Written & Directed by SCOTT PICKUP
Produced by Jonny Ross, James Owen & Simon MarriotT
1986. A young boy is left unattended in the car while his volatile dad takes care of some ‘business’ in a dodgy local pub. What could possibly go wrong?
ABOUT THE FILM
The Boy in the Backseat won loads of awards including a couple at BIFA Qualifying film festivals including Best film at the Spirit of Independence Film Festival, Best Editing at Exit 6, and Best Actor at Tweetfest. Additional festival award highlights include Best Drama at the London Independent Film Festival, Best Drama at the London Director's Award and Best Overall Film, Best Male Actor, and Best Young Actor at the Wolverhampton Film Festival.
It also played at a variety of other festivals including the BIFA Qualifying Beeston Film Festival, Barnes Film Festival, North East Int Film Festival, and more.
ABOUT THE FILMmaker
Scott is a multi-award winning writer and director hailing from West Yorkshire. He’s worked in TV and advertising as Lead Creative for over 13 yrs, at major broadcasters such as SONY PICTURES, NBC UNIVERSAL, ITV & PARAMOUNT. A career highlight being getting to direct the Cookie Monster!
His 1st professional short BOY IN THE BACK SEAT has just finished its award winning festival run and his next Harm’s Way is in pre-production. Scott is in discussion with production companies to make the feature version of BOY IN THE BACK SEAT and another BFI shortlisted feature WINDSCALE is in development with producers Lindsay Fraser, Tom Kimberley and Jessi Gutch.
He believes in elevating complex working class stories from the often underrepresented regions.
READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH SCOTT
Welcome to our Short of the Week series. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your filmmaking background?
I’m a writer, director and editor originally from the darkest reaches of the North - Bradford, West Yorkshire. I freelanced on all manner of independent film shoots back home but it was clear there would never be enough to sustain a career. I then came to London in the age-old quest to be part of the creative world. I’ve been very lucky to have spent most of my time down south making promos, trailers, ads, idents etc. for a host of major broadcasters. I’ve always been striving to be a proper filmmaker though and this short has been my way into that world. I’ve now got a slate of other shorts I need to make and a couple of features in development with different producers. Just hoping I can make one of them happen!
Tell us about the genesis of The Boy In The Backseat. What was the inspiration behind the film?
Covid presented me with more time on my hands than I'd ever had in my adult life before. This led to a real burst of writing but also meant I was home more than ever. I could be the kind of hands in dad I'd never had the chance to be before too. Seeing how much influence this extra time had on my boy Finn really got me thinking about my own childhood (but please don’t worry too much about me after watching the film. It isn’t directly lifted from my life!) What I didn't want to do now was simply allow history to keep on repeating itself. Making the same choices. The film ended up being a combination of the past and the present, my messy human workings out about how we can break the cycle of toxic masculinity and give our kids what society couldn't when we were growing up. The script poured out of me very quickly over a day or so and the bones actually stayed the same from that draft onwards. I’ve been very grateful about just how many people seemed to have connected with this story.
What's it like working with child actors? Any tips in your process for enabling such a great performance?
I’d filmed with children quite a bit before this as I used to run the creative for a bunch of kids tv channels. Every time it was a challenge but it allowed me to figure out how to connect with young performers. You just have to find something they like and talk to them about it! Sounds simple but meeting them in their comfort zone, letting them know you're a friend when they’re surrounded by an adult workplace is really helpful. I also wanted both main actors to have a relationship outside of set too, as they’re playing father and son. We spent a day hanging out together, playing some daft games and rehearsing so that everyone was comfortable with each other.
Aron (adult lead) was amazing in this process too. His performance is so intense but he made sure that it never spilled out when he was around Jude off set. Aron did the friend thing as well without me even asking. He’s a very intuitive and experienced guy and just knew how to make it easy for Jude. I was so lucky to find Jude for the lead too. From the moment I saw his self tape I knew he was the one. His career is going to be insane, he’s already achieved more than a lot of adult actors- being in a BBC drama and sharing the stage with Ralph Fiennes already. Someone on the crew told him he’d be an amazing actor when he grew up. Jude rightly told them he was an amazing actor now! Couldn't agree more, he made my job very easy.
