Q&A with CINEMAZERO about short film TELEPHOTO

(Taken from: CINEMAZERO: https://cinemaze.ro/who-looks-down-the-lens-4e9ca7976098#.s2gs18evx)

(Interview by Tom Wilton Writer & filmmaker. London by birth, NYC by fortune)

A big city can be strange and claustrophobic. You find yourself surrounded by people, buildings, traffic and noise. Pretty soon, it’s easy for that anxiety to transition to paranoia. Or at least, that’s how it goes for two tourists aimlessly wandering around London (Tom Sawyer and Leonie Schliesing) in Corry Raymond’s Telephoto.

Caught in the middle of their own miasma, she’s feeling a burning angst over an unspoken transgression. He’s seemingly more concerned with the camera in his hands.

Raymond blends real-life interactions with unscripted dialogue, pushing for a visceral, uneasy vibe that is nonetheless compelling. When our exhausted travelers finally make it back to their hotel, we realize that nothing is quite what it seems, reminding us that we often live our most intimate moments in public.

Q&A with director Corry Raymond, producer John Pickard and actors Leonie Schliesing and Tom Sawyer:

How did you all come together?

Tom Sawyer: I first met John when he worked on a play with a friend. We ran into each other on a TV gig, and then I got to know Corry through another film entirely. It’s a small universe. When Telephoto came up, I was glad to be involved, as I’d wanted to work with them both for quite some time.

Corry Raymond: John has been working as an actor and a producer for 30 years. We met when he produced a series of mono films called My Town, on which I worked as an editor. Separately, I’d been noted as a future filmmaking talent by the BFI (British Film Institute), and so John and I teamed up to produce Urban Explorers for Channel 4. Much like My Town, it was filmed guerilla-style, filming in places we probably shouldn’t.

Guerrilla style is certainly good grounding for a film like Telephoto. How did the whole project emerge?

John Pickard: When Corry first came to me with the idea, we were already in the midst of developing various other projects. But there was just something about this story, so together, we fleshed it out.

CR: The idea originated as a silent movie?—?no dialogue. I wanted the audience to follow the mystery of it all. A girl walking down the street crying; why? A guy appears; who is he? Is he the reason she’s upset? John and I spent sometime filling in the blanks before working on a treatment. Then almost by chance, we found ourselves with the opportunity to make it.

JP: Corry and I had actually been standby to shoot a documentary all day. As these projects do sometimes, things fell apart, but we still had all this equipment. By midnight, we’d decided we were just going to make Telephoto. And by three in the morning, we had everyone in place, ready to go at eleven. The power of Facebook…

CR: I was buzzing. By that point, Telephoto had been a real passion project, even reaching the finals stage of a funding competition. Unfortunately, it didn’t get picked up, and I wondered if it’d ever happen. Then, all of a sudden, we’re deciding we’re going to shoot it.

Brilliant. So you’ve managed to pull everything together?—?how did it feel to see people show up the next morning, ready to make a movie?

JP: I was just glad they turned up!

CR: When I realized I would be filming everything I had envisioned, with some incredibly talented actors, I was just excited. Undoubtedly, it was one of my favourite shooting experiences. I think it shows in the film. For me the energy of it all just shone through.

From the look of it, the camera had to be incognito most of the time. What was it like to shoot?

Leonie Schliesing: Telephoto was my first guerilla shoot and it was completely different from anything I had worked on before. Usually, filming involves a lot of waiting around, repeating shots over and over. With this film, we basically just went for it. Filming guerilla-style meant all interactions between Tom, myself all other people in the film were completely natural. I think that really shows. I’d love to work like that again.

CR: We devised story beats, working to a rough beginning, middle and end. There’s a fight in Trafalgar Square, and I remember discussing it with Leonie and Tom, telling them that it had to be a loud, very public display. I then explained their characters would then calm a little, still fighting, but only on a smaller scale. Eventually they would make amends, hug, then leave. I broke down the visuals for them both, but trusted they would fill in the rest. As I say, the film was originally going to be silent, but what they both created was so rich, smart and?—?at times?—?funny, I just knew we had to use it.

LS: Tom and I just improvised around the direction. I think it made it much easier to blend into the crowd as we didn’t have to worry about saying rehearsed lines but could completely organically react to what was going on.

CR: As a director, I like to make the editor redundant. And yes, it’s ironic, as I started as an editor. But when it comes to the camera, I like long takes and two shots. There’s something about capturing the actor’s natural rhythm within a moment. Just staying on a single shot and really studying it?—?it can be powerful for an audience. They become the editor, choosing who to look at and whose reaction to absorb. The experience can then become individual, letting different audiences find different details to focus on.

What was it like for you having to play such emotional beats, while also engaging with perfect strangers?

LS: I never worried people may realise we were acting. Tom and I had great chemistry right from the start and just interacted very naturally with each other. The big emotional scene in the middle of Trafalgar Square was tricky as people were definitely staring. Plus, Tom telling me not to swear in front of people made me want to shout at him even more. It was a great moment and is one of my favourite scenes in the film because it felt very real.

TS: Leonie and I didn’t have time to waste with niceties, or holding back. Instead, to properly serve the story, we had to get over any urges for control or perfection. Instead, we had to just go with the flow, and have faith that would be when the magic happens.

I know guerilla filmmaking can be liberating, but was there anything you guys simply couldn’t get because of location restrictions or time constraints?

JP: Not really. We had some restrictions due to schedules and the last minute nature of the shoot, but for the most part, we were fine. We did tackle a mainline train station, and although we were paranoid about getting thrown out, we could probably have shot even more. We jumped on a train and were left alone to play but we ended up panicking, anxious we’d end up in Liverpool by mistake! Of course, the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema is a lot less conspicuous than some other devices, and if we’d used a boom, that could have been deadly…

Anything you learned or experiences brought to the table?

JP: I’m super proud of what we achieved. It really is amazing what you can get for free in a city. I’d recommend any filmmaker find an event or backdrop they want to tell their story within, and just go for it. There’s something special in taking on the challenge of it all.

LS: One of my favourite moments was the pearly queen in Covent Garden, asked Tom if he was cheating on me. That came so completely unexpected and it actually had been a thought while we were filming?—?that maybe he had been unfaithful. So for her to just blurt that out without any motivation was amazing. We couldn’t have written it better.

CR: There are a million and one opportunities every day to capture something incredible. We stumbled across a protest, an art exhibition… just so much. I’d say, when making a film, plan to release a lot of it to the gods. You just have to let go of preconceived ideas, trusting that many key moments will come down to things just happening. In truth, that’s why I love guerrilla filmmaking.