To Lose Control
After nearly ten years of military service including operations in several war zones, a former elite soldier struggles to deal with P.T.S.D. after leaving the armed forces. He decides to find a cure and explores a controversial treatment of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing before he loses control completely.
It took two years in the making but I finally wrapped on my latest short film ‘To Lose Control’. After five drafts of the script, we finally got there and I was now happy with structure and pace of the film. As an indie you’re expected to wear many hats on set but this time was different, this time I wanted to focus 100% of my attention on directing the actors and getting them where I want them to be with regards to performance. With that in mind and without having to worry about production of the film, I approached Visionworks Television to take me under their wing. It was actually great timing as they were looking for more drama scripts for their current slate.
It has taken me five years of messing around with various genres to know exactly where I want to go with regards to my future career. My direct influences in film are Shane Meadows and Peter Mullan so gritty drama is where I want to be, I’ve never felt more determined. I’ve never been the person to do anything half arsed and drama brings so many challenges to a Director. Casting the right actors was going to be important and I spent the last two years scouring reels and watching shorts. Chris Patrick Simpson knocked on my studio door eighteen months ago with an impressive portfolio and we subsequently worked together on Desecration. This guy has stacks of talent and was only happy when he accepted the lead role in ‘To Lose Control’, even after reading draft one which to be honest, was all over the place. Eighteen months of character development later Chris was itching to go. and he did not let me down!
There was only one actress who could play the role of the Therapist in the film and that was Maggie Cronin. We touched base with her agent and the rest is history. I was pinching myself at the thought of working with such a talented and professional actress. After meeting with Paul Kennedy about a different matter altogether I ended up casting him and I had seen Roisin Gallagher in a locally made short film and she really impressed me. Likewise with the cast, crew members were hand picked for their skill and positive attitude. This was the first time I was allowed to solely focus on my directing due to surrounding myself with great producers and an assistant director. I was only happy to hand over the camera department to Jim Crone, who was a guy I had been itching to work with in the past. I had an idea of what the scene would look like in my head but Jim always topped that and I couldn’t have been happier with the look of the film.
Photograph by Paul Livingstone
Although in the film there are several action/ war sequences, this is not an action film. But, I needed the sequences to have that attention to detail. One of my biggest let downs in war films is their lack of respect to details and technicalities. Replicating Afghanistan was not going to be easy and after numerous location recces I found the best terrain that was well matched. A high location in a quarry at Seaforde was perfect. I also wanted to create an atmosphere on set throughout the day, so I played war ambience out of a PA system and speakers. With great teamwork, pyro technics and valuable rehearsals we pulled the war scenes off.
Photograph by Paul Livingstone
Photograph by Paul Livingstone
The production was always ambitious but we made it happen. I’m always harping on about this but by surrounding yourself with positive and skilled people you will be surprised with what you can achieve. The special thanks list is so long but I would like to personally thank Alpha Quarry, Jim Sherrard, Sylvia Buet, John Dunlop, The Pavillion and Danielle Stalker on their help and support on the project. If you are interested in following the progress of the film, we have a website with the relevant links to its social media sites.
Poster designed by The Designboy
Gread read, about a great process. Let’s show this thing to the world!