Renderyard Interview Neil Mcenery West director of Undertow
By Estefania Merino – Renderyard Coordinator

Renderyard finds out more about Neil Mcenery West director of Undertow. In only a few words, what would you say your short film ‘Undertow’ is about?

“It’s an exploration of loss looking at both the conscious and the unconscious
processes involved”.

Undertow is a film that communicates in a clever way through images of ‘memory’ and by the use of ‘location’ – As a director what makes you choose those ways of communicating?

“Memory is a powerful dramatic tool; it links directly to a person’s notion of identity and their experiences of loss and regret. As a director it allows me a great deal of structural freedom. Although Undertow’s plot is not completely linear, the emotional journeys of the characters are. Much of this is done through linking key moments within a character’s life with present experiences, a sort of psychological through line.”

“I wanted to use the locations and their visual representation within the film to create an environment that echoed the emotional journey of the characters. Although the woman’s environment is designed to reflect her sense of isolation and detachment, the two men inhabit a world that is far more symbolic and alive, it’s practically an extension of their own psyche.”

‘Sound’ and ‘editing’ play an important part in creating the style for Undertow, are these techniques the ones you normally work with? Can you tell us a bit more about them?

“Sound is hugely underused by filmmakers and I find it strange as it’s 50% of the experience, but directors tend to focus on the visual construction of a film. With Undertow I wanted the sound design to complement the visuals in creating a representation of the characters’ psychological and emotional states. There’s a lot of recurring motifs such as water and air, each one has significance. A lot of the clues to the meaning of the film lie in the sound.”

“The editing was difficult to get right. The pace of the film is quite slow and the structure is somewhat fragmented. We move in and out scenes occurring in two realities, memories, and potential moments of fantasy. It’s more European in pace and style but probably a little slower than I would usually opt for but it’s appropriate for the story.”

As an independent film maker, where do you gain your inspiration for your ideas and visuals? Do you have any favorite filmmakers, painters or artists from whom you draw your inspiration?

“I tend to get ideas from all over the place and not one specific medium. It usually starts with a single idea or sometimes a visual image that I get hooked on. Edward Hopper is a big influence; I connect with a lot of the isolation and loneliness in his paintings, which I think are beautiful. Also he has an incredible ability to communicate emotions and stories through his visual construction, especially the relationships of the characters in his paintings, which are palpable.”

“In terms of other filmmakers that influence me it’s directors such as David Lynch who has this very free-flowing experimental approach to the visual and sound design which I think is extremely brave. Stanley Kubrick is another visual inspiration and I admire him because he was a perfectionist. When you’re filming it’s very easy to settle for a take that you’re only 60 or 70% satisfied with but it will always come back to haunt you. It’s better to go through absolute hell on location than in the edit suite.”

Did Undertow had any funding support? And as a director how did you manage to put the project together?

“I knew it would take a long time to produce and that getting funding would be very hard given the type of film it is, so to simplify matters and retain as much control as possible I just decided to produce it myself. It was expensive and stressful but ultimately satisfying to be able to make it the way I wanted to.”

Could you tell us a bit about Undertow´s crew?

“I’d used a variety of avenues to assemble the cast and crew but a couple of them I’d worked with before which helped. I co-wrote the film with Antony Woodruffe - a very skilled writer who I’ve collaborated with on previous projects. The actors each had particular strengths and came from a variety of backgrounds. Matt successfully auditioned for the lead whereas I already had Paul and Clea in mind for the other two roles. Doug has a great deal of experience with interesting and expressive sound design, which appealed to me instantly, and Ruth was my primary choice for composer as her music was the most understated and emotionally appropriate.”

‘Undertow’ is an interesting title, is there are any special meaning for having to chose that title?

“The title went through several different versions but Undertow seemed to sum up best what the film represented. It’s a reference to the unconscious emotional process that takes place throughout an experience of loss. It’s a reference to the underlying hidden meaning behind some words and actions that drift just beneath the surface. It’s also a reference to the water theme in the film. The story repeatedly references a violent/tragic event connected with water that is never fully revealed. There’s a danger and an allusion to death within the title as a result.”

We enjoyed watching Undertow very much, are you having any other projects in mind regarding film making in a short or long term?

