How you direct a swan actor!

The sound coming from the white van as it pulled up was muted, but unmistakable. Like a trumpeter on steroids, playing after a rough night out in Soho, being arrested. This was the “swan truck” and Lloyd Buck, expert bird handler, warned that none of the four inmates might play ball “as Henry is a bit grumpy.”

Welcome to the world of animal actors and my first time directing an animal for the cinema. Here I was, in sub-zero temperatures, on the banks of the mighty River Severn trying to get a swan to appear to be communicating with humans for “Black Car Home”. Must be mad, I thought, comforting myself that at least I hadn’t written any child characters into the script.

You can judge the result at the film’s screening at the London Short Film Festival on the 14th January at 1845 as part of a programme on REFUGEE, ASYLUM & GLOBAL MOVEMENT. So how did we make the scene when we shot the film?

Nervously I watched the van’s tailgate open. Had Henry alienated them all? It was Olive who came waddling gamely down the ramp. Lloyd gave me the thumbs up. She was soon in position on the set with DOP Ian Salvage and go-to bird camera operator Mark Payne-Gill in position with their Alexa cameras, and actors Nadia Serantes and Jon Cleave, rehearsed and ready to go, watched by a nervous crew of 30.

My approach to film making is to be well prepared, be clear, have back up plans and get great people working with me; Lloyd and his wife Rose were no exception. But a Plan B for climatic scene with a swan is difficult, if no swans cooperate.

I asked Lloyd how close to the script Rose could get; not expecting miracles. “Oh all of it as intended,” he said, “with luck.”

Gently shepherded and encouraged by Lloyd and his wife Rose, who kept up a conversation with me and the crew, we started filming Olive. I found myself asking a swan “please can we go again?” Would she mind walking closer to Nathan, played by Jon Cleave, to show intimacy? With Lloyd’s expert help she did. What a pro performer! She seemed to enjoy it and gently encouraged by Rose and Llloyd repeated various actions for us to get the best take. The trick is that she sees them as parents.

Then she had to fly off on cue into the winter sunshine. It was all achieved and the shots by Mark and Ian look beautiful. Finely edited by David Thrasher, and with music and sound added by composer Garry Bell, and Keith Rodgerson's sound mixed with it by Brian Mosley at Films at 59, the scene makes its mark.

Cinema audiences have gasped on seeing the sequence and after screening audience questionnaires cite the scene as one of the most memorable and striking in the film - well it is the climax!

All my previous directing experience proved useful to make this darkly comic fiction film about an illegal immigrant being rescued by a homeless man. So what did I learn from working with Olive? That like your crew, you must, as a director, treat your actors, bird and human, with respect, care and understanding. www.blackcarhome.com www.davidpearson.international

Photo credit : Jimmy Edmonds