Everyone starts somewhere. Every great director had to first take the plunge and make their very first film, a daunting task indeed. As part of his media course at Bath college, 19 year old Ryan Hillier has just taken that very important first step, getting him on the directing ladder. I was fortunate enough to attend the preview for his new film "Nothing but Green". Even though I saw it through it's production, it was great to see it finally come together.
The first thing I asked was what challenges did he face as a first time director. He made the interesting point that outside influence was the biggest dampener on the films quality. He felt time pressures from executives overall stunted creativity. He highlighted several parts of the film which, when left up to their own devices and with as much time as they needed, looked and felt exactly like he wanted them too.
The next point I raised with him was how the film had been changed overall since it was first in visioned:
"... it's completely different from the original... It was a comedy that we changed and eventually wittelled away due to a lack of support from the college staff. They didn't believe comedy was something someone at my level should be stepping into..."
Again, highlighting the pressures from the higher ups, Ryan went on to say how he does agree with not jumping into doing something as challenging as comedy, which is extremely hard to pull of well, but also made the point that "You have to try things in order to know if your good at them".
However, some things did carry over from the original draft:
"... it's not much different... we have the same base characters, same 4 characters, same plot to do with greed..."
I next asked if he had any surprises from his first time directing. Ryan made clear that he had done his homework, talking to directors with some experience in order too grasp what he was getting himself in for.
An interesting point Ryan raised was this:
"There were alot of times where I felt things were made deliberately difficult for the sake of pleasing others and I don't think that's what it's all about. It shouldn't be about meeting other peoples standards... I should be about making what makes you, happy... you see it on screen and go I'm proud of that. You shouldn't do it to get a following you should do it too attract like minded people, it shouldn't necessarily about the money, which is the result of what you do, it should always be about making something that you want for people you feel should see it".
Listen to the interview in full here and learn more about Ryan and his new film, Nothing but Green.
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