This is not a film about a coastal town in the North West of England... (sorry luke we lied)

Screening date October 11th @3pm. 

Tricycle cinema, London. 

Tickets £7.50 (single), £18.00 (festival pass)

"At first its difficult to tell what is exactly going on, but very quickly one gets submersed into this hilarious and uber creative pice of genius." -- London Lift-Off Submissions Judge.

His mother had a mixture of anger and pride... Brilliant!

Susan Elliot is the creator of one of the most original animation concepts we have ever seen... We talk to Susan Elliot about the creation process of getting her film from a heath and safety magazine to the big screen..!


From conception to completion how long was the project?
The project took about 2 years in total. It took a year just to come up with the concept.

Why did you make it?
I had to make something for my MA!

How did you fund it?
It was all self-funded. That said, the only real production cost was renting rehearsal space - the actors worked for free and (apart from one occasion) I was able to borrow equipment from my university.

Where did the unique idea come from?
Someone gave me a catalogue. It was full of Health & Safety signs, equipment, clothing (including a spiffing pair of "action trousers") and office furniture, and for the first time it occurred to me that people had to design, manufacture and market this stuff. I started to think about the people involved in this industry and what their motivations might be for choosing that career path. We improvised around this idea for a while before we came up with Formby.

What were the major pitfalls, if any?
The hardest part of the process was maintaining a balance between improvisation and keeping to the story outline - too much improvisation and the story wouldn't develop, it would just be completely different every time. Too little improvisation and the story would become stale and tired-sounding. It took months of rehearsal to get this balance right.

Overall were you happy with the film?
Very happy. I'm immensely grateful to the actors involved, they worked really hard.

What would you have done differently?
I definitely would have planned the sound recording better - it was hurriedly set up and I ended up with poor quality recording equipment, which meant I had to spend a long time in post-production cleaning up the audio as best I could.

Do you have any message/advise for those looking to make a film?
Don't worry too much about the 'proper' way to do things - find a way that works for you.

Remembering Formby is part of the official selection for London Lift-Off FIlm Festival running 10th-12th October 2011 at the Tricycle Cinema in North West London. Click here for tickets,  or call the box office now on 020 7328 1000.

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