InsIder’s PoInt of VIew: dV fIlmmakIng
direction. There was sometimes a layer of flawlessly, and leads me to conclude that in
One to watch
textured grey paint (this got too expensive to the absence of money, lots of time and a
use all the time) that really added more detail. little ingenuity will go just as far. We lit
Producing
The last step in the painting process was sparingly, with little dabs of light shining
taking a spray bottle mixed with water and on specific areas of detail, or raking across
brown paint to add dripping water damage. sections just enough to show their
Fearing that we couldn’t fill up enough contours. Shafts of light were used to add
surface area of the sound stage, our final stab depth, and everything was filled with an
at pre-production was to rip off washing exorbitant amount of fog, whether we could
machine and refrigerator doors from think of a reason to motivate it or not.
dumpsters. Once those were aged, we were
ready to start actually assembling our STEP 3
spaceship. LOCKING YOURSELF IN A ROOM AND
FINISHING THE DAMN THING
Jes Benstock
STEP 2 And so the movie was shot. The first step
CHEWING GUM IS NOT A in post-production was to crush the blacks Born in Glasgow, Jes Benstock has directed
REPLACEMENT FOR TAPE to make sure that everything remained
internationally recognised shorts and docs, pop
When we initially assembled everything, hidden. Surprisingly, there was very little
videos, interactive digital art and animated visuals
for numerous live music events. His award-winning
nothing went exactly as planned. We took left to add to the interior spaceship scenes,
films include The Box, Poof, Orders of Love, and
all of the lights out of their cases and stood other than a lot of pinprick blinking lights.
The Holocaust Tourist. Recent productions have
included The Man With the Extended Mind for ITV
Omega 35
and Tagger with Mike Figgis for the 50th London
Film Festival. Jes is currently working on his first
documentary feature The British Guide to
Showing Off: the fabulous story behind 35 years
of Andrew Logan’s Alternative Miss World.
What kind of projects attract you?
I enjoy difficult projects, whether those projects take
the form of documentary or fiction. For instance,
I made a whole series of films about things you can’t
see. The challenge of visualising them appealed to
me. I had a sudden realisation many years ago that
filmmaking was ridiculously hard work, so I decided
there was no point in just making anything. I had to
feel it was more than just worthwhile, that I had a
the cases upright to fill in larger areas. All We also had to shoot our practical lights as
passion about the subject and that I had to make it
of the pieces we built were falling apart effects elements to combat the production
now. That passion fuels me through all the difficult
and couldn’t support their own weight, so issues of running out of battery. Working bits that inevitably happen in productions, and also
we used C-Stands for everything we could. elements such as moving doors and
allows me to let go of cherished projects that I feel
Unfortunately, that left us at a loss for C- flashing alarms sometimes needed to be
have passed their time. I like doing something that
has never been done before and never been seen
Stands for lights and flags. added in post because we didn’t have the
before. Otherwise, what’s the point?
A lot of tape was used to try to attach time or the hands on set to make the effect
panels together, but that only worked work practically. You can produce the film of your dreams. What and
about half of the time. We always planned The exterior of the ship was modelled,
who would that entail?
on enhancing the sets with digital blinking animated and rendered out in 3D Studio
20 years ago I could have answered this easily but
now I hesitate. Mostly I’m focused on the here and
lights, but we also bought a lot of small Max. Aside from the texturing, which
now. For me, I guess dream projects would be to make
practical lights to attach everywhere we looked similar to the interiors, one of the
a film of Life: A User’s Manual by George Perec and a
could. It was nearly impossible to run passes that rendered out for After Effects documentary of The Principle of Hope by Ernst Bloch.
power to these lights, and the weight of was a dirty grunge map applied to the
Both of these are ridiculously ambitious and would
the cables knocked down the surrounding entire model. This ensured that the panels
probably make better series or interactive pieces rather
than single films. Living filmmakers that I’d love to
area, but they were an essential final touch. on the outside of the ship would be just as
work with include Abbas Kiarostami, Jean-Luc Godard,
One might say this whole process was dirty as the inside of the ship. For the
and Errol Morris. If I could work with people who have
disastrous because we were trying to shoot scenes over atmosphere or inside a hangar, died, they would be Orson Welles, Erich von Stroheim,
a movie in the middle of a PVC and we filled the digital environments with
Buster Keaton, Sergei Eisenstein and Luis Buñuel.
cardboard avalanche. Well, for the few days just as much smoke to better hide the
What’s the best advice you’ve been given as a
worth of principle photography, it almost inherently computer-generated vessels.
producer?
was a disaster. We had to work so fast that Simple? Not really. The entire process
Keep going!
we could not adequately secure pieces was one that would have been a lot easier
together or even think things through with more money and more people. But it
Most significant moment in your career so far?
before we started building. could be done on the cheap because we had
Being greenlit for my first feature.
Months later, we had learned our lesson a plan, and for the most part we followed
You’ll die happy when…
in time for pickup photography. We spent the plan. The beauty of it is that, like
My time comes... n
an entire day building with everything pre- anything else, it all came down to a bunch
planned down to the letter. It went almost of simple tricks and nonsense. n
www.benstock.co.uk
www.moviescopemag.com 63
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