Debbie Isitt is a filmmaker who has enjoyed success behind the camera as well as a writer and as a performer herself.
Having forged a career in theatre and TV she made her feature length film debut in 2000 with Nasty Neighbours but returned last year with Nativity.
I caught up with Debbie to talk about Nativity, which is released on DVD next week, as well as what lies ahead for her.
- Nativity is about to be released on DVD so for anyone who hasn’t seen the movie yet can you tell me a little bit about it?
Well it’s a very feel good Christmas movie for all the family. It’s about a teacher who is made to put on his school’s nativity play, it’s a job that nobody wants because the children are all useless; well as he puts it, so he really struggles to put the show on particularly because his rival, a teacher called Mr Shakespeare at the posh school up the road, always puts on award winning shows.
So Mr Maddens is under such pressure to out do his rival that he actually tells a lie and pretends that Hollywood are coming to see his school’s nativity play and he starts this rumour that will put Mr Shakespeare in his place. But the rumour spirals out of control and it’s really about him making this lie a reality.
- You wrote the script as well as directing the project so where did your idea for the movie come from? And how inspired was it being a parent yourself?
It was really inspired by being a parent, I really have spent the last few years watching nativity plays at my daughter’s school and laughing and crying along with the other parents really.
And I was thinking that I hadn’t seen a film that looked at the school nativity play and it’s an iconic kind of thing in our culture.
I really wanted to explore that and I though that there was plenty of comedy potential and people do take it really seriously and the parents take it seriously over what part their kid is going to get and there’s always big mistakes that happen but it always leaves me with a very warm feeling.
- The movie brings together a great British cast such as Martin Freeman and Ashley Jensen so how was the casting process or did you pen the script with people in mind?
I knew that I wanted Martin to play Mr Maddens because I had worked with him before and I just think that he is a fantastic actor, and from there you just try to build the cast around the lead actor in a way.
I was delighted to get Marc Wooton on board, who is the classroom assistant from hell, he is a very anarchic actor and he just brought just fun to the development of the character and he brought that fun to the set every day.
Ashley Jensen really did fly over from Hollywood to come and make the movie here, so that was a bit like life imitating art, and I was really delighted to get Alan Carr involved, it was his first acting role, I really like to use people who haven’t necessarily acted before.
- And they always say never work with kids so how was that?
(Laughs) I was really daunted by the prospect but they were so lovely the children, we took great care to cast children who were very natural and real and didn’t have any stage school experience; most of them hadn’t done anything but the school play.
The only real problem for me was the noise when there were a lot of them together it was just the most incredible noise and it was difficult for me to get them to be quiet because I’m not used to working with kids, I have only got one.
But it was really really lovely working with children and I would love to do it again.
- You have touched on this already but what were you looking for in the child actors when you were casting the roles?
I think we just made a very early decision that we didn’t want any experienced, knowing, wise-cracking child actors and what we wanted were very vulnerable, normal kids as if they were real really, we tried to keep them as authentic as possible and take them on a journey from zero to hero.
There were a couple in there that were brilliant at a particular thing, one of two could really sing or dance, but on the whole their skills were like most kids, not amazing, (laughs) and it was about working with an authentic group of kids, likeable, lovely, natural children who would just be themselves and not think about acting.
- And what were your main challenges when making this movie?
Always it’s time you are up against the clock, we work on really low budgets, working with children you only get three 45 minute slots with the children per day, compared to what I would be doing with the adults which is shooting between eight and ten hours a day.
So you can see how little time I had with the kids when really I wanted it to be about the children I was just really up against it time wise.
- Nativity is only your third movie so how have you found stepping behind the camera?
I really love it but I wish it all moved quicker and I wish that it didn’t take so long to get films off the ground in this country. I wish that the whole process was just quicker so I could make three films a year instead of one. But I really enjoy it and it’s a passion for me now.
- You had worked in the theatre and TV so how natural a step was it going into movies?
Well it felt pretty natural really. There are just more people involved, that is what was the biggest difference for me, in a theatre production you might have a whole company, including the actors, and that’s only ten or fifteen people but in a film it’s over 100.
Sometimes you do feel like you are a sergeant in the army and you just think ‘how am I going to lead all of these people? And how am I going to answer all of their questions?’ And at times that can be a little overwhelming but I love it and feel very lucky to be doing it.
- I was ready that your previous project Confetti was all improvised so how risky project was that for you?
It was really good fun, we did a lot of improvisation on Nativity too, I love working with improvisation and actors, and particularly on Nativity with the children because they didn’t have to learn any lines and could be themselves.
Confetti was mad because we filmed the actor planning their wedding as if it was a documentary, so there was no script and not even a story really; we just pretended the whole thing was a documentary.
Nativity had a lot more structure and there was a story involved but there was still lots of improvisation.
- As a British filmmaker how disappointed were you to hear about the abolishment of the UK Film Council?
I really don’t think that there were many British filmmakers who were cheered by that announcement, and also particularly the way it was done it showed a great disrespect for the industry at large.
