WITH the British Academy of Film and Television Arts hosting their annual ceremony this month, the Pioneer talked exclusively to award nominated writer and director Stuart Hazeldine about his experiences as a first time full-length film maker.
STUART Hazeldine is a happy man. Talking down the phone on a sunny LA morning, the British film maker is celebrating his first BAFTA nomination for debut feature film Exam, he has completed work on the script for the anticipated next big epic Paradise Lost, and is lending his writing skills to director Alex 'iRobot' Proyas to bring back The Tripods.
Already an established screenwriter in the Hollywood system, his work on projects like the Nicholas Cage disaster flick Knowing and a tidying of The Day The Earth Stood Still remake has cemented his standing as a strong storyteller, and now he can add feature film director to his list of accomplishments.
Writing, producing and helming the taught mystery-thriller himself, Exam is based in a claustrophobic, job-interview style setting where eight anonymous applicants are told they have 80 minutes to answer a single question with only three simple rules: do not spoil your paper,do not speak to the armed guard, and do not leave the room.
On turning over their sheets, they are shocked to find them completely blank and so begins a highly-strung, puzzle-solving race against the clock.
But back to the BAFTA.
Nominated in the 'Outstanding Debut By A British Writer, Director Or Producer' category alongside such celebrated offerings as Duncan Jones' Moon and Sam Taylor-Wood's Nowhere Boy; the recognition alone cements Hazeldine's standing as a homegrown talent to watch out for.
Did the BAFTA nomination come as a surprise?
It was a bit of surprise. It’s a very strong field this year. I've looking over the previous nominees and it’s amazing - the field gets stronger each year. It's definitely good.
Exam is such a high-concept which works well with the low-budet - although the limited funds don't translate to the screen. Was it a challenge to keep a single set feature so engaging throughout?
It definitely was and very hard to try to come up with a number of strategies. Having a ticking clock always adds a lot of tension.
I also tried to make the room a bit of character rather than a set. The characters interact with the room and it goes through a change in itself - [I tried] to make it interesting that way as well.
Independent film making is often driven by compromise. Were there any cuts you had to make which you regret or, knowing how the business works, did you tailor your narrative to be as lean as possible from the outset?
My day job is as a scriptwriter. Before Exam I worked on a lot of big budget movies. Even in the biggest film they have to make painful cuts, whether it is through risks of going over budget or creative decisions or just to make everyone happy. I have got used to the push and pull of having ideas and not keeping them.
I was fully used to that so I cut a lot during development. I then dropped further scenes due to running out of time on shoot and even more in the edit. I got used to that. You’ve got to take a step back from the painting and have a look at it from a distance.
Rising tension seems to be a theme in this film as well as in some of the screenplays you have worked on. Do you enjoy putting audiences on edge?
Definitely. Cinema is an emotional exercise. You have to make what interests you and get from the audience what you want. If you’re making a comedy then you want to make them laugh.
There is a lot of tension, and hopefully it will get the audience’s brains working a little too.
There are elements of horror, but a far cry from overt gore. Are you a fan of the psychological thrill of the imagination rather than serving it to audiences on a plate?
For me the most interesting movies are intelligent intellectually and emotionally. I personally did not want to do a horror movie as my first. I was aware traditionally it is what is done, but I didn’t want to do a Night Of The Living Dead or a Hostel or a Saw.
I do like horror, but I like classy horror like The Sixth Sense or The Shining.
Did the experience of seeing your writing brought to the screen by other directors give you an insight into how you would tackle directing yourself?
It did. I have been fortunate enough to be able to be on a few sets and see directors directing. I have also been in the pre-production process and seen how a director has to change the script. Often when it first starts out the script looks like a piece of literature and the director has to think how to process it.
It becomes more like a blueprint - an architectural plan of how the film will be.
It’s a great education I was able to do that, but there was still a lot of feeling your own way. You’ve got to try to trust in your own instincts and trust the people you have hired to translate your script as well.
Did you ever find yourself becoming too protective about the film or were you happy to be receptive to advice or different opinions from the cast and crew?
You find you can be very protective when writing as there is no one there and if it isn’t well received it isn’t too painful.
But when you’re on set and spending a lot of money every day... the best idea wins. Whether it’s from me, the actors, the crew or the kid who makes the tea.
Just knowing what improves it and what is a good idea is an important part of being a director. At the end of the day your name’s on it anyhow. [laughs]
It’s important to be collaborative. I always like to hear people’s ideas. Sometime they are great and I would act on it straight away, sometimes not.
It’s like [the actors and crew] are all on mountains with their ideas, but I’m on the tallest mountain looking out over their mountains, and I have to tell them ‘Look, it’s not a good idea when you look at it from up here’. Sometimes you do have to be the referee.
Did such a level of autonomy ever seem daunting - stepping into the shoes of writer, director and producer?
I think the biggest risk was certainly a loss of perspective.
In this case I was financing as well which gave a strange feeling an unusual level of control which few directors get to experience.
I think me and Tom Ford [director of A Single Man] are the only two to have done it this year.
You've paid for everything! If you are having a really bad day you could fire everyone [laughs]. It definitely teaches you about yourself.
The people perpetuate the film with their spiralling descent into desperation. Was it hard to find the perfect cast to fill the almost archetypal roles as how you imagined them when writing the film? Did they live up to your expectations?
They definitely did. There are some roles you write when you have a very clear idea of what you want. The downside of this is you might not find them.
There are some roles you aren’t sure what exactly you want and you hope someone in the casting will come along and inhabit them.
You get a different kind of anxiety no matter how clear or unclear you are.
I had half and half with Exam.
I always wanted Colin Salmon as The Invigilator and was pretty sure I wanted Jimi Mistry. I had clear ideas of how I wanted a couple of the other characters and how they would act. A couple, like Dark, I was a lot more open.
How was it engaging with actors?
First of all what helped was the espirit de corps on set. Everyone was completely up for it. They were a lot of young actors working on a film for the first or second time. They loved the script, we were filming at Elstree [Studios], and also filming sequentially which isn’t done very often - that's a real treat for actors.
For three days we went off to rehearsal in a room and had fun with the script and got ideas going.
During the weekend I went home and furiously rewrote just to upgrade the script and that continued throughout filming.
You've been working on The Tripods rumoured for 2012 release. Do you enjoy mixing big budget Hollywood and small British indie?
Variety is definitely the spice of life. I do find it quite enjoyable being partly Hollywood and UK, going between widescreen blockbuster ideas and tiny ideas which are much more about character and theme.
I was more used to blockbusters, working on Knowing and Paradise Lost - you can’t get much bigger than that. But to get into a room with eight people and make a film was fantastic.
Will you be sitting in the directors chair again soon?
You definitely have to be careful with the difficult second album.
I’m not someone desperate to get back into directing and take the next thing that comes along; I want the second film to be an improvement.
I have to find a great script and really feel it, contribute to that script and make it better than it is.
As I writer I pass over tens of scripts before I start working on a project - I think I need to adopt the same principles as a director.
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The Orange BAFTA Awards 2010 will be held on February 22.