POPULOUS Dystopian Sci-Fi Short Film and Interview with Writer and Producer Dan Horrigan

The FilmQuest Film Festival and GeekTyrant have teamed up to promote and share officially selected films of FilmQuest filmmakers to promote their films, their work, and their careers.

Today’s short is a sci-fi project titled Populous, which is set in a world sputtering under ecological ruin and self imposed eugenics one couple’s search for some hope in their lives.

The movie comes from director Aaron Bevan-Bailey and writer and producer Dan Horrigan. We’ve also included an interview giving you the opportunity to get to know Horrigan and the film that he’s made.

Tell us what your film is about, its characters, and its themes. Is it a proof of concept, or a standalone story.

In a world sputtering under ecological ruin and self imposed eugenics one couple search for hope in their love. John and Helen share a life but what do they really know of each other? For John's part he works for the sinister Orwellian Populace corporation and for Helen's part she has fallen pregnant without a license - and neither of them know the truth of the other. The film surveys the contradictory positions of human agency within a strictly controlled world where the pursuit of perfection drives a seductive evil.

What was the inspiration for your film? How did you come up with the idea?

The film was heavily inspired by the rise of authoritarian control over the bodies of women, and in particular the pervasive and increasingly eugenist views of the 21st Century going back centuries which have been renewed and emboldened globally. In terms of popular culture the film was inspired by 2000AD, The Handmaid's Tale, 1984, and Brave New World. The director Aaron Bevan Bailey is also a phenomenal visual artist and he had a very clear vision for the aesthetics of the piece.

Tell us about yourself. What is your background? How long have you been a filmmaker?

Since 2015 I have been working across genres in scif, horror, and drama with over 100 festival appearances and recently in the United Kingdom I have screened at The British Museum and The Curzon Soho. Populace was my way into film as a screenwriter and executive producer and was handled exceptionally well by Aaron Bevan Bailey (director) and Jamie Pigott (Best Actor FilmQuest 2017) with a wonderful team and post production at The Frame Store.

What inspires you to work within genre cinema and tell these kind of stories?

For me genre provides the kind of territory where you can play with big ideas in varied skins and present ways and means to look differently at the here today and now. It is both familiar and strange - and the further you can take an audience from the continuity of the familiar the more fun you can have.

What was your favorite part of the filmmaking process for this project?

Adapting the script to suit Aaron Bevan Bailey's vision was and remains some of the most fun I have had in screenwriting. His central idea was to bring in the clone story which gave the film a decisive genre shift. I embraced it immediately and it produced a wonderful moment in the film which has delighted audiences across the world.

What are you most proud of with this film?

That something I wrote connected with a team to such an extent that it provided work for a large and talented crew and then delighted audiences across the world. The film debuted with the London SciFi Festival next to Mad Max Fury Road at a Picturehouse in London before being hand picked for Danny Boyle's Shuffle Festival which took us to America and then to FilmQuest. Now it resides as part of the curation on Dust in very good company and people are still enjoying it ten years later.

What is a favorite story or moment from the making of the film you'd like to share? 

We'd like to thank the team on Alice Through the Looking Glass for being super efficient because we got the location off the back of them wrapping three days early - and then we were in for the shoot. Also the screenings at the Frame Store were so warm and celebratory and Aaron's vision was fully appreciated by the crowds. Aaron has one of the best genre minds I've ever been lucky to share in. I'll always remember his ideas for the world which we shared over beer's in Brick Lane. Then there's Jamie's work and the tear. A wonderful moment of cinema. Going way back I knew as soon as I laid eyes on Aaron's storyboard that this was going to be a good one. Other moments include fireflies at outdoor screenings lending their vibe, arguments about the state and what it means from the audiences, and most importantly hanging out with Jamie and Aaron at festivals in London and the USA and meeting beautiful filmmakers and people from all over the world.

What was your most challenging moment or experience you had while making your film?

For me it was about delivering a script that could sustain the level of talent involved in the piece and which would support not only the director and actors but also the cinematographers and crew - and then still hold up at post production. I'm lucky to have been treated with respect and when I watch the film I can still trace the path back to the original impulse to write the screenplay - and along the way it became the directors film and I'm proud to have been his screenwriter on his debut short.

If it did, how did your film change or differ from its original concept during pre-production, production, and/or post-production? How has this changed how you'll approach future projects as a result?

The film began as a play for the theatre (which was recently produced in Quebec, Canada) called Still I See My Baby which I had written in 2014, and through a process of immersion in Aaron's vision it became a wonderful short film. It was a real pleasure to be trusted and encouraged to deliver a compelling screenplay for such a fantastic, imaginative, director and team. I like to think that because I had the source or impulse of the idea really firmly fixed I was able to be flexible and deliver for Aaron - it freed him up to do his work and he really delivered. At the same time it provided something complicated and human for the actors within the genre setting and this synthesis is really where I want to be in film.

Who were some of your collaborators and actors on the film? How did you start working with each other?

Jamie Pigott and I met in acting class and he was really leading the way in truthful and authentic work. To my delight he came to see my play Still I See My Baby and was moved. He knew he wanted to do something with this and it was going to be a film. So he hooked me up with Aaron - they are old school friends from the same remote village in Scotland - and between us we got to make the film. Aaron's imagination and eye for a scene's composition as well as his tenacity in drawing out a performance was the perfect catalyst for Jamie's work which had already tapped in so effortlessly to the spirit of the screenplay. Jamie's performance is really next level and that was recognised at FilmQuest where he walked away with the Best actor Short Award.

What is the best advice you've ever received as a filmmaker and what would you like to say to new filmmakers?

Be confident and concern yourself only with what is essential.

What are your plans for your career and what do you hope this film does for it? What kind of stories would you like to tell moving forward?

My plans are to keep going and produce pictures that add something to the world. My philosophy really is about making feeling possible - and if I can do this where it was previously impossible then I've made a difference.

What is your next project and when can we expect to see it? 

My next project is Murder Song which is a short horror film starring Nicholas Anscombe (he's the body of Merv Pumpkinhead in The Sandman on Netflix which is gorgeous TV). Its a visceral adaptation of Woyzeck by Buchner a German play that inspired Mernau to make Nosferatu.

Where can we find more of your work and where can interested parties contact you? Do you have a website or YouTube/Vimeo channel? Social media handles? Give us what we can share and we'll share!

www.danhorrigan.co.uk @dan_horrigan_productions covertfirmament@hotmail.com @danhorrigan9782

Bonus Question #1: What is your all-time favorite film?

Don't make me choose I have such love for so many! Is the house on fire? Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Bonus Question #2: What is the film that most inspired you to become a filmmaker and/or had the most influence on your work?

Recently I made a film called Seine and the film that was my benchmark was Cronenberg's A History of Violence. There are many films for many reasons that inspire me The Lives of Others - a short film called Table 7 - there's a lot of them. Probably the film that inspires me the most in SciFi is Gattaca - a beautiful exemplary film. There's also Children of Men from Cuaron. Little Joe from Jessica Hausner - a great way to make a scifi horror that's rated 12. Also I should point out that I get to judge film festivals and every year I am blown away by the quality from all over the world - what a privilege that is.