We spoke to Jeanie Finlay, the director of a new documentary called Teenland
Teenland takes a look inside four teenagers' bedrooms. What goes on behind the closed doors of teens and what are their hopes for the future?
We spoke to the doc's director, Jeanie Finlay. You'll be able to see the doc on May 30th at 10pm on BBC4. For now, go here for a full preview
I wanted to make a film about teenagers and their bedrooms, in particular teenagers who spent almost all their time in their rooms. I filmed about 14 teens for the pilot and then selected the 4 most interesting stories and characters for the final film.
The research was lateral thinking really - who would spend a lot of time in their room? I wanted to find someone who was ill, perhaps with ME, a gamer, someone who dressed up with a decorated room, then Lizzy was interesting as she demonstrated how much teenagers can change in a short period.
We used lots of different approaches, specific to each potential teen - posted on message boards, searched online, blogs, myspace, friends of friends, handed out fliers at gigs and specialist shops, went to gaming evenings.
Not really - I guess I wanted a gamer and someone ill but I did see a few potentials. I was interested in talking to people that you might not normally hear from on television, maybe quieter people that haven't got an ASBO!
I think teenage bedrooms are endlessly fascinating as they are the only space that most teenagers can call their own. If they are living at home it is a space that they can customise and change to reflect who they are at this moment, who they wish to be and the child they were. They can be a mirror, a canvas or just a safe space. I kept imagining that the teenagers in my film were chrysalis in their rooms, gestating until they emerged as adults.
When I was about 14 I spent a year off school ill and my bedroom always reflected my state of mind and interests. I was an aspiring artist so the room was covered in a floor to ceiling montage of photos, magazine cutouts and paintings. The film was an opportunity for me to re-visit that very personal experience through the lives of four other very different people.
Challenges - you name it - lack of space, lights being too hot /powerful in a small space, boom shadow, not enough room for the sound recordist - he spent a lot of time sat on the landing.
Advantages - I liked the contained feeling of the film as it's mostly in one space. We pretty much filmed every square inch of the rooms. In order to show more I used a mini jib and macro lens and put the camera extra close and moved it through an interior landscape of teenage debris and ephemera. I purposefully never show a wide of the rooms but reveal parts of the room, piece by piece.
I did think that I had picked quite normal teens, except for Vikki (who has been in bed for 5 years). The intricacies and nuances of their stories came out during the interviews and filming and weren't always apparent from the outset. I think if you ask any teenager there may be problems and difficulties in their life, it's a very difficult time!
They were all very open to telling their story on camera. Obviously it must have quite strange for them at first but they seemed to get used to the routine quickly. There were a few teenage diva strops but that's to be expected.
The feedback was that they were pleased that their kids were taking part in the film. I think for some of them they heard their children talk about things on camera that they hadn't talked about face to face so it was quite revealing.
Vikki is astonishingly confident in real life and was always very articulate about her experiences. I think she is quite practiced at talking about her illness as she has been living with it and talking to people about it for a long time now. I am intrigued to see what will happen to Vikki, I really hope that she is able to recover and start living a life outside of her room.
I think they are quite image obsessed! All of the teens have seen the film and like it - I think it is helping to fulfill Immy's aim of becoming 'famous for being famous', Lizzy goes through a transition that she was glad was documented, Vikki likes the film and the only one I don't know about is Scott as he has moved house and we have lost touch. I hope he likes it as he comes across as a very warm and funny young man.
I worked with the brilliant Tim Olden as music director. My brief to him was to incorporate teen anthems from my youth (including John Hughes films) so there's Pretty in Pink, Identity and Hushabye Mountain as well as multiple versions of Teenage Kicks. Initially the multiple Teenage kicks was an idea by Nick Fenton, the editor who worked on the pilot and Tim worked with a series of bands and musicians recording a range of covers. The different styles and versions of the same song help to establish the different characters in the film. Hushabye Mountain by Bobbie Gentry always makes me feel so emotional, reminds me of watching Chitty, Chitty Bang Bang for the first time - when Dick van Dyke finds the children who lost their childhood.
It was a long a convoluted journey, basically my producer Debbie Ballin presented a slate to Richard Klein at BBC. He liked Teenland out of the 10 films pitched. We then did some initial research, got some more investment, shot a 15 minute, then an 8 minute pilot with 3 of the final characters. Richard then commissioned it as a 60 minute film for BBC4. He really took a chance on me as he liked my artwork and the idea. He gave me a lot of freedom and was also incredibly supportive, the film really wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for his faith in me.
I made a 10 minute short for the Film council DV shorts scheme about loves over a life time and made large scale video artwork for galleries and the web but it is all pretty unconventional in terms of documentary and form. Home-maker is interactive and non-linear and tells the stories of 7 housebound, older people from Derbyshire and Tokyo in snippets of film.
The next film I'm making is a 90 minute doc about older goths for Tigerlily films, Cactus3 and IFC in USA.
Keep making films - learn about the kind of films you want to make by getting together with your friends and shooting shorts, zero budget films then apply for all the schemes going and prove a track record. Watch loads of films, TV, and not just documentaries.
Keep the central idea of what you want to make in your mind throughout your shoot / development but be open to what is happening in front of the camera and be prepared to change your schedule accordingly.
I really feel like I fell into it - There's a great film-making community in Nottingham and the East Midlands. I suspect that is a huge influence on why my arts practice changed into making documentaries. I was always interested in telling stories in my artwork, now I do it on video.
These are my favourite film-makers, documentary and otherwise:
Powell and Pressburger, Nicholas Barker, Gillian Wearing, Steven Sheil, Chris Cooke, David Lynch, Errol Morris and Wernor Herzog.
My favourite films are:
Black Narcissus - Powell and Pressburger
After Life - Kore-Eda Hirokazu
Fitzcarraldo or Grizzly Man - Werner Herzog
First Person - Erroll Morris
Rushmore - Wes Anderson
The Philadelphia Story - George Cukor
The Wizard of Oz
A Matter of Life and Death - Powell and Pressburger
Heathers - Michael Lehmann
Pretty in Pink - John Hughes
It's a Wonderful Life - Frank Capra
Festen - Nicholas Vinteberg
Fearless - Peter Weir
The Five Obstructions or Breaking the waves - Lars Von Trier
The Philadelphia Story - George Cukor
Me and you and everyone we know - Miranda July
Unmade beds - Nicholas Barker
Heaven - Diane Keaton
My friend Diane who has won over 100k worth of prizes
To find our more about Jeanie and Teenland, go to www.ruby-online.co.uk