Marcus Markou, Director on Two Strangers Who Meet Five Times

indieactivity: Introduce your film briefly (the name of the film, premise, tone, style and the festival circuit)
Marcus Markou: The short is called “Two Strangers Who Meet Five Times”. It focusses on just five meetings and charts two lives. Because I am condensing so much in such a short space of time, just 12 minutes, I wanted it to feel like a dream. And in a way, most films are a dream. This interest me a lot because of the dominance of TV series and box sets. So the tone of it is quite ethereal and mystical. And the story is a humane one. It has done very well on the festival circuit and I cannot wait to release it onto the web for anyone to see it.

indieactivity: Give a background of your personal experience with the story, writing, production and marketing
Marcus Markou: I wanted to get to the heart of the human experience. Brexit and it’s subsequent intolerance of foreigners was my starting point. What if two people who fall out a cash point meet again? What are the turning points of future meetings? And what if they had met before. This was a great idea to play with.

Marcus Markou’s Two Strangers Who Meet Five Times selected for 50 festivals

indieactivity: Did you start writing with a cast (You or any) in mind?
Marcus Markou: I didn’t have any actors in mind when I wrote the story.

indieactivity: How long did you take to complete the script? (Do you have a writing process?)
Marcus Markou: I wrote the first draft one Sunday afternoon and then tweaked it after that.

indieactivity: How did you develop ‘your film’?
Marcus Markou: Because it’s a short movie, the first draft was written quickly and after that it was about putting a budget and schedule against the screenplay. To do it quickly, in one weekend, across five locations, we spent £30k. But that was a full crew and cast and the machinery needed to deliver a quality short. This also included post production.

indieactivity: How was it financed?
Marcus Markou: I self financed. £20k came from me and £10k from my company.

indieactivity: Is there anything about the independent filmmaking business you still struggle with?
Marcus Markou: The challenge is always about reaching talent. Talent (the actors) are the currency of the business. And managers and agents guard that talent preciously – as you would expect. Therefore, when working in the independent sector it’s quite rightly harder to convince those that manage or represent the talent that you are worth working with – from a creative and financial point of view. I don’t complain about this. It’s just the nature of the business and one of the aspects of the business you must deal with as a indie filmmaker. But I also love the challenge of getting people over to indies – especially if an actor has built his earnings through the studio system.

indieactivity: How long was your pre-production?
Marcus Markou: We were about two or three weeks in pre-production – which is a long time for a short. But also expensive too. But how else do you shoot this level of quality if you are not correctly prepped. I remember it took an entire day just sort out parking permits for one van and then a further day negotiating the insurance on the camera equipment that was going to be in the van and whether the car park we were going to leave the van in overnight had enough security to meet the insurance company’s standards.

There you go. Two days spent on a van and where it was going to be parked! Over 90% of what goes into making a film has very little to do with the thing you imagine – the filmmaking. And when you consider that sometimes 80% of what you film never makes it into an edit – the actual final film is just a tiny, tiny percentage of all that stress and energy and effort. Crazy really. But crazy good!

indieactivity: What was your rehearsal process and period?
Marcus Markou: I spent a day with both lead actors. We explored the story around the five meetings. We made some interesting discoveries and it’s only during a rehearsal like this that you realise that however detailed a screenplay is, it’s really just an impressionistic brush stroke. The detail can only be mined in rehearsal. The story truly developed in this rehearsal and it’s what allowed the actors to hit the ground running when they came to set.

Two Strangers Who Meet Five Times – Short film trailer from Marcus Markou on Vimeo.

indieactivity: You shot the film in days. How long were your days?
Marcus Markou: Two days and we finished early on both days! This is unheard of. But I think this is what good planning, preparation and rehearsal gives you. You can hit the ground running. You are in control of the process. On the second day we finished three hours early. This was a first for most of the crew! When we got to the end and with three hours to go, I said… “We don’t have any outtakes, let’s shoot an outtake” which we did and then it was a wrap.

indieactivity: Did the tight shooting schedule make it harder or easier? How did it affect performances?
Marcus Markou: As I said before, if you are prepped and you have spent the time talking about what you are going to do – whether from a production management point of view or from a performance point of view – then things don’t feel tight at all. You can relax and enjoy the process and from that comes better performances and more interesting creative choices because you are not up against a clock and just bashing it all out.

indieactivity: How much did you go over budget? How did you manage it?
Marcus Markou: Stayed on budget. But again, most people underestimate the budget and then find they have no money for a sound mix or they are panicking on the day because they haven’t factored everything in. I remember thinking that £30k was a lot for a two day shoot but actually, we probably got £50ks worth of crew and production management machinery for that £30k – because we were able to cut deals. For example, our grade and sound mix was done for just £1k.

indieactivity: How important is marketing? Do you think a project can make any dent without it these days?
Marcus Markou: I think social media and Twitter (for me) is a very effective tool. Lots of people have been able to follow the success of Two Strangers Who Meet Five Times and this has built a lot of interest. I get requests every week from people who want to watch it. Because we are still at festivals I can only send a private link with a password.

indieactivity: What was the experience like of working with such a small shooting crew (?)?
Marcus Markou: A small crew can help create creative intimacy and this suited the tone and spirit of our intimate story.

indieactivity: The film looks stunning. How did you get such a good look when shooting so fast?
Marcus Markou: I worked with a fantastic DoP called Chris Fergusson. Again, we spent hours talking about the shoot and how we could get such a good look from minimal lighting. Digital cameras are so good now, that you can be really flexible with the lighting you use.

indieactivity: Did you look at rushes? On what format?
Marcus Markou: I looked at the first cut. Before then I had screen shots. We were very quickly into the edit.

indieactivity: What were the advantages and disadvantages in the way you worked?
Marcus Markou: It’s quick, it’s fun and it has energy. This is how all films should be made.

indieactivity: What else have you got in the works?
Marcus Markou: I’m developing a new screenplay called “Crazy Blue”. I am currently looking for the talent. But I am practising the idea that the right actors will come to it. Actors are like casts. They come to you

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