Independent SciFi Film “Third Contact” Looks at Life and Death
British independent film producer Simon Horrocks is promoting a “no-budget” science fiction movie that follows psychotherapist Dr. David Wright (Tim Scott-Walker) as he assembles the pieces of a quantum puzzle. People are dying and leaving behind lists of memories.
SF-Fandom asked for a copy of the film’s press kit so that we could assist in getting the word out about this movie. The quotes provided below are taken from the press kit. We may ask Simon for an interview further down the road.
In 2010, Horrocks assembled a group of actors and friends, bought a second-hand HD camcorder and started filming. Over the following year, they shot Third Contact, fitting around peoples’ day jobs, as and when locations became available. One crew member would turn up after her morning cleaning shift, then would return for her night shift after filming. Equipment was borrowed or acquired from DIY stores. Sound was recorded by two friends, neither of whom had previous experience. The only pro light used was a small redhead found discarded in a cupboard at BBC’s TV Centre. Many of the roles were played by non-actors. In one scene, office staff were played by work colleagues on a short break meaning Horrocks had just 15 minutes to shoot the scene before they went back to their jobs.
The ingenuity that small film-makers display when putting together the resources they need to bring their visions to “film” (a word which, in this digital age, becomes increasingly metaphorical with every passing season) never ceases to amaze me. It just goes to show that where you have passion and intense motivation you find a way to get the job done. Maybe big budget film studios could learn a trick or two from the “no-budget” indie community.
There is an intimate feeling about a small budget science fiction movie. The writers and directors have to focus more intensely on the story and less on the character. Often the movies are too short to devote much time to character development. Actors must therefore take their opportunities to emote, to act, and run with them. In a well-done small budget film you see a mix of real life and imagined life but not so much “bigger than life” — which is what Hollywood and its counterparts across the world have become accustomed to showing audiences.
Running to 98 minutes “Third Contact” has a little time for character development. In the press kit, Simon answered some questions about how he made the movie. For the actors, he took a very relaxed approach:
I asked non-actor friends to play roles if I felt they had something about them which would work in the context of the story or the scene, even if this wasn’t as I’d initially envisioned them when I was writing. I like to encourage invention and allow the actors room to interpret the characters as they see them. I would only step in if I thought they were going in the wrong direction. We decided early on not to rehearse much and allow the performance to ‘happen’ on the day of shooting. But non-actors (whatever that means) often do something unexpected that you might not get from an actor who has been trained to create his performance with a certain method.
So how successfully does this directorial technique translate to the product? There are, to date, two short clips available on YouTube: the original “Third Contact” teaser and the full-featured “Third Contact” trailer.
Teaser for “Third Contact” by Simon Horrocks
https://youtube.com/watch?v=qY5BRa4UVJo
Trailer for “Third Contact” by Simon Horrocks
https://youtube.com/watch?v=STwRi3rWa1k
From the press kit, here is Simon’s response to a question: “Did you set out to pose more questions than you answer?”
A physicist once said, “If anyone tells you they understand quantum physics, they’re lying.” The more I read about this subject, the more I realised its such a hard thing for us to understand, we’re making up stories again. There’s theories from multiple universes, to multiple dimensions and even an idea that this universe is some kind of reflection of a universe that exists somewhere else. Scientists are being creative. I find people who watch this [Third Contact] often invent their own version of events, too.
I don’t find that life is full of certainties. Quite the opposite. History is always going to be unreliable, yet people talk about knowing the facts. How can you know the facts about history? I don’t have an exact memory of things that happened even 10 minutes ago, let alone years or centuries ago. And even if I could re-play my experience somehow, it’s still filtered through my own perception. But we desire certainty. And when we don’t get it we get paranoid and start inventing things.
We’ll post more from the press kit interview in our SciFi Movies Forum.
Here are a few resources for you to follow Simon and the “Third Contact” film: