TBI Q&A: Simone Horrocks
After the Waterfall is the debut feature from award-winning New Zealand writer/director Simone Horrocks, with actor Antony Starr (Outrageous Fortune, In My Father’s Den) in his first lead in a feature film.
Writer/director Simone Horrocks answered TBI community questions about making After the Waterfall. See the comment box below.
The screenplay was written by Horrocks, and is based on UK writer Stephen Blanchard’s 1999 novel The Paraffin Child. It was filmed in and around Piha on Auckland’s West Coast in April and May 2009.
Starr plays forest ranger John Drean, a father haunted by the disappearance of his four-year-old daughter, and the subsequent breakup of his marriage. The complex, character-driven drama explores themes of trust and betrayal, and the nature of grief and loss, survival and healing.
Alongside Starr, the film features Cohen Holloway (Boy, Eagle vs Shark), Sally Stockwell (The Ferryman, The Insider’s Guide To Happiness) and Peter McCauley (Perfect Creature, Pallet On The Floor). The ensemble cast also includes Vicky Haughton, Brenda Kendall, Paul Gittins, Kip Chapman, Michelle Langston, Cherie James, and Elizabeth Hawthorne.
Working alongside Horrocks, were cinematographer Jac Fitzgerald, shooting her first feature as director of photography, production designer Andy McLaren, and costume designer Kirsty Cameron. The film was edited by Cushla Dillon, with original music by Joel Haines.
After the Waterfall is produced by Trevor Haysom (In My Father’s Den) and funded by The New Zealand Film Commission. The screenplay was developed with assistance from The New Zealand Film Commission and British Screen (now the UK Film Council).
Simone Horrocks
American born, and New Zealand raised, Simone studied film making in London, earning a degree in Film, Photography & Photographic Arts from the University of Westminster.
She worked for a number of years behind the camera on both documentary and drama, assisting (amongst others) award winning DOP's Alwin Küchler BSC, Roman Osin & Nina Kellgren BSC, before shifting her focus to writing and directing.
Simone has made numerous short films including Spindrift, which won Best Panorama Short Film at the Berlin Film Festival, Inbetween, which premiered at the Rotterdam Film Festival, and New Dawn, which was commissioned by the Edinburgh Film Festival to mark the launch of UK Film Four's Lab.
Simone's work attracted international attention when she was nominated for the prestigious Sundance Institute/NHK Filmmaker's Award (2001), she was a semi-finalist, one of six from Europe.
Further information: After the Waterfall premiered at the NZ International Film Festival 2010, and has two more screenings in Wellington this weekend, July 30 & 31, before the general release later this year.
Comments
2 August 2010 - 10:21 AM
Thanks for your questions for writer/director Simone Horrocks about making After the Waterfall. See her answers below.
I sat through After the Waterfall in Wellington this weekend and walked out shaking my head. Congratulations to the producers for getting it made but I have to say both my partner and I found it a very shallow film. It felt claustrophobic and far too edited. I would loved to have sat and allowed the emotions to really take me somewhere. It needed serious simplification. We viewed some 30 films these past two weeks, driving over the hill each day from featherston. Cliche'd, the music totally got in the way and I would have loved to have seen the waterfall itself and the forest as a a major character. Another dark new zealand film. There was little time to digest any emotions before the next was thrust in our face. A pity really as it had the bones of an excellent story.
Congratulations Richard Clark for seeing 30 films! That is fantastic. The Film Festival should be rolling out the red carpet for you and your partner. And thank you for taking a risk on ours, and that's after all what Film Festivals are all about, taking a risk on some films and finding some gems. I'm sorry my film wasn't for you, but thanks for coming and for taking the time to give me your feedback.
I would like to thank Simone for bringing her film to the festival this year. It was a beautifully shot and deeply moving film about family, loss and one man's downward spiral after losing everything. I also found Simone to be a very eloquent and engaging speaker at the Q&A in Wellington.
Although Richard has a right to express his opinion on this film, I feel this is an inappropriate venue to do so in, as it's meant to be a Q&A.
My question for Simone is regarding the adaptation of the original novel to screenplay, and how she managed to create a script from a story that is about unraveling rather than finding a clear ending or solution.
Thank you for your thoughts Kailey, and for your question regarding translating the novel to a screenplay. The novel (and the film) poses a mystery, a tragedy that halts our characters lives, and then asks the question: What happens if we don't get the answers we need? And of course in life, we so often don't. How do we survive? How do we live with that? Sadly of course, not everyone does, but when people do, I am fascinated by the nature of that resilience. What allows us to carry on? How do we heal? If you pull my film apart scene by scene, the events of the story may seem very random, trivial even. But each of those moments marks an emotional beat, or transition and for me the film has a very clear structure. The book also (while unravelling in an unruly and gentle way) is made up of these powerful and yet elusive beats. Healing is different for everyone, but the events in my story are a combination of moments from the novel, from research, and from moments gathered from my own life ...
The film is obviously shot on the rugged west coast of NZ, what sort of challenges does this present as opposed to working in or on a sheltered set. The weather and conditions on the west is often unpredictable, so how does this factor in?
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Thanks for your question Les Filterbrats. The budget for this film was relatively low, and we didn't have space in our schedule for weather cover. That meant we had to embrace whatever we were sent (within the bounds of health and safety) and carry on regardless. The huge challenge for my DP Jac Fitzgerald, is when these changes occurred (and they did) during the course of shooting a scene. If you look carefully you will occassionally see evidence of this, and she had to work hard to maintain a sense of consistency at times. We were helped by Dave Hollingsworth at Park Road Post, and while grading our DI he was able to help even things out a bit. But apart from the technical challenge, for me this is very truthful to how we live here - the weather really does change radically from one moment to the next, so I was keen for us to capture this in the film. I would say filming out at Piha, and in the Waitakere Ranges was one of the hightlights of the shoot. The west coast has a very special energy, and the cast and crew fed on this, the atmosphere of a place can add a lot to the energy and mood of the set.
Hi Simone,
I haven't seen your film, but were you ever concerned that Anthony Starr (brilliant actor that he is though) would carry too much "baggage" for NZ audiences as Jethro/Van from "Outrageous Fortune"?
Thanks for your question Andrew. I can honestly say I never thought of Antony's other work as baggage. We started working with Antony before Outrageous, but in the course of developing the script and preparing to make the film I watched the first 3 series of OF, and looked at as much of Antony's other work as I could, including theatre. You're always looking for shades and ideas, and no better way than to watch an actor work. I think when you see something in an actor, and feel excited about working with them, that in collaborating, you are also setting out to create something new. I never doubted the process, and Antony's experience and the craft he honed over his years on OF was only of benefit to us. I am sure that even audiences drawn to AFTER THE WATERFALL because they are fans of Van and Jethro will enjoy being taken somewhere new by Antony.