Q&A with Joe Pelling, director, co-writer and executive producer

Talk us through the process of working with Sam on the scripts.

To begin with we rented a small office to dream up some ideas and Sam gradually filled it with his inventions. He had a glove filled with liquid hanging from a rope in the middle of the room, along with a homemade Pokémon ball and a small porcelain head filled with display-only cigarettes. The perfect environment. 

Sam had a pretty clear idea of the outlines for each episode, but we also had help from Paddy Young and Olly Cambridge on the storylines. Then we would all meet up to discuss them and develop the full scripts. We had little experiments we did every day to keep the creative juices flowing. We did this thing called “Comic Club,” where you’d go in and you weren't allowed to speak to each other until you finished this collective comic strip that everybody took turns to draw.  We did lots of things like that. I’m not sure if it helped the show or the scripts, but nevertheless it was interesting.

And so how did the show first come together creatively? What was it about Sam’s script that pulled you in and made you want to get involved?

I'd first seen and really enjoyed Sam's live show at Edinburgh, and then ended up working with him on a short sketch show blap in 2019 when a friend paired us up, we have collaborated on various other projects since then.  What’s great about Sam is he comes from stand-up, but a lot of his ideas are very visually led, and so that's appealing from a directing point of view.

To me the concept of Make that Movie is about how strange filmmaking is, and the stress that goes into something quite stupid. I love the idea of an elite squadron of filmmakers. The show's format allowed us to incorporate lots of different techniques and styles while still keeping the show centred on these characters at its core. 

You collaborated on Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared, so what was it like reuniting with him on this project?
It was a chance to remind each other how hard writing a show is. This project was different in the sense that were less puppets but we still had one puppet so that calmed me down.

Tell me more about working with Sam.

In some ways he’s a maximalist. He likes to push things, and he comes up with ideas that can be challenging for production, for the schedule and budget. But those harebrained ideas are what makes' the show its own thing, I hope anyway. Mostly we did try to put story and character first but every now and then we had a rotating car turntable.

And just on Sam’s voice, he has a very specific tone, which is quite hard to define, but it is unique and distinct. So what does that feel like from your side as co-writer and director?

Yeah Sam certainly has his unique style, a whole new way of thinking some might say.  From my side, it’s exciting to try and get that across on screen without letting it become too conventional. You don’t want to be the person who takes an original voice like his and normalises it too much by putting it in a TV show. So I was trying to protect that. 

What is Make That Movie? In your own words, how would you describe it?

It’s Ground Force but instead of gardens its movies and instead of Titchmarsh its Sam and instead of reality TV, it's scripted. There are a few shows we talked about that inspired it, like these makeover shows or similar formats where each week there’s a new idea, they’re light-touch, a bit of fun. So it’s supposed to feel like that but more poorly thought out.

So how did you approach building the visual language of the show based on the script?

We had to find a style where we could shoot quickly. So we looked at shows with a slightly documentary feel like Arrested Development or The Thick of It, naturalistic styles hand held styles.

Then when you get to the films within the show, there’s contrast. But at the same time, you don’t want the non-film parts to feel too bleak.

There’s also the question of how the team sees themselves: the purple jumpsuits, the HQ, it’s a bit ridiculous. They see themselves as this kind of squadron. So we spent a lot of time talking about the HQ and all that purple furniture.

Did you run into any challenges when building these worlds, or directing the series in general?

The main challenge was just trying to get everything done. You’ve got five main cast members, guest cast in each episode, different locations, and all the film segments. It was just trying to get everything in the can. We had about a week per episode, and a modest budget for what we were trying to shoot. This comes with lots of logistical challenges. For example, we had to shoot something set in a school, but the film they’re making is supposed to be in a kind of mystical bog. So we had to build a forest inside a school gym. We had maybe five minutes at the end of the day to shoot an underwater shot of someone coming out of a swamp, wearing prosthetics, fully submerged.

That was pretty stressful, but we managed it. We built a tank and just went for it. There were lots of things like that; huge effort for a two-second shot. We had an amazing production design team and camera team that were very game for the challenge of it all.

You mentioned the cast—there’s a really diverse and brilliant range of people across the series. What were they like? Did anyone particularly stand out?

They were all great. I loved working with the main team. They really surprised me with how good they are as performers. They’re so funny!

The guest cast were also great, people like Lenny Rush, Rose Matafeo, Anne Penfold are just brilliant performers.

And then the stuff I really love is the more awkward, strange performances. Kim Noble stands out; there’s a moment in the opening montage where he’s just drinking various drinks, and the way he drinks is so funny to me. I don’t even know why, it’s just something very odd about it. 

Were there any improvised moments that made it into the final series?

Yeah, there were bits we improvised, though a lot gets cut because it’s too strange when you get in the edit. Sam likes to improvise, he did a bit where he kept talking about his birthday that I loved but we had to trim it down.

There’s also a scene with Aaron Chen and the American comedian Eric Rahill where they’re talking at a bar. It’s a very strange meeting of minds, parts of that was improvised.

But overall, it’s quite tightly scripted. 

And finally, can you describe your own movie idea in a couple of sentences?

Yes. An alien visits Earth because he’s obsessed with Formula One, but when he gets to the race tracks it’s too loud and gets really, really upset. So he teams up with a Formula One team and Brad Pitt to make Formula One a bit quieter. It's called Quiet Formula One and it's 4k resolution.