LOGLINE A group of super-fans break into the house of a faded 90s pop star.
SYNOPSIS Emily and Kim spent their teenage years fantasising about Ryan Laughtner, lead singer of the once-mega-famous noughties boy-band, Off-Limits. But Off-Limits broke-up and Kim and Emily lost touch. Now at 22, Kim persuades Emily to go on one last fan-pilgrimage to Ryan's only remaining asset; his mansion in leafy Surrey. Once there, Kim breaks in and the girls run joyfully through Ryan's empty halls, crammed with pop memorabilia. But, Ryan himself is now an ageing, alcoholic shadow of his former glory. He is, however, keen to party. Emily and Kim are faced with a choice: To live in the past, or move on together. Can their friendship survive adulthood? Or did it end at the Smash-Hits Poll Winner's Party 2007?
FAN GIRL IS DIRECTED BY AWARD-WINNING DIRECTOR KATE HERRON AND WRITTEN BY SCREEN INTERNATIONAL STARS & BROADCAST HOTSHOTS JESSICA & HENRIETTA ASHWORTH, STARRING STEVE ORAM (SIGHTSEERS) AS FADED POP-STAR RYAN LAUGHTNER AND HAS AN ORIGINAL SCORE BY COMPOSER PATRICK JONSSON (OSCAR & BAFTANOMINATED VIRUNGA).
A POP-TASTIC COMING-OF-AGE COMEDY ABOUT FRIENDSHIP, IDOLS AND SUPER FANDOM.
DIRECTORS STATEMENT It's 1999, Top of the Pops is blaring out of my television and I am sat on a blue blow-up sofa on my Windows 98 computer attempting to get my Backstreet's Back album to load a game where I can ask the Backstreet Boys what their favourite pizza flavour is. It's the age of pop music, friendships are found and broken over which Spice Girl you get to be in a dance routine, “Sex on the Beach” is an inappropriate dance anthem at school discos and men's hairstyles are doomed for at least a decade. Sure, fans that came before us had bands like The Beatles or Nirvana but this was what we got; packaged, tanned and oiled 20-year-olds bouncing about on stage in baggy khaki pants singing lyrics like “I've got a house with windows and doors, I'll show you mine if you show me yours” (B*witched, “C'est La Vie”). This love for late 90's pop music is what drew me into the project of Fan Girl, along with a desire to explore the concept of the 'super fan', a phenomenon recurring throughout history from Beatlemania to One Direction. I'd been a fan of Fan Girl writers Jess & Henrietta for some time, their writing is brilliantly dark, very funny and features great female characters. These elements are all in Fan Girl. I loved that the film follows the friendship of two best friends who are now trying to rekindle a teen friendship in their early 20's and completely related to this. Friendships in in your teens mean a lot but when you reunite in the aftermath of university and the reality of working in the real world, you can find you are different people. It becomes a fight or flight situation, you either adapt to one another or become the kind of friends that promise to get a coffee again but it never happens. Making the film with the Central School and Speech and Drama, I spent a lot of time on casting and rehearsing. It was important to me that the relationships on screen felt real, even though the circumstances are heightened, so when the super fans meet their idol you are invested in them. It also was important to me that Off-Limits and Ryan felt like a real pop group. We achieved this by creating our own fake boyband photoshoot, using the photos as set-dressing, as well as writing original pop songs for the soundtrack. I researched for the film by watching shows like The Big Reunion, and it was fascinating to see what had become of the titans of 90's pop now. Many of them suffered from depression, or had undergone complete lifestyle changes since being gelled up on stage in front of screaming teenage girls. This is what was great about working with Steve Oram, I knew he would bring depth to Ryan, our misunderstood idol, cooped up in his mansion, like Miss Havisham, the wedding dress swapped for a ratty Calvin Klein dressing gown.
