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Interview 'Snap' Writer / Director Carmel Winters
06 Apr 2011 : By Aileen Moon
Snap
Carmel Winters debut feature, ‘Snap’ goes on limited nationwide release on Friday, April 8th. In the run up to the release IFTN caught up with the writer and director to talk about the Catalyst scheme, stage and screen scripts and directing Mick Lally in one of his final roles.

‘Snap' is a gripping psychological drama about three generations of a family poised to recreate a past that each one denies. Fifteen-year-old Stephen snatched a toddler from the park and held him captive for five days in his Grandfather's house. Three years later, his mother Sandra is forced to piece together what happened in that house - and why. While she tells their story to camera; her estranged son tells an altogether different story with his own camera. 'Snap' is produced by Martina Niland (Pavee Lacken) and the director of photography is Kate McCullough (His & Hers).

The film came about in a strange way, starting life as a scenario created to train psychiatrists by Winters who was teaching in the University of East Anglia at the time. “The idea was to present the psychiatrists with a fictional scenario that would allow them to practice the skills they would need to deal with challenging real-life situations,” she explains. This scenario grew into a one-woman play centring around Sandra, and her teenage son Stephen. “I came up with a mother and son that were a very close but utterly an estranged unit,” Winters tells us. “And the dynamic that was there in that very first outing with the audience is the same dynamic that you see in ‘Snap’, having come through both the training scenario, the play, and then through to the film.”

Carmel Winters
Carmel Winters

Speaking about working the play’s script into a film screenplay, Carmel reminds me that she is no stranger to such an arena. “Because I’ve written so many feature films that haven’t been made, the perception might  be that I am a theatre writer writing a feature film, but really I have spent ten years completely immersed in how feature films  could work,” she states. “The difference was to use the theatricality of the play in a way to give myself a kind of an edge in the film which is what often happens, when you bring across aspects of one form to another. But then I had to balance that with purely cinematic elements.”

Winters’ ‘Snap’ was one of a few projects not chosen for the Irish Film Board’s low budget Catalyst funding. Following an intense workshop, it was decided that ‘Snap’ (along with other projects including Ripple World Pictures’ co-production, ‘Earthbound’ and Ken Wardrop’s ‘His and Hers’) would not be receiving funding. But the director seems positive about what she gained from the experience: “I thought the Catalyst was fantastic,” she starts. “It was definitely the best thing that I ever did; Being immersed for two weekends in a space where people are talking about  getting films made - how to get a film made, what does it take. etc. - really forced me to redefine and redefine and come up with something that just had a signature about it.”

It was during the Catalyst workshop that the filmmaker made the decision to direct ‘Snap’ herself: “The fact that the budget was there to be won, in a lovely telescoped timeframe instead in a kind of infinity. I really found that very energising, but the big breakthrough for me was in deciding to direct it myself...and I am really glad I made that decision even if it did mean funding it differently.”  The film’s €800,000 budget was eventually raised through a mixture of funding from the Irish Film Board, Regional Support Funding, the Irish film tax incentive scheme Section 481 and Dublin post-house Screen Scene. Winters cites producer, Martina Niland (Once) as the film’s driving force: Martina Niland absolutely was the main linchpin as far as I am concerned. It was definitely a case of an inexperienced director teamed up with a producer - there’s no doubt in my mind that working with her was deeply crucial.”

Snap
Aisling Walsh in Snap

Other women that receive vast plaudits from the director are the actresses in ‘Snap’, IFTA winners Eileen Walsh (Eden) and Aisling O’Sullivan (The Clinic). Winters speaks of Eileen’s IFTA nomination for her role in the film, saying “I was absolutely thrilled that she was acknowledged because I think even though it is a supporting role, it is as large as many leading female roles are and Eileen is a fantastic leading lady.” Mention of lead actress Aisling O’Sullivan prompts further heart-felt extols: “I think Aisling O’Sullivan is the unsung hero here,” she starts. “I think she delivered the most courageous onscreen performance that I have ever seen in an Irish film. The woman is a fantastic interpreter, and I think that once you put good actors and a good script together that is when it happens. Directors often get credited with an awful lot of the actor’s work. But largely the credit would lie with the casting and I am very indebted to Amy Rowan who cast Aisling because she hadn’t been an obvious choice for me.”

‘Snap’ is one of six films screening as part of Poland’s upcoming OFF Plus Camera festival as part of its New Irish Cinema section. The feature is already well travelled having been invited to screen across the globe in festivals such as Karlovy, Tribeca, the Galway Film Fleadh and the Jameson Dublin Film Festival. The film’s theme, that of a troubled mother-son relationship, must resonate with a wide audience? “Yes, it is very interesting when you travel with such a telescoped film,” Carmel responds. “I have done so many Q&As after the film and audiences pull out so many different strands, totally different points of interest and connection. Some people utterly empathise with the toddler whereas, in New York, the forty-plus women in the audience were obsessed with that awful sense of maybe not quite doing well enough as a mother and maybe particularly letting down one child.” 

She also comments on the strong reaction to Mick Lally’s supporting performance in the film received in Ireland and Europe. Asked what it was like to work with the great man on one of his last roles the director says, “I was asked in Galway, ‘How did you get that performance from him?’ And I responded that ‘I didn’t’. I didn’t persuade him, or coax him, or coerce him. He just connected very deeply with the script. The man was an artist and it appealed to the artist in him.” Lally’s failing health on set meant that his emotionally charged scenes were shot in one take or, as Carmel puts it, “no tricky focus or any of that lark because it was a demanding scene. And whenever I see it, I just don’t believe he is not here.”

The award wining director is maintaining her plate spinning approach of producing both film and stage works. She has a TV series in the pipeline as well as a darkly comic new feature film entitled ‘The Road to Joe’.

  • ‘Snap’ will go on a limited nationwide release from Friday, April 8th. For film times see local press.
  • View the trailer for 'Snap' in IFTN's Distribution section here

 





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