Saturday nights at FrightFest always contain something for to bring the whole crowd together and this year is no exception, get ready for Marc Coleman's Member's Club! We managed to grab him for a few minutes for this interview.
NYX: Members Club is your second feature, what lessons in directing did you learn from your first movie?
MC: My biggest take away was working with bigger named actors and a larger crew. Up until that point, everything I had ever shot had always had a crew of about 2-5 people and the cast were predominantly all actor mates. On this film, some days there were a crew of 30 and some of the actors were people I grew up watching on TV. Imposter syndrome would kick in most mornings - I was terrified that people would find out I was a fraud!
But deep down, I always knew exactly what I wanted from the film, so it was just a case of being able to communicate that in the best way possible. I’m so used to doing everything on a film set, from operating the camera to making the props, so learning to let go and let those jobs be done by other people who are so much more talented than I am was really helpful. That in turn allowed me to focus more on the performances with the actors. Each actor is different and requires different guidance on how to nail the role. So that is always a big learning curve that you never have enough time for but you do what you can with the time you have. Thankfully, all of the cast were wonderful, in front and behind the camera.
NYX: Where did the idea for Members Club come from?
MC: I’ve wanted to set a film in a British working men's club for a long time and always loved the idea of a kind of down and out band that would turn up thinking the night was going to be one thing and then quickly turning into another. Then once I had the idea of the band being a group of strippers, I worked backwards from there. I took a deep dive into British 15th century witchcraft and took parts of that and brought it into the present day.
NYX: Did you write it with a cast in mind?
MC: I had always imagined Dean Kilbey playing the lead character Alan. He was the lead in my first feature (ManFish, 2022) and he did an incredible job. A brilliant actor and very easy to work with. Same goes for Liam Noble, Emma Stannard and David Alexander. I’d worked with all of them before and wrote parts specifically for them.
Up until that point, we thought we'd be making the film ourselves for peanuts, like my first feature. Then when Blackwater Pictures picked up the film and really championed it, we had the luxury of money and filling the other roles with some names - Perry Benson, Mark Monero, Barbara Smith, Steve Oram, David Schaal, Juliet Cowan, Peter Andre and Alan Ford - all of which were cast by our fantastic casting director Janis Jaffa. I was so stoked to be able to work with those guys. I've been watching some of them on TV since my college days, so to be able to have them come and be in a film that I had written and directed was unbelievable.
NYX: Did the main cast have time to rehearse their routines much?
MC: Yes, we scheduled a few days of rehearsals just before the shoot. My background is in theatre, so I’m a full believer in rehearsing and have always stood by that when I moved into film (about 10 years ago). With the right actors, the rehearsal room is where the film comes to life. It's a chance to play, which is an actor and director's dream. So many gags were realised in the rehearsal room that we took onto set and finessed from there.
In terms of the dance routines, the actors had a whole day of choreography as well as an onset choreographer going through the steps with them in-between takes. My lovely wife, Cherie Coleman, is a contemporary dancer and has been teaching various styles of dance for years. So she choreographed all of the strip routines and taught them to the guys. Some of them had never danced on camera before and Cherie did an amazing job getting them screen ready - except for Mark Monero (Ratboy) whose hips needed no introduction. He’s got some incredible moves and plays a fantastic stripper!
NYX: I bet there’s quite a few outtakes from the shoot?
MC: Yes there was lots of funny stuff that we couldn’t use in the film that now lives on a hard drive somewhere. Like any film, we were always up against the clock, so we definitely don’t have Anchorman style outtakes as we didn’t have the luxury of time. We do have lots of footage of the frog not doing what we wanted it to do. Bloody frogs, so unprofessional!
NYX: Where did you shoot the movie?
MC: We shot the movie in and around Essex and London. Most of the scenes set in a club were shot at Rainham Working Mens Club in Rainham, Essex. The club would still function on most days we were there. We’d be shooting in the hall and in the bar next door they’d be 20 odd old boys having a few pints. Our haze machine would sometimes waft under the doors so when you came off set at the end of the day, the bar looked like the proper smoky pubs that I grew up in as a kid.
It was great for the cast and crew too - when we finished most days, people would all have a drink together in the bar and play some pool. The locals and staff were very welcoming.
NYX: How did you get the tongue to move by itself?
MC: That’s mainly down to the beautiful brains of Jim Walker (Production designer) and Steve Braund (Mind Magic Studios) who made the witches mask and the tongue. Steve sculpted, moulded and painted the tongue, then Jim built a rod and pulley contraption that sits inside the body of it. Jim would then puppeteer it on camera and we’d remove the rods via VFX in post - A mixture of practical and VFX working in complete harmony.
If you go to my instagram (@MisterMarcColeman) you can see a behind the scenes video of the tongue in action.
NYX: Though the plot is wild there’s some real heart to this movie, was it hard to balance the horror, comedy and drama?
MC: Yes it can be difficult. My thing has always been about telling weird, oddball stories that are grounded in reality. It’s the realism of the characters and the world that makes the other stuff plausible. You have to want to believe and care for the characters, even if the film does have a talking cheese and pineapple hedgehog in it. Without the heart of the characters, there’s no driving force behind the film.
NYX: Do you believe in witchcraft and the paranormal?
MC: I wish I had the time to live as a modern day witch, those guys are badass. I’ve always been fascinated by the paranormal, especially from a young age when I was obsessed with it all. I’m a little more cynical these days but I do want to believe!
NYX: So, what are you working on at the moment?
MC: I’ve spent the last year co-writing a sci-fi comedy which is a kind of Invasion of The Body Snatchers set at a suburban swingers party. The script is pretty much there and we’re hoping to attach a cast and start shooting this year if all goes well.
NYX: Marc Coleman, thank you very much.
