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Vanessa Bailey & Richard Perryman on Three Days Film | Film interview

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When I interviewed Vanessa Bailey and Richard Perryman about their new film, Three Days, we had so much fun and laughed so hard. Vanessa has co-written and is starring in the age gap romance alongside Richard who is fresh out of drama school. Vanessa is beautiful and talented but doesn’t seem to know it, as is Richard. They are both also wonderful company and building quite a following for their film which will start shooting early next year. To find out more, read on….

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Tell us about your character.

Richard Perryman: ‘I am playing James, a recent graduate, a young guy who does odd jobs. He is flyering for a jazz club and has a care-free lifestyle. He is not really looking for love but just by chance it happens. We were talking about this earlier. It just happens and he is not looking for a long term thing. It just happens to him and he can’t really get away. [laughter]

Vanessa Bailey: [laughing] He can’t really get away! These two characters are not the two people you would expect to see in a relationship. Not just with the age gap, which does sometimes happen, but also with their personalities. She is no a cougar, she is not predatory. She hasn’t been walking around looking for impressionable young leafleters to drag back to her hotel room. He’s not a lad.

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Richard: It’s not a trophy for him.

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Vanessa: It is just a sexual connection between them.

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Richard: Well, not the main one.

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Vanessa: [laughing] No, not the main one. It is about two real people. It is about finding what that connection would be and how it would work out in real life. They are not caricatures. It is not about romantic cliches. If two people really did connect, how would that work. Can it work?

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Richard: Can that relationship last or is it just a fling?

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Vanessa: And we don’t know the answer yet.

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Richard: I think they are probably both going into it thinking it is just a fling. And not expecting to find that they actually fall in love.

Age gap relationships are popular in film at the moment. Why do you think they are popular and what is your favourite?

Vanessa: I really liked the ITV one, Leaving, although I kinda thought they had stolen our thunder because we had written the script before it came out. What appealed to me about that one, and about Three Days, is most of the other films, the age gape in The Graduate isn’t that big. There is only six-years between them because they are playing up and down. So what I really liked about the ITV one was that they had Helen McCrory who is really gorgeous. They were able to make the audience believe. It was a slightly different story and it was about self-improvement. That one would be my favourite because it was anchored in real life. You can recognise it in real life. Whereas with the other ones, they are lovely stories, but they are not real.

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Richard: I have only seen The Graduate. I think with that one he has that relationship thrust upon him. It is much darker. She is more of a cougar and she reels him in. This is more of a chance. It is a more filmic story.

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Vanessa: It is more of a romance. It is not dark in any way. Which is more challenging. There is no gender game. It is more, ‘why has this happened and what should we do with it?’.

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Why do you think there is still a stigma attached to the older women/younger man thing?

Richard: There has been a rise in those type of films. I think there is a stigma attached but it is becoming less and less. There is still that taboo and it is still fine with older men and younger women.

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Vanessa: Again, we were talking about that earlier. I think with the older man and younger women, largely they are a physical manifestation of his success and being sexually attractive to women. It is more of a trophy thing. It is interesting because, as you said, the storyline is really popular. We have 1,300 people following us on Twitter. We have no media, no trailer, nothing really about the film, but I think the story has lots of appeal. We have a lot of different people following us. Younger girls, 17 or 18 years old and older men.

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We had a guy who said when I was in my 20s I had a relationship with a women who was 20 years older than me because it is common. See I am 43.

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Richard: And I am 22.

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Vanessa: Oh my god it has gotten bigger! What is that gap?

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Richard: 21 years.

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Vanessa: Yes, 21 years. That is quite a big gap.

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Richard: It’s not that big.

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Vanessa: Oh, bless you. We can make it work. But I think people are really fascinated by that. I am not going to name names but I had a lot of people say I had this relationship with this women who was 20 years older than me. It is really interesting. It does actually happen but I don’t think film shows that as much as the older guy.

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Another issue with younger men with older women is the fertility issue….

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Vanessa: Yes, I think that is true. It doesn’t work quite as well from a family point of view, biologically the other way around. Maybe some women are at the point when they don’t want to have kids.