I think everyone is nervous about the new institution, if there will be an institution, what that will be, it’s really important that there are funding bodies available for experience as well as new filmmakers.
The Film Council was a very well managed alternative to Film 4 and BBC Films and there really are few places to go in this country for money, as I have just said it takes two years for me to get one film off the ground, goodness knows, if you were starting from scratch, where you would go for that money.
The Film Council has always been a relatively reliable source for taking risks and encouraging new filmmakers so it’s potentially a catastrophe but we will have to see how things pan out.
- Your last couple of movies have been comedies so how comfortable a genre is that for you and will we be seeing you branch out into anything new?
Well it is a natural genre for me because it is what I always what I did on stage and one discovers quite early on the sensibility that you have and life, for me, is every bit comedy as it is tragedy.
I find in my day to day life I’m one of those people who’s like ‘ you have to laugh or you will cry’ so I suppose if you do feel like that about life it’s quite difficult to cut the comedy out.
If I’m presented with quite a serious subject to cut the funny bits out is quite a challenge for me. I have ventured because I wrote an adaptation of a Jacqueline Wilson novel The Illustrated Mum, for which I won a Bafta for the writing, which was a really serious story about a mother who neglected her two children because she had bi-polar disorder.
And I really enjoyed that but I think it’s a little more challenging for me as a director and when I’m working with actors because I just love comedy performances, it gives me a kick and a thrill.
I want to feel good as well so I’m on a mission to make myself feel good and audiences feel good and so unless there was a thriller or an action flick that I felt that I had to do, I can’t imagine there would be, I’m likely to continue in the comedic genre.
- Finally what’s next for you?
(Laughs) Well there are a few projects in the pipeline, I suppose the one I should talk about is the sequel to Nativity which I’m developing at the moment, but I have also got a couple of other films as well. So there is quite a lot in the future.
Nativity! is released on DVD and Blu-ray on 22 November, courtesy of Entertainment One
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
Debbie Isitt is a filmmaker who has enjoyed success behind the camera as well as a writer and as a performer herself.
Having forged a career in theatre and TV she made her feature length film debut in 2000 with Nasty Neighbours but returned last year with Nativity.
I caught up with Debbie to talk about Nativity, which is released on DVD next week, as well as what lies ahead for her.
- Nativity is about to be released on DVD so for anyone who hasn’t seen the movie yet can you tell me a little bit about it?
Well it’s a very feel good Christmas movie for all the family. It’s about a teacher who is made to put on his school’s nativity play, it’s a job that nobody wants because the children are all useless; well as he puts it, so he really struggles to put the show on particularly because his rival, a teacher called Mr Shakespeare at the posh school up the road, always puts on award winning shows.
So Mr Maddens is under such pressure to out do his rival that he actually tells a lie and pretends that Hollywood are coming to see his school’s nativity play and he starts this rumour that will put Mr Shakespeare in his place. But the rumour spirals out of control and it’s really about him making this lie a reality.
- You wrote the script as well as directing the project so where did your idea for the movie come from? And how inspired was it being a parent yourself?
It was really inspired by being a parent, I really have spent the last few years watching nativity plays at my daughter’s school and laughing and crying along with the other parents really.
And I was thinking that I hadn’t seen a film that looked at the school nativity play and it’s an iconic kind of thing in our culture.
I really wanted to explore that and I though that there was plenty of comedy potential and people do take it really seriously and the parents take it seriously over what part their kid is going to get and there’s always big mistakes that happen but it always leaves me with a very warm feeling.
- The movie brings together a great British cast such as Martin Freeman and Ashley Jensen so how was the casting process or did you pen the script with people in mind?
I knew that I wanted Martin to play Mr Maddens because I had worked with him before and I just think that he is a fantastic actor, and from there you just try to build the cast around the lead actor in a way.
I was delighted to get Marc Wooton on board, who is the classroom assistant from hell, he is a very anarchic actor and he just brought just fun to the development of the character and he brought that fun to the set every day.
Ashley Jensen really did fly over from Hollywood to come and make the movie here, so that was a bit like life imitating art, and I was really delighted to get Alan Carr involved, it was his first acting role, I really like to use people who haven’t necessarily acted before.
- And they always say never work with kids so how was that?
(Laughs) I was really daunted by the prospect but they were so lovely the children, we took great care to cast children who were very natural and real and didn’t have any stage school experience; most of them hadn’t done anything but the school play.
The only real problem for me was the noise when there were a lot of them together it was just the most incredible noise and it was difficult for me to get them to be quiet because I’m not used to working with kids, I have only got one.
But it was really really lovely working with children and I would love to do it again.
- You have touched on this already but what were you looking for in the child actors when you were casting the roles?
I think we just made a very early decision that we didn’t want any experienced, knowing, wise-cracking child actors and what we wanted were very vulnerable, normal kids as if they were real really, we tried to keep them as authentic as possible and take them on a journey from zero to hero.