Nicholas Arnold graduated from the Film Production program in 2009. He?s spent the last four years working on William?s Lullaby, an independent feature film that he wrote, produced, and directed. With his film preparing for the 2013/2014 film festival circuit, William spoke with us about his fast-paced year at VFS, his inspiration for creating William?s Lullaby, and what?s up next for the versatile Toronto artist.
Tells us about your experience in the Film Production program.
Nicholas: Where to begin and where to end? I still find it hard to sum up my VFS experience. That was a jam-packed, intense, fulfilling, emotional, frustrating, satisfying, and extraordinarily educational year. It was an excellent experience that really helped me grow from just being a dreamer to being a dreamer with an action plan. I was lucky enough to come away from my year with a film I had shot on 16mm. That was my first time shooting anything on film ? real film and there?s nothing like it! It?s an incredible experience that every aspiring filmmaker should try and do at least once, even in this digital age. I had some incredible teachers in my year and mentors in the form of instructors, roommates, and fellow students and I am grateful for all they taught me.
You just finished post-production on William?s Lullaby, a film you wrote, produced, and directed. Tell us about the film and what inspired you to write about this particular subject.
Nicholas: Well, William?s Lullaby?tells the story of a newly single father who is struggling to raise his five-year-old son while dealing with a serious depression stemming from his own childhood. It tackles grief and how it affects children and adults alike but also tells a very beautiful, albeit tragic, story of a father and son trying to live together in a very fragile relationship. For me, the relationship between these two characters is a very interesting dynamic. When you look a little deeper, what you really have are two children trying to understand each other. You have the literal child in the five-year-old and you have a child in the father who was never able to properly grow up due to his upbringing and events in his life. There?s a lot you can start to pull from those themes ? a real nature vs. nurture story, really.
I actually wrote the first draft of the script, then called Ducklings and Swans, when I was 17, before attending VFS (if I do recall, I may have even pitched the script in my application process!), and back then I was very interested in the idea of potential in a child. I was particularly drawn to the idea of evil and how that grows and develops in a person; the idea that these people we label as monsters in the media, who in some cases have truly become monsters due to their heinous acts, all started out as children at one point. I found the best way to explore this theme was through a father/son relationship. How do we raise our children to be the best they can possibly be? What if we?re not suited for the job and in the end fail our kids? These are the main questions our protagonist is faced with right off the bat and it starts a downward spiral in what becomes a very dark look at family life.
How did you get this project off the ground? What was the experience like of living and breathing it for so long?
Nicholas: To be honest, after graduating VFS I sat on my butt for almost a year. And that?s of no fault of the program. I was 19 and stubborn. I was waiting for the elusive film directing job to fall into my lap. After all, I was a film school graduate and was, therefore, entitled! I say this because I think this can be a very real emotion for young graduates of any film/arts program. I was coasting on the tails of a short I had done in my program, The Boy Who Knew, as it went from film festival to festival, but that would only last awhile and you?re really only as good as your last film!
I had been sitting on this script since I was 17 and I found that when I asked myself if I felt mentally ready to direct it, the answer was ?yes!? So why wasn?t I? I think there was a little bit of fear there. The films we were producing at VFS were so professional, could I live up to that on my own, with my own resources? At the end of the day, what got the project off the ground was me taking a deep breath and saying ?I can do this!? It?s amazing how a project comes together when you set a solid goal that you can?t back down from (telling people you?ve committed to this goal generally makes it harder to back away from too).
I don?t know exactly how to explain how things come together, they just do. When you are on that wave-length of achieving a goal, and you are mentally focused on it, somehow you start talking to the right people, finding the right connections and before you know it, every element of the production has come together and you are on set, behind a camera, in front of your cast. William?s Lullaby?is a feature film shot in 16 days on a no-budget with a crew of seven ? how this project got off the ground (and completed) is something I?ll marvel at years from now.
What was your favourite part of the process?
Nicholas: I find myself in love with every part of the filmmaking process as I go through it. Ask me on set and I?ll tell you directing my actors and capturing the scenes as they play out is my favourite thing. Then I find myself totally enthralled with the editing process as the puzzle of the film comes together to scoring the film to sitting in the sound mixing sessions ? I love it all! Despite the dark nature of the story, the set was actually very light and I suppose at the end of it all I will always reflect on those 16 days and the bonds that developed between a cast and crew that I am happy and proud to call friends.
How did your education at VFS prepare you for creating this film??
Nicholas: This was the first time I really did homework as a filmmaker ? I mean real, stay-up-all-night, blood-sweat-and-tears homework prior to shooting and I learned how to do that properly through some long nights at VFS. VFS really taught me that you can pull off some pretty impressive things if you are prepared and spend the time necessary to be prepared. This is the first time I storyboarded an entire project. I have a great big binder that has every frame of William?s Lullaby?drawn out on index cards from start to finish and that became the bible for myself, my cast, and my crew on set and throughout editing. I had never felt more prepared as a leader.
Another one?of my biggest take-aways from VFS was efficiency in storytelling. I think William?s Lullaby?is a very tight film because?of what I learned at VFS from trimming the fat off your script to killing your babies in editing. Of course, I learned about how to properly frame shots, set protocol etc? all of which I applied to the production of the film. And although?William?s Lullaby?is still very much a stepping stone and a learning experience for me as a director/producer, I think it shows a maturity in the filmmaking process?that I did not possess prior to VFS.
Now that you have wrapped post-production, what are the next steps for the film?
Nicholas: Right now we?re getting our festival package ready and diving head first into some heavy promotion. We just want people to know about our little film! We anticipate screenings to start popping up in the fall. We have a cast and crew that are very passionate about this film and so we?re going to work hard at getting it out to as wide of an audience as possible.
Do you think you will stick to being a triple threat or would you rather focus on a particular area of filmmaking?
Nicholas: I don?t know about triple threat. I?m just learning as I go. To answer this though, I think I can be fairly confident in saying that I am not happy being tied down to one aspect of filmmaking or story-telling. I find it a little suffocating really.
Calling myself a film director never quite felt right because I?ve always been doing other stuff too. I do a fair bit of acting right now and tour around with my own stage-show. So I like the fact that I feel free enough to explore different aspects of storytelling and challenge myself in different roles. I learn from every aspect of the arts. What I discover in acting makes me a better director, and what I learn from directing makes me a better producer, writer, editor, etc.
I hope I continue to explore and learn from all aspects of film and theatre. It will always come down to the story/idea and how I feel I can best contribute. I feel like I have a very balanced creative life and I hope to keep that going through my career.
Thanks for speaking with us, Nicholas. Good luck with William?s Lullaby!
Source: http://blog.vfs.com/2013/06/27/i-find-myself-in-love-with-every-part-of-the-filmmaking-process/
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