Pre-Production: This London

The ‘Script’

After having read up to a basic-degree on ‘essay films’, I thought a pretty essential place to start for my own would be to work out what exactly I wanted to say and/ or convey with my film – essentially to write my essay. I began as tends to be my norm, by free-writing some thoughts on London. I had in my mind a poem I had previously written, though felt very mindful not to recreate it – I didn’t want to tell my story exactly, just my view of London (there is a difference). I considered this slight conundrum for some time. “Who am I to speak about London – a home to more than 9 million other people?!” I then considered it worth explaining loosely who I am, and why my opinion could be considered of relevance: I’m Mollie, I’ve lived in London all* my life. I’m just like anyone else.

*most of my life.

It felt, and feels, necessary to be as honest and direct in speaking as I could without over-confusing my message or tying myself up too much in my own story. This got a bit harder as I felt increasingly fraudulent hashing out my individual opinions. I had to remind myself a few times that I’m purposefully taking up space as an artist, with a message. This helped take me out of the ‘imposter’ brain-mode at several moments. Initially I had typed my rough thoughts up in a formal-ish tone, into my Notes app on my iPhone (my usual method for a quick release of thought). This tends to be my natural go-to when trying to well-articulate a point, and also not come across as idiotic or uneducated on a particular subject. At some point as I frantically typed and deleted, trying to perfect the semantics of each opinion I was willing to give – a quote from Series 2, Episode 3 (Naming the Overground: The Liberty Line), of Mind the Gap: The Official TfL Podcast popped into my mind.

Members of the general public in Romford (which is, coincidentally, where I was born) were asked by the podcast’s host, Tim Dunn, how they would describe other locals from their area. One of the phrases used to respond was “salt of the earth”. I love this term, I have heard it many times, but I find it hard to define other than to perhaps use ‘personable’ as a close synonym.

I then thought to all the call-centres using ‘happier’ accents to work their phone lines (Geordie and Welsh, for example) in order to try ands reduce customers’ stress levels. The psychology of relatability interests me – especially given that a former career of mine was acting. I decided to continue writing, but less formally, with the intention of embellishing my thoughts when it came to recording them – for a more natural, and colloquial approach to the now informal ‘essay’ I was drafting.

TL Dialogue Download

The three sections were written separately, on different days. The first had been in my mind/ on my Notes app since I had drafted it as the dialogue I would use for my teaser/trailer a while beforehand. I felt that what I had said was a good ‘headline’ for the rest of what I had to say – and so I decided to keep this first section of scripted dialogue in the overall film somewhere, although I was open to perhaps switching it’s order as I also liked the final line – “that depends what type of ‘more’ you’re after” – referring to London, in a similar respect to the commonly paraphrased quote “to be tired of London, is to be tired of life”.

Planning For Shoot

Prior to heading out to film at all the various town centres listed in the London Plan 2021, I made an alphabetical list of all the Greater London boroughs (& City of London), and listed the town centres in each one. I then went one borough at a time (though split Barnet, with its sixteen town-centres, into two trips) through the list of town centres. To ensure I made my way around as efficiently as I could, and in as little time – I utilised CityMapper, Apple Maps, and the town centres list I created, to plan my routes in advance.

I began with Haringey, as there were town centres relatively close to my starting point (home), and actually only six. I decided to create and stick to a rule that I would not use any method of transport other than TfL services and/ or walking between each place. I then created a new Note on my iPhone app, to list the town centres in the order I would be visiting them, and the method of transport I would take in between. I also left a space for an overheard quote to be inserted before I moved onto the next town centre on my list, and so on. This was a good way of planning my journey’s and my time, and also ensuring I completed all I set out to do, by ticking each town centre off the list and noting a quote before I followed my plan and moved on.