Stephen Peers on Just A Wish Away: the 1980s, a casting call and the art of the cut

On stage I asked you why the 1980s. Period pieces are difficult to film, so why this particular time?

Mainly because it’s a fun time. The aesthetics are cool, the music’s cool, and 1980s fashion has made a resurgence. Getting costumes wasn’t easy, but it was easier, because people are selling denim jackets cheaply on Vinted and charity shops are full of that kind of thing. And this was before Stranger Things season five came out.

The performances are really strong and really natural. How did you cast the film? Was there a full process, friends of friends, or actors you already knew?

I had worked with two of them on a previous project. The characters Eddie and Cindy are played by Tegan and Aiden, who are a couple in real life, and they had played a couple in another film I was in. I knew they’d be perfect for it.

For the rest I put out a casting call. We didn’t get that many people, but Jack Sutton, our main character, had worked on the promo video and I thought he was perfect, so we brought him back. Meg, the lead, auditioned and I thought she was fantastic. And Degsy is one of my friends. We thought he’d be funny in the role, and he does very well in it.

How much freedom did you give the actors to deliver their performances? Or did you know exactly what you wanted, from the shooting plan and from inside your head?

I wasn’t strict. I had a vision, but it was very collaborative. The actors could do what they wanted and make suggestions, and I think that’s the better way to be, because I’m more of a cinematographer than a director. Most of my vision came from imagining how it would look, and then saying, let’s work together to make it look something like this.

With the performances it was very much a conversation. This is the feeling I think the scene has, what do you think your character would be doing? Then we’d reach a conclusion together.

Coming from cinematography, how does that show itself? Do you show the actors references for the shots you want, or set the shot and let them play inside it?

Before every scene we filmed, we did a run through on phones, with me and my friends standing in, so we could say: these are the shots we’re going for, this is the blocking we’re after, and you’re free to do your own thing within it. So going into a scene, the actors had an idea of what they’d be doing. Then on set you just have fun. When we had time for a few more takes, people would be silly in some of them.

I also did the lighting for the film, so a lot of the time the actors were left on their own while I was lighting. I’d come back and say, I’ve got this idea, and we’d try it.

Was lighting it yourself a matter of budget, or did you want control of the look?

I didn’t know anyone else who could. Gabbi, our director of photography, is really talented, and we’d worked together as gaffer and DP on a different film, so we kept that relationship going on this one, and I had the added bonus of working with the actors. Because you’re lighting the actors, a lot of the time you go up to them and ask: is that light right, and are you okay with your lines, do you need help with anything? So it worked well.

Did the film change much in post production?

A lot. My first cut was about 23 minutes long, and the final cut is 16 minutes with credits. I wrote the film, and I realised I had so much waffle in it, content that just didn’t need to be there. With festivals in mind I was aiming for around 15 minutes, so I asked myself what I didn’t need.

If a line of dialogue wasn’t necessary, I cut it, and it’s relatively seamless. The hallway scene, for example, was quite long in the script and in the first cut. It’s trimmed right down, using snippets of dialogue from here and there.

Did you have to kill any darlings along the way?

I don’t think so, actually. There was a whole opening scene before the one in the final film, with me in it again, and I’m glad I cut that out.

So what’s next for the film, and for you?

I think this may be our final festival. Because I went to university in Portsmouth, a lot of my film contacts are down south, but we still get together on occasion, and we made a short film in a launderette relatively recently. So we’re all still in contact. Getting into the industry is tough, and I’ve got to get my foot in the door somewhere.

I’m teaching film to students, hopefully inspiring the next generation of filmmakers, and I’ve got my job to keep me going. Ideally I’d like to work on more of my own short films. I’ve started investing in some kit, so hopefully that will make things easier in the long run.