Writer/Director Gerard Johnson and Actress Polly Maberly talk to Fest Track about location, pace and approach in regards to their new film: "Odyssey" playing the Visions section of the 2025 SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas.
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Short filmTranscript
00:00This is Tim Wastbrook from FesTrackOnStreetTV.
00:29I'm here at the South Baseline West Film Festival in Austin, Texas.
00:59So everyone's already so relaxed, they're not even worried about the camera in the moment.
01:05And also on the film, it was just walking around.
01:07I mean, I would go into, we would get permission from a pub or a club,
01:12but from one person, the owner.
01:14Okay.
01:15So all of those people, when we were coming in with a camera, they didn't know what's going on.
01:19There was a lot of poor bar staff that didn't know anything about biking.
01:22And for me, that's the energy.
01:24The energy of going into a real place and there's a band playing in one club.
01:29There was, you know, people staring at the camera.
01:31That to me, I love because it feels you cannot replicate that without doing it for real.
01:37You can't replicate those nights.
01:40It feels artificial.
01:41So her journey of walking through the night just feels almost like it's going into a documentary
01:46area.
01:47In a way, it is because people are, who are you?
01:50Like trying to grab hold of Polly or trying to grab hold of the camera and like, you know.
01:54Or they don't bat an eyelid.
01:56In central London, they're just like, I'll get out of the way.
01:58I'm going to work.
02:00Yeah, well, it's quite a big set up of the minimal people around the camera.
02:06Do you know what I mean?
02:06Like minimal, but it's still, it's a big camera really.
02:09But it's also amazing.
02:13When I made my first film 15 years ago, people were a lot more inquisitive there.
02:18I think now people are so used to being filmed or being so used to have people having cameras
02:23out the whole time that there's still people who are interested.
02:27But when you're so minimal, people don't really bat an eyelid so much now.
02:33Do you know what I mean?
02:33It's cold.
02:35We are surrounded by cameras the whole time.
02:38Yeah.
02:41Look, he needs moving somewhere else.
02:43He's not safe here anymore.
02:44We just, we need your help to move him somewhere else.
02:49No.
02:49Yes.
02:50No.
02:50Yes.
02:51What are you doing?
02:51Let him go.
02:52It's too late for that.
02:54Douglas tried to pull a fast one on us, didn't he, Douglas?
02:57Oh, yeah.
03:01Well, yeah, I suppose I didn't see it as the whole.
03:03I still put one foot in front of the other and saw it like that.
03:06And what helped was, Korshan's such a wicked guy behind the camera.
03:11The DOP, yeah.
03:11DOP.
03:12And he immediately felt like my friend, you know, because I'm not used to.
03:16Yeah, I mean, it just felt very, very freeing.
03:19And, you know, of course, I felt a bit rabbit in the headlights the first day,
03:22windy day, Mornington Crescent, you know, just my voice was going.
03:28It felt, you know, I warmed up quick, though, I warmed up quick.
03:33And then we turned the corner into Camden High Street.
03:35And we were, that was the first scene we took, actually,
03:38when I was saying to Dylan, you know, about what's the lines, you know,
03:44about how you have to behave and never say small.
03:48What's always compact and all this.
03:49And it just felt really freeing.
03:52And a few days in, I just thought, well, I've made my choices.
03:59She's out there now.
04:00I'm not thinking about that, but you have to tap into her anger at the world
04:05and her justifiable anger at it.
04:08And the feeling of playing out her mission was very useful,
04:13like to just keep breathing and keep moving.
04:16It was really, that's what it was.
04:18It was sort of like the pace that we set was great for me as well.
04:23Who is she really?
04:24Is she evil underneath?
04:26Or is she just, is it just survival of the fittest?
04:29And is it just, you have to get to the top.
04:32That's how you have to win in business.
04:35I need to leave now.
04:37You listen to me.
04:38We're not asking you.
04:40We're done for you.
04:41Okay?
04:45No, stop, stop, stop.
04:46Natasha, just stop.
04:48Stop.
04:50I know, hey, look at me.
04:51I know, it's f***ing mad.
04:53All right?
04:54If you do this and you're going to do this,
04:57yes, you're going to do this.
04:59You get to keep the loan.
05:00I tried to have it feel like, as you say, the walls are closing in,
05:08you know, with the phone calls, the constant phone calls.
05:10What stresses you out?
05:12You know, people asking for money.
05:14People wanting, you know, having to avoid people getting in
05:18and realizing if I just get to this place, everything will be okay.
05:22Because we've all been stressed about money.
05:25We've all been stressed in generally in life, in big cities.
05:31And that always is interesting going into a film
05:39and feeling even more stressed than you are yourself.
05:42Do you know what I mean?
05:43Coming out and thinking, oh, I feel a little bit better now.
05:48It's cathartic.
05:48Yeah, cathartic, but you start to get a real understanding,
05:52you know, from reviews and from, you know, the audience,
05:55you get a real understanding of what really,
05:59what they got from it and what really stood out.
06:01And if people are saying, you know, for instance, South by Southwest,
06:04they said every time the committee watched it,
06:10all they talked about was how stressful it was.
06:12And that to me is brilliant because that's the intention.
06:17The intention of just one character
06:22and just feeling for their predicament in a way.
06:25No more debt, you keep that money.
06:28If you don't do this.
06:35Lovely f***ing brother, Dan.
06:37You have to introduce me to the rest of your f***ing family.
06:40Take care, Taz.
06:43There's always a bit of light in, you know, everything in the darkness.
06:47I think it's Bukowski, actually.
06:50But just, yeah, and I think once she finds the Viking,
06:56the way they embrace, the way, because up until that point,
07:00you're very used to seeing one side of this character, right?
07:04This character, she's alone, she's very business, everything else.
07:07She's looking for someone you don't quite know.
07:09You don't quite know who it is.
07:11And it's just that embrace when they first meet again after all those years.
07:17You see the child in her now, the innocent child, you know?
07:24And the wanting answers when they're in the apartment
07:27talking about what happened and everything else.
07:29And you see that there was an innocent person in there.
07:33Maybe there was a person that wouldn't have been sedated
07:35if she'd have had a father figure, if the mother wouldn't have run off.
07:38All of those things have then made her who she is now.
07:44And she's having also to survive in a male-dominated world,
07:46which is the world of real estate, estate agents,
07:49and had to get cut pro to be the person she is.
07:54And as playing it, I would say that, you know,
07:56that those penultimate scenes and the calm before the storm,
08:00at that point, she's made her decision.
08:02And so there's a sense of enjoyment as well that she gets from those last moments.
08:07I mean, that rises up, that builds.
08:14And so it was nice to make those choices.
08:16It felt, you know, she was a series of decisions
08:20and she just hated being out of control for one minute.
08:22She liked to come back to control.