New Directors Felix & Ben on Puppets & Making Winston & Daisy

How did you both get into directing and at what point did you decide to team up?

We’ve known each other since we were five years old! We grew up in Wimbledon and spent our childhoods shooting skate videos together. We only had a home video camera so used to film PowerPoint presentations on my dad’s laptop screen to make title sequences and sellotape headphones to the mic to add music. We had to be really creative. It made us both fall in love with making films. Last year we thought – since we’d both worked in the industry for a while – it would be fun to start making films together again. 

How did you come up with the concept for Winston & Daisy (above)?

We went through all the Homespun clips over and over. We ended up writing an idea for most of them. There was just something about this clip in particular [driving along a dark road] that sparked the most interesting thought and once we had that, the whole story just sort of slotted into place.

Tell us about the production process?

We shot it in the middle of nowhere at a petrol station in Surrey over two long nights. I’d like to say it all went to plan but it was incredibly tight due to short summer nights. All credit to Blonde Films who helped us get it all done in time.

What was it like working with puppets?

It was hard. As they were the main characters we were desperate for them to have loads of character. We ended up using existing soft toys and adding in our own mechanical parts. Then we practised with the puppeteers as much as possible to make sure the movements felt convincing enough.

And what qualities were you looking for in your lead (human) actors?

We wanted them to be very natural so tried to cast actors that mirrored their characters as much as possible. Nathan [Whitfield] and Marie [Williamson], our two leads, were very skilled at improvisation and those skills really came into play when we faced limitations with the puppets and what we physically had time to do.

How difficult was it to nail humour in the film?

It was completely clear in our heads but getting what we wanted on the day was difficult. It was hard to predict how the puppets’ movements would look when we had five people operating them. We tried to shoot as many random movements as possible with the puppets and extra improvised bits with the actors so we could play around in the edit and write some new lines in, which worked really well. 

“We tried to shoot as many random movements as possible with the puppets and extra improvised bits with the actors so we could play around in the edit.”

What have you learnt so far as a directing duo?

We are starting to realise the type of things we want to make and what comes naturally to us. We’re really excited about the director we create when we work together.

What can we expect from you both in future?

The plan is to end up directing together one day so we’re going to keep on shooting as much as we possibly can. In the meantime, Felix will continue directing on his own and I’ll continue as a creative. We’ve both got exciting projects coming up in the next year so that will keep us busy.