Brig recently sat down with Ciaran Lyons, director of indie sensation Tummy Monster to discuss the film ahead of it’s Macrobert premiere this Wednesday.
“I think logistically, it’s actually a lot. It’s a lot simpler [to film in one location]. You know from the filming perspective.
“Actually, it’s quite a desirable thing to do, but I guess the challenge is to make sure that you figure out how to keep that interesting for the audience and how to keep it feeling like they’re constantly being surprised. And so that doesn’t feel like a limitation of the story.
“I suppose the way that we cheat that, you know, it’s a tattoo parlour and it’s very important to make the space feel really visually dynamic.
“It’s divided into, we’ve got like five different rooms or areas and we knew we wanted everything to feel like it’s very different in terms of how it’s presented and the colour of the lighting. Very dynamic lighting, and that makes sense, that feels motivated with the location. Using one location, you have to make it feel exciting and interesting”
This is Lyons’ first full-length film, and he spoke of how he felt transitioning from short films into feature length.
“I really enjoyed it. I feel like when you’re working with shorts, you’re always gonna feel like you never really get a chance to fully explore character or just develop a story to that level.
“It was great to have more time to develop that. The deeper exploration of a character on this was something I massively enjoyed.
“I guess there are different challenges to making a feature film. You have to make sure that you’re very mindful of the audience’s experience of time in a way that isn’t so much pressure with a short film but definitely felt like it was here. I was ready for it and yeah, it worked.”
Lyons, who lives in Glasgow, where Tummy Monster was shot spoke of his experience shooting in his hometown.
“That was good to me. Before shooting this, I’d directed something like over 50 music videos and 56 shorts, so I have a lot of collaborators here. People * have worked with loads. So you know it makes sense shooting here in terms of putting your crew together.
“And also just preparing locations as it was relatively convenient for me to go to and take a hand in dressing the set and all that kind of thing, so I think if you’re gonna do a DIY production it makes sense to utilise the advantages of doing it in your hometown.”
The film was made on a relatively small budget.
“Audiences don’t go, “it’s got a small budget”. They don’t tend to know what the budget for a film is… it doesn’t matter what the budget is, if you find it entertaining, ultimately, who cares?”
Ciaran finished with some advice for aspiring student filmmakers.
“I think you have to figure how to do it your own way, particularly for directing, because the role of the director is not actually set in stone, people do it lots and lots of different ways and so you have to find your way.”
Tummy Monster is screening tomorrow (Wed 28) at 7:30pm in Macrobert.
Featured Image Credit: CIARAN LYONS / CRL FILMS LTD