Produced & Directed by James Hastings & Ben Ashton
written by James Hastings
During a conversation with his psychiatrist, Elliot, an aspiring jazz musician suffering from social anxiety, learns to find his place in the world through music.
ABOUT THE FILM
Ben Ashton and James Hastings won the grand prize at the 2021 Kino London Short Film Festival (the year we had to host our festival online… thanks covid!) with SEND IN THE CLOWNS unlocking our film fund. HIDDEN INSIGHT was produced early 2022 and is fresh off the festival circuit.
ABOUT THE FILMmakers
BEN ASHTON has been a professional actor since graduating from the world renowned drama school, Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. He trained in all forms of theatre ranging from Classical Theatre to Contemporary Theatre, Screen, Radio & Stage Combat. Since graduating Ben has gone on to perform professionally on stage and screen for many companies including the Royal Shakespeare Company, Guildford Shakespeare Company, The Watermill Theatre, Reading Between the Lines, Creation Theatre, BBC Television, ITV, BBC Radio 4 and many more.
JAMES HASTINGS first turned industry heads when he set up his independent film production company Hastings Infinity Films at the age of 12. He has since worked on numerous award-winning projects, including The Distance, a short film he took to Cannes film festival, being one of its youngest directors to attend. He made his feature debut at the age of 16, Raymond’s 5 (2017), which was funded through a successful Kickstarter campaign and distributed on Amazon Prime. After winning the inspiring young filmmaker award in 2017, James became a Global Youth Ambassador for RoundTable Global.
READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH ben & james
Tell us about the genesis of HIDDEN INSIGHT Where did you get the idea and why did you choose this project to focus on?
JAMES: As an enthusiast of jazz, it’s always been something I wanted to incorporate into a film, so after much brainstorming we developed the idea of a young musician dealing with mentalhealth issues, a timely subject worthy of exploring, and overcoming it through his passion for jazz. The themes of the film came partly from my own experience, with my creative passion being film often becoming a source of escapism in my own life. Our protagonist must balance his self-conscious, socially-anxious thoughts with his desire to live up to his heroes,the jazz maestros of the past, specifically saxophonist Charlie Parker. This combination led him to comparing his abilities to others and questioning his own self-worth.
Tell us about your experience winning the Kino fund and how it changed the way you approached making Hidden Insight? I know at first you were thinking of utilising our fund for a different project altogether - can you talk about the evolution of the development process?
BEN: When writing the story and then turning it into a fully-fledged film, it wasn’t in my thought-process that it could perform well at festivals and appeal to others - I just wanted to make the film I felt passionate about and spent years developing. Therefore winning the Kino Fund was a huge honour and something I’m very proud of and grateful for. At first we were thinking of utilising the fund for another film that I had written, but, in all honesty, we just didn’t have the resources, even with the generous fund that Kino provided, to create in the short amount of time (it’s set in the 90s and involves a house fire etc). James then pitched his script of Hidden Insight and due to James being integral in creating Send in the Clowns,with many hours of hard work, expertise, sweat and tears, I felt it would be a great project to do. The characters had many layers and I was interested in the challenge of creating the film within a small budget.
JAMES: Winning the Kino Fund was a huge honour and not only were we provided the funds, but the support and encouragement every step of the way. Originally, Ben had the idea for a different film which we decided to put on hold, due to various reasons. So, once we pitched our new idea to Dustin, he was very understanding and shared his ideas and feedback allowing us to get the ball rolling on something completely new.
What were some of the main obstacles you experienced when making Hidden Insight and how did you overcome them?
JAMES: When music performances are involved, another layer of difficulty is automatically added. Not only would we need original songs, but we needed actors who could sing and play instruments. Having established Elliot’s influence as Charlie Parker, we delved into his recordings, hearing the quick unpredictable bebop style he is so famous for, and whilst using it as inspiration, chose to slow it down, as if Elliot slowed Parker’s notes down to the speed of his own life. The songs were written by my sister, Sophie, and orchestrated by Archie Combe, with the Sax recordings by musician, Steph Plunkett. We were very lucky to find such talented actors willing to dive into their roles and work extremely hard to pull it off. Max Hoftgartner (Elliot), had just a few weeks to learn the Sax, and Jordan Wallace had only a few hours! Katie Mckenna pulled off her vocals phenomenally and so between them we had an awesome ensemble who I believe nailed it.
BEN: Only one thing I’d like to add is the challenge of creating this film with a small budget and timescale. We only had the theatre space booked for one day and being able to film all the interior shots was always going to be tough.Cast and crew worked tirelessly together to ensure we shot what we needed to shoot and it was a buzzing collaborative experience.
Tell us about your festival journey. Any tips and tricks for other filmmakers?
JAMES: Festivals have always been a little mystifying to me. It’s always a great delight to get accepted, but I've never gone in with a game plan or enough financing to enter all the ones I’m interested in! Hidden Insight is currently on the circuit and we are waiting to hear. If I had any advice it would be to devise a list of the festivals you think would help you as a filmmaker, because from our experience with Kino, you may end up receiving a great source of support and community of like-minded filmmakers.
What do you think is the biggest challenge short filmmakers face trying to break into the industry?
BEN: I think the biggest challenges short filmmakers face is having the resources and time to develop and nurture the craft of filmmaking. You can absolutely create films with no budget and with little time but there comes a point that when you want to step up to the next level, there needs to be sufficient budget and time set aside to enhance the creativity. The short filmmaking industry is huge and needing to stand out and be original is important within that network. However, I strongly believe in creating a film/story you are passionate about and believe in, and to not worry about originality or if it will appeal to others: make the film you want to make and I’m sure others will like it.
JAMES: The road to the industry is a difficult one and it’s a road I’m still on. The journey is a marathon, not a race and for me the best way to be a director is… to keep creating my own work. I’m always thinking about what the best route is? And the answer is there isn’t one single route - All you can do is keep going and keep being creative!
What are you working on now?
JAMES: I have a few projects in the early stages of development - I’m currently writing a feature film, a musically narrated story of three brothers reunited at the death of their father, and their hundred mile journey along the Cornish coast with his coffin on their backs and his memories in their hearts.
BEN: I am currently working on being a father. I have a 9 month old and it’s been amazing to watch him develop and grow and to be around to witness all that. The film projects are on hiatus for the moment, however, there is a feature, Queen of the Redwood Mountains, in which I play the priest, that is due to be released into the festival circuit very soon. It was directed by Nic Saunders and was the last film Gavan O’Herlihy starred in before his passing. A fantastic actor and a privilege to share the screen with.
Any film recommendations that we should add to our watchlist?
BEN: I recently watched Captain Fantastic, written and directed by Matt Ross and starring Viggo Mortensen - a gem of a film and brilliant performances from the adult and child cast.
JAMES: I’ve been on a Cronenberg spree lately, so I’d say check out ‘A History of Violence’ and ‘Spider’.