Film: Doggerland: The Dead & The Lonely
Director: Adam McHattie
Writer: Matz Martyn, Adam McHattie
Starring: Dave Darko, Gráinne Kelly, Matz Martyn, Charlotte Wyman
In a new exclusive interview on Blazing Minds ahead of the Horror-on-Sea Film Festival, I got a chance to ask ‘Doggerland: The Dead & The Lonely‘ Co-Writer-Director Adam McHattie
You can watch Doggerland: The Dead & The Lonely at the Southend Film Festival on Sunday 7th June at 12:30 as part of the Mostly Made In Southend: Part One shorts.
Q. Your film Doggerland: The Dead & The Lonely has been selected to play at the Southend Film Festival. Can you tell us what we can expect from the film?
A. What we originally intended for this short film was to put our hometown, Burnham-On-Crouch on the map. The film is a love letter to the place we grew up in and it’s incredible amount of hidden beauty.
The project was a real coming together of the amazingly talented people that make up our community and what we could achieve when given a chance.
Q. You co-wrote the script with Matz Martyn, What was the process of you writing together and what were your inspirations when writing the script?
A. Our main inspirations were Dead Man’s Shoes (2004) and Jojo Rabbit (2019) but there were plenty others!
The original script had a Jackie Chan-esque fight sequence which we would have loved to include but sadly neither of us know martial arts or are even vaguely acrobatic so we had to scrap that once reality set in.
Writing with Matz was a collaborators dream, it was a lot of late night ‘what if’s’, back and forths and script revisions.
We’d generally have a draft of the script, we’d then sit down and go through it beat for beat and rehearse it between us. If something didn’t work or didn’t feel right, we’d lose it. Neither of us were precious about what we’d written and it was always… What’s best for the audience?
Q. Did you have any of the cast in mind for the characters when writing the script?
A. Matz for sure, we’d been making films since we were kids and I wanted to push Matz in terms of range as I knew he had the ability. We’d always made comedy sketches or slightly silly films and this was the first time we were both saying “Should we actually try to do something serious for once?”.
Q. What were some of your influences for the look and style of the film?
A. Showing off the landscapes of our area was a key goal for us, so we looked at films like The Road (2009) and Days of Heaven (1978) to see what we could do to make it work but tonally we really wanted to have the light hearted comedic moments to break through the dreary, depressing ones. The films of Taika Waititi, Coen brothers mixed with a little bit of Jacques Tati helped tremendously. It was a difficult
feat to blend successfully but I think we nailed it.
Q. Did you make any changes from the original script during filming?
A. Yeah for sure! We had written a scene where we needed a large number of supporting artists at the climax of the film and we had got a huge amount of ”Yes! I’ll be there!” responses but when it came time to actually filming that day, we had four people turn up so we had to seriously improvise and work creatively to work around the issue, luckily by the time we were shooting the wides, we had grabbed enough people off the street and whomever was walking past that day to help us out and we got exactly what we needed!
Q. What were some of your favourite moments during filming?
A. To be honest, even though it was a bit of a disappointment not to film what we had originally intended, the day when most of the extras didn’t turn up was probably my favourite as it forced the team to collaborate and come up with a brand new plan. What we ended up with was far superior to what we had written and it was just so much fun to think on our feet. It was then I knew that we had something truly special and the team we had built was invaluable. Real ride or die kinda stuff.
Q. Did you experience any issues during filming?
A. Luckily, it was just a few logistical issues such as notifying the police that one of our characters was holding a fake gun and the usual tech issues during filming, nothing out of the ordinary.
Between Matz and I, we planned each scene so much that nothing surprised us, however there was
one day where we were filming along the River with a drone, and at some point the seagulls started trying to attack it. I’m not sure how much preparation you could do to prevent that!
Q. What makes Doggerland: The Dead & The Lonely stand out as something different?
A. For the most part, I think it’s the incredible passion behind the film that shines through. This wasn’t just a small crew coming together to make something, it was an entire community building something to show the world.
Q. What do you hope people take away after watching the film?
A. As this is the first instalment of a larger ‘Doggerland’ Series, we really want the viewers to go away wanting to see what we have in store for them next. We’ve definitely got something that we think keeps our small town, countryside aesthetic but reimagines a classic folktale for the modern age, we can’t wait to show everyone.
Q. Do you have any other projects which you are currently working on?
A. Absolutely! Matz and I are busy working on a couple scripts together plus we’ve been writing scripts on our own.
We’ve got another Doggerland script that has got us completely obsessed again (So that’s a good sign!) and so we’re sending drafts back and forth currently, we’re looking to begin producing that by the end of the year and begin shooting shortly after.
But before that, we’ve shot (and still shooting) some micro short films that we’re going to get shown
in our local Rio Cinema very soon!
Q. If someone was looking to write and direct their own film what advice would you give them?
A. Just make stuff. You’ll always doubt yourself and wonder if it’s the right thing to do. Just make it. Shoot a scene on your phone with your mate to see if it works and what needs to be improved, eventually it will become natural and you’ll know what works and what doesn’t.
Most of all, keep the audience in your mind when making a decision about the story. I’ve always gone but the motto “I don’t mind making a bad movie… as long as it’s not boring”.
You can watch Doggerland: The Dead & The Lonely at the Southend Film Festival on Sunday 7th June at 12:30 as part of the Mostly Made In Southend: Part One shorts.
You can find out more about Adam McHattie and MCH Entertainment on the website here. and following Instagram accounts real_mchattie/ – mchfilms_uk/
You can find out more about the festival and purchase tickets here.
Published in various websites, Philip is a reviewer who is best known for his interviews and media coverage of independent projects including; films, books, theatre and live events. Always on the lookout for something different to cover!