IN CONVERSATION WITH CONSCIAN MORGAN
Conscian Morgan makes the leap from award winning shorts to feature length film with his debut feature BINDING EVA, which receives its world premiere in the First Blood strand at Tubi FrightFest. The film tells the tale of Felix (Ryan Ralph Gerrad), a small-time criminal on the run, who finds himself facing not only a supernatural threat in a vast forest but the consequences of his own actions in a surprising fashion. In this interview with Gore In The Store, Conscian details the challenges of filming with a low budget in the Forest of Dean, his influences and desire to tell the story and his excitement at displaying his work through FrightFest.
GORE IN THE STORE - Where did the idea for the supernatural figure at the center of events here, come from?
Conscian Morgan - Old English folklore. I was trying to move away from the version we see nowadays. The last few decades have flattened her into a caricature, where you immediately go to the broom and a pointy hat. It's hard to see past that when you don’t go deep into the lore, because it has been done so well. So, I went back to earlier writings, where the intention is less clear.
As a debut feature director, how did your expectations of directing measure up against the experience?
CM - Wildly different. I thought my first feature would involve half a year of pre-production while I got everything right, because that's what I did on my shorts. Then I got the opportunity to shoot BINDING EVA and I had six weeks of prep and a crew of four for most of it.
There was an expectation that directing would take up more time than it did, but with a crew of four you are simply a filmmaker, and you're doing every role at once. All the time.
What did match my expectation is how much the script can change on the shoot. I know it's a cliché, but you really do tell the film three times. On the page, on location, and in Premiere Pro. We workshopped most evenings after a long day shooting. It was tiring, but that’s where the best material is.
Your producing credits and previous short films are quite different from each other. Is the horror genre where your creative heart lies?
CM - You could say that. While I first started working on my craft as a storyteller, I was producing other people's stories. I did that for a while and then stopped to focus on my own films.
I'm drawn to horror and sci-fi as a passion, as well as in my own storytelling. There's something about the way horror can put crosshairs on the human psyche, it just works for me. It's the only genre that lets me explore the shadowy side of the ego, while sci-fi lets us explore more about society as a whole. So, my next project is a sci-fi horror we’re developing.
Was the decision to set Binding Eva in a forest a budgetary decision or a creative one?
CM - I do enjoy a forest horror done well, so that was always the intention for this film.
Before I started exploring the film idea there were one or two scenes collapsing in my brain, and in this case the backdrop was very natural. Then I started thinking about the protagonist, and the final scene he comes to terms with, and it developed from there.
Shooting in the Forest of Dean was partly budget. I'd planned to film in an old forest in Sweden, but for budget reasons I moved to the UK. The cheapest option would have been Epping Forest, since I was based in London, but there are some really nice forests in the UK and I didn't want to be restricted.
The one that stood out to me was the Dean. It has a beauty in the day and a scary, remote, prison cell vibe at night, partly because of the farmed pine trees. So we shot there.
And how was filming in the forest?
CM - All the benefits you'd hope from shooting in a forest. A beautiful free location, nobody around to spoil your shots, no car noise, great props springing up out of the ground, and a horror palette everyone recognises.
But there were also long treks to the location from wherever you could park. A sunny day decides it's going to rain, because forests have their own weather system that BBC Weather doesn't cover. Ant infestations crawling over your cast and crew. Getting lost in the middle of nowhere because Google Maps gives up on you. Losing the clapperboard pen and having no runner to send out for another one. Eating the same bagel every day for weeks. Realising the trolleys you bought off Amazon wasn’t up to the part when a wheel comes off in the middle of nowhere.
I think you get the picture! It was hard but it gave us a lot.
Who and/or what are your influences as a writer, and as a director?
CM - For writing. I grew up reading Peter F. Hamilton, I think I've read every one of his books. He does hard sci-fi with real adult themes and horror, especially his early work. I listen to a lot of film music, minimal piano, and when I'm building a scene, I'll put something on to find the temperature of it before I write, and even when I’m blocking in my mind, I find music to help shape the scene.
As a director, my major influence would be James Cameron’s early work.
What are your plans for the future?
CM - I've started working on my next project, which is a sci-fi horror. That'll probably be the next one to shoot. It has the same story architecture, a very hostile place with a group going into it, but just a bigger canvas. Beyond that it's getting Eva in front of as many people as possible.
How does it feel to premiere at FrightFest?
CM - It still hasn't sunk in yet. First Blood on Saturday night in Leicester Square. Anyone would think I made a deal with a higher power! I think once the premiere is out of the way and I get the first impression of how the film lands, then I can finally start to relax. Until then I'm keeping my mind busy on the next story.
Iain MacLeod
BINDING EVA - WORLD PREMIERE
DISCOVERY SCREEN 1 - SATURDAY, 29TH AUGUST, 8.45 PM