Rowan Athale
Rowan Athale has made his directorial debut over the weekend as British film The Rise hit the big screen; a movie that he also wrote.
He brings together an exciting cast of Luke Treadaway, Matthew Lewis, Iwan Rheon and Gerard Kearns as four friends who plan to rob a local criminal in a bid to make a better life for themselves.
We caught up with Rowan to chat about the film, the inspiration behind the story and moving into the director’s chair for the first time.
- Rowan you have penned the screenplay for the film so where did the idea for the story originate? And how many times did the story/characters change from the initial idea through to the final film?
I am a big fan of Verite cinema and directors such as Shane Meadows: I like that they have a great sense of environment and a great sense of character. I am also a big fan of genre films.
With Verite cinema, you get very human stories; but then these characters that are created don’t necessarily have a great narrative to work with.
I thought it would be a good idea to have this environment and take these characters and give them a cinematic narrative. I wrote this more of an experiment, but people liked it and wanted to make it as a film.
- The Rise does avoid the clichés and pitfalls that you do regularly see in this genre of British film, so I wondering if you looked at any movies, in particular, while you were writing the screenplay?
I watch films constantly so I did look at any film that I could get my hands on; I am watching movies all the time. One of my favourite heist movies if Rififi as there is a big part of that that is played down and is very subtle.
The film that was the biggest influence was Rocky; it really is one of the best movies ever made. People think that it is a film about boxing, but it isn’t.
It has ten minutes of at the end of it, and the rest of the film is about this character that people have written off who is just trying to find dignity. It really is one of the best movies ever made and has been a huge influence on the characters in this film.
- The Rise marks your feature-length directorial debut so how did you find the move away from shorts?
To be honest with you, I found it was great. To have the opportunity to make your first feature film is an amazing opportunity to get. That was born out of the hard work of other people such as producers who worked incredibly hard to put the budget together. It is liberating.
What is very hard is telling an enjoyable story in twenty minutes. Telling an enjoyable story in and hour and forty minutes is much more liberating and more manageable thing to do. This format really does allow you to tell and proper story, and I found that really enjoyable.
- The relationship of the four central characters is the key to this film so can you talk a bit about the casting process and what you were looking for in Dodd, Dempsey, Harvey and Charlie?
We were looking for people who actually had the talent to play the parts. We were looking for actors who were perhaps not the typical people that you would go to to play these parts; these actors had never played roles like this before.
So I was looking for actors who had talent and could bring these characters to life on the screen. The most important thing was seeing this friendship materialise on screen and for audiences to believe it; that is the thing that was going to sell the film.
What we needed to achieve that is for people to work really hard, and I could see that they were willing to work really hard.
Luke Treadaway, Matthew Lewis, Iwan Rheon and Gerard Kearns were at the top of our list of the people that we really wanted, and we were lucky enough to get them.
- How collaborative a process is it between actor and director as you were developing these characters?
The thing is for a performance to be convincing they have got to be convinced, so we have to talk about it.
If you want someone to say something louder and faster you don’t say ‘say it louder and faster’, because that is not going to work; that is just someone saying something rather than delivering a line with the emotional intensity that you need.
So you talk about why you want it to be louder and faster - without ever saying those words. So it is about working together and convincing these guys of the things that you are after.
We also did a lot of improvisation in the film, and I really do wish I could have put more of that in there because it was genius.
It was really hilarious stuff, and I just wish we could have put more of it in there. However, that would have made it a two hour and thirty-minute film, and no one wants that.
The Rise is out now.