prisoners. They would have breakfast cooked for them first thing on a Monday morning, and I'd go in every Monday morning to eat with them and chat, and then talk about this film. That evolved into me facilitating discussions with groups of former prisoners about the idea of making a film. I started those conversations by saying that I would like to make the film, not necessarily about criminal activity, but rather the effects of criminal activity. And I said that normally you would have the more familiar characters in a drama like this. They'd be the nucleus of criminal activity, the dynamic characters would be at the centre of this criminal activity. What I'd like to do is take the camera and move it over here and tell the story of that guy. The one who is generally in the background and lets look at how this all affects him. Perhaps it can be something like he got caught holding a bag of drugs. And they resonated with that so enthusiastically. They said that either that was their story or the story of someone that they knew. And also they said that there was a moment in their lives that they could point to where things changed for them. Either they started taking drugs or they started getting involved in criminal activity, but they didn't really know what they were doing. They were making decisions, but that they didn't feel like decisions, if that makes sense. They were in a culture where lots of people would do a lot of different things. I said to the former prisoners 'what if we put that up on screen and we actually see how easy that is when you are living in this moment for something like that to happen? And then all of a sudden you are on a different pathway in your life and it has taken a different direction.'They responded really well to that.
It's the very definition of the ripple effect. One act changes everything.
In that way it has a connection to I Used to Live Here. It had the ripple effect of a suicide cluster. We don't focus on any type of primary event, but instead we focus on the drama in how it affects other people, which I think is important.
How then do you go about reflecting something real?
The prison service were really wonderful and helpful, and are keen to help people make artistic work about the penal system in Ireland. When I went to visit Cork prison, and they were bringing me through, we stopped at the committal area, the place where Michael is searched. That's the first point at which he crosses the threshold into prison. I said to the prison guard who was giving us the tour 'how would he be now? What are the guys like when they get to this stage? Are they all bravado because they feel that they must survive and be tough or what?' And he said to me 'sometimes they just say I'm scared' and I thought to myself that's kind of a no-no to tell an audience how the character is feeling. But I felt in this context it works very well, because he is saying that he is scared but he's also asking for help. He's saying that 'I need you to know that I'm worried'. For me, the whole way through the process, it was about asking questions and trying to find the realism. And sometimes the realism is the opposite to what you'd think and it's lovely when that happens. Sometimes it expresses truth. I think sometimes when creatively you go the other way to what you would except then it can feel more real. Even though what you expect originally you go this is obviously real, but if you go the other way it can feel more real. It mimics life because life is surprising and you go 'oh okay' and it actually recreates the feeling of our realistic experiences which is that we are learning and being surprised by things all of the time. If you are developing a screenplay and everything is exactly as how you would think it would be then it just doesn't seem that interesting. In actual fact it feels kind of unoriginal, whereas if you challenge it and think about it and then through research or creativity go the other direction then it can very often be better. It can feel more like life.
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