Page 18 - Fujifilm Exposure_41 Happy-Go-Lucky_ok

UNDERGROUND, OVER
It’s quicker by Tube. That, to borrow the famous old commer- cial catch-line, is what other- wise luckless driver Paul is hop- ing to discover in terms of an unorthodox get-quick-rich scheme in RMPC’s new British
black comedy, 3 And Out.
Mackenzie Crook, quirky co-star
of TV’s The Office and the Pirates Of The Caribbean trilogy, plays Paul, an aspiring novelist in his spare time, who suffers two ‘one-under his train’ in a fortnight.
“In that time,” explains producer Wayne Godfrey, “he learns about this unwritten rule, ‘three and out’: if you hit three people in a month, he’s told by his colleagues, then London Underground will find you too trauma- tised to work and give you a big pay off so you’ll never have to work again.”
After stopping Tommy Cassidy (Irish actor Colm Meaney) who’s about to jump off a bridge, the pair devise a plan whereby the older man will jump in front of Paul’s train instead the following Monday. The idea is then that the money can be shared between Paul and Tommy’s surviving wife (Imelda Staunton) and daughter (Gemma Arterton) on whom he walked out years earlier.
That, as they say, is where the story, scripted by Steve Lewis and Tony Owen, really starts.
The film marks the feature debut of director Jonathan Gershfield, who began on commercials and music videos before eventually moving into television with, notably, successful sketch comedies like Big Train and Dead Ringers as well as comedy dramas such as Wild West and Twisted Tales.
Gershfield, who as a screenwriter has had two of his projects recently optioned out, claims he wanted “to do long form” ever since going to film school in Bristol before getting “stuck” for a number of years in commercials. “They were fun, well paid and I got to see the world, so I don’t regret that time. However I did feel time was beginning to run out a bit when I finally moved across to TV in 2001.”
Although he’d ideally liked to have directed one of his own scripts, that wasn’t possible at this juncture, so he began looking “at loads and loads of other scripts - but nothing
grabbed me at first. Then this one came about because my agent is part- ner of the writers’ agent and I knew that dark-ish comedy is what I wanted to get my hands on. The original draft was different to what it is now but the premise was the same. It was clearly very well written.”
“On this we’ve had to work to a tight budget and schedule. Interestingly, people tend to think that commercials have time and money to burn, but they were never like that for me. It was always against the clock so that’s not so alien from what we’re doing here. But this has been so much more satisfy- ing creatively. I’ve felt that I’ve been in the driving seat – not in a control freak sort of way – right from the moment the script arrived. The casting’s especially been my bag because usually with TV, I’ve inherited casts.
“It has also been very fulfilling choosing heads of department. I’d once worked with Richard Greatrex on perhaps the least glamorous commer- cial he or I ever made. It was about incontinence pads and we shot it in the Holloway Road on a Sunday.
“I tried to work with him again after that but by then he’d moved on to winning BAFTAs and being nominat- ed for Oscars. Partly because I’m green and partly to hold my hand – not to mention being seen to be pukka by the rest of the world – we thought having a really experienced and gar- landed DP would be the way to go.”
Greatrex (Shakespeare In Love, Warriors, The Woman In White) explained: “When I went to see Jonathan and the line producer Paul Sarony, I’d just finished Run, Fat Boy, Run. I was a little wary of doing
another British comedy but I liked the script and the one thing that really struck me about it was it had a true ring of authenticity about it that I found quite appealing. I suggested that we try and develop some kind of style that reflected that authenticity – that ring of truth, if you like.
“My parallel idea to the one of authenticity was that we should feel and think like a very lightweight unit. That’s not to say we’re shooting a doc- umentary but there should still be a feeling that if the action’s suddenly over there behind us, we shouldn’t be afraid to turn around, and that if it goes from inside to outside, so be it: we just respond to the situation.
“I was keen very early on to get everybody on board, make sure they were all up, for that kind of flexibility - which they duly were without a word
16 • Exposure • The Magazine • Fujifilm Motion Picture