What were some of the main obstacles you experienced when making The Boy In The Backseat and how did you overcome them?
Time was the biggest challenge in making the film. I was lucky enough to get some financial backing (and emotional support!) from two great producers in Simon Marriott and James Owen but it still wasn’t enough for any of the core creative group to get paid. That meant finding time in the evenings on top of the day job, auditions on sundays, making costumes at midnight... The classic short film life! We’re so underfunded in this country that self made and self financed is the only real option for most people. Any help is amazing like the fund you guys have just started! Time was definitely still the biggest issue on set too. It's a compact story but ambitious emotionally, there was a lot to film. Working with an 8 yr old lead meant having a lot less time with him than we needed- for all the correct safeguarding reasons.
That meant shooting cleverly without him being there and managing his exposure to the set very carefully. I also tried to do too much as well - probably born out of the fear that I’d never get this chance again and had to knock it out of the park! We also had a scene with a dog but the handler unfortunately had a car crash on the way down. Everyone (dog included) was fine but it meant rewriting a scene in my head while simultaneously shooting another one while everyone needed answers about how the rest of the film was gonna work. That nearly popped my brain at one point but I had an amazingly strong crew and producing team (shout out to Jonny Ross) with me and we quickly found a way through.
Tell us about the journey of getting your film to audiences and some of the festival circuit highlights.
I literally knew nothing about the festival scene before making this film. I’d heard of the massive ones and had always loved going to the Bradford film festival when I was younger, but that was it. The whole submission process was new to me and I figured it out as I went along, making plenty of mistakes. I knew I had a strong enough film to go for some decent events and was lucky enough to get into many of them, picking up a great collection of awards on the way. It's such a great feeling actually winning something when you’ve poured your time, sanity and cash into a passion project. My first big wow moments were getting into my 1st BIFA level festival in Beeston and winning the main prize at Wolverhampton. These two things happened early on and really gave me a lot of confidence. I hope the organisers know what an impact they had on my journey. I’ve loved seeing my film play in front of packed screenings (the biggest crowd award goes to Exit 6) and travelling the country making new friends. It's been a blast. There's plenty of rejection too of course but I'm so jealous of people who have a new film already, who get to do it all again!
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?
This is a tough one, because what isn’t a challenge at this point in your career! It’s just really hard crafting chances for yourself, knowing that no one is coming to your rescue, it’s down to you to find a way. How do you do that when you have a full time job, little or no spare cash, a family, no connections- the list goes on. I fought for a long time to find a way in, finally getting an office job at ITV in Leeds and using that to get access to the creative world jobs within the organisation- I applied for them all! I’m sure one of the main reasons I became a creative in London wasn’t my amazing Uni short films but connecting with the right people via an itv email account. It meant I wasn't so quickly dismissed because I already worked there, albeit in a very different capacity! It’s just so hard to find a way in.
What advice or hacks would you give to other short filmmakers?
Now I'm trying to break into features. It all starts again. One thing I know for sure is that it’s about the network. Going to festivals, events, making friends, sharing projects. You never know where the next opportunity might come from. I actually met someone great at a Kino London open mic night that will hopefully get me that one step closer to my feature film dream. I’m directing a charity advert soon and I have people to call for help because I’ve met them at an event, worked with them, hounded them on socials until they became my friend. So in short, talk to people, be respectful and friendly and see if you can’t help each other out.
My other tip applies to your own work specifically. Only make something you truly love, that you have to speak about. There will be so many knockbacks that your desire to tell that particular story has to be self-generating. It has to be fueled from within as no external validation will ever be enough to get you across the line. Love your work first and foremost.
Your passion will probably what sells it in the end too.
Any film recommendations that we should add to our watchlist?
I watch anything and everything. I’m a massive indie cinema guy but also more than happy to see Jason Statham punch a megalodon too. Poor Things was wildly imaginative and I loved Bottoms recently too- so fresh, funny and knew exactly what it was. TV wise Severance and Silo were the two things that captured my imagination recently. As for shorts, I’ve seen loads of incredible stuff on the circuit but 5 Weeks especially blew me away.