It is clear that the world is so concerned with the issue of Climate Change, as much as it is with the pandemic and other major challenges in the world. Thanks to Al Gore’s AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH and an initiative to look at a more environmentally-minded populace, the melting of the ice caps and other issues that are hindering the development of countries is still paramount.
Stuart Rideout, with help from the likes of Jeremy Irons and Maxine Peake, attempts to remind us all with his new short I WISH FOR YOU, which tells of a letter from a grandfather to his granddaughter about how important the world is to us.
Film And TV Now recently interviewed the director about the film.
FILM AND TV NOW: It goes without saying that this has a very strong and subtle message to the world about our beloved Earth. At what point did Jeremy Irons and Maxine Peake get involved with the project?
STUART RIDEOUT: We had a finished script from Michael Morpurgo and when I read it I knew it was a strong script so we sent it to Jeremy Irons a week or so after the script was finished. He read it and said yes he’d do it then a few weeks later Maxine came on board.
FTVN: You have some big names behind the camera with the likes of writer Michael Morpurgo and composer Rachel Portman. How difficult is it to secure key figures of talent like this for a project like this?
SR: It was surprisingly straightforward – I had the idea that we wanted some kind of “love letter” to the world and wanted it to somehow cross generations – maybe coming from a child.
Someone at the Climate Coalition (the charity we made the film for) suggested Michael and I knew straight away that Michael was brilliant at writing from a young person’s perspective so we asked if he would like to write a story for us.
We then had a brilliant meeting with Michael to discuss various thoughts and ideas and towards the end we started discussing how important the soundtrack would be in creating the right emotional tone for the film and Michael said he could recommend a composer he knew, “who might help us out with the soundtrack” and when I asked her name and he said Rachel Portman I nearly fell on the floor. Her work is just incredible.
FTVN: You have done work for the Climate Change Coalition. Tell us about this organisation and how can people contribute to the cause it represents?
SR: The Climate Coalition is a very big group of charities that vary from Greenpeace to the Women’s institute with 99 others along the way. I think in total there are around one hundred different charities.
Every year on Valentine’s day (Feb 14th) they have a campaign called #SHOWTHELOVE and they organise events with various organisations such as schools, colleges charities etc to raise awareness of climate change (a bit like Children in Need) – they also petition government.
The campaign starts in Feb every year and culminates on the 14th Feb
You can get more information here – https://www.theclimatecoalition.org/
FTVN: Where did you shoot and for how long?
SR: The shoot was broken up into sections. Firstly, we shot for five days in South Wales around the Vale of Glamorgan, The Gower, Swansea, Port Talbot and Margam – this was to capture the back story of Mia as a little girl.
We then shot for a day in Oxfordshire with Jeremy Irons and Emily (the little girl who played Mia) then a further day with Maxine Peake shooting her part of the film. We actually shot that part in my old house in Greenwich. Lastly, we shot a day in a studio filming the more abstract special effects such as the water tank shots, fire, ice etc. So we filmed for a total of eight days.
FTVN: How did you raise finance for the film?
SR: The film finance was raised from the various charities contiributing from their own budgets. Then Ben Porter, my producer at RSA Films, pulled in a lot of favours for equipment and post production.
FTVN: Tell us about the young actress who personifies Maxine Peake’s childhood self in the film.
SR: We had an awful lot of trouble finding someone to play Mia as a child. I knew it would be tricky to get permits to take a little girl out of school to Wales for a week and then onto Oxford for another day. I was also worried about finding the right person who could work under pressure with a small film crew travelling around South Wales in early January.
So I had what I thought was a bit of a crazy idea which was that I could use my daughter Emily who was five at the time (she turned six on the weekend before we shot with Jeremy). She was a little younger than we initially wanted but I thought she might be able to pull it off.
I had a long chat with my wife and then with Emily as I was a little worried that it could be too much pressure for her but she was very keen so we took a bit of a punt. To be honest it was the best decision I made as she was utterly brilliant and I’m incredibly proud of how she handled it and the work she did.
