Buzz catches up with Iain Canning and Harry Escott, the producer and composer of Steve McQueen’s highly anticipated new film, Shame, which is released nationwide on Fri 13 Jan. Following the life of Brandon, a sex-obsessive in the heart of New York, Shame is an intense, stark and emotional depiction of human obsession. Premiered in Cardiff at the Soundtrack Film And Music Festival Gareth Ludkin chatted to Iain and Harry about putting the film together and working with Steve McQueen.
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Iain, you’ve worked with Steve McQueen before, but what was it about Shame that really drew you to the project?
IC: I had a very small but wonderfully fulfilling position as the executive producer on Hunger and I was able to build up a relationship with Steve though that. Then, between Hunger and making the King’s Speech, I set up my production company Seesaw Films and Steve wanted to work with me again. He had recently met up with Abi Morgan and they had decided that they wouldn’t mind researching this area of… I guess somebody who wants to use their body through sexual obsession or just an inability to connect. And to do that in New York. That sort of combination of everyone involved was just too difficult to turn down really.
Were there any particular challenges you faced when filming?
IC: We filmed during some incredibly snowy conditions and I remember going to bed one evening thinking that the Americans on the crew were being slightly over protective about the snow. Then I woke up and all the cars were completely buried in snow the next day. Thankfully we just had luck in the filming and the days that it snowed incredibly strongly we were in interiors and then it cleared up by the time we went out. So there were those challenges. I think also Steve McQueen is most comfortable – and I think his talent really shines through – when he’s in a controllable environment. And that was, given how busy New York is, from a producer point of view, the absolute main goal – to give Steve what he wanted in those scenes.
And with the long continuous running shot in the film… was that quite a tricky scene to shoot?
IC: I’d like to claim that we shut 15 streets down, but we had a little bit of luck and a little bit of luck with the lights. But that’s maybe giving a little bit of a secret away.
And Harry, for yourself, did the soundtrack change and evolve over time, or did you have a set idea of what you wanted to achieve and the challenges you would face?
HE: My involvement in the film was very set before I came on board. There’s an awful lot of music I didn’t write in the film – there’s a lot of Bach and pre-existing tracks – so my job was really to bookend the film with two pieces of music that essentially sum up the soul of Brandon. And so, in many senses, it wasn’t a traditional scoring of a picture where you’re Tom and Jerrying and very closely following the action. It was more about capturing the mood of the piece and the urges within the main protagonist Brandon. In that way it was quite set in stone. Steve was very clear about the musical environment and the musical landscape he wanted the film to be in. He wanted the score to be orchestral and he didn’t want any elements to be synthetic.
So how conscious were you of Harry’s soundtrack when filming?
IC: The film is a partner of the music. I think there’s that sort of theme – especially in Harry’s score – of that ticking clock, and the idea that Brandon always has a process and a way of waking up. Life is sort of in rotation all the time. I think that ticking clock aspect was incredibly important. We were aware that the music was going to be a character in the film.
So Harry, how did you find yourself scoring music for film?
HE: It was a pretty conscious move, but it definitely evolved over time. Slowly I came to realise while at college that I wanted to compose, and after that I realised that I really enjoyed collaborating with other people in theatre and on short films. It was a natural progression really. By the time I was pretending to be a real person in the real world out of education, I knew that it was what I wanted to do.
And for you Iain, Cardiff was your University home. What’s it like coming back here to premiere Shame?
IC: It’s really great to be back. I sort of fell in love with films here; I had great friends at university who seemed to have the whole back catalogue of every film that had been shown on television on Channel 4. That definitely influenced the films I wanted to make.
What are your hopes for the film as it goes ahead? Are you hoping for awards or accolades, or is it even something your conscious of?
IC: What we wanted to do was make a film about a subject matter that was the best version of all of our talents and what we could do and we would hope that there are enough people out there that want to go out there and see a film for adults really in a way and I think that’s quite exciting. If we’re right then hopefully people will come and see the film. I think certainly the performances are incredible – Carey [Mulligan] and Michael [Fassbender]. But I think it’s also got a particular point of view and the reaction we’ve been getting is really exciting in that was because I don’t think people feel that there are a lot of films like this out there.
Shame is released in cinemas nationwide on Fri 13 Jan
Check out our coverage of the 2011 Soundtrack International Film And Music Festival here: