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fit forms for Hackney Council by day and works in the bathroom of a flashy club by night.
“People seemed to think it was a documentary but actually it was a drama. I did a lot of bathroom research for the film and was particu- larly fascinated by the different kind of displays you can see in these places. Like a taxi, it’s also a useful sort of transient space for a story.”
Following its various awards and rewards, he moved outdoors next to film Sister, a very tense, and longer at 12 minutes, tale of youthful conflict on a school bus progressing through the wide open spaces of the Welsh coun- tryside. The result, lit by Jake Polonsky, was another BAFTA Cymru and the impetus for his longest film to date, at 16 mins, Antonio’s Breakfast, which was premiered at Sundance.
Costing £4,000, it’s another claus- trophobic, character-led story, this time set in a East End London high rise, of a teenager (Dominique Chambers) who’s trapped by circum- stance in a 14th floor flat where he tends devotedly for his cruelly dis- abled father.
“What I remember most about the shoot were two things: The first was how focused the actors were. They
were first-timers pretty much, and Danny instilled in them this belief that if they didn’t take it seriously then there would be no use to mak- ing the film. That’s a hard thing to do with five or six 16-year-olds.
“I remember meeting these guys for the first time down an alleyway in Brixton and Danny got them to cir- cle me and then to talk through me as if I wasn’t there and that’s how he expected them to act when I was pointing a camera at them. It was a good technique.
“The shoot itself was like many shorts - everybody doing their best for no money in tight conditions. It was the tail end of a summer so it was a little bit cosy in the small flat we shot in.
“The second thing that sticks in my mind is the ridiculously short amount of stock we had to shoot with as we were shooting 35mm, and the stock is that more expensive. Danny wanted a very fly-on-the-wall observa- tional style. That requires a documen- tary approach which usually means tonnes of footage to have to choose from. So I think it’s even more of an achievement that Antonio’s Breakfast has succeeded despite that restriction.” – Robbie Ryan
The film was scheduled across three days and required, said Daniel, paying fulsome tribute to his DP Robbie Ryan, some 300 set-ups. “As a collabo- rator he was very instinctive and we had a good line of communication. He had an incredibly fast way of working and there were even occasions he also had to ‘gaff’ himself as well as pull focus and operate.” The film eventually won a Completion Award from the UK Film Council for the post-production.
Daniel’s latest film, Dad, is much shorter, just seven minutes, and alto- gether edgier beginning with a shot of an elderly couple indulging in oral sex. “Weshotitfor£600inadayonsome- thing like just three or four rolls of stock. It was almost done as an exer- cise and I admit it’s not everyone’s cup of tea.” Photographed by Jakob Ihre, it has also just received a lavish £6,000 Completion Award.
“I have known Daniel since 2001 when he presented me a very detailed storyboard of one of his short films. On Dad, we didn’t have a storyboard, and even though the actors were very well rehearsed the filmmaking was very spontaneous and organic.
“It’s fantastic for a DP to collabo- rate with a young emerging director;
you can almost see that the director is growing while shooting and mov- ing towards finding his own unique voice in the process. I find that Daniel is always trying to push and explore himself as a filmmaker, with amazing results. ” – Jakob Ihre
His success to date has led to major agent representation and talk of feature projects. “I’ve got the choice of three projects all of which I’m now developing. I’m not sure which is going to be first. Although I have written all my films so far I’m certainly open to other people’s scripts.”
Meanwhile, there is talk of another short, which could also be later developed into a feature film. He explained: “It’s about a middle class family taking their boat up the Thames and into the countryside.
“It also deals with their son, a French exchange student and their sex- ual awakening. It’s quite a hardcore script. The subject matter may be something that wouldn’t get a BAFTA nomination,” he grinned. ■ QUENTIN FALK
Dance Floor, Sister, Antonio’s Breakfast and Dad were originated on Fujicolor Motion Picture Negative
Photo main: A scene from Sister; insets l-r: Dominique Chambers in Antonio’s Breakfast and on the set of the film with DP Robbie Ryan (left); Writer/Director Daniel Mulloy
Fujifilm Motion Picture • The Magazine • Exposure • 25