The story of a young woman investigating her sister’s murder, LOST ANGEL releases on digital platforms March 15 from Left Films. The film marks the feature directorial debut of Brighton-based filmmaker Simon Drake.
How did you break into the business, sir?
I’d always wanted to make films since my teens, but spent my 20s travelling and going to university to study photography instead. After that, I started trying to get into films as I realised that was still what I was interested in. I started getting as much experience on sets, no budget films, local music videos etc, and getting to know people in the indie film world too. That helped me get some jobs on bigger projects for the BBC and larger feature films. It was a good learning curve, however as I had smaller roles on those projects and wanted more involvement/ownership, I helped a friend who was making a local film (Infected: Darkest Day, also distributed by Left Films) which I produced and co-directed. As we were finishing that we had some momentum going and I felt I had a few more skills to now tackle Lost Angel.
Did you have encouraging folks?
We didn’t have much money growing up, so my parents we’re around too much as they were trying to just get by. I paid for my first video camera at 14 by working lots of Saturday shifts at my weekend jobs and self funded my college films. Same with saving for uni and travelling. Being very budget conscious throughout my life did help with Lost Angel, as I was also funding it myself and therefore was very respectful of people’s time and where to distribute money and where to scrimp and save.
You’re based in the UK, I believe?
Yes, the city of Brighton (East Sussex) in the south of England.
What does the country lend to the film in your opinion?
I didn’t want to shy away from it being UK based, and still use the drama/thriller aspects more in keeping with the location (for example, the police or anyone not using guns). I did however create a fictional island (Newpoint) for the film, so I could use a variety of different backdrops and locales, without it being related or identified as a specific place.
Would it have been a much different film shot elsewhere?
I don’t think I would have changed too much of the characters or plot, but would have probably approached the visual style differently. For example, in the UK there are often more narrow roads and there is a certain light quality which would possibly give a different feel if shot elsewhere.
And the cast are all locals? Folks you’ve worked with before?
The cast were all local to Brighton/East Sussex area, however I had not worked with them previously. That was a good experience for me to build up the relationship and dialogue with them from the ground up, plus it gave the film a different feel from any projects I had done before, with a new canvas of actors.I really got a lot from their contributions too, and was impressed how quickly they were able to throw themselves into the project.
Were there any influences on your script that you’d like to discuss? The tone, I feel, is a little reminiscent of The Lovely Bones – particularly the riveting book of the latter.
Excellent observation. I had read Alice Sebold’s book (and seen the Peter Jackson adaptation) whilst developing the project. A mystery with an understated tone mixed with a fantastical element was something I tried to get the correct balance for. Other influences were The Silence of the Lambs, Winter’s Bone and The Girl with the Dragon tattoo, as well as the linear structure of other detective or noir films. I did not want to have flashbacks or a non-linear structure. There were some visual influences based on some unlikely films too, Jaws (for the small island elements) and the first Rocky film (for a lot of the street level walking and talking scenes/wide shots. I wanted the Lisa character to be a protagonist anchor for the audience, to keep on a grounded level to lead them into the more fantastic parts of the story.
Any moments you wanted to shoot but couldn’t pull off?
We were often so tight for time, some locations or dramatic pieces had to be compromised or were rushed/minimised. However, I created what I called ‘the 49/51% compromise’ rule which meant I’d always aim for 100%, knowing I’d have to compromise, but as long as it was over my 50% acceptance range, I’d let it pass. If I felt it was under that amount, I’d find a way to dig my heels in or rethink it to get it right.
As an example, there was a scene that was completely reshot months later, as I had hadn’t pulled off effectively first time round. It was early in the shoot and I had approached the scene incorrectly. It was an important scene for which I had chosen the wrong location and had not allowed enough time for the scene so I had handled it all wrong. There are times when there isn’t an option for re-doing things yet that was a time when I knew it was way under my 50% benchmark, and I could not compromise as it would have negatively affected the film. Luckily Sascha and others on the crew agreed that the original version had not worked and we were able to reshoot it with a different approach later down the line.
What do you hope US audiences get out of the film?
Hopefully they will be entertained as it’s a 90 minute slow burn mystery with an emotional unpinning and a protagonist getting drawn further into a dangerous off beat investigation.