How to make a feature film in 5 day with Tummy Monster director Ciaran Lyons

The Scotsman

Tummy Monster movie  interview with writer and director Ciaran Lyons  When a self-centered tattoo artist discovers his latest client is a world-famous musician, his fixation on getting a selfie with his client embroils the pair into a bizarre and dangerous game.

Transcript

00:00I represent a client in need of an immediate tattoo.

00:03My client is an extremely successful and well-known musician.

00:10Hi, Tails. Nice to meet you. Hey.

00:14My name's Ciaran Lyons. I'm the writer-director of Tommy Monster.

00:17I'm a self-taught filmmaker. I started out making music videos for Glasgow bands.

00:22I've made over 50, including for some of Scotland's biggest acts like

00:26Proclaimers and Belle Sebastian and Arab Strap.

00:30I made a handful of short films as well.

00:33But as a filmmaker, what you really want to do is make feature films.

00:36And it's very hard to make that happen.

00:38So the only way I could do that was do it myself.

00:42Can you get a selfie for your niece?

00:50No.

00:51I knew that if I was going to wait around for funding

00:54and make a film the way people say you've got to make a film,

00:57costing millions, I could be waiting my whole life.

01:01So I thought, I've got to do this with the resources that I can access myself.

01:08So I'm not a very wealthy guy,

01:10but with all my experience making music videos and short films,

01:13I thought, I think there is a way that we can make an entertaining film

01:16on an amount of money that a normal person is able to raise.

01:20And Tommy Monster proves that.

01:23Calm down. Right.

01:24No, look.

01:25It'll take two seconds.

01:26Look, I'll just get up.

01:27Don't even think about it.

01:29Tommy Monster is a very strange film.

01:31It opens with this narcissistic tattoo artist down his luck.

01:35He's living in his tattoo studio.

01:37And he gets a visit, an unexpected visit in the middle of the night

01:41from this touring international pop star.

01:44And he thinks that he's got an opportunity to prove to everyone

01:47that he's not a loser by getting a selfie with this guy.

01:50But it really badly does not go to plan.

01:54It really escalates from there.

01:55And it's, yeah, all sorts of twists and turns and strange things happen.

01:58Am I being unreasonable here?

02:00Let it go, Tails.

02:01Trust me.

02:02One of the things that's unusual about this film is that we shot it in only five days.

02:06And that's essentially what made it affordable to do.

02:10There's a real DIY ethos to the film.

02:13We made it for, you know, with really limited resources.

02:16But from all my experience working on music videos, I knew that I could work fast

02:20and I'm working with a lot of people I've worked with before.

02:22And also it's like the way that we structure the film, it's very, very performance driven.

02:27There's basically this battle between these two very extreme characters

02:31and these two actors who are giving amazing performances.

02:33And they were living together at the same time that we were shooting.

02:36So you're essentially seeing like this, like this intensity of interaction

02:43between these two people and also just like the whole making of the film.

02:48We're just on a sprint the whole time.

02:52And I think this intensity of filmmaking really comes across on screen.

02:56And that's what I wanted to do.

02:57I wanted to make something that feels like a very intense experience.

03:01Taking inspiration from filmmakers like, you know, the Safdie brothers

03:05and, you know, the recent Oscar winner, Sean Baker.

03:07These are people who make films in a very DIY way.

03:12The film's shot in Brigton.

03:14It's an all Scottish crew.

03:17I think it will play really well with the Scottish audience.

03:19And I want people to be able to, yeah, see very relatable and recognisable

03:24Scottish characters on screen.

03:26This feels like, I think, the lead character Tails.

03:29I think he feels like someone we all know, for better or worse.

03:33The film's played at film festivals all over the world.

03:36And it's been great to see that, yeah, it travels.

03:40You know, people from all over the world, they do laugh when they're meant to laugh.

03:44And they cry when they're meant to cry and they wince.

03:47And, yeah, the humour does, it carries, which is great to see.

03:51But you think he's better than you?

03:53He better than you.

03:54That's commitment!

03:56Tommy Monster is a very performance-driven film with a really great cast of actors.

04:02It stars Lorne MacDonald, Orlando Norman, and Michael Akin-Saluri.

04:08And when I approached the actors with the script, part of the offer was that they were going to become co-writers of the film.

04:15So what's the verdict? Are you happy?

04:23Just give me a minute, I'm assimilating.

04:28Part of what gives Tommy Monster, I think, its real, almost like dangerous energy,

04:33is that there was actually quite a lot of spontaneous improvisation was happening during filming.

04:40And we're doing that in five days.

04:41We don't know exactly how every take's going to go.

04:44And the way I described it to Lorne,

04:48it's like we're not looking for perfect, we're looking for real.

04:52The shoot itself was so intense and so stressful doing over this short period of time.

05:13In this very claustrophobic environment,

05:15these two guys constantly vaping and losing their mind in the film.

05:20Yeah, I think we captured something quite real.

05:23Yeah, I just don't think that you're registering how big a deal this is that he's in my shop.

05:28As part of the release of the film,

05:29there's a number of the screenings that are also being supported by filmmaking workshops,

05:33where I'm going into detail about how we managed to shoot a film in five days.

05:38And I want these things to be empowering for aspiring filmmakers

05:43to see how they can make films in similar ways with achievable amounts of money.

05:48So Tummy Monster is playing in independent cinemas all across Scotland and the rest of the UK

05:52throughout May and June,

05:54kicking off with the GFT on the 1st of May.

05:57And you can find your nearest screening at TummyMonster.co.uk.

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