Watching the delightful genre-bending short film ‘Skewered’ by Nick Ray Rutter, I had one of those rare joyous moments – always in a busy cafe or the library – when you find yourself maniacally laughing out loud with your headphones on as I feel into the absurd bliss. This captivating short has been brought to life from a real life misadventure suffered by Nick’s brother, who contributed to the writing, and is deliciously shrouded with shame, guilt, satire. Nick, founder of Lamplight Stories, drew upon his propensity for comedic writing to bring the script to life with some fabulous embellishments, including a final musical number performed by the perfectly-cast Hanako Footman & Graham Dickson, our couple struggling to come to terms with a recent filthy revelation. Nick is an award-winning filmmaker whose passion and love for the form shines through ‘Skewered’ at every turn, including the perfectly-executed production design which immerses us in the story, and the commendable team he collated to bring this truly absurd story to the world.
With the creation of ‘Skewered’ I was aiming to walk the line between horror, comedy and musical, but also have a pathetic hero broken crying over nothing very much.
This hilarious caper stems from a real life event. Please delight us with the actual story behind your off-kilter short?
It’s actually a true story. It happened to my brother. And he worked on the script making sure I made no deviations, It’s exactly as it happened, believe me or not, it is. What you need to know is we were brought up vegetarians from birth and meat shaming is something my brother has done to me since I started eating meet in my 20’s. He once told me, it was like eating my dog. So let’s say this film is me setting things straight between us. Also, just imagining him guiltily cry eating a kebab puts a smile on my face every time.
My brother’s secret guilty pleasure was a great story to dine out on and I must have told everyone I could at the time then a good friend suggested I should make a short series of films on guilty pleasures. I started developing upon this idea but continued telling the anecdote of him not being able to eat meat in front of people. The idea of meat shame became a running joke, a ‘love-hate’ relationship. Of course, I had to wait until the dust had settled to tell my brother I wanted to make a short story about that fateful night and eventually, ten years later, he managed to see the funny side. We ended up working together on writing the script and the lyrics to the final song – he was very precise about the details as it was his story. We also brought in our mutual friend and collaborator Ben Richardson to help bring some perspective. I really enjoyed the process working together and I think it’s been cathartic for my brother, who is now a vegan (at least in public).
I’ve also always really liked flawed and pathetic, paradoxical protagonists. Characters that disarm that tough man hero thing such as those in the Robert Altman movie ‘McCabe and Mrs Miller’, ‘Let The Right One In’ by Tomas Alfredson or ‘Thumb Sucker’ by Mike Mills. I like how these films take a new perspective on a genre film and heroes. With the creation of ‘Skewered’ I was aiming to walk the line between horror, comedy and musical, but also have a pathetic hero broken and crying over nothing very much.
The comedy is so on point, with little gems, like the delivery driver knowing his name. How did you develop the whole film from that wonderful nugget of familial inspiration?
Lots of the detail came through writing and collaboratively working with my brother and Ben. They both added lots of rich ideas, some that stayed and some that should’ve have made it but didn’t and some that we’ll keep for the next one. There was another layer of detail and complexity built through the production and the performances and even the edit brought lots of new nuances to the ideas. Ultimately, I feel like we lost more than we gained from idea to finished edit and I think if I’m being honest, I disappoint myself for not going further with the idea and running with newer ideas that are better. I must learn to adapt and let go of the original idea if a better one arises, I do this to a degree yet need to push the more exciting and anarchic ideas, trust the madness isn’t mad and shoot some more experimental expansions of the scene. Let’s just say time and money would help yet perhaps that’s just an excuse!
I love the blending of genres and the moments where it feels like a horror film, but then becomes a dark-comedy all within a murder mystery. How did you tread those lines so well?
I’m really flattered you felt I managed to cram all that into the short. I love satire and I love dramatic and polished comedy, and I wanted to take the viewer on a journey through this melodramatic story that on one hand is totally mundane and pathetic and on the other passionately political, and explore the inner workings of between their broken relationship. I also wanted to start with his story and end with her story and jump prospective through the film. On another note, it all just made me laugh. I made this to have some fun and really did, the idea still makes me laugh, more than the film. I’d really hoped to have more time filming Magnus eating the Kebab and Fleur doing her meditations then create this edit between them where they were making love through the wall – but that is an idea for another time.
Everything has a wonderfully timeless, vintage feel to it. Why was this a stylistic choice?