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Richard: I think going into that relationship they won’t really think about it and then when they did the pressure would start adding on to it. Like, ‘what do we do?’

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Vanessa: I was talking to some friends about it and they were like, ‘lucky you’ and then I was thinking, no, because in reality when you are an older women it is hard. You have insecurities.

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Richard: Yeah, you were saying to me that when we go out people will be like, ‘Your son is waiting for you’ or ‘Is that your mum?’ or something. Which would be really tough.

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Vanessa: [laughing] There is always a 21-year-old girl around the corner and you are getting older, and you look older, and the point of this, of Three Days, is also when older women are portrayed in films they don’t look their age. They have had all of that plastic surgery and they don’t look their age. I do look my age [she doesn’t] so it is not like, yeah, she is a hot 43 but she looks 33. She is just 43. So there is that whole physical insecurity.

There is also this myth that is spread that men get better looking as they get older but women don’t. It places a lot of pressure on women and it also happens a lot in film. Then when you do get a part it is not a really good part. In this film it is a women in a really good role, which could actually have a lot of significance.

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Vanessa: And that is the great thing about indie film. You have raised a great point actually and that is the good thing about Three Days. There are not the parts out there that actresses my age necessarily want to play. You get typecast in commercials and then you have to wait until you are 75 to play a dowager in Downton Abbey. There is a massive gap in-between. You are just wandering around wondering what you are going to do. A few of us do have a natural look so you are not going to get the barmaid parts or the cougar parts. So I kind of wanted to come up with a part that a lot of women my age would want to play because it is interesting and it is fun. There is a massive gap for older actresses.

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How did you come on-board

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Richard: I didn’t really do anything.

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Vanessa: That is the joy of Twitter. I am going to write a book. Instead of the Joy of Sex I am going to write The Joy of Twitter, and [to Richard] you are probably too young to even know the book. It was out in the 1970s. [to me] You know the book? [Yes, I know the book] See, women know the book.

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So, Twitter, we were looking for someone. I was looking at showreels because I love watching showreels. I saw Richard’s headshot and someone tweeted a link to a short film he was in called Emmeline, which was gorgeous. So I stalked him. I asked him to be in a film with me.

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Richard: I got an email asking me if I wanted to be in the film. We met up for a coffee. Then I wanted to do it. She reeled me in. We were both on the same page in terms of character and what we wanted for the film.

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Vanessa: What clinched it was that halfway through we were talking about the dialogue and how we wanted it to be really natural, and be very real and he said it should be like ‘Before Sunrise’, which is my favourite film. At that point I was really hoping he wanted to be in the film.

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So it was the power of Twitter and short film. And the mocha that I bought him that I then drank.

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Richard: Yeah, I had a latte and she had my mocha.

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Vanessa: Start as you mean to go on.

Tell us about the process of the film so far.

Vanessa: It has been a long time actually, nearly a year. I wrote it. I wrote a really bad script originally. I sent if to Jon Rennie, our director, and basically what he did was he rewrote it from a cinematic point of view. Jon said he liked the story but this is how he thought the physical journey of the film would go. We have beautiful locations we are filming in. Then he gave it back to me to fill in the dialogue. We knew we had Huw onboard who is just phenomenally good.

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The film is quite like Notting Hill on acid. Huw Walters (Cinematographer) and Jon and myself all worked on Bubbles [an excellent short film. See it] Our composer had seen Bubbles and asked us if we had a composer. Then I looked at his credits and I was like, wow. He has worked with the BBC, with Tom Jones, with loads of people.

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Our hair designer, Jason Hall, also asked to come onboard and he had done London Fashion Week. He was also from twitter. He contacted us and asked us if we needed a hair stylist.

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The producer, Sam Smith-Higgins, was following the film since it started on Facebook and she said she would really like to collaborate and asked if we had a producer. She has an entire production company that she is bringing with her. The Executive Producer, Suzie Boudier, has been a constant source of inspiration.

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The great thing about this film is that everyone has come on-board because they really want to make this film rather than just a film. It has been a really long process. I am really excited.

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How did you approach funding.

Vanessa: We will be crowd funding in February. Consolidating everything in March and then we are shooting in April. We are looking at different crowd funding options at the moment.

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Tell us about you.

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Richard: I just graduated from E15 from a contemporary theatre course. I set up my own theatre company with a couple of friends called Antler. We took two shows up to Edinburgh.

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Vanessa: Who have got some amazing reviews. Should I quote some of them? Richard excels in dry humour. That is what it said.

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Richard: We got some lovely reviews. Since then I have done a short film with the same company. I was lucky to be a part of that. And from that I got this. Which is great and exciting.

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Vanessa: I am completely different. No training. I am a teacher. A music specialist whatever that means. I came out of it after I had my children and decided I wanted to be an actress. So I did a lot of background work just to get into the scene and I was lucky to break that rule that you never become an actor after being an extra. I managed to get there. I have managed to blag my way to some good jobs so far.

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You are so self deprecating

Vanessa: Yes I am. But I have no reason to be here. Once I got Spotlight and a DVD I sent it out and Sam [Samantha from Simon & How, out mutual agent] was the first person to give me an audition. I absolutely love it.

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Do you think the age of the actor is dead and you have to be an actorpreneur and do your own projects.

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Richard: I have only ever done my own projects. So I think, yes, you can’t really trust anyone else to do anything for you. You have to do it yourself. If you are lucky enough you will be handed lots of jobs. It is the luck of the draw. If not you have to go out and do it yourself. [to Vanessa] Like you are doing.

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Vanessa: All actors know that it is a really small pool that people fish from. Especially in television. It is hard and it is not going to talent unfortunately. You see people who work regularly who are not good and lots of people who are very talented who don’t get any work. So, yes, I do think you have to be an actorpreneur.

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Richard: I am very bad at selling myself because I am not on Twitter.

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I often lose roles to people who are more famous or someone’s girlfriend.

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Vanessa: Yes, that is frustrating. I can see the other side of that. We all work with people we know because it is better the devil you know.

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Richard: Then that creates those little cliques who work with the same people and you can’t break into it.

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That is why I left Scotland. I had to commute from Glasgow to London because there was the group of Scottish actors who always got work and I could not break into the industry.

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Vanessa: There are a couple of casting directors who fight it. A casting director said to me that he was sick of seeing the same faces in television over and over again.

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And you do. You see the same faces over and over again. We need pioneers who are bringing new faces in and trying to get people seen.

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Richard: But we are a little family. [We all have the same agent. Samantha at Simon & How]

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That’s right.

So is the process to make a short and then a feature film.

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Vanessa: I would love to. I would love to make a feature. Are you playing footsie with me Richard?

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Richard: Yes, I am getting into character.

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Vanessa: Two things with the short film. Firstly, I would like it to get into festivals. But also it is like a calling card. Hopefully people will see this. When we had one of our first meetings with Jon and Huw you could very much see the potential of the film and the ensemble cast. I would love to make a feature film.

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Richard: It has the potential to be a great British film.

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Vanessa: I am such a champion of British film so I would love to make it into a feature.

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What are you shooting on?

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Vanessa: I’m not sure. I have left that to Jon. Not film. Because it is too expensive. We want to do a few different takes on this film and we don’t want to worry about how expensive it would be. I know Jon was talking about filming on mono. So a combination I think.

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What’s next?

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Richard: I just graduated. I am not sure what is next. I am just putting myself out there.

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Vanessa: You are developing….

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Richard: Oh yeah, with my company, Antler, we are constantly developing work. Putting things together and trying out new ideas.

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Vanessa: Everything at the moment is Three Days. Then hopefully after that it will be the festivals. [Vanessa also has a lot of acting work coming up. Including a part in Southcliffe and some short films]

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Thanks Vanessa and Richard.

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Director: Jon Rennie @jon_rennie
Writers: Vanessa Bailey, Jon Rennie @vbaileyactor @jon_rennie
Producer: Sam Smith-Higgins http://www.redbeetlefilms.co.uk/ @SamSmith-Higgins
Executive Producer: Suzie Boudier @Superboooo
Cinematographer: Huw Walters http://vimeo.com/user4428776 @huwcamera
Composer: William Goodchild http://www.williamgoodchild.com/ @WGoodchildMusic
PR: FireflyPR http://www.firefly-pr.com/ @FireflyPR

Hair Design: Jason Hall http://www.jasonhallhairdressing.co.uk/ @Jhhair

Perry Bhandal on Interview With a Hitman | Film Interview

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What inspires you?

Music is my biggest inspiration. Sequences just appear fully formed in my head as I listen, whether it be movie soundtracks, modern classics or just rock and pop. Snippets of life experience also play a big part. For example I was in India with my family in 2003 and we were visiting this incredible temple at the top of a steep hill with a bustling marketplace below. On my way down a little girl (obviously a street child) walked alongside me with her hand stretched out all the way down to the bottom. I gave her some money, she walked off and then stopped when she saw how much I had given her and turned and gave me the most wonderful smile. That small encounter inspired the complete screenplay ‘Assassin’ which is set in 1970’s India.

I also read a great deal both fiction and non-fiction and have come to have an understanding of how the world works and the compromises that we all have to live with working in the system as is. Which is why anti-heroes or flawed heroes are of so much interest to me. It’s easy to like someone who is perfect onscreen. Or perhaps with a flaw that would lead one to empathise i.e. a drug or drink habit. That’s not enough for me, because that’s not real life. Take for example the character Viktor in Interview with a Hitman. He’s a cold blooded killer who has done the most awful things. But by the end of film, people who have watched the film, have told me they like him, when they shouldn’t and that they empathise with him. Anti Heroes do that to us. The put up and mirror to ourselves and ask – given the circumstances – would you do any different?

What is the hardest thing about making films?

Every stage in the process has its challenges.

The screenplay. It is there that you absolutely, must get it right. If the screenplay doesn’t work then the film is never going to work. It is tempting to move on from the screenplay and think that it will work itself out. But it won’t. If it doesn’t work on paper it will never work onscreen.

Then it’s the casting. The casting for Interview with a Hitman was both a pleasure and nightmare in equal proportions. It was a pleasure when an actor came in nailed the audition or gave me an interpretation that exceeded or even challenged my expectations. It was nightmare seeing actor after actor, willing each and every one to do well and for no-one to even come close. Those were the low points. A prime example was casting for the lead, Viktor. Nobody that auditioned could deliver what I wanted. It got so bad that I began to think that I had written a character that couldn’t be played. So I got our casting director to send out another request and that’s when Luke was put forward by his manager. I had seen Luke in Blade and Hellboy and knew that he could do it. So I cast him straight away.

Locations. I had the film running in a loop in my head and after the selecting the actors that will make the characters real it was on to making real the world that those characters inhabit. I had to compromise on a few locations but Newcastle is a amazing city with exactly the kind of locations I was looking for so on the whole I got the look I was after.

Then it’s a case of inspiring the great cast and crew into delivering the best film possible. I knew from my business background managing large projects with big teams that everything is driven from the top. There can be no hesitation or doubt. I was a first time director with an experienced crew and a lead actor that had done over thirty four films and worked on two huge movies with one of the biggest directors in the world Guillermo del Toro. I had to deliver an impossible 18 day schedule. Even if I felt any doubt, which I did a few times during the shoot, I could not show it. I was absolutely clear on what I wanted all the time. I had trusted my instincts up until the day of the first shoot and come to rely on them. They didn’t let me down.

And then there’s the post production. I thought the hardest part was shooting the film but the edit turned out to be a real challenge. The film cut together beautifully and the first cut was just under two hours and everyone that watched it raved about it. I was very careful to protect the creative process during that period and was able to deliver something that worked really well in a really short space of time.

Then we got into the rounds of reviews and started getting input and great feedback from the distributor. There was a lot of interest in the film and lots of opinions that wanted to be heard. There were times that I felt the film was being pushed in a direction that I didn’t want but, as a first time director, you have to listen to those that have more years in the industry. Fortunately I was able to preserve the core of the vision I had set out to deliver. Protecting the creative process is massive in this situation and I was fortunate to work with two editors that were completely bought into that and I was able to deliver a final cut that pleased everyone. Having said that the Director’s cut will be a little longer than 92 minutes. I’m pretty nifty with Final Cut now so I’ll be putting that one together myself.

