Every cut is a lie. It’s never that way. Those two shots were never next to each other in time that way. But you’re telling a lie in order to tell the truth.
The Arbor, directed by Clio Barnard.
–Wolf Koenig
To bring an ordinary man to life in an interesting way took an extraordinary approach. The truth, and an empirical approach could well have backfired but it is the approach that we chose throughout our production with justified reason. Through researching documentary film I felt the things that touched me the most were the characters that I could really relate to not the ones which had quite obviously been sat down in front of a light and given a script or the most extreme of characters who are simply exploited for being different like some kind of freak show porn. I didn’t want to exploit the different even if it may make for a cheap audience thrill rather I wanted to create a film about a typical character with an interesting story. A character which the audience could engage with on a personal level.
Family relationships are important to everyone and is why we chose to shoot ‘struggle with life and race against time’ about a granddad with real emotions and telling a real emotive tale we could really stay true to.
