One quiet Sunday, after bingeing the latest season of the game show “Taskmaster” on YouTube and falling in love with one of the contestants, comedian Mike Wozniak (of “Man Down” fame), I decided to check out some of his other works. As a result, I chanced upon this feel-good short film called “Cul-De-Sac.”
Released in 2017, this lovely film revolves around a divorced and lonesome private detective named Chris Pond (played by Wozniak). He’s subjected to a mini intervention by his younger sister Lottie (played by Lucy Pearman) while out on a stakeout. This event, which occurs out of the blue, eventually makes the uptight sleuth question his life choices. It’s available on YouTube and has also made the rounds of many film festivals around the UK and globally.
What’s even more awesome, is that I also had the opportunity to talk to the Writer and Director of “Cul de Sac,” the humble and humorous Nick Flügge. We talked about his movie, working with Mike Wozniak, his journey as a filmmaker, and more in this interview.
I read on your website about your previous work on commercials and music videos. Could you elaborate on your transition from making commercials and music videos to making short films? What are some differences or similarities you’ve encountered?
Poster for “The Tale of the Upside Down Mermaid,” written by Flügge. Photo: courtesy submission.
NF: I spent many years with my creative partner makings ads and sometimes music videos…and what we loved most, apart from the free snacks, was coming up with a whole world that you were only seeing for 30 seconds or 3 minutes or whatever. When I starting trying to make short films, I wanted to do the same thing. I wanted to create an entire world that was going on before the film started and after it ended. Those are the sort of films that stay with me.
And obviously a big difference is budget. In ads you’re sometimes dealing with budgets of hundreds of thousands of pounds; in short film you’re dealing with budgets of a hundred pounds. Plus a few credit cards. It definitely forces you to think quite creatively sometimes. And it means no more free snacks.
What influenced you to pursue filmmaking?
NF: It was really wanting to tell stories that couldn’t be told in what I was doing in the ad world. Say a creepy divorced single dad, or an upside down mermaid…there’s not that much call for that in a commercial for soap powder. Unless there are any soap powder brands that are reading this; I will happily slap your logo on my film for 50K.
Who are some of your inspirations in the field of filmmaking?
NF: I should really talk about some obscure Latvian projectionist here shouldn’t I? But really it’s the people that continually knock it out of the park…Spike Jonze, The Coen Brothers, Ben Wheatley, Edgar Wright… I get especially inspired by the ways they broke into filmmaking, by making low to no budget features or doing skate videos or just badgering their neighbours for funding. It’s so inspiring; and yet, you do tend to wake up in the middle of the night whipping yourself with a birch branch for not doing enough to get your feature film off the ground.
You’d never know how unsleepy a sleepy cul-de-sac becomes just when you’re trying to make a short film on limited budget and time. …Every house on the street suddenly decided to have their year’s worth of shopping delivered on the same day, not to mention four different postmen.”nick flügge
I’m also curious as to why you chose the name “Cul-De-Sac” for your short film? What does it signify with regards to the film and why did you choose this name in particular?
NF: Well, it’s the slightly on-the-nose subtext of a middle-of-the-road guy’s life going nowhere and him stuck down this middle-of-the-road cul-de-sac. Also he clearly thinks he deserves better than his situation; and I’ve always liked that there’s this grandiose French phrase in English for a road that doesn’t go anywhere. Plus hyphens always look good on a film poster.
I am also a fan of Mike Wozniak ever since ‘Man Down.’ How was your experience working with him?
Filmmaker Nick Flügge. Photo: courtesy submission.
NF: He was awful. A really toxic presence on set… No, not really, he was amazing. He’s obviously incredibly funny, but the emotion and drama he can turn on is so impressive. When we did that close up at the end, when he’s thinking of calling his wife, I could see a few of the crew, wiping some “dust” from their eyes! And these are hard-bitten film folk! They don’t cry, laugh, or even bleed apparently.
Did the actors have any creative input? Like when it came to the picturisation of their characters or the personalities of their characters, etc. in ‘Cul-De-Sac’?
NF: We didn’t really have any rehearsal time per se, but I did get to invite Lucy and Mike to my house with the promise of my wife’s lasagne. We got to have a read-through, talk about the story and the emotional stuff that’s going on in the script; and I think I did another draft after hearing the lines in their voices.
I think I nicked stuff off them that evening and stuck it in the script, little verbal tics, pauses, stuff like that. Which adds so much to the the film and the believability you have to create in a short time.
“Cul-De-Sac” is mostly set in a closed and narrow space (a car). Did you face any challenges filming in such a small space and were there any other hardships during the filming?
Lucy Pearman and Mike Wozniak in “Cul-De-Sac.” Photo: courtesy submission.
NF: You’d never know how unsleepy a sleepy cul-de-sac becomes just when you’re trying to make a short film on limited budget and time. It seemed that every house on the street suddenly decided to have their year’s worth of shopping delivered on the same day, not to mention four different postmen. The people who lived there were really helpful. I [also] had the grateful support of Talkies, a local community-based short film festival that helped find and coordinate the location which was priceless.
I would also love to know more about your future projects. Are you currently working on any new projects you would love to share with our readers?
NF: I’m working on a feature film script centring on the characters from “Cul-De-Sac,” and I’ve also made another short, “Cut Off,” about a mobile hairdresser’s first day on the job, that’s been selected for LOCO (LOCO London Comedy Film Festival), which is amazing. Instead of being set in a car, it’s set on 10 flights of stairs, which presented a whole new set of problems. Not to mention fear of heights.
Do check out “Cul-De-Sac” in the window below. For more on Nick Flügge and for a full list of his work, feel free to peruse through his website at: http://www.nickflugge.com/home/homepage.html.