CREATING A FAKE 90S BOYBAND "Would you mind taking your top off in some photos for me? I need to find some handsome men to be in a fake boyband shoot. I swear I am not hitting on you” is a tricky email for a director to send to a male friend without looking like I'm trying to do my own version of the “Casting Couch”, but luckily I know a lot of people in the improv community, where saying “Yes and” to weird requests is common place. So finding willing (and very kind) young men to pose in some photographs for me wasn't impossible. In bringing the script and world of Fan Girl to life, it was important to me that the boyband Off-Limits and its history felt real. I didn't want everything the characters felt about Ryan Laughtner and the boyband to be represented in one photograph, I wanted it to feel immersive. To achieve this, we set about putting together a fake boyband for a day-long photoshoot, to really capture the true horror (and hair gel crimes) of those late 90's and early 00's boybands, so that we would have authentic-looking photographs in the film in the Scrapbook and around Ryan Laughtner's house .The writers and I also spent a scientific amount of time researching boyband names; FYI aspiring music producers they seem to fall into four distinct categories; Names with “boy” in the title (Boyzone), Aggressive Statements (Take That), Names with Directions/Geography (Westlife, One Direction) and lastly initials /numbers (Five, 911). The last and most important thing to me was that the music on the film's soundtrack sounded like real pop music. Working with award-winning composer Patrick Jonsson, we took inspiration from the styles we heard in boyband music, and then came up with our own, from the creepily titled "Can You See Me in the Dark" to the nonsensical "Flavour of Love." Then, like with our photoshoot, we found some very kind singers (including fresh from the West End singer Matthew Wycliffe Hill [WhatsOnStageAwards shortlisted for Best Takeover in Jersey Boys]) to come and offer their vocal talents.
CAST STEVE ORAM (RYAN LAUGHTNER) Steve Oram wrote and starred in the award-winning film Sightseers, directed by Ben Wheatley and cowritten with Steve's long-time collaborator Alice Lowe. Sightseers was partly inspired by characters originally performed live together with Lowe. A comic actor/writer, who started out with characterbased Edinburgh shows, Steve is a regular on the Brit comedy scene. His credits include The Mighty Boosh, Tittybangbang and It's All Gone Pete Tong with Paul Kaye. In 2008 Steve appeared (with Alice Lowe) in Steve Coogan's live UK tour playing supporting roles including amongst others, Henry VIII to Alan Partridge's Sir Thomas Moore! Steve has starred in and directed his own short, Connections, which was selected for the Cannes Film Festival in 2008 and he has continued to make shorts under the banner of Lincoln Films. He also performs a monthly live show called Oram & Meeten's Club Fantastico with Tom Meeten. Oram can be seen in Edgar Wright's The World's End (2013), TV movie Wipers Times (2013) written by Iain Hislop and Nick Newman, playing George Tomkins in C4's Glue (2015) and feature films The Canal (2014) and Paddington (2014). In 2015 Oram wrote and directed his first feature film, AAAAAAAAH! which has it's World Premiere at Frightfest in August. @steve_oram
REBECCA GUTHERLESS (Emily)
Originally from Hull, Rebecca is about to graduate as an actor from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London. There, she has recently produced a film called Fibreglass, for her thesis, in which she also plays Robin. She has recently recorded as a voice artist for the Neil West film Containment. Rebecca comes from a theatre background and has a love of musical theatre, having appeared in many stage productions with theatre company Paper Plane Productions, including revues and singing evenings, and being on their production team. @RGutherless// SPOTLIGHT
REBECCA ROBINSON (Kim)
Rebecca was born and raised in Perth, Western Australia, where she studied for her BA in English & Creative Writing at Murdoch University. From the age of 7, she appeared in dozens of plays, short films ('Before The Dawn', 'Cartesian Theatre'), and television ('Nasty Pieces of Work'), and most recently the feature film 'These Final Hours'. In 2014, she moved to London to attend the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama for an MA in Acting for Screen. @msbecrobinson// SPOTLIGHT
BRENDAN LYLE (Craig Wolton)
Originally from the South Coast of England, acting from an early age has enamoured Brendan Lyle. His main passions lie in blurring the line between comedy and tragedy. Starting early at the Chichester Festival Theatre, he went on to hone his skills and trained at The Royal School of Speech and Drama and has appeared in numerous short films. @BrendanLyle
