of a much bigger plot. Like Following, Pi took risks at every turn and even when something didn’t necessarily quite work it was clear that there were bigger things to come from this director. Pi stands out as an inventive statement of a debut feature.
- Let the Right One In – A bullied teenage boy befriends a mysterious young girl whose arrival in town coincides with a number of brutal murders – it’s a traditional coming-of-age love story where one of the parties just happens to be a vampire. From director Tomas Alfredson, this book adaptation contains both moments of tender beauty and grotesque horror making it a masterclass in handling two genres, two stories, thrust together. It’s a fresh take on the tired vampire genre – truly moving, truly terrifying.
- Monsters – Possibly the greatest debut feature in recent years, director Gareth Edwards delivers a prime example of going big with a simple story set against an imaginative and epic landscape. At its heart, this is a classic road movie. The twist is in the world itself – a journey of discovery through Mexico, now an infected zone where aliens landed six years previously and now roam the land. It offers an alternative perspective on your traditional monster movie by exploring the ongoing fallout from what might happen if hostile aliens did arrive on earth. Despite the enormity of the world Edwards has created, he keeps us focused on the unfortunate couple traversing this dangerous wilderness and thereby creates a tense monster movie with a human heart. Beautifully acted and shot on the fly, this film is all about making the most of limited resources and grand locations to deliver something truly cinematic, touching and ultimately rewarding for audiences. Edwards’ next film was the big-budget Godzilla remake, before he went on to direct the upcoming Star Wars spin off Rogue One.
Posted by a member of the London Screenwriters’ Festival team.
