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Writer's pictureDarrell Buxton

GARDENER'S QUESTION TIME: PAUL COTGROVE INTERVIEW

(This interview was originally published in edited form in 'Shivers' magazine, in 2000)


Forthcoming horror film short, GREEN FINGERS, marks the return of Hammer legend Ingrid Pitt to British cinema screens after too long an absence. 'Shivers' spoke to the film's director, Paul Cotgrove






Shivers: You based GREEN FINGERS, I believe, on a short story which you encountered as a boy.

Paul Cotgrove: When I was a lad, early 1970s, I was always reading the Fontana books of horror stories, I suppose like everyone at the time, and there was a particular story, "Green Fingers" by R.C.Cook, which stuck with me over the years. I've never been able to forget it, it's always stayed vividly in my mind, and I always thought it would make a good short film - though I never dreamed I would film it! Originally, I decided to write a script, just as an exercise, last year, and thought I'd try to adapt "Green Fingers", so I hunted down the Fontana book, re-read it, and everything developed from there.

S: On re-acquainting yourself with the story, still it still have the same spark for you?

PC: Yeah - it hadn't changed at all, it was still wonderful, and there were even a few elements I'd forgotten.

S: How faithful do you feel you've been in adapting it?

PC: I learnt one very important lesson, that it's almost impossible to totally faithfully adapt a short story - when you break it down, this one's set over a period of months, so I had to take parts out, which I didn't want to! I feel I did a reasonably faithful version - problem was, I wanted Ingrid Pitt to play the main role, Mrs.Bowen, and when Ingrid read the script she wasn't happy with certain elements. For instance, a main part of the story concerns a dead rabbit which has been buried, and something weird which grows out of the ground…Ingrid was adamant that we should use a black cat instead. I would've liked to have kept the rabbit…but eventually changed it for Ingrid's idea, the cat, which admittedly does work very well.

S: It's encouraging to see that you've gone for 'star' names when casting, or at least people whom genre fans will recognise - Ingrid, Janina Faye - whereas most filmmakers working on your kind of budget might have favoured merely utilising friends and relatives.

PC: Being a film fanatic, while writing the script I couldn't help but visualize actors I'd seen in films playing the parts. After that, I couldn't even think about using unknowns, and I began to think "well, there's no harm in asking"…I was already a good friend of Ingrid's, and as soon as she knew I was working on a script, she said "I'll be in your film, darling!", which was great! When I pitched the idea for the story to my producer, I said Ingrid would play the main lead, and once she was in place it was just a matter of casting the other two players. I always thought of using Janina Faye, who I met initially at the Festival Of Fantastic Films in Manchester - I'd corresponded with her a little, sent her some of her films on video which she hadn't seen before - I thought she'd be ideal for my 'nurse' character, I wrote to her, and within days she rang to say she'd love to do the film. Originally, for the part of the gardener I wanted to use Freddie Jones; looking back on it now, I really don't know how I had the front to approach him! Freddie was very kind about the whole thing, he said he would have loved to have done it but he was going to be working elsewhere while we were filming. He told me that his son is in the same position as I am, Freddie Jones' son is making short films or something, so he did sympathise with me. While talking to Ingrid, however, she mentioned Robin Parkinson, who's known mainly from television - probably the last thing he did was 'Allo Allo' - and as I'm a bit of a classic t.v. buff too, Robin is one of those faces I've grown up with. Again, I contacted him, and within a day he phoned me to say he couldn't wait to start!

S: Can you tell us something about your background, and your work with the British Film Council?

PC: Well, for one, it's actually The British Council - I don't think 'The British Film Council' exists any longer. I work for the Films And Television department, a wing of the Arts division - the Arts division basically promotes British artists, and their work, around the world, especially artists who may be very talented but are struggling to get their work seen. I run a film library of about 6000 16mm prints, which go out to mini film festivals around the world. I also run a preview theatre, for first-time filmmakers who can't afford to go to the big West End preview facilities - they can come here, I'll screen their films, they can invite members of their crew, producers, whatever, along to see their work in comfortable surroundings. My background is mainly working in film laboratories, editing and negative cutting - many first-time filmmakers ring me asking for advice, "where can I get this done, who do I go to?", so through my own contacts from other jobs I'm able to point them in the right direction.