//
SPOTLIGHT
ANDY CANTILLON (Pete)
Andy Cantillon was born and brought up in North West England where, from the age of 13, spent 3 years at StageCoach Macclesfield. After developing a love of theatre and acting, he completed a BA in Drama and Performance at the University of Worcester and performed at Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2013. He will graduate from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama with an MA Acting for Screen in 2015. @AndycCc //SPOTLIGHT
MARIAH NONNEMACHER (Mindy)
Originally from Alma Arkansas in the United States. Mariah got her start in theatre in the wold tour of Red Red Shoes which was shown at Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2007, and shortly after was cast in her first Equity production of Biloxi Blues in 2010. Mariah received her bachelors in Fine Arts from the OKCU school of Theatre and is currently finishing up her Masters at the University of London's Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. After she graduated from her bachelors in acting she moved to Shanghai, China working as an actress and director for company LPFilms. She produced the Five Dollar Movie documentary in Shanghai China, and was part of the creative team that produced popular TV show and Play High Spirits, cooking show China Eats, and new feminist movement documentary Ladies Night. She is soon to appear in her first feature film next year and has recently appeared in short film AB Negative directed by Olivia Starr. SPOTLIGHT
CREW KATE HERRON (director/producer)
Kate Herron is a writer-director of comedy and drama short films, with a focus on female-led comedy. She is passionate about making character-driven films that are as cinematic as they are funny. Needless to say, she's a big Billy Wilder fan. Her films have competed internationally at festivals including Flickerfest, Palm Springs Shortsfest, Cambridge Film Festival and London Short Film Festival. Her work has also been featured by Hunger Magazine, Digital Filmmaker, Marie Claire and Film4. It has been described as,“Fantastic” (Directors Notes) “Moving”(The British Comedy Guide) and“Great” (Aint It Cool News). Her short Rest Stop, is currently on the festival circuit and premiered at the Bafta & Oscar-qualifying 19th Flickers: Rhode Island International Film Festival where it won the Grand Prize for Best Comedy Short. Kate made Rest Stop on the LOCO London Comedy Film Festival with Sky Comedy mentor scheme - which gave her access to major comedy figures including BAFTAwinning writer/producer Robert Popper (Look Around You) and mentoring from Sky Comedy's executive commissioning team. Kate is passionate about encouraging female-led comedy work and has spoken on panels at multiple festivals about comedy filmmaking including London Short Film Festival and is a member of female directing collective Film Fatales (founded by Leah Meyerhoff in NYC 2013, “A movement is forming, and it's a good one” Filmmaker Magazine). She is currently working on her debut feature, James is Dead which won her a place on the 2015 Edinburgh International Film Festival Talent Lab and the London Film Festival Think-Shoot-Distribute feature development scheme. @iamkateherron // kateherron.com
HENRIETTA & JESSICA ASHWORTH (writers/producers)
Named as one of Broadcast's 'Hotshots' 2013, and selected for Screen’s Stars of Tomorrow in 2012, Jessica and Henrietta wrote their first script The Shakespeare Club – a farce about the authorship controversy – at the age of 15. Their feature script Olivia and Jim was placed third on the Brit List in 2011 and is now currently in development with Equation Pictures and Stray Bear Productions, with the support of the BFI. Following on from their recent TV work on the third series of Fresh Meat, they are now developing projects with Element Pictures, Warp, Left Bank, Baby Cow, Levantine Films, SBP, Roads Entertainment and C4. Their third feature script Weird (produced by Sarah Brocklehurst and directed by Tim Kirkby) is due to shoot in the summer of next year, as is as their adaptation of Fiona Weir's novel Tell it to the Bees (produced by Zeitgeist Films/BFI and directed by Annabel Jankel). Jessica and Henrietta are currently writing an adaptation of Queen's Gambit, Elizabeth Fremantle's novel on the life of Henry VIII's last wife Katherine Parr, for Magnolia Mae Films and Baby Cow. Henrietta is a graduate in English Literature and Film from the University of Sussex, and was awarded the prestigious Arts & Humanities Research Council Award scholarship to study for a Masters in Film at University College London in 2013, which she completed in early 2014 with First Degree Honours. Jessica also works as an actress, appearing in Julian Jarrold’s BECOMING JANE, as well as ROCK AND CHIPS and DOCTOR WHO for the BBC. Jessica is also a founding member of allfemale sketch comedy group DUDE LOOKS LIKE A LADY. Their debut show (directed by Henrietta) will ran at The White Bear in Kennington in September 2015. @HenAshworth // @JezzAshworth//