I had a mood board with a neon, green and pink tones. It was important to me we’d be in a basement flat in a side street just off a main city road. In my head the film was actually set in Brighton, yet I changed it to Croydon as it was more plausible that she’d been into central London to see a show. I had a strong idea of the damp, cocoon styled flat that was very lived-in, showing us they have been there long term. I also enjoyed the visual part of the styling so most of the furniture is mine or stuff I sourced. The set needs to look good under lighting so that it looks good on the camera and that inspires everyone when they see it. Thinking about the colour, texture and light was an early part of the process for me.
When it came to securing a location I really wanted to find a space that would transcend into the theatrical. My original idea was to create a set that felt completely real but as the song broke we’d track out and reveal it’s a set on a stage. However, the studio route was just unaffordable and too inflexible so we ended up compromising with an old decommissioned army air base building and hiring it for next to nothing for a whole month. This gave us time to build, shoot and de-rig without crazy time restraints. The next hurdle was the production design & art department team. The location wasn’t exactly easy to get to being in the deep depths of north west Norfolk and it was providing a challenge until Norfolk Screen put us in touch with the amazing Gareth Middleton whose energy and ‘can do’ attitude took the set build into a real possibility. We drew out the set outline in masking tape and just started with the talented construction coordinator Alex Richardson. I was hugely involved in this part as it was closer to my home in Norwich than the producers, who were in London. Between casting and crewing up we slowly built the set, taking regular trips to the salvage yard and timber merchants, Facebook marketplace, free cycle and eBay.
Your casting is so perfect – the sassy, almost abhorrent girlfriend and our awkward, hapless failed vegetarian full of shame. Tell us about how you came to work with Hanako Footman & Graham Dickson?
The wonderful casting Director Chandra Ruegg helped us hone in on Hanako, who had the most incredible singing voice which I didn’t know before I cast her. I was so lucky there, and Graham was suggested by a good filmmaker friend who knew his improvisational stage work and when I watched his short film ‘DFL’ it made me cry with laughter and I was sold. What I hadn’t realised was he had never actually eaten a Donner Kebab before filming!
I love the sound design, especially the kebab-eating. Why was music and sound so integral to the film including our final song!
Sound design was considered early on and we discussed what sound we’d have for the intense Kebab stare and at first we tried heartbeats, but found the low guttural sounds were much more haunting and effective. Funnily the final song was always the final song, it was something that just felt right from the start and always worked for me. Music can change a scene or meaning to a scene and I wanted to explore how musicals can sometimes surprise us and show a hidden, deeper emotional side to a scene. I’m a massive fan of music in theatre like ‘Girl From The North Country’ and I wanted to see if I could make this story become somehow epic and also be genuinely sad. I really wanted to make the comedy serious for a moment. I’m not saying I achieved that, but it was the reason I did it.
Let’s talk about the bit we’ve all been waiting for – the song!
The song and what it would sound like was really important to create early on. Everyone wanted to hear it before to be able to imagine the tone it would set. The brilliant Chris Richardson, co-writer and producer Ben’s dad, took our ideas and created a tune and melody. I’d sent him some musical tunes for reference and he just ran with the idea and came back with some absolutely brilliant stuff. It was pretty perfect from there and we only had a few back and forth before taking it into Melt Studios in Sweden who arranged and created a demo. The day before the shoot we recorded the actors singing so by the Friday when we filmed the scene we could playback the demo and they could lip sync along to themselves. Quite a process to work out but entirely worth it in the end.
I love the open ending. Not to give anything too much away, but where do you want your audience to go?
I wanted the audience to see that that door opening would be the end. The end of the relationship, the beginning of something new. I’d toyed with actually having a friend of Magnus’ standing with a four pack and an Xbox and that just pushes Fleur over the edge, yet actually my explanation to the crew, editor and people involved was that Fleur’s lover was at the door. That she was cheating.
What do you hope for your film?
I was really pleased with how the film was received by the cast and crew. I did three screenings and felt people genuinely enjoyed the film and the cast and crew felt proud of their efforts. I hope the film works for everyone, opening doors and building relationships for future collaborations. If a door opens that’s great, if the film is watched and enjoyed that’s really great. All screenings are good screenings and I hope it gets into some festivals and has some exposure. We’ve been officially selected into five festivals so far, including Kerry International Film Festival, Coronado Island, Aesthetica, FilmQuest & Norwich. Fingers cross for more.
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