“I’am currently working with Antony Woodruffe who co-wrote Undertow, on a feature film script entitled ‘Dipping’. The story centers on a gang of thieves who work within the London Underground. It’s a little less experimental than Undertow and is faster paced but explores similar themes. We’re aiming to have a decent draft ready by the time we take Undertow to the New York International Film Festival In February.”

Has it helped you as a filmmaker or your film Undertow in any way to enter in our film festival?

“Renderyard was the first festival that Undertow was accepted into which makes it very special. It’s is also designed as a festival to help give filmmakers a proper platform from which to promote their work, which is vital.

As a Member of the Renderyard Film Festival how do you find the festival in its importance to independent filmmakers?

“I think as a festival Renderyard is extremely important. It’s one of the few festivals that specializes in experimental filmmaking, which is crucial at an independent level. Whatever direction you take professionally as a filmmaker it’s when you’re working independently that you have the greatest scope to experiment, this should be encouraged so that people aren't’t afraid to try whatever feels right. A lot of independent films are made in people’s bedrooms, back garden or garage. That’s fine if it fits what you want to do but don’t be constricted by your budget. There are always creative solutions.”

Greg Loftin Director of ‘Saxon’ and of Sillwood Films Ltd, reviews ‘Undertow’ as a remarkable film:
‘Saxon’ has been nominated for the Michael Powell Award for Best New British Feature Film and is distributed in the UK through Peccadillo Pictures.

‘I was fortunate enough to catch Undertow at the Portobello Film Festival;
this is a very assured and visually stunning piece of work by director Neil
Mcenery-West. Undertow is set in a disturbingly vivid post-apocalyptic
London, an emptied-out city where our wounded protagonist wanders alone like a man struggling to surface from a nightmare. This is a film with
big-screen vision - arresting cinematography, intense performances, and
inventive sound design. Undertow will undoubtedly be a big hit on the
festival circuit.’ Greg Loftin watch Undertow clip

Renderyard Visual Sponsor Double Trouble Production
The festival is always open to new collaborations that allow us to work closely with new creative partners and events. Renderyard is currently working with Double Trouble as their sponsor to produce new visuals for a series of music events held each month during 2008 that promote up coming live music and dance sets through a series of concerts taking place in Brixton, South London at DEX. To find out more please click here

Autumn Screenings Review
After a month of screenings in London from the 1st - 31st of October Renderyard Film Festival announces the end of its 3rd shorts festival and is now accepting films for our new Feature Film and Documentary Festival starting in spring 2008. This new festival includes the categories Feature Film, Documentary, Machinania, Film Scores and Scripts.

During October the festival has been hosting a great selection of work in the categories of Short Film, Animation, Film Music and Experimental Film. The participation has been varied including well known international universities, independent and professional film makers which showed an excellent quality of professional and experimental work. There has been a very positive response internationally and we have received new vibrant work from film makers and artists from America, Canada, Australia, India, Germany, Thailand, China, Spain (Galicia), England and Scotland to mention a few.

The Festival opened its doors at The Roxy where it premiere the work of the twenty selected film makers for this years festival, which included the winners for the Best Film ‘Herzog and the Monsters’ directed by Lesley Barnes, the Best Film Music ‘The Reign of Fanes’ written by Susy Rottonara and the Best Screenplay ‘Tsunami’ written by Stuart Creque. This year there has seen particularly exceptional work in the category of animation, with the debut of Lesley Barnes ‘Herzog and the Monsters’ the winner of the Renderyard Film Festival 2007 an intelligent and sensitive film about the act of reading and the power it has over your imagination. These areas are tackled with endless visual imagination creating its own ‘letter-based-world’. To watch the film click here

‘Fission’ represented the high standard of graphical animation combined with character performance, two main characters that seem to belong to two different worlds stand by each other while fluent graphics of movement and color move the characters from one state to the next until its final resolution where we see the main character trapped on the wall going through his own suffering, while the other character laughs at him from an underground corridor. A piece to think about while you enjoy its beautiful graphics. The hint of comedy came along from a young director George Flannery with a classic style of animation in which two colorful characters fight against each other using their big ‘Moustachious’, from the title of this clever animation. We would like to see more work from this young director, ‘well done Flannery’. The closure of the festival comes with ‘Day in the City’ a smooth short film whose main character, the British champion of skateboarding, takes us skating through the city of London till dusk. This great piece has been well directed by Grain Media an extreme sports production company base in Havelock studios South London. You can find out more about them click here

A very important announcement goes to the great collaboration that the following London Screening Rooms have had with our festival. The Soho Screening Rooms team and with special thanks to Derry, Phil from The Roxy, Helen from The Escape Gallery and Josepth Bar 127 for this years fantastic locations that have offered the festival intimate surroundings where film goers and guests got to watch the films and interact to each other. Renderyard was also pleased to receive as our guests to Joe Bateman from Rushes Soho Shorts and Laura Macdonald from FILMAKA, and Mary Davis from Withoutabox. Finally, the festival this year had collaborated with Withoutabox, Si-Mi and Rushes, which have added color and experience to the festival and enabled us to reach the largest audience in our third festival year.

Renderyard’s New Festival 2008 Feature Film & Documentary
For the last three years the Renderyard Film Festival has been receiving submissions for experimental short films, animations, scripts and film music and for the 2008 screenings the festival is opening its doors to three new categories Feature Film and Documentary and Machinamia. The submission has already started and the deadline is the 15th of February so for all those people who are working on these three new categories and have a theme with a particular angle or an interesting piece of work this is your chance to share it with our audience and access our cash price and the opportunity to get support to produce your next film. This year the countries that have been involved in sending us feature films and documentaries are UK, USA, Australia, Canada, Germany, India, Spain, Israel and China. We are hoping to attract film makers from other countries too, especially from Spain where our festival will be setting up for our 2008 screenings.

Festival Poster Competition Feature Film & Documentary Festival 2008
Renderyard is launching a design competition to produce an exciting new poster for next year’s Feature Film and Documentary festival. The poster is an opportunity for young designers to combine the love of film, graphic design and illustration to produce next year’s poster that will be used as the main design for all visual promotion of the festival throughout the year including the Renderyard web site. The deadline for us to receive your designs is the 10th of February. For more information on the competition please click here

Renderyard Film Competition 1 Minute Challenge

We are very pleased to announce a new film challenge on the Renderyard’s web site each month we will be showing the best 1 minute film submitted to us which will stay on its own page. At the end of the year the 12 selected films will be judged by a panel of film experts selected from around the world to choose the winning film which Renderyard will work with to produce there next short film and host it on our web site. The categories for submitting your films are Film Animation Documentary Machinimia Experimental Title Sequence Film Clip Ident Advert. To find out more please click here

Renderyard Visual Sponsor Double Trouble Production
The festival is always open to new collaborations that allow us to work closely with new creative partners and events. Renderyard is currently working with Double Trouble as their sponsor to produce new visuals for a series of music events held each month starting in Oct 07 that promote up coming live music and dance sets through a series of concerts taking place in Brixton, South London at DEX.

Renderyard Film Festival London and Spain
“A cultural platform for young film makers” The Festival is looking for alternative ways of promoting film making and has already started serious talks with a cultural youth organization‘La Gota de Leche’ - The Drop of Milk – to act as a creative platform for young film makers in La Rioja, North of Spain. The project that Renderyard proposes is to bring the festival closer to a younger audience, coordinate networking and film making discussion events, organise screening sessions and promote design competitions related to the visuals of the festival.

Funding & Sponsorship Calling all Company's
The Renderyard Film Festival will be in its fourth year in 2008 and is about to launch the new Feature Film and Documentary festival. We would like to hear from any organisations and companies that feel they would like to support the festival through the use of advertising with us either within the festival or on our web site, or as a direct sponsor. The festival is seen by a global audience and attracts people to its film screenings and festival events from across the country and abroad.

In Pre Production Tsunami
Renderyard is looking to produce the Winning script Tsunami and we are looking for Story Board Artists, Digital Artists, Graphic Designers, Illustrators, Animators both Hand Rendered and CGI, Film Score Composers, Lighting and Texture Artists and Voice Over Actors. We hope to begin production next year on a short animation about a boy that is given the responsibility to save his town from destruction from a giant wave. The film is visually based in Japan and will capture the mood and times of an ancient fishing village and harbor.
For more information please click here

home