Most of us learned a new word at FrightFest 2024, Scopophobia. You can google it whilst we talk to Aled Owen, the director of the movie with the same strange name.
NYX: Did you know from a young age that you wanted to work in the film industry?
AO: I actually wanted to be an actor originally. I auditioned for drama schools in London but when I didn’t get in, I did a foundation year at art school to kill time before auditioning again next year. There, I decided that the best way to act in the meantime was to make my film my art specialism. That’s when I started writing, directing and using camera equipment, and I realised that storytelling from behind the camera was my real passion. I decided not to audition again after all, and instead went to film school in Leeds.
NYX: Where did the idea for the movie come from?
AO: On one of my allowed 1-hour walks during lockdown, I was struck by how dead my hometown of Carmarthen was, and started imagining other reasons this type of desolate image could have come about. That’s where I got the idea for the steel mill and the cash box. I simultaneously had been sitting on the idea of the midpoint twist, and so the two ideas eventually became one.
NYX: Did you write it with a cast in mind?
AO: I wrote Sam with Bethany Williams-Potter in mind, having performed in amateur dramatics with her since we were 11, and I remembered her comedic timing and amazing work ethic. I wrote Erin for Emma Stacey, although she’s totally different from her character (and thank God!). We acted together briefly in 2020. The others, I wrote without anyone in mind, but when I eventually met or thought of these actors, each one felt like a eureka moment. “Of course!”
NYX: Talking of cast, the four leads work perfectly together, did they have much time to rehearse?
AO: They’re amazing, aren’t they? Neither of them knew any of the others before we started this, which is surprising because they click so well on screen. I knew we wouldn’t have the time on set to rehearse, so I arranged a table-read with the four of them before we started, and did the same again before our final block of production a year later too. I also had 1-on-1 zoom sessions with each of them before we started. It helped that we put the four of them in one house-share for the shoot, and asked them to car-share, because they quickly became very close.
NYX: Was the whole movie shot on location?
AO: Yes. The first block was shot in Carmarthen; essentially the Milton exterior scenes. On the second shoot six months later, the corridors and offices were shot at a place called Bay Studios in Swansea, but we didn’t actually use the studio spaces there, just the preexisting offices.The big factory locations were shot in Middlesbrough six months later again. We really had to stitch these places and times together in the edit to make it work on our tiny budget.
NYX: This is your first movie as a director, were you nervous the first day on set?
AO: I like to think I’m good in a crisis, but a film shoot without a budget is practically all crisis! On set, when there’s plenty to do and not enough time to do it, I don’t have time to be nervous. That said, for the weeks leading up to it, and even during production, I hardly slept. I was a wreck, but only when I had time to think about it. Thankfully, on set, you don’t!
NYX: What lessons in directing did you learn during the production?
AO: It really helped that we shot in blocks. Not just because of budget, but because the process of seeing that first shoot edited and scored meant that I already knew what to do differently in the second block, and so on. I essentially got to make three movies, getting better and more confident each time. The finished film would have felt much more like a first attempt if we had shot it all in one go.
NYX: The effects are excellent, did you have much of a budget to play with?
AO: No. Not at all. This is why it’s really important to get to know and champion talented people. We found Ellie Baldwin’s instagram page and assumed she was a working professional, then one day she posted about graduating from her masters soon and I told my producer Tom that we need to get her involved ASAP. It turned out that she was our age, shared our ambitious attitude and shared our approach to low-budget passion projects. It’s safe to say that she elevated our film immeasurably, on her way to inevitable SFX stardom.
NYX: The lighting and synth score reminded me of early 70s giallo, was this deliberate?
AO: Absolutely! Giallo, of course, means Yellow in Italian, named after the yellow post-war paperbacks that were eventually adapted for the screen and became the Giallo genre. I actually named my company Melyn, the Welsh word for Yellow, as an homage to Giallo.
Adam Hollin’s cinematography and David Webster’s lighting were exactly what I was picturing when I was writing, so I was hugely excited by what they achieved.
NYX: Will you be nervous when the movie has its world premiere at FrightFest 2024?
AO: Absolutely. I’m nervous already. I’m honestly not sure if I’ll be able to sit there for the entire duration. I think I’ll need to excuse myself and go get a stiff drink. I’ll make sure I’m back at the end, though, for the Q&A!
NYX: So, what are you up to at the moment?
AO: Even at this late stage in the process, Scopophobia is still feeling like a full-time job. Now that we’ve all worked so hard to finish it, the new mission is to make sure everyone’s hard work is being seen. I’m always writing though, so there are a few other scripts and ideas brewing too. I also got engaged recently, so I’ve got a wedding to plan on top of everything. Really nice problems to have, but it’s exhausting nonetheless!
NYX: Aled Owen, thank you very much.
AO: Thank you.