S: Has it been advantageous, being in your particular line of work, while making GREEN FINGERS? Or have the two things, your job and your own movie, not really interlocked?

PC: Of course they've interlocked slightly - it's been helpful working for the British Council, I've got a preview theatre at my disposal and obviously there are contacts through work that I've been able to use. But basically I've made the film entirely off my own back, it's all my own personal contacts that I've used - it's ironic that despite working at the British Council, they've not really been able to help me directly so far.

S: You've had some good news relating to the film's score in recent weeks, involving another old Hammer favourite.

PC: I'm hoping it will be good news! Originally, Nina Humphreys, who has just done the music for the BBC series 'The Lakes', got to hear about GREEN FINGERS through my producer Harry Rushton, and was very keen to get involved - we were in the process of meeting up to discuss it, but in the meantime she got another big assignment from the BBC. So I suggested to Harry that we try Hammer composer James Bernard - I'd met James before, and was sure he'd at least listen to me if I approached him - who dares wins! Don Fearney, the Hammer archivist who coincidentally was also the costume designer on GREEN FINGERS, put me in touch with Bernard - James came to the British Council and I screened him the cutting copy of the film, which he absolutely adored, and he's since accepted the offer to do the music.

S: You must be delighted about that!

PC: God, yeah - first time James phoned me up to talk about the film, I was almost lost for words. I might have considered suggesting his name to Harry right from the word go, but because I hold him in such high esteem, and connect him with a lot of my favourite films, major films, I didn't want to bother him with a little project like mine. But, as with the actors, I figured "well, I can only ask, he can always say no" - and when he started to take an interest, I just couldn't believe it. You can't put into words how exciting it is when one of your heroes, someone whose work you've grown up with, starts becoming supportive of something you're putting together yourself.




S: The location you've used for GREEN FINGERS really fits the bill for this type of film. Where is it, and how did you find it?

PC: Making my film has been virtually a one-man show. I knew that the location had to be pretty special; for one, I wanted a very odd-looking rural house, and it also needed to have a fairly massive garden as most of the action would take place around this. Initially, I didn't know where to start; I'd decided to film somewhere in Essex, where I live, and so I began to phone around these odd little historical societies, asking if they knew anyone who wouldn't mind a low-budget film being shot around their house. I didn't get anywhere at all, until someone told me that Essex County Hall had an 'Historical Buildings' department - I rang them, explained everything, and they were really excited! They have to travel round visiting listed buildings, ensuring they're kept in a certain condition, and they were able to put me in touch with several people around the county - so for about a month, every weekend, I'd take my wife and my little girl for days out, and we'd visit these houses, meeting the owners, drinking gallons of cups of tea, and looking at the gardens. Eventually I came across Dorwards Hall in Bocking, near Braintree, and met Sue Lord, a lovely person; she was so thrilled at the prospect of a film being made at her house, and when I saw the place, it just fitted, it matched exactly what we needed. Sue was more than happy for us to dig her garden around, and in fact she even helped us find the rest of the locations for the film, so in theory she was also the locations manager! I'd say "Sue, I need this" and she'd immediately get on the phone to her friends - once I was in as part of that little circle, I had no problems finding places.

S: Are you happy with the way the house and gardens look on film?

PC: Oh, I think that even if people don't like the film, they'll love the settings - they're so full of character.

S: Which movies have you grown up on yourself? What are your own favourites?