Once the picture’s locked then the music starts. This process normally starts earlier but finding the right composer took a while. I had a fantastic temporary score to work from and an amazing composer to transform that into the great electronic sound that I wanted for the film

At the same time I worked on the look of the film i.e. Grade. I wanted a de-saturated, high contrast, stripped out look to the film and we definitely got that but it took quite a few days in the grading suite!

Then it’s all down to the audience. You hope you have made something that audiences will enjoy and find accessible and also challenging.

What is your writing process?

I have been writing a long time so I’m now at the point where I spend most of my time tweaking the screenplays I’ve already written. I will need to sit down and finish the novel version of Penumbra – my next film.

As I mentioned above Music and my love of anti-heroes tend to drive my imagination down a certain path. It’s normally on a train or listening to music whilst driving that sequences starts to form in my mind. With Hitman, the characters of the young and adult Viktor and how one grew up to be the other came to mind first. I mull the idea for a few months to see if it builds any momentum. Then I start to sketch out the story in note form. I don’t start writing until I have the complete end to end story in place. Then I just sit down at write until the first draft is done. Interview with a Hitman took me four weeks from sitting down to getting the first draft out. Then a few months of script editing which resulted only in some changes to the second act. So pretty quick especially if you compare it to Penumbra which has taken some ten years to get it where it is!

How did you come up with the concept for your film?

I didn’t want to do a standard Hitman movie, where you’re usually introduced the protagonist fully formed. I wanted to get under the skin of what makes a man like Viktor. I wanted to ask questions like ‘does a man of violence like Victor deserve a second chance?’

There’s action in Interview with a Hitman but it is also a character piece. I remember after an advance screening, one of the audience who worked with abused children came up to me afterwards and said that it was a realistic description how children get changed by what happens around them and grow up to be men of violence like Viktor.

Did meeting Spencer Pollard, the CEO of the well-known distribution company, Kaleidoscope, change your life?

Kaleidoscope was actually just Spencer on his own and starting out when I met him! Amazing what he has achieved in such a short space of time. It was good meeting and getting to know him. I would like to say that my relationship had a bearing on him coming onboard as distributor but if you knew him as I do you would understand that ultimately it had no bearing. It was the compelling nature of the commercial proposition (script, cast, budget, vision) that I had put together that drove his decision to commit. Ie the opportunity to make a significant return for Kaleidoscope, which he already has, purely on international sales alone, with Interview with a Hitman. There were two other parties wanting to partner on the project, but I stayed with Spencer because of the relationship we had built up.

What advice do you have for other filmmakers?

Don’t let go of your dreams. Work on perfecting your art. Be patient. The creative industries are capricious and can be somewhat insular. Focus on what works for the mass market first. Even Spielberg had to start off by putting bums on seats with Jaws and ET before his name meant he could do the projects he wanted to do. And remember it is a business first and foremost and the greatest chance you have of breaking in is to do what any business does when entering a new industry – deliver a product that your market will want to invest in.

How hard is it to get funding?

It is inversely proportional to the commercial viability of the proposal. With Interview with a Hitman getting funding was fairly straight forward once all the elements in the package came together.

What are your plans for the film?

Interview with a Hitman has presold in every major territory worldwide going to the United States, Germany, China, France, Japan, Middle East, Thailand, Malaysia, Korea, CIS, Baltics, Benelux, India, Indonesia, Australia, Kuwait

Kaleidoscope have released it in UK Cinema’s and the DVD release is scheduled 27th August.

I am hoping the audience will like it and that it gets critical as well as commercial success.

How did you get into the industry?

I did an MA in Film and Television at Brunel in 1990. I remember I had a Eureka moment in the first film studies class. It stayed with me and didn’t diminish. As soon as the course finished I borrowed some equipment from the University and set about making a short film.

Why did it take you a while to get back into film?

My short film started opening some doors for me. But as with a lot of people, life tends to have different plans for you. I got married and so ensued job, mortgage, responsibilities etc. And there’s not a lot of room for something as self indulgent and flighty as a career as a film director.

