Kate Turner Unveils How She Produced Patrick Myles’, The Overcoat

indieactivity: Give a background of your personal experience with the story, writing, production and marketing
Kate Turner: Patrick and I had been working together for a little while on various projects before we collaborated on The Overcoat. I was a fan of his short Santa’s Blotto and approached him to direct a comedy pilot I put together for Finite Films. We worked really well together on the pilot and decided to do a 48 hour film challenge together. After that, Patrick sent me the script for The Overcoat. He had already put the lion’s share of the work in developing the script by the time I read it. The script didn’t really change much from then. So from that point we really just hit the ground running in terms of raising the cash and going out to cast.

indieactivity: Did you start with a cast (You or any) in mind?
Kate Turner: We spoke a lot about cast and had a really long list of people we wanted to approach. Jason was at the top of that list. We are huge fans of his work and were pretty blown away when he agreed to come on board. Once we had him, the other roles just clicked into place. I’m a bit of a comedy nerd and getting to work with all these people that I hugely respected was pretty special.

indieactivity: How long did you take to complete pre-production? (Do you have a writing process?)
Kate Turner: I took a while to get enough cash together but once we felt like we had enough to at least shoot it, everything happened pretty quickly. We had our locations locked in for months but everything else came together in the 2 weeks before the shoot.

Trailer for THE OVERCOAT, adapted from Nikolai Gogol’s short story from New Division Films on Vimeo.

indieactivity: When did you form your production company – and what was the original motivation for its formation?
Kate Turner: I formed it back in 2014. I was working a lot in production offices in TV at the time was feeling pretty stifled creativity. I started the company because I knew I was happiest when I was making stuff and working with creative people and I just needed a home for my projects.

indieactivity: What was the first project out of the gate?
Kate Turner: It was actually a little short film Patrick and I made together called Mrs Grumpykins for the 48 hour film challenge.

indieactivity: During production, what scene (that made the cut) was the hardest to shoot?
Kate Turner: Everything we shot in the pub was pretty tricky. The location was tiny and we had every single cast member there. We were also shooting over night in covent garden near Christmas time. Lots of merry people around!

indieactivity: What works better in this latest production that mightn’t have worked so well in the last one you did?
Kate Turner: This was my first production as lead producer with a crew of that size. I was incredibly nervous! But it actually all ran really smoothly. We put together an excellent crew and we were mostly in one location so there was a logistical ease to the production (for the most part!).

indieactivity: You produced the film, what measure of input did it take to complete?
Kate Turner: Our whole team really poured their heart and soul into this production. We carefully considered every detail of it. It was a lot of work for everyone involved but we had such a lovely team that we kept each other motivated.

indieactivity: Is there anything about the independent filmmaking business you still struggle with?
Kate Turner: Financially it is a tough journey. I’m lucky that I get paid to produce commercials and branded content so I can always earn. But it is an expensive game and it takes a lot of energy and time without getting paid to get your name and projects out there.

indieactivity: Where does your strength as a producer lie?
Kate Turner: I have a really great network so I think I’m good at putting teams together. P

indieactivity: Let’s talk finance, How did you finance the film?
Kate Turner: Myself, Patrick and Mark each put some personal money into the project. I also got some money from the CTBF. Once we shot the film, we launched a crowdfunding campaign for post production. Our project was spotted on kickstarter by our co producer, Harold, who came on board with some money towards the end.

indieactivity: How much did you go over budget? How did you manage it?
Kate Turner: We didn’t really go over budget. We were pretty realistic with out budget from the outset.

indieactivity: How important is marketing? Do you think a project can make any dent without it these days?
Kate Turner: IT is really important! Actually, the surprising thing about our crowdfunding campaign was it worked really well as a marketing tool. We were delighted with the coverage the campaign got on social media and I think that really helped us get the word out to festivals etc.

indieactivity: What do you hope audiences get from your film?
Kate Turner: I hope they are moved by it but I just really want people to enjoy it hopefully find it funny.

indieactivity: What else have you got in the works?
Kate Turner: I am currently entering final post for my first feature film as lead producer, Summer in the Shade, with director Alice Millar. We shot it in Cornwall last year and I’m so excited to get the project out there! I’m also developing some feature projects that are at varying stages.

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