Young Macdiarmid Had a Farm

Great Guns director Calum Macdiarmid has recently shot this fantastic short film/trailer for his good friend Tom Rob Smith's new novel, The Farm. Smith, whose debut book, Child 44, is being released as a feature film next year, turned to his friend to create something interesting and different to promote The Farm, and he hasn't disappointed.

Below, Macdiarmid discusses the project, its allure and the pressure he felt to deliver. He also talks about the growing amount of book trailer projects and why they're a great format for new directing talent.

How did this project come about? 

Tom is an old school friend who’s had a lot of success with his previous books. After he sold Child 44 to Ridley Scott he had a lot of involvement in the film industry which we often discuss.

One day he pitched the idea of doing a trailer for him as he wasn’t so impressed at the state of previous book trailers. He originally talked about doing an animation, but as an animator I felt it was more powerful as a dramatic film piece.

Did you read the book before making the film or did Smith pitch the outline of the story to you and let you fill in the blanks?

Tom pitched it to me and then gave me an early version to read. I was totally spellbound by it -  as I knew I would be having read his previous books. This one however was more personal than those and I felt its passion immediately.

Once you had an idea of the story did you immediately know how to approach the film?

I began writing a few ideas down but there was this one idea I kept coming back to. It was actually inspired by a Simpson's gag when Mr Burns goes mad and points a gun at Smithers, telling him to get into a toy plane.

Whenever I see it I always imagine myself in Smithers' situation, for a split second genuinely working out how to get into the plane, foot first or arms? The lead character in the book is put in a similarly impossible situation, which is what I wanted to explore with the trailer.

The film is very stylised and visually powerful but doesn't give much away in terms of story; was that a purposeful approach?

Yes, very much so, Tom was keen not to give too much away and spoil the book. It’s a detective novel as much as a thriller and from a technical point of view anything too overt could easily have spoiled it.

It was a game of teasing the audience unlike with Hollywood trailers where they tell you the whole story up front. This was perfect for me as I sometimes use a more expressionist style to communicate a sense of emotion and tension. In this way I was able to be more sensitive to the emotion in the writing.

How long did it take to make the film and what was the hardest part of the project?

It was bloody fast! A couple of days in August with just a few weeks either side for preproduction and post.

There were quite a few tricky parts; creatively the hardest thing was to create something enticing without giving too much away. Then there was the issue of getting a dead pig. This resulted in the Great Guns receptionist doing a last minute drive to East Sussex with a pig’s head hanging out one of her car windows, scaring the hell out of other motorists as well as herself.

Finally, there was the matter of dealing with a mate as a client, (who happens to be extremely intelligent, and a perfectionist).

I think it was a little nerve-wracking for both of us: I had expressed my confidence in making something good [and] Tom had every faith in me and rejected his traditional promotional routes insisting to his publishers that I could do something better. As more publishing territories heard our plan so they opted for this version. By the time we were shooting we had both dug pretty big holes for ourselves... if it hadn’t of worked it could have been quite awkward!

Had you worked, or considered working, on a trailer for a book before?         

I had actually done one trailer before for The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo which was done in a more traditional advertising way with a script from My Agency. This was great as the CD who wrote it went on to support me over the years with great scripts which eventually led to my first really complex job using all of my skills as a director where I shot liquids, celebrity performance, period drama re-enactment, landscapes, animation and extensive post production work.

Doing a trailer as a sort of short film was a new way of approaching it, which really opened up creative opportunities. It felt like a music video where you work closely with the band.

Filmed trailers for books seems to be gaining a bit more momentum; why do you think that is?

People are always looking for opportunities to do interesting creative work that allowed them a bit of a voice when it comes to the concept. Originally music videos were the best way to do this. However as that market has gone through a downturn somewhat, people are now investigating other avenues.

Also on the other side publishers and authors are becoming more media savvy as they see cool short films and animations go viral and realise that this is a great opportunity for them.

Do you think these sort of films are good ways for budding directors to get their work noticed?

Absolutely, for those that are interested in film this is probably the most appropriate. It's similar to making a film in that you are given a narrative you have to interpret, which is great exercise but also you get access to brilliant writing and get to make something with an emphasis on entertaining the audience.

At Great Guns we do a lot of shorts as the exec producers Laura Gregory and Sheridan Thomas are very supportive of pretty much anything creative, be it music videos, short films, content… and now book trailers.

Great Guns is also really pro-active in getting shorts screened and distributed globally. In fact I’ve actually just come back from Dusseldorf where I was asked to speak at the BBDO Directors Lounge after they showcased my new short Liquid Spirit. There is a London screening in two weeks for both Liquid Spirit and The Farm which will be exciting for me to see the audience reaction first hand.  

So there are some really interesting things coming out of the company and the directors on the roster are competing with each other for hits or wow factor (see Ilya Naishuller’s Bad Motherfucker film) and we’re all hunting for new ways to achieve this.

What are you working on next?

Right now I’m working on a huge campaign for a global vodka company, both TVC and online. It’s involved a 15 day shoot working with some of my heroes such as Ron Fricke. I can’t say too much more but it should be out towards the end of the year.

After that I need to slow down and assess my options as things are starting to take off. Four years ago I’d jump on whatever script comes along like an over excited puppy. Now I’m in a better position as music videos, commercials and good feature scripts are being sent over which is all very exciting. Ideally, I’ll be able to do all this and get to work with more friends!