So I had to lay that aside, but continued writing in my spare time, building up quite a number of screenplays that I would have loved to see on the big screen. Over time I built up an IT consultancy business. In the back of my mind I always thought that I would take up my passion but a more realistic and down-to-earth part of me realised that it was becoming more and more distant.

My father passed away at the beginning of 2009. He, along with my mother had come to the UK in the mid sixties and had worked hard to give me the start in life and the opportunities they had never had. I know my father had his own dreams and aspirations but he was far too much of a stoic to ever burden us with them. He had given up on his dreams and I knew he wouldn’t want the same for me. So a few months after his passing I sold my consultancy business and set up my film production company Kirlian Pictures Ltd.

My business experience had taught me a great deal and I knew that to succeed in this industry was no different from any other. I had to deliver a product to market that audiences would want to watch. It was fortunate then that, as I had built up a compelling and highly commercial body of work and was ready to go.

I immersed myself in all aspects of film making, lenses, cameras, cinematography, lighting, sound. Being very technical had served me well in my IT business and I wanted to make sure I knew how to get what was in my head onscreen.

And because I was coming at the industry from a business perspective I took a part time producers course.

The first film was going to be Penumbra, a revenge thriller that’s been described as ‘Taken’ meets ‘Max Payne’.

The size of the budget led to significant pressure from investors to hand over the directorial reigns to someone who was more of a known quantity. Is a less risky proposition. I knew there was no way I was going to let anyone else direct Penumbra so I went back to the drawing board and wrote a lower budget feature called ‘Interview with a Hitman in April 2010. I spent a few months script editing and once it was right, moved on to production packaging.

I began presenting the film to potential investors. To head off any concerns about me being an unknown quantity I went out and bought a piece of previsualisation software that the studios use to model films sequences and try stuff out. I previsualised the first five minutes of the film as I envisioned it playing out.

The budget, genre, previz (which went down a storm) and the quality of the screenplay packaged together was a compelling commercial proposition in its own right. However, Cast is the primary determinant of value in a genre feature film (horror being the exception) so I went out to cast.

I got a fantastic response and I assembled a great cast very quickly. The only problem was casting the lead, Viktor. Nobody that auditioned could deliver what I wanted. So I got our casting director to send out another request and that’s when Luke was put forward by his manager. I had seen Luke in Blade and Hellboy and knew that he could do it. So I cast him straight away.

After that the investment just rolled in. In fact we had to turn investors down because I had decided to invest in it myself via my production company. I knew I could deliver a great film so absolutely wanted to be part of its success. That was in May 2011 and we started shooting in August 2011.

What was it like working with Luke Goss?

Working, with a Luke was great. I had a very clear vision of what I wanted and he worked so hard to give me that. A director’s vision is articulated through the prism of an actor’s performance. Great actors like Luke become the characters they play and bring their own nuances and detail. That part of the process I really loved, working with him and the rest of the cast to find the truth in this fictional world I had created. And I think we succeeded. You’ll see a very different Luke Goss in this film.

What’s next?

Interview with a Hitman was a stepping-stone. The way for me to prove I could actually deliver a film that was a commercial success and hopefully one that audiences have enjoyed and will continue to enjoy watching.

So now that I’ve done that it’s back to the much bigger budget action, thriller Penumbra. Penumbra is the story of a loving family man who, when his young son is kidnapped and killed by child traffickers is left with a choice; freedom from the unbearable pain (by taking his own life) or catharsis in the form of revenge.

He chooses the latter and in doing so descends into a vile underworld and risks becoming the very thing he seeks to destroy.

Set in present day Europe. This is the story of a man’s search for absolution, his fall from this world into darkness, his salvation by an unconditional act of love and his redemption through the ultimate sacrifice.

The film will be shot mostly in Budapest with a couple of weeks in the UK. I would love for Edward Norton to play the lead Blake. We’re aiming to start shooting in April Next Year.

For more info you can go to:

www.perrybhandal.com

Production company www.kirlianpictures.com

On twitter @perrybhandal

The film review is here