PC: Going back as far as I remember, I've always loved films - all films - but from about the age of 6 I found out about Frankenstein, the Wolf Man, the Mummy, the Universal films, and for years they were my main stable of movies. Then, of course, the Hammer films played a big part in my life. Ironically, I don't think I've got a favourite horror film - I just love all the Hammer films, and old horror films, I think they're the most fun, but my desert island choice has got to be THE THIRD MAN or CITIZEN KANE.

S: were you conscious of Hammer, or the classic anthology films, for instance, when preparing the GREEN FINGERS script?

PC: When I read the "Green Fingers" story, I saw it straight away as an ideal segment for one of the old TALES FROM THE CRYPT anthology-type films. So in writing it, I definitely aimed for that style, I suppose subconsciously…as I've seen so many films over the years, it's all in there somewhere and it all starts coming out on paper. Definitely Hammer's influence and the Milton Subotsky/Amicus films filtered through.

S: Do you feel there's been a resurgence in the U.K. of people getting out there, picking up cameras and making films?

PC: Yes, especially with short filmmaking. There are more shorts being made today than ever, there's so many film schools pumping them out. In fact, I'd say there are too many film schools.

S: What sort of outlets are there for this stuff? Why are so many shorts being produced?

PC: A short, basically, will allow big film producers and the industry to see that you're capable of making a film - it's literally an exercise, a calling card. There are festivals around the world that want short films - it's growing all the time, it's become a mini sub-culture, if you like. It really is the only way to make it into the industry, you must have something to show people and ideally it has to be a short film. Making GREEN FINGERS, I've gone the old-fashioned way. I've worked in the film industry for a number of years, and so now felt that I had enough contacts out there to give me advice, to give me help, to give me good deals. I knew the right people to approach, and what's nice is that they were all quite keen to see what Paul Cotgrove could make. In a way, I do feel slightly isolated, in that most other stuff of this kind is being done at film school, by students half my age! But where they've got film school connections, I've got big industry connections. I wouldn't have had the confidence to shoot GREEN FINGERS without having good friends in the industry to turn to. I'm not the only one out there - my friend Grant Littlechild is doing exactly the same, with his film COSMIC BRAINSUCKERS - he's just put together a promo reel, to raise the rest of the money to turn it into a feature film. Again, he's an industry chap like myself, he hasn't gone through the film school route.

S: When I spoke to you earlier this year, you mentioned that Grant and yourself might be working together on something in the near future.

PC: At the moment, we're both up to our eyeballs in our own projects. I've got so much to do with GREEN FINGERS once its finished, get it on the festival circuit, whatever. Grant's hoping to shoot COSMIC BRAINSUCKERS at the end of the year. Once we've both got some time to sit down together, though, we're seriously talking about producing a ghost story anthology, a bit like the old Ealing DEAD OF NIGHT, with 4 stories by 4 different directors - obviously myself, Grant, our friend Jim Groom (REVENGE OF BILLY THE KID) and we're not quite sure whether to bring in a fourth director yet, this is just early days. But we're all very excited about the idea of doing ghost stories, especially myself. I've always wanted to adapt an M.R.James story.

S: Any particular one?

PC: "Lost Hearts", I think, is begging to be put on the big screen.

S: Do you have any other forthcoming projects?

PC: I've just agreed, with Ingrid Pitt's husband Tony, to shoot some short video films. Ingrid's organising a week-long holiday camp in Somerset at the end of September - part of the holiday will give people the chance of appearing in a little video film, 10-15 minutes, which will have some of the guest stars (Ingrid, Doug Bradley, Caroline Munro) appearing, playing little cameos - we're hoping to shoot three or four of these films while we're down there, to shoot and edit them within the week and hand them out to the holidaymakers! It's going to be real Ed Wood stuff, pretty intensive - I must be mad doing it!

S: Finally, Paul, what advice would you give to anyone considering writing or directing their own film?

PC: Apart from the fact that you've got to be raving mad to try and make one - filmmaking is pure lunacy - as most books and manuals will tell you, just do it. There's only one way to find out about filmmaking - and that's the hard way. (Laughs) Don't do it, really!

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