The Only comes to life

So, not quite hot on the heels of my interview with Lisa, the lovely artist who did the cover of The Only, here is an interview with Connor Guyler of Simulated Film who did an amazing job shooting the book trailer. It's been something really quite special to see scenes which have been in my head for a couple of years suddenly coming to life in front of me and I'm thrilled with the result. 

Welcome, Connor, so let's kick off with which medium you think tells a better story, film or words, or do you think each has its own merits?

I think that it’s difficult to pick between the two mediums as they are so different. A good example of a film uses images to propel the storyline whereas a good novel uses descriptive language to build an image in someone’s mind. There is more scope in film to create a good story with access to sound; however, I think that some filmmakers have become complacent and have forgotten what it means to create a visual piece. They use dialogue to explain story rather than images, believing that without any exposition the audience won’t be able to figure it out. The audience is more intelligent than people think, and I believe filmmakers need to put more effort into taking dialogue out of their screenplays to create a better work of art. 

How easy is it to distill a story of (in the case of The Only) 95,000 words into a minute and a half?

I think the difficulty depends on what you want to include in a trailer. I didn’t want to give too much away about the storyline but wanted to delve quite deep into the backstory so I found it not as difficult as creating a trailer through snippets of dialogue from the storyline. I then wanted to pick either scenes or images from the book which I think represent the mood that would be present during all these events happening.

With that short amount of time to get the message of a book across, what do you think are the most important elements, and how did you choose what scenes to include? 

With a trailer, in a way, you want to create a storyline in itself which gives some of the information away but not enough for people to know what happens without reading it. In the case of The Only, I found the back story absolutely intriguing and something that is a very real possibility so I definitely wanted to dedicate the first half of the trailer to exploring what events have led up to the start of the book. I then wanted to show the protagonist’s motivation for the decisions she makes in the story; this led me to include the scene of her dropping a bottle of medicine to represent the decline of Coralone, as this is the catalyst for all the events in the book. From then I included various images which I think represent the state of the UK during the time the book is set and a small preview of an extremely important scene with the flare. However, without reading the book, the viewer wouldn’t have understood the importance of this scene.

I have to say I love seeing that scene on the screen - it gives me goosebumps every time! Do you think book writers make good screenwriters or do you think it's a different skill?

I believe that there is always the ability for writers to transfer their skills to screenwriting, however they would just have to learn to be less descriptive, and learn to think about a screenplay as a set of instructions for everyone else to follow. Screenplays are very direct and to the point so that everyone who reads it is on the same page and knows exactly what is happening in each scene, whereas novels leave a certain amount to the imagination.

How important do you think it is for the writer to be involved in a visual production of their story?

I think it’s almost essential that the writer be involved because, ultimately, anyone who has read the book will want the film to be as close as possible to the storyline and often important scenes are left out or changed in an unforgiving way because there hasn’t been the input of the author. Also, because everything in a book is left to the imagination of the reader, the director/producer etc may have a different take on how the main character looks, for example. If you look at two of the most successful novel to film transitions, Harry Potter and The Hunger Games, both J.K Rowling and Suzanne Collins were involved with the films. With J.K Rowling making sure that the production was predominantly British and giving input throughout the creation of the films, and Suzanne Collins co writing the screen play of The Hunger Games. Most people regard these films as great adaptations and shows the importance of the authors input.

I'd have to agree with you there, I loved both the book series and the movies of both of those! What book would you like to make a trailer for and why?

Anything that’s science fiction because of my huge love for sci-fi.

Maybe I should write a sci-fi one next then ;)  And, finally, one for fun - if you were a superhero, what would be your super power? 

I think controlling time would be the best, as you could be anywhere and everywhere all the time. You’d never make a mistake because you’d just go back in time and fix it and you could jump into the future just to see what happens. I’m sure everyone would be intrigued by that. If I couldn’t have that I’d love also to fly.

I'm absolutely with you on the power over time!! Sadly our time has run out today but thanks for answering all my questions and for doing such a great job on the trailer. 

Connor can be found here c.guyler@simulatedfilm.co.uk and his website is www.simulatedfilm.co.uk  And if you want to catch the trailer again, you can, right here!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpMKn693JrQ