Shedding light on a dark comedy (From Swindon Advertiser)

Shedding light on a dark comedy

12:40pm Friday 27th November 2009

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OUT in Ramsbury and various other bits of Wiltshire, a group of film-makers have been making a black comedy in the tradition of the old Ealing classics.

If all goes well, their efforts will be ready for screening by early next year and then be shown at a film festival or three before coming to a DVD player or TV screen near you. If all goes very well indeed, there may even be a limited theatrical release.

The Drummond Will, an independent film, is the story of two brothers, one described by 29-year-old producer Tobias Tobbell as a corporate sellout and other as a charismatic optimist.

The brothers – Marcus and Danny – are city dwellers, but come back to their childhood home in the countryside after their father dies.

Tobias, who has written and directed several other quirky and well-reviewed low-budget films, said: “The brothers come back for their dad’s funeral, and in his house they find an old man hiding in a cupboard with a bag of money.

“They assume the money is their father’s and they take it and bury it – but without releasing the old man.”

When they get back to the house and the cupboard, they discover that the old man died while they were deciding what to do with the loot.

I’ve been asked not to give away too much of the plot, but let’s just say murder and mayhem – that ever popular alliterative tag team of cinema – feature prominently.

The film is being made under the auspices of a studio called Knee Jerk, which has previously been associated with some short films and music videos.

It was one of the first studios in the country to use the Red One digital camera, which is capable of delivering easily-edited cinema quality images without the horrifying expense of 35mm.

On the day I visited the set, the location was a ramshackle old house in Ramsbury, scene of a grimly humorous sequence involving a shotgun.

I did mention this being a dark comedy, didn’t I? When we think of the Ealing comedies to which The Drummond Will owes much of its inspiration, we tend to remember the likes of whimsical pieces such as Passport to Pimlico.

We forget films such as Kind Hearts and Coronets and The Ladykillers – or at least, we forget that they were about, respectively, a serial killer bumping off his own family and a gang of robbers who end up bumping off each other.

“They were dark and they were thrillers,” Tobias said, “but they were told in a fairly light-hearted way.”

To add to the atmosphere, the film is in black and white and shot through vintage lenses.

Tobias and the rest of the team behind The Drummond Will are dedicated to their craft and very talented.

This is obvious for two reasons.

Firstly, if you’re planning on putting together a decent piece of cinema with a budget of just 40 grand, you need the sort of dedication the late Roy Castle was always on about in the closing credits of Record Breakers.

Secondly, dedication also comes in handy if have to spend five weeks haring around various rainy, chilly locations and waiting for ideal light conditions and whatnot.

Oh, and you can tell they’re talented because they’ll actually take time out to talk to journalists instead of coming across as all showbizzy.

So what led Essex-born Tobias, who studied classical history at Reading University, into film?

“My parents tell me I wanted to be a film director from the age of six. I did lots of writing and watched lots of films.”

At university he became involved in writing and directing theatre with the drama society and moved on to film.

He is a great advocate of the Red One camera system, believing it will be a major force in encouraging and enabling new film-makers.

And his advice for those budding film-makers?

“You just get your camera out and shoot anything,” he said.

“You can learn by making films rather than going to film school.”

l The Swindon area is no stranger to film crews.

Swindon itself, or at least small parts of it, has famously appeared in two James Bond films.

In 1984 the futuristic Renault distribution depot in West Swindon doubled as a secret underground base in A View To A Kill, which was Roger Moore’s swansong as 007.

In 1999, Bond was back in town. This time the film was The World Is Not Enough, Bond was Pierce Brosnan and the Motorola building at Groundwell was a Turkish oil refinery.

More recently, Lacock Abbey was the scene of sequences shot for Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

Lacock itself was also seen in Cranford, the period drama starring Dame Judi Dench, and in big screen offering The Other Boleyn Girl.

Keen-eyed fans of Inspector Frost, meanwhile, have noted that although the series is set in the fictional town of Denton, the early episodes feature maps of Swindon in briefing rooms.

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