In Part 2, of this two-part interview (read Part 1 here), writer, director and producer James Webber, discusses the post-production of Sorority and the various challenges that the project faced.
What are the challenges when making a micro-budget film?
There are challenges making a film at any budget level, but on a micro-budget in particular, you simply can’t throw money at solving issues, it really comes down to good planning and tailoring a project to fit the budget that you have. The Sorority script was written with a precise budget figure in mind, with locations that were readily available and a running time that was feasible for a 20 day shoot (in the end we actually finished ahead of schedule). There will always be wildcards thrown your way with any production, be it a feature or a short film, but if you have a good team around you – which, thankfully, I did – you can deal with almost anything the project throws at you.
As well as being a director, you also edit. Why did you choose not to cut the film yourself?
I love the edit process and feel my editing experience is hugely beneficial when on set. For instance, I always ‘shoot to edit’, rarely shooting things that I know won’t be used. I think this comes from my background as more of a guerrilla filmmaker, where you end up wearing many filmmaking hats. You learn a lot that way. I cut the original short film version of the project, Soror, and it was probably the most difficult edit I’ve ever been a part of. Mainly because of the amount of choice available – because we improvised the film there was a crazy amount of options. I felt, in retrospect, that I could have used a second pair of eyes from someone who hadn’t been on set. So when we started work on Sorority, I decided to step back from the edit and get someone onboard who I could bounce ideas off of when cutting.
I had met Monika Radwanska through the BAFTA Crew scheme, which we were both part of. She had worked in the editorial team on some huge productions – most notably Star Wars: The Last Jedi – but she was looking to cut a small indie feature. Monika really liked the script and I felt she would do an awesome job on Sorority. Monika was also the film’s DIT, which meant that, by the time we came to cutting, she knew all the footage as well as I did. I really loved collaborating with her and she has definitely got a bright future in the industry.
Tell us about the music and sound design for the film.
The score was composed by Derek Kirkup, who I had collaborated with on a previous project. I felt his style and approach made him the perfect fit for Sorority. To begin with, we discussed various artists and tracks that we felt really embodied the feel of the film – like Nils Frahm and Olafur Arnalds, artists I had listened to whilst writing the script. Derek then went away and created an 11 minute ‘music mood-board’ that had various themes. I remember the first time I heard it… I was really over the moon, as it was so close to what I had in mind for the score. The entire process of working with Derek was really straightforward, quite often I’d hear drafts of various tracks and my feedback would be so minimal. He just got the beats of the story and the different levels of emotion spot on.
Much like Derek, I had also worked with our sound designer/post-mixer Michael F. Bates a number of times before, and I was excited to bring him onto the feature. I’ve always loved the sound design process, which I feel sometimes can be overlooked somewhat – especially on micro budget films. I’ve always wanted the area that the sisters lived in to feel like a character in its own right and, whilst visuals mainly establish this, it is the soundscape that really sells it. For example, the constant noise of aeroplanes passing overheard was used as a dramatic device to make the characters feels trapped by their respective situations. Michael’s work adds another layer to the picture of a living, breathing world, that exists beyond the edges of the scene. Whilst most of the film is routed in realism, there are a number of stylistic moments, where the sound design is a little more abstract. Michael did a wonderful job of, not only creating these moments, but also blending them with the more realistic material, so that it didn’t take the viewer out of the film, which is always a danger when you have these kinds of scenes side-by-side.