Staring HARRISON CHARLES & FLORENCE PICK
Directed by JASPER CABLE ALEXANDER
Produced by ASH HORNE
A dance of love between two humanoids entangled in the complexities of toxic love.
ABOUT THE FILMmaker
Jasper's films entrap you into halcyon nostalgia that at any moment could flip from a sun drenched haze to a neon lit nightmare. There’s an impressive consistency of vision to his work that makes you hungry for more. His style is dark, surreal, and visually heightened, all driven by the narrative often with a humorous tone to his storytelling.
He has been telling stories all his life. From the age of 17 he left school early to pursue his creative career assisting, running and all sorts to end up working for the photographer Rankin who ended up signing him to his production company at the age of 19 as a director. Jasper is now 25 and has shot and been featured in many prestigious publications like the Face, Rolling Stone Magazine, Hunger magazine, Love Magazine, Pitchfork, Vogue Italy to name a few.
Most recently he has had a major eye accident temporarily blinding his left eye for over a year which has powered his creative vision even further to give him a perspective that not many have the opportunity to explore.
READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH JASPER
Welcome to our Short of the Week series. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your filmmaking background?
I’m a 25-year-old filmmaker focused on telling surreal & comedy narratives, I started in the world of music video and have now begun my journey into short films and documentary’s and hope to explore long form in the near future.
Tell us about the genesis of Tear Gas. What was the inspiration behind the film?
It ‘s a story of a past relationship that turned sour and all of the emotions that come along with toxicity, we began with the idea of a couple in a bedroom, showing them in their most intimate moments and entangled in the complexities of a toxic love, that idea really span from there into creating these creatures looking somewhat evil and distant but acting out relatable moments in a relationship.
I wanted to turn them into creatures because I felt that’s the kind of feeling that is evoked when you don’t quite feel like yourself, I think seeing the couple as other worldly speaks to the emotional tone that resonates within a toxic relationship.
Tell us about the experience of shooting on film.
Shooting on film is always a relative challenge, the day before the shoot the camera decided not to work, by this point it was too late to change cameras - thankfully the film gods came through and the aesthetics of 16mm really helped us translate that sentimental feeling that is felt when looking back at a past relationship.
What were some of the main obstacles you experienced when making Tear Gas and how did you overcome them?
Of course the Prosthetics was very challenging. However, Tilda our prosthetics artist completely outdid any challenge. No noses were lost during the process of shooting.
Tell us about the journey of getting your film to audiences and some of the festival circuit highlights.
Towards the end of the shoot, we had the idea to host a live screening alongside the music as our premiere. It went better than I ever imagined. To have live scoring alongside the film worked so well to capture the feeling that we wanted to show in the film.
Watching the film in front of an audience for the first time and to see people laughing and crying at this film that we’ve created felt incredibly special to me, it was the first time I’ve watched an audience laugh (intentionally) at a film I’ve made before. It felt like one of the best feelings in the world for me that’s what I most proud of. I’m very excited to explore comedy more.
What do you think is the biggest challenge short filmmakers face in the early stages of their career when trying to break into the industry? & What advice or hacks would you give to other short filmmakers?
I feel that the biggest challenge for a filmmakers initially is finding their voice once it’s found you have the ability to tell endless stories but it’s so hard to find a voice without doing lots of shorts and that’s a lot of money! I wanted to explore music videos in my early career because it gave me the ability to explore themes, stories and styles I liked while getting budget from the label.
Any film recommendations that we should add to our watchlist?
Well I would say keeping in the same world as Tear Gas the two I’d recommend is Buffalo 66 and In The Mood For Love.