WEBSITE
MICHAEL BEDDOES (Producer)
Michael Beddoes is a Producer who works across features, short films and commercials. He has an MA in Producing for Film & Television from Royal Holloway, University of London. His first short film, 'The Third One This Week' received it's World Premiere at SXSW, and since then other shorts films produced by Michael have played at over 40 film festivals including Palm Springs ShortsFest, Atlanta, Seattle, The Hamptons and Cinequest. In 2015, as well as producing on 'Fan Girl', Michael has also produced Creative England iShort 'Vanishing Trick', short film 'Cold Reader' and has sold his micro-budget feature 'Survivors' for distribution around the world on various platforms (released 20th October in the USA/ South America and 27th October in Europe). @michaelbeddoes
JONATHAN FLINT (Director of Photography)
Jonathan Flint is a Director of Photography with ex p e ri enc e wo rking o n narrat ive fic tio n, commercials and music videos. He studied at the University for the Creative Arts in Farnham, studying Film Production and specialising in cinematography under the esteemed guidance of DoP Noski Deville and Camera Operator Chris Pinnock.During this time, he was awarded the pretigious Billy Williams OBE, BSC Cinematography Scholarship. His graduation film Pantheon was nominated for the Best Fiction Film at the Royal Television Society Awards in 2013, nominated for Best Cinematography at Super Shorts Film Festival and Watersprite Film Festival and screened at numerous festival worldwide including London Short Film Festival, NFFTY in Seattle and Plus Camerimage Film Festival in Poland. WEBSITE
RICCARDO SERVINI (Editor)
Riccardo Servini is a London based editor working in films, commercials, and promos. Working with awardwinning directors including BIFA-winning Rob Savage, the shorts Ric has cut have competed internationally at festivals including the London Film Festival, Raindance, Palm Springs Shortsfest, Flickerfest and Frightfest. In the world of commercials Riccardo has cut for brands including Reebok, Groupon, and had promos featured as Vimeo Staff Picks, by BUG and Promo News.The music video he cut for Dear Reader won Best Music Video at the London Short Film festival. Fan Girl is Ric's third collaboration with director Kate Herron, their first Kill List - The Musical was a Film4 Scene Stealers Finalist and their previous short, Rest Stop mentored by Sky Comedy, just won the Grand Prize for Best Comedy Short at the Oscar-qualifying Rhode Island Film Festival. When not editing Ric is a prolific filmmaker in his own right. His super hero comedy Earths Last Hope won the TOP RATED FILMINUTE Prize and he just directed a music video for the band Them & Us that will be launched across MTV in the USA over this summer. @RicBebop // WEBSITE SIMON ASTON (Colourist)
Simon has been the Senior Colourist at UNIT for 18 years. He started at UNIT in 2009 and has put it on the map with his stunning and diverse portfolio. Simon cut his teeth in films, working on Oscar winners like Shakespeare In Love and box office smashes such as Notting Hill and Trainspotting. During his time at UNIT, Simon has teamed up with some of the best directors in the industry including Mario Testino, Tony Kaye and Paul WS Anderson, a selection of the campaigns he has worked on include Jaguar, Stuart Weitzman, Audi, Shell & Volkswagen. WEBSITE
SAMANTHA SHELDRAKE (Production Design)
Samantha is a London based Production Designer/Art Director who studied ‘Arts & Media’ at UCA in Farnham. Sam has worked on a variety of different projects including short films, interactive theatre, corporate events, commercials, television and music videos. Artists she has worked producing sets for include; Laura Marling, Zemmy, Fabien Holland and Dear Reader for which the music video ‘Took them Away’ received ‘Best Music Short’ at London’s Short Film Festival in 2013. She regularly works for Secret Cinema and has assisted on building sets for Brazil, Shawshank Redemption and Casablanca among many others. Fan Girl is Samantha’s second collaboration with director Kate Herron, in their first Samantha created an entire service station from scratch for the short Rest Stop, which has just won the Grand Prize for Best Comedy Short at the Oscar-qualifying Rhode Island Film Festival and will be screening at the BAFTAqualifying Cambridge Film Festival this September. @sammi_shel
ALEXI KOTKOWSKA (Costume Designer)
