Director Stefan Fairlamb’s storytelling-how it made ‘Falsified’ succeed

Stefan Fairlamb (Director) and Adam Lyons (DoP) on the production set of Falsified (2017)

Stefan Fairlamb is a film director who has worked in the industry as a writer, editor, producer of many short films, who has now made his directorial film debut with the short film Falsified. Falsified has been successful on the festival circuit, and was also shortlisted for nomination on the Oscars 90 short film. Stefan details his process working with DoP Adam Lyons and lead actor and producer Ashley Tabatabai

indieactivity: Introduce your film briefly (the name of the film, premise, tone, style and the festival circuit)?
Stefan: Falsified is my first film to get out there as a director. It is a short film about a man, Henry (Mitchell Mullen), who believes his child was stolen at birth and after years of searching believes he has found his son in a man called Javier (Ashley Tabatabai). Javier however, wants nothing to do with this stranger who claims to be his father.

Ashley Tabatabai on the making of his emotional short film, ‘Falsified’

The film had its world premiere at the L.A. Shorts International Film Festival back in August and since then has had a successful festival run, screening at the DC Shorts Film Festival and many others. It is also screening later this month as part of the Hollyshorts Monthly Screenings at the Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.

indieactivity: Give a background of your personal experience with the story, writing, production and marketing
Stefan: Well, I had worked with Ashley Tabatabai before, who plays Javier, and also wrote and produced the film. He asked if I would be interested in developing a project with him and he told me about the concept and outline he had for what became Falsified. I had no knowledge of the many historical events that had inspired the story before Ash talked to me about the project, so the whole thing has been a huge learning experience in that regard.

Mitchell Mullen and Ashley Tabatabai in Falsified (2017)

indieactivity: Did you start writing with a cast (You or any) in mind?
Stefan: Yes, Ash, I had worked with before so the part of Javier was developed with him in mind and was written for him to play. The part of Henry was also written with Mitchell Mullen in mind, who Ash in his producing capacity brought onto the project. We didn’t know if he would say yes to the project or how he would respond to the project and characters. But fortunately he agreed to star in the film and we never looked back, and we were obviously thrilled.

indieactivity: How long did you take to complete the script? (Do you have a writing process?)
Stefan: As a director I worked with Ash, the writer, to develop the script and characters for filming…the process?… Lots of coffee, openness to each other’s idea’s and constructive conversations to build what is best for the film… mostly coffee though….

Award-winning short ‘Falsified’, inspired by Spain’s Stolen Babies Scandal picked up for TV distribution

indieactivity: How did you develop ‘your film’?
Stefan: If you mean the look and style of the film, then Adam (Lyons) who I have also worked with before as director of photography had a huge part in that. I think we have a good synergy between us and similar tastes visually. The plan we had for the film, that also came out of the script discussions with Ash, was to keep the camera ‘locked off’… the film is a very quiet and restrained film in terms of the story itself… but it’s also dramatic and tense… keeping the camera still and ‘unfussy’ but also making sure each image was dramatic and would hold up as a still photography if you paused it was what we were aiming for.

It also allows the performances to shine though in what is a very actor driven film. Practically, it also saves on time with set ups. So the plan was to keep it simple, but striking. I hope we have achieved that, and the idea was to reinforce those story themes visually… there is only really one shot in the whole film that has movement in it – and it’s a lot of movement – but it gains so much more power and meaning because of that…

Julia Leyland in Falsified (2017)

indieactivity: Is there anything about the independent filmmaking business you still struggle with?
Stefan: Keeping my sanity…. (laughs) But as my friend and colleague Paul Harrison (sound recordist on Falsified) has said to me “I am not sure you fully had that before you started making films anyway” ….or words to that effect… (laughs)

indieactivity: How long was your pre-production?
Stefan: The development process with Ash was probably over about 7 months… but what I guess I would call actual pre production was a month or like a month and a half…

indieactivity: You shot the film in days. How long were your days?
Stefan: Probably, 6 hours of actual filming with a couple of hours for prep…. Nothing too crazy, and we kept it sensible. You want the cast to be as well rested (as they can be) so they can just focus on bringing their best.

indieactivity: Did the tight shooting schedule make it harder or easier? How did it affect performances?
Stefan: Probably both…. But… We knew the deal, we knew it would be hard… but that keeps you sharp too…. We knew we had to get what we needed to get to make the film work in post… there is no plan B when it comes to that I guess…

indieactivity: How much did you go over budget? How did you manage it?
Stefan: The shoot itself went smoothly, I think it may have even been less than what was thought for the shoot… so that all went to getting the film out there…

Mitchell Mullen in Falsified (2017)

indieactivity: How important is marketing? Do you think a project can make any dent without it these days?
Stefan: Well, its huge…I think in some ways yes and no again… You need marketing to break through into the mainstream for sure… but for a short on the festival circuit there are lots of passionate people who will champion work they believe in… you can only hope that you meet some of them and that they like your film -and that in turn helps and builds and over time and gains exposure for film makers… Film Festivals are hugely important for indie filmmakers. I think you have to be optimistic that at the end of the day quality will win out… although you need to be a realist also as there are hundreds of overlooked films out there… so marketing definitely helps if you can get it…

indieactivity: What was the experience like of working with such a small shooting crew (?)?
Stefan: I am kind of used to this…. I don’t think you need a large crew – if you can work smart and work together to make the most of the time that you do have together…

indieactivity: The film looks stunning. How did you get such a good look when shooting so fast?
Stefan: Well, Adam Lyons  played a huge part in that…but from my point of view, communication… Adam and I went over the shots and plans in detail before the shoot and knew exactly what we wanted – but also crucially we were on the same page… it cuts down on the need to ‘chat’ on the day and allows us to just focus on the ‘game’, like sports I guess… Also for me being from an editing background, knowing what you need for post and what you can lose when time gets tight so you can keep giving the individual shots the love and craft they need form the team. I think that helps me when time is tight.

indieactivity: Did you look at rushes? On what format?
Stefan: We had a monitor on set and then we would review at the end of each day.

indieactivity: What were the advantages and disadvantages in the way you worked?
Stefan: For a short, with limited time, again I think it can be tough, but it also can focus you on the day… and you need to be ruthless with your time to get the footage that you need on that day… again like sports it’s all practice and plans I guess and then it all comes down to the game itself…

indieactivity: What else have you got in the works?
Stefan: We are just finishing off Falsified’s festival run and I currently have my first feature film as director in post-production… which a lot of the team behind Falsified have also worked on… I hope to get this out there into the world soon and hope to maybe be back talking to you soon about it… so fingers crossed for it…..