FTVN: Tell us about your working relationship with your cinematographer Dan Holland and what did he bring to the project visually that elevated it to a higher level?
SR: I have known Dan for years since he was a loader with the director Tarsem. When I first started directing he loaded and pulled focus on a fair few jobs and we became close friends. Dan always talked about moving up to being a cinematographer and started doing some really beautiful work. We have shot quite a few commercials together and when I asked if he’d like to shoot “I Wish for You” he said ‘yes’ without any hesitation.
Working with Dan is really not like working at all as we have a very symbiotic relationship and I trust him implicitly. As we were shooting lots of landscapes and people’s faces Dan suggested shooting in a 2.39 aspect ratio using beautiful old Cooke Anamorphic lenses from Panavision.
These lenses bring a beautiful look and feel to the image that lends the image a very rich organic quality. Dan is also very open to my ideas and when I suggest something a little out of the ordinary he is always game to try it out.
FTVN: Tell us about the rest of your production team.
SR: The whole production was set up by my producer Ben Porter – we work through Ridley Scott Associates. I have worked with Ben for many years and watched him come up through the ranks of production to being the brilliant producer he is today.
It was a joy to work with Ruth Crawford, the excellent production designer who brought a lot of visual flair to the film, in fact her father hand-wrote the actual letter that we use in the film, which I still have.
The film was edited by my good friend and editor Claire at Final Cut and we took about a week to cut it. It can sometimes be tricky to weave between backstory and present day and Claire worked that line really beautifully. She did such a brilliant job and brought such a strong emotive quality to the film.
The post production was undertaken by the fantastic people at The Mill – the colour grade is one of my favourite parts of the film making process. You can sort of relax as you know you have a working edit and I love the feeling of pulling the various aspects of the images around so they get richer – it feels a little like painting,
I also love working with the extremely talented Dave Ludlam who is again a very old friend and when working together it never feels like work.
FTVN: Are there plans to show the film to schools and colleges alongside the festival circuit?
SR: The film has been released online through The Climate Coalition and has been shown at a few events and some schools.
FTVN: When you reflect on the impact of environmental-based films like this and others like Al Gore’s AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, coupled with Leonard DiCaprio’s efforts to highlight the problems, how far do you feel we have come along in terms of making progress overall?
SR: Al Gore’s film was a real eye-opener for me, it made me sit up and really think about what is happening to our planet.
The one thing I have learnt from working on “I Wish for You” is that people care very much about the environment and the natural world but if you want to truly engage with a vast audience you can’t preach. I think one of the main game changers in environmental communication was David Attenborough’s “Blue Planet” and the episode on plastic.
This was one of the most powerful pieces of communication I have ever seen and it came from a voice we all know and love and who cares deeply about our environment. It seemed that people’s attitudes changed overnight. Brands started to change the way in which they used plastic.
This to me was a catalyst or springboard that brought the far bigger issue of climate change to the fore front of the national and international psyche.
I also think it’s great that the younger generation are galvanised into being very aware of the challenges facing us and our planet.
FTVN: You have a lot of brands at the very end of the film. What is their reaction to the film?
SR: They were all over the moon with the film – lots of people felt very emotional about it and what it communicates.
FTVN: How has COVID-19 affected your evolution as a film-maker?
SR: This is a tricky one, I think the one thing that the COVID-19 situation has taught me is that we need human contact to operate creatively, although saying that I have quite enjoyed the simplicity of life and just taking my dog out for her daily walk has been a real joy.
Whilst being locked down I have been making an experimental virtual reality film about local nature and the changing seasons. It has re-informed my love and respect for nature and the natural world around me.
FTVN: Finally, what are you most proud of about I WISH FOR YOU?
SR: Again this is a little tricky, as a director you are always looking at your work with a pretty critical eye, wondering if you could have done things better.
I absolutely loved making it and it felt like we went on a real adventure.
I’m pleased with the emotional range of the film and the way it seems to really engage with an audience and distils a subjects so dark and monolithic as climate change into a very human story. Ultimately I just hope it connects with people and makes them realise what is at stake.
