'To Whom It May Concern'
Interview with Writer/Director Ben Johnson
Published 13/09/17
Interview held by Chris Carmenère
Interview held by Chris Carmenère
So Ben, we're less than a week away from releasing 'To Whom It May Concern', and we have some questions for you.
*Takes a sip of Earl Grey tea* Okay.
Firstly, why did you originally get into filmmaking?
I was sick of bricklaying.
Well, that's understandable! And what inspired you to write this film?
I was working in a bar and had just finished a 14-15 hour shift. I got into a taxi. The taxi driver seemed to have an issue with me, so I decided to just get out and walk. This was about 7am, and I'd been working from around 3pm the previous day, it was horrendous. I just saw this greenish light that had been left on in a car about 200 feet away and I thought 'Jesus, if someone's killing themselves, I'll get in with them.' and that was where the idea came from. I went home and wrote the first draft that day.
What was the biggest challenge when making this film?
Pre-production, definitely. Me and the producer had both had some difficult problems in our life at the time. We would go for production meetings and just get drunk, meaning if we came up with anything productive, we'd forgotten it by the next day, and we just kept pushing things further and further back. I think getting out of that cycle was the hardest thing and going and getting the thing done.
What was it like working with the cast and crew on this?
They're all great lads, it was a pleasure.
Last question. It is said that there are only six stories. Maybe twelve. It’s all been done before. And we have seen it all. What do you do to keep
it fresh? Is there anything that you do to keep it original?
That's bulls**t. People say that all the time. It's Man v Man, Man v Nature, Man v Himself etc... and that goes back to classic, narrative storytelling techniques. You can see a lot of them in most films, but, you know, the way a character is developed, the way a story takes place, don't get me wrong, we've all seen films that are very similar to others, but it's about how you approach it. I don't know what I do to keep it fresh, I mean I don't think I do anything that... *pause* I just kind of.. 'do it'. And if I don't like something, I'll just change it, but, I think... keeping original, being original, writing original is kind of... keeping as close to reality as you can keep it in the context of that film... obviously, even sci-fi films and stuff like that, there is a lot of realism to that context, so I think it's... just about being true to that story... If any of that makes any f***ing sense at all.
*Takes a sip of Earl Grey tea* Okay.
Firstly, why did you originally get into filmmaking?
I was sick of bricklaying.
Well, that's understandable! And what inspired you to write this film?
I was working in a bar and had just finished a 14-15 hour shift. I got into a taxi. The taxi driver seemed to have an issue with me, so I decided to just get out and walk. This was about 7am, and I'd been working from around 3pm the previous day, it was horrendous. I just saw this greenish light that had been left on in a car about 200 feet away and I thought 'Jesus, if someone's killing themselves, I'll get in with them.' and that was where the idea came from. I went home and wrote the first draft that day.
What was the biggest challenge when making this film?
Pre-production, definitely. Me and the producer had both had some difficult problems in our life at the time. We would go for production meetings and just get drunk, meaning if we came up with anything productive, we'd forgotten it by the next day, and we just kept pushing things further and further back. I think getting out of that cycle was the hardest thing and going and getting the thing done.
What was it like working with the cast and crew on this?
They're all great lads, it was a pleasure.
Last question. It is said that there are only six stories. Maybe twelve. It’s all been done before. And we have seen it all. What do you do to keep
it fresh? Is there anything that you do to keep it original?
That's bulls**t. People say that all the time. It's Man v Man, Man v Nature, Man v Himself etc... and that goes back to classic, narrative storytelling techniques. You can see a lot of them in most films, but, you know, the way a character is developed, the way a story takes place, don't get me wrong, we've all seen films that are very similar to others, but it's about how you approach it. I don't know what I do to keep it fresh, I mean I don't think I do anything that... *pause* I just kind of.. 'do it'. And if I don't like something, I'll just change it, but, I think... keeping original, being original, writing original is kind of... keeping as close to reality as you can keep it in the context of that film... obviously, even sci-fi films and stuff like that, there is a lot of realism to that context, so I think it's... just about being true to that story... If any of that makes any f***ing sense at all.