SHHH

Directed By Ben Slotover

Indie Express: Tell us about your film?

Ben: ‘Shhh’ is a film made without a film or video camera. I had a 3 megapixel digital stills camera from 1997 and a minidisk player with headphones. I also had a friend, Peter Waldeck, who had an afternoon free. Despite the criminal lack of equipment we just went ahead and made a film with what we had. I set the camera on a tripod and took 182 stills of ourselves using the self-timer, then recorded some sound on minidisk using the headphones as microphones. It’s an old DJ trick- plug a pair of headphones into a mic socket and record sound through them. It works.

IE: How did you come up with the idea for the film?

B: Not only did I decide to try and tell the story without any moving pictures, but just for the hell of it I decided not to have any dialogue either. So I had to think of a reason for two people to be in an apartment together without talking, and the idea hit me… maybe they think they’re being bugged. So the film became a story about the search for the bug, and the escalating chaos that follows.

IE: How did you assemble your production team?

B: It was just me, Peter and Paul Elliott who did the Photoshop effects, and we’ve been making films like this for years. It would have been nice to have had a camera operator but with a tripod and self-timer we got by OK.

IE: How did you find your cast? 

B: The film only featured myself and Peter, so I just went round there and we got to work. Actually Paul is in one scene as well, and I took a couple of pictures of him in my house.

IE: How long did the film take?  (From conception to final edit)

B: Shooting was done in a single afternoon. Editing took 6 months! I really wanted to get it right, and there was a phenomenal amount of Photoshop and sound processing to be done. Also I was working on another project at the time called Training Daljinder which was a live action short. (www.mickmovie.com)

IE: Tell us a little about your process of directing (writing) this film.

B: When all you have are still images and sound effects, you’re forced to work twice as hard to make everything count toward telling the story. It’s a challenge that obliges us to think our way round some pretty strange problems, like how do you depict something as kinetic as someone standing on the top deck of a double decker bus grabbing a rope dangling from a helicopter and having the helicopter pull them up into the sky above London… using still images? Luckily Paul Elliott is an artistic genius who labored for hours in Photoshop so we can have scenes like this that cost 100 pounds, not 1 million. 

The interesting thing is, it’s been proved by psychologists who were researching early choppy internet video that if the sound is detailed enough, viewers report that the picture is more coherent as well. Given a richly layered soundscape the human brain will fill the gaps between pictures very easily.

IE: What was the most difficult part of the shoot for you?

B: Holding a pose while waiting for the self-timer to kick in!

IE: Any particular moments from filming that stand out for you?

B: I was lucky enough to have dinner with [Avant Garde electronic music legend] Karlheinz Stockhausen while working on the edit. I described my intention to evaluate the film’s strengths and weaknesses by previewing a rough cut to an audience and he was horrified. The way to do it, he said, was to work on your film day and night, making it better and better, for as long as it takes – years if necessary- then when you are absolutely certain it cannot be made any better, to present it to the world with no apology and no changes. I was skeptical- I mean even Kubrick re-cut 2001 after its first week in the cinemas, but I gave it a go with ‘Shhh’.  And it’s winning awards, so maybe Stockhausen was right. I sent him the DVD of the finished film and he died two weeks later so it’s entirely possible he watched it and keeled over straight afterwards.

IE: Tell us about the film’s festival experience so far?

B: It’s done incredibly well on the international circuit. One side effect of being dialogue-free is that it opened the film up to a load of countries where English isn’t the first language. It’s been shown in Paris, Rome, Warsaw, even India. The biggest coup so far was at the London Short Film Festival, where it won the ‘Best Low Budget Film’ award and got nominated for a couple of others.

IE: What are you most looking forward to at the AFI festival?

B: I’m really looking forward to seeing ‘Angels and Idiots’ – The Bill Plympton film. I’ve loved his stuff ever since they used to show it back in the early days of MTV. The AFI people are amazingly well organized, and have been setting up all these networking events and press junkets. I’ll be in LA for a week during the festival and it would be great to crack Hollywood during that time. A week should do it.

IE: What has been your most interesting Q&A so far?  What was your favorite question?  How was the dialogue afterwards?

B: There was only one other Q&A apart from this one, and I liked it when they asked me about how I made a bunch of films in 3D because I can geek out and talk about that for hours.

IE: What films or filmmakers inspire you?

B: Every project draws on different influences. ‘Shhh’ is inspired by the animation of Terry Gilliam and the shorts of Laurel and Hardy. The plot is half stolen from Coppola’s ‘The Conversation’ and what the hell, throw some Tom and Jerry in there. I think to gauge someone’s influences you need to compile a list of stuff they won’t shut up about if they get started talking. Anyone who has heard my rants about Kubrick will know.

IE: What made you decide to become a filmmaker?

B: It’s hard to say whether I got into making films when I was eight and my parents finally let me use the super-8 camera after weeks of begging, or when I got my first paycheck as a runner for a music video 14 years later. Or maybe when I made and edited a short with proper equipment when I was about 20. In any case, wanting to make films is imprinted in my genes like some sort of brain disorder. However much work needs to be done, often incredibly tedious and uncomfortable work, however miserable the money, it’s all worth it if I can come out of it with a film that’s any good.

 IE: What is next for you? 

B: There’s the ‘Mick’ project – a feature length comedy about minicab drivers which will be shot in regular motion video, not still pictures. And I’m all up for doing a picture-story feature as well. So many people have told me not to even think of attempting a feature length picture-story. They say the format won’t stand a 90 minute run time, but that sounds like a challenge to me…

IE: What is next for the film?

B: I’ll keep sending it to festivals and see what comes of that. I’m waiting to hear back from Clerment-Ferrand and Japan right now. I’d love for the film to be big in Japan, if only to get a free trip out there (I’ve never been due to lack of funds).  ‘Shhh’ is one of 15 ‘Jim and Heinz’  picture stories that Peter and I have made over the last few years, and I think it would be nice to get the ‘Jim and Heinz’ films on a TV slot like Adult Swim.

IE: If asked to give one piece of advice to a new filmmaker making their first short film… What would it be?

B: No one gets it right on their first short film. Make it, show it, work out where you fucked up, and make another. Then repeat. Keep making them… Shane Meadows made over 40 shorts before his first feature. Learn as much as you can about every aspect of filmmaking. Script, lighting, shutter speeds, Actors. Why do you think it took Kubrick years to make each of his features? Because he was involved in every single aspect of them. Satyajit Ray went as far to learn Indian and western musical notation just so he could get the music right for his films. Don’t expect that shit to happen overnight. If you’re serious about getting good at it you’ll have to accept it’s a long haul and not give up.

IE: What are your favorite short films currently on the festival circuit? (Like your short film playlist)

B: Heimarbeit by Fabian Möhrke. It’s a lovely short (fake) documentary about an old couple who make chickens at home. Also the ‘Pic Pic’ series of films by Vincent Patar and Stéphane Aubier which are Belgian animations using little toy figures. Every film in that series should get an award (and many of them have).

For more info, go to www.jimandheinz.com