Stephen Fingleton: From Christopher Nolan Fanboy to Making 'The Waif' | Kinolime Podcast Episode 7
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Hosted byJohn Schramm
SF
With guestStephen Fingleton
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6YKxAB9aK4https://www.youtube.com/embed/y6YKxAB9aK4
Show Notes
John Schramm sits down with BAFTA-nominated director Stephen Fingleton to discuss his upcoming film "The Waif" (Kinolime's first competition winner), his journey from Christopher Nolan fan to acclaimed filmmaker, and his unique approach to horror filmmaking.
👥 Guest & Host:
Stephen Fingleton (Director: The Survivalist, Nightride, SLR)
John Schramm (Head of Development, Kinolime)
🎯 KEY INSIGHTS:
Key Takeaways:
- How "The Survivalist" topped the UK Blacklist and launched his career
- Why Liam Cunningham taught him crucial lessons about directing actors
- His approach to horror as a vehicle for exploring grief and dark themes
- The importance of resonance in screenwriting (advice from John Yorke)
- Why working outside Hollywood bubbles creates more universal storytelling
Full Transcript
[00:00]
Here we are you you know
[00:02]
Keenaline comes knocking on your door, right? And you're probably like what is Keenaline?
[00:06]
What is going on here? Can you tell us a little bit of your first impression of Keenaline when we first approached you
[00:12]
And also your first thoughts upon reading the wave so Keenaline when I looked into it had a really
[00:20]
Really interesting model which was it was screwing writing competition now screenwriting competitions can have
[00:26]
You know a mixed reputation because you know good stuff like the Nicholas Fellowship
[00:30]
Which highly respected and so on but there's also people who see the competition as a profit center on one of the kind of coolest things
[00:37]
But Keenaline is it's free to enter okay if somebody is offering to read your script for free
[00:43]
For any reason
[00:45]
You know that is they're investing they're investing in reading their investing in a search
[00:50]
So that was something that kind of really impressed me
[00:53]
It was a way of finding new material at the industry having to find okay
[00:58]
You are drawing people in on the promise that the winning script can get me it okay, and that can be really really powerful
[01:05]
My first film actually
[01:07]
Got noticed through a scheme like that. That was the Northern Ireland screen new talent focus scheme
[01:12]
Which is a a local scheme for filmmakers in Northern Ireland that I think is made like over ten features every year
[01:18]
They'll make a feature and
[01:20]
And you know they only get about a hundred entries
[01:23]
Yet they make them and worse Keenaline obviously is far far more than that. It's it's you know global and rich
[01:29]
And it really works because
[01:32]
You know it focuses the mind we're going to make something out of this and draws people in who don't just want
[01:40]
You know to raise their profile. I actually want to see something on screen. So I think that's a great idea
[01:45]
In terms of the way if I was sent the screenplay by
[01:50]
Micah or producer friends
[01:53]
And I read it. I thought it was I thought it was very well done. I thought it was this
[01:59]
You know very grounded
[02:01]
Take on on horror very character focused
[02:07]
It really strong like like second half when
[02:11]
When the kind of the buildup paid off and I thought well this is a movie. This is definitely a movie
[02:18]
I can see this I can see this on screen which you know doesn't happen a lot with scripts
[02:22]
They often have a lot of kind of issues where you think it's gonna be different from it
[02:26]
But it was immediately clear it was movie and the question that I had about it is do I have something to offer can I can I make this
[02:33]
With a particular angle or a particular voice or a way of expressing you know what I believe you know
[02:39]
You know about the story and the characters in a way that's meaningful and that was kind of question and that we work through kind of together
[02:46]
And then in your initial keen on interview you had with us you mentioned about going for the rafters
[02:50]
Which got me super excited? What can audiences expect from that approach?
[02:55]
The idea is that you're
[02:58]
You're never trying to make a programmer
[03:00]
You're never trying to fill a slot. You are trying to make it classic
[03:05]
You know, I've said this before there was a
[03:07]
A producer I work with once so I told
[03:10]
You know, we need to make this film a classic
[03:12]
You know, we need to try and they said no you can't try that you can't try that that's
[03:16]
That's ridiculous, you know, it's it might happen, but that can't be an aspiration and I completely really you need to create the position
[03:23]
So you can be lucky, okay, you need to
[03:26]
Create as much space where you can make something
[03:30]
um, you know bold and a new and surprising to an audience and so
[03:35]
That's what we're trying to do with this
[03:37]
It's amazing you do we do I hear that so much around the business everyone's just trying to play it safe
[03:42]
They're not trying to do something exceptional
[03:45]
You know, they they just want to do the thing get the movie main and etc
[03:48]
And I love that approach because we got to you know, we say take take big swings
[03:53]
That's not the big American
[03:55]
Say they'll take a swing, but I love going through the raptors and I love your your style your approach and like
[04:01]
I mean, it's gonna be incredible, you know, what you ended up making and filming on the wave
[04:06]
um
[04:08]
What makes the wave different from anything else you worked on?
[04:12]
It's a horror for a start. I've done horror adjacent films
[04:16]
My short sharan is a horror
[04:19]
It turns into a horror in the last 25 seconds
[04:22]
um
[04:23]
And survivalist was marked as a horror
[04:27]
But the truth is they are actually suspenseful
[04:30]
Suspense and horror and thriller
[04:33]
Um, are often interlinked, but not always
[04:36]
jaws for example is fundamentally uh, uh, you know
[04:39]
Is fundamentally a suspenseful
[04:42]
um
[04:43]
so
[04:44]
What I would say is um
[04:46]
This is very much
[04:48]
It's not quite a straight horror, but it's very much set in the horror sort of genre. So
[04:53]
You know, when a guy goes to the cabin in the woods
[04:57]
There's certain genre expectations you have to answer everything has to be heightened
[05:01]
Sure
[05:02]
Everything has to have a certain tone has to certain tone from the beginning
[05:05]
Um, I haven't done something as embedded in in in our space stuff
[05:10]
And the films I've often really liked have been adjacent to horror rather than
[05:16]
Uh, full-blooded horror and the horror as I like are the crossover hits, you know, like, uh, you know the wekerman
[05:22]
Um, you know, uh, you know the shining for example
[05:25]
Uh, I think that things like this. So uh, it's it's quite novel for me in terms of in terms of approaching up
[05:31]
But it is something I've wanted to do because um
[05:35]
Haar films these is are usually the most interesting work
[05:39]
Uh, that you can get into the cinema because um the questions they're allowed to ask
[05:44]
the uh, you know, the themes the darkness of the story
[05:48]
Uh, for example hereditary something we talk about a lot in terms of what it's done
[05:52]
And and our yester is you know largely abandoned, you know, the kind of horror horror genre but um
[05:58]
Uh, the fact that he chose that as a vehicle for exploring the things he wanted to
[06:05]
Um, you know, it shows how he recognized um, how useful it is and that's why I'm interested in and in the with
[06:12]
Uh, what it actually is is it's a you know, it's a story about grief. It's a story about
[06:16]
Uh, so many can't accept
[06:19]
You know the death of their um, you know, their family
[06:24]
Um, and yeah, which is which is a very dark concept people wouldn't go to see that if it was a drama
[06:29]
Um, but if it's a horror
[06:30]
Um, they are they will expose themselves to more emotional role material because that's what they've signed up for
[06:37]
Sure, that's a interesting approach and for all those uh, who are watching their hearing of the waif for the first time
[06:43]
If you want to go read the screenplay you can go to kenalam.com
[06:46]
Make an account go to our archives download the waif read it and you can see the amazing film that will be producing and making uh, soon
[06:53]
Let's see them
[07:00]
so
