London 2056 - the city is dying and those living in the smog-clogged ruins live by their wits. The ones who can afford to opt out by uploading their consciousnesses to Cloud 9. This is advertised as a one-way ticket to virtual heaven - but can the Company who run it really be trusted?
This short film won the Sci-Fi London 48 Hour Film Challenge 2016.
Written & Directed by STUART BLACK & NICK MATHER
Produced by IOANNA KARAVELA
Starring JUSTIN MAROSA & ALICE HENLEY
We first came across No Guarantee as one of the earliest entries to The People’s Film Festival last year. It quickly rose to the top of the list of our favourite submissions, and at the time we had no idea the film was produced from concept to completion in 48 hours - which makes it even more impressive! Last week we caught up with director Stu Black to chat about his process…
SO THIS FILM WAS CREATED AT 48 FILM CHALLENGE, CORRECT? CAN YOU TELL US A BIT ABOUT THAT?
We made No Guarantee for the Sci-Fi-London 48 Hour Film Challenge. It was our second attempt at the competition with the same group of filmmakers, so we'd learnt a lot together and had a great team spirit.
WHAT WAS THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE IN CREATING A FILM IN 48 HOURS?
It's a fun but draining experience - you're shooting late into the evenings then staying up on the final night to get masses of post-production work done. Our poor composer was waiting until we had a locked edit - which was around 4am on Sunday night. But everyone pulls together and there's a huge feeling of satisfaction at the end.
DID YOU MAKE ANY TWEAKS TO THE FILM AFTER THE CHALLENGE BEFORE SENDING IT OUT TO FESTIVALS?
We tweaked some of the VFX and did a tiny bit more work on the grade - but it's essentially the same film we won with.
DID YOU HAVE ANY CREATIVE SOLUTIONS FOR WORKING ON A SMALL BUDGET?
Creative problem-solving is the key to these competitions - you have to get everyone helping each other, not constrained in their department. That meant rifling through all our collective cupboards to find props and costumes that would work. Our production designer actually works in motorcycles - so a lot of what we used came out of her stockroom - the Cloud 9 devices, for example, are ventilator plugs removed from a motorcycle face-mask.
WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR FILM'S BIGGEST SUCCESSES?
We are very happy with the way the story builds - which is really down to the editor, actors and composer. It's also really cool to see different audiences react to the ultimate 'yes/no' twist - we always get a gasp or two.
WHAT'S YOUR FAVOURITE PART OF THE FILMMAKING PROCESS?
I've been a journalist for years which is basically a lone wolf profession - filmmaking is fun for me because you get to cook something up together with friends.
SCREENING RECOMENDATIONS FOR QUARANTINE:
If you've got through all the good stuff on Netflix and are at the bottom of their barrel, it's definitely worth trying out the less famous platforms (many have free trials too) - for example, I just signed up to Marquee TV, which is all opera and ballet - and not normally my thing - but it was refreshing to spend a night watching something totally different from the norm.
Visit the facebook page here: facebook.com/noguarantee/
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