Alexi is a London born and based Costume Designer & Stylist working in film shorts, features, on fashion campaigns, editorials and music videos. She studied Psychology but after graduating decided to travel before following her heart and passions by pursuing a career in both fashion and film. Alexi has worked for several talented and award -winning designers & directors which include Sorcha O’Raghallaigh, Bradley Porter, Riccardo Servini & Rob Savage. Fan Girl is Alexi's first collaboration with director Kate Herron, she put together all the costumes and hand-sprayed the t-shirts. She finds inspiration everywhere especially in art, history and old photographs. @AlexiKotkowska
PATRICK JONSSON (Composer)
Patrick Jonsson is a film composer living and working in London, UK. He is a graduate of Berklee College of Music in Boston (2007) and was selected to attend the Berlinale Talent Campus in 2009. In 2013 Patrick scored Bends, directed by Flora Lau, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival as part of 'Un Certain Regard' for which he went on to receive a nomination for 'Best Original Film Score' at the Taipei Golden Horse Awards, one of the top Chinese-language film awards. Patrick has since composed the score for Academy Award and BAFTA nominated feature documentary Virunga, directed by Orlando von Einsiedel and executive produced by Leonardo Di Caprio’s Appian Way Productions. Virunga had its world premiere at Tribeca Film Festival 2014 in the World Documentary Competition and was released by Netflix as part of their growing 'Netflix Originals' lineup. The film’s music was picked out as one of the '15 Best Film Scores of 2014' by HitFix. Patrick has also composed music for numerous short films and commercials, including award-winning short film Skateistan: to Live and Skate Kabul which was an official selection at Sundance and SXSW, and BFI/Lighthouse-backed Mohammed directed by Mustapha Kseibati. He has also assisted composers on a number of studio level feature films such as Thor, Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Brave. @Soundsoap // WEBSITE
FULL CAST AND CREW LIST DIRECTOR: Kate Herron WRITERS: Henrietta & Jessica Ashworth EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Amanda Brennan PRODUCERS: Kate Herron, Michael Beddoes, Henrietta & Jessica Ashworth CAST EMILY: Rebecca Gutherless KIM: Rebecca Robinson CRAIG WOLTON: Brendan Lyle MINDY: Mariah Nonnemacher PETE: Andy Cantillon RYAN LAUGHTNER: Steve Oram DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Jonathan Flint EDITOR: Riccardo Servini PRODUCTION DESIGNER: Samantha Sheldrake COSTUME DESIGNER: Alexi Kotkowska COMPOSER: Patrick Jonsson FIRST ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: Mark Lacey MAKEUP ARTIST: Claire Walker MAKEUP ARTIST SKYPE SCENE: Alice Jones GAFFER: Jed Tune, Matias Gaggiotti SPARKS: Malika Sheikh KEY GRIP: James Fresco FIRST AC: Glen Kirby, Peter Kehoe 2nd AC: Michael Salter SOUND RECORDISTS: Ben Ring, Stefan Stefanovnic BOOM OPERATOR: Nirav Rav Patel SOUND DESIGNER: Tom Guest DIGITAL COLOURIST: Simon Astbury VFX: James Johnson CO-PRODUCERS: Douglas Cox, Helen Simmons LINE PRODUCER: Haley Bishop CONTINUITY: Henrietta & Jessica Ashworth FILM TITLE DESIGN: Claire Pinegar CREDIT DESIGN: James Johnson, Jack Bartram STILLS PHOTOGRAPHY: Zoe Midford
PRODUCTION ASSISTANTS: Ambika Sidhu, Danielle Alexandroni, Zoe Midford LOCATION SCOUT: Amy Tuckwell
ART DEPARTMENT ASSISTANTS: Andy Cantillon, Besim Hajdini GRAPHICS FOR SCRAPBOOK: Rebecca Robinson, Andrew Visser COSTUME ASSISTANTS: Rio Ramos, Tsarina Ramos T-SHIRT GRAPHICS: JC BONDAD OFF-LIMITS PHOTOSHOOT YOUNG RYAN LAUGHTNER: Douglas Cox BOYBAND: Mawaan Rizwan, Chris Walsh, Tom Cozens, Oliver Malam PHOTOGRAPHY: Ella Sadika MAKE-UP ARTIST: Katie Bean FEATURING SONGS “FLAVOUR OF LOVE” LYRICS: Kate Herron, Jessica Ashworth, Patrick Jonsson COMPOSER: Patrick Jonsson VOCALS: Matthew Wycliffe, Joseph Ashworth, Jamie Dispirito, James Pattison, Dominic Brewer COPYRIGHT: Patrick Jonsson “CAN YOU SEE ME IN THE DARK” LYRICS: Patrick Jonsson COMPOSER: Patrick Jonsson VOCALS: Matthew Wycliffe, Joseph Ashworth, Jamie Dispirito, James Pattison, Dominic Brewer COPYRIGHT: Patrick Jonsson
WITH SPECIAL THANKS TO Rob Savage, Jan & David Herron, Sheila & Richard Ashworth, Jo Bond, Jonathan Wakeham, Rob Watson, Andrew Visser, Katie Mavroleon, Rosie Gaunt-Mathieson, Katharine White, Panalux, Art War Entertainment, Dave Roberts, George Martyn, Judith Flint, North East Surrey College of Technology, Kieron Jansch, Ken Mizutani, Abigail Blackmore, Andrew Bridge, Paul Foxcroft and Riley Madincea. Ashley, Ben, Millie-Mai & Kate Weston. Sally Heath & Mel James at UNIT. Filmed on location in Woking Surrey. No young men were harmed in the making of this movie.
CONTACT
EMAIL fangirlmovie@gmail.com
WEBSITE Www.fangirlmovie.com
High-resolution stills and video material available upon request.