With so many film and television productions choosing this green land of ours, it goes without saying that Wales is becoming a TV and movie magnet. But, there is nothing more satisfying than watching a movie that has made by homegrown Welsh talent.
Cruel Summer is a feature film that has been both written and directed by local filmmakers Phillip Escott and Craig Newman. It tells the story of a young person with autism, Danny. Best described as a horror / thriller / drama, the movie is hard hitting and one that truly pulls on heartstrings of the viewer. Amanda Hunt met Phillip and Craig to find out a little bit more about the film.
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“Cruel Summer is a film or story about a boy (Danny) with autism who goes camping for his Duke of Edinburgh Award,” starts Craig. “What he doesn’t know is that back in the city there’s a local youth called Nicholas, who has been told that the girl he has recently split up from had sex with this boy. He takes that as an insult and apparently everyone knows about it and he feels embarrassed. So he ropes in a girl, Julia and another boy, Calvin to find this boy on the pretense that he will rough him up a little bit. Over the course of the film things escalate and it has a very brutal finale.”
Both are well versed in documentary film making and shorts but what inspired them to make this genre film to be their first feature?
Phillip explains, “Well we’ve both got an interest in the darker side of films. We both like films that take place over the course of 24 hours, like Larry Clark’s Kids. It’s a combination of trying to figure out what we like and what is practical, especially when you are on a low budget.” Craig adds to the issues of working on a tight budget “There’s one costume! Also, it’s all shot in day as well so you don’t need all the lights. So, we were thinking about the best way we could light it because lighting is expensive. We didn’t even want it to go into the evening.”
Planning anything in the UK is always fraught with issues surrounding the weather, so how do they manage this when preparing to make a film?
Craig describes their process “We had to go online and statistically look at what months in the UK have the least amount of rainfall and then it was those two weeks that we booked in for Cruel Summer. We crossed our fingers and got lucky because there was a heat wave. The whole time was blistering hot sun and it was great.”
Phillip says; “The first four days were good and then it rained on day five, heavy rain as well.” Craig continues; “If you look closely, when Danny arrives at the lake for the first time, you can see rain on his jacket. But also, in the scene where he gets killed by the viaduct in Porthkerry, we had to do a sky change. It was grey overcast but we replaced it with a blue sky, so it looked more inline with the other shots.” Phillip muses “It was a really grey day, miserable.”
Craig talks about the filming locations: “We shot a few scenes in the arcades down at Barry Island. Production value wise it looks great. You have all the sounds, all the looks and when Nick first walks in and he sees all the gambling machines, there’s this purple light, which almost gives it an 80’s Drive look that was completely unplanned.”
Phillip continues with other locations in and around Cardiff: “Queen Street and in Ely we filmed at the top of Grand Avenue and Rumney. In Caerphilly, this was for the newsagents and outdoor store (Army & Navy). Merthyr was the graveyard and playground with the three swings, which don’t seem to exist anymore!”
The main cast for Cruel Summer is made up of Richard Pawulski (Danny), who is relatively unknown and appeared in the feature All in the Valley. Danny Miller (Nicholas), who is best known for his portrayal of Aaron Dingle of Emmerdale, Reece Douglas (Calvin) who has been seen in the BBC television drama Waterloo Road and Natalie Martins (Julia) from the horror Poltergeist Activity.
Phillip said that “Originally we wanted to get unprofessional actors because we wanted it to be very authentic, so we were thinking about youth clubs and getting some local kids. We didn’t have any money for a casting director so we put ads online. People were sending in audition tapes, links to their show reels. Danny came on because of Reece, who was signed on first. We didn’t know who he was at first but we saw the picture and it was the best picture you could possibly want. It looked like a JD Sports advert, cut hair to an almost bald head, grey tracksuit, mean, perfect!”
Craig continued with regards to the part of Julia; ” We asked for video auditions and Natalie Martins was the first to send it in and it was a really good audition. I then thought well if this is going to be the calibre that we are going to get, it is going to be really hard. Video audition after video audition, it became apparent that we got lucky with the first person that applied. There were a few others that were more well known but in the end it came down to performance. With Richard, who plays Danny Evans, he was the last person we hired and we were getting really worried. We put out ads but we didn’t get much of a response because I’m guessing it is difficult playing someone with special needs. Richard got in touch with us and he had done some research into it and spent time with people with special needs. He sent across some footage of him in character and it was absolutely mind blowing.”
Phillip added “I did a little charity thing in Ely, Cardiff, with some autistic teens to see if they could make a short film. In the room there was about 10 kids and everyone had a different variant of the condition. This really helped me gain a better understanding but ultimately it is trying to stay true and not to use the condition as a gimmick. Trying to be truthful to the fact that these people are not understood as much as they should be. We did get some hate mail…” Craig continued “Yeah, when word got out that Danny Miller was in this film, we were getting people contacting us saying this had better not be exploitative to people with special needs. We were getting this hate even before anyone has seen it. It was really important for us that the performance was subtle and not over the top because the audience had to really like the character and empathise. If it were over the top or hammy, then the audience would’ve switched off for it being unrealistic or exploitive. We worked closely with Richard to make sure that his performance had a nice balance.”
After its screening at FrightFest, there was a lot of buzz around Cruel Summer because people found it quite traumatic. The film felt very true to life and there was so much empathy towards Danny. He was this vulnerable person, who was kind in nature and simply wanted to exert his independence by going on this solo camping trip. Then to watch all the lies unfold and the others closing in on him was pretty awful. Craig told me “I think for both me and Phil, the truth is we have met people who are like the characters Nick, Julia and Calvin. So what really affects people is the fact that they know or have met people like the villains. The whole thing about a lie getting out of control, they have probably been involved in something like that or even a situation where they have had to communicate with someone with special needs, so it becomes believable.” Phillip continue “Especially during high school where there’s that one kid who rules the pack and you could go along finding yourself in a situation involving a violent act.”
Craig added “We really wanted to make it as real as possible, the dialogue that they use, the way they act, the way they move, their environment, it had to feel real. I think with a lot of American films it’s almost polished and you are kind of aware that this isn’t reality, like you’re watching a film. If you can get a documentary feel to it, it makes you feel really uncomfortable even before anything happens. It creates this sense of dread.”
Cruel Summer. Info: Facebook.