Directed by
Bryn Higgins
Written by
Oliver Veysey
Produced by
Oliver Veysey / Bill Curbishley
Starring
Ella Purnell, Edward Bluemel, Jordan Stephens, Georgie Henley
With Nigel Lindsay, Jo Hartley and Jason Flemyng
Access All Areas will have it World Premiere at Edinburgh International Film Festival. Running time: 94 min / Certificate: TBC For all publicity enquiries please contact: [email protected] / 020 7247 4171
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GO FOR THE MUSIC. GO FOR YOUR LIFE
An unlikely gang of teens escapes from their dysfunctional parents to an island music festival to lose themselves in the crowd and find themselves in the music.
SHORT SYNOPSIS
When hapless Heath gets caught up in Mia’s desperate bid for freedom, it catapults them and their friends on a wild road-trip to the Isle of Sounds festival whey they lose themselves in the crowd and find themselves in the music. Nothing goes to plan, but if they can get hold of some tickets and survive the crowds, toilets, aerial acrobats, chaos, Swedish hipsters, as well as the unwelcome appearance of their maniacal parents, it promises to be an unforgettable weekend.
SYNOPSIS
A long, hot summer is coming to an end. Whispers of a comeback performance by the legendary artist Kurtz are all over town, and aspiring musician Heath is desperate to make it to the Isle of Sounds festival to see it. But
Heath is going nowhere. While his friends are moving on and moving away, he’s stuck caring for his unpredictable mum Libby, and scrubbing pans to support them both.
Mia has no time for anybody, certainly not her increasingly unhinged father Mack, and least of all Heath, whose affections have been long unrequited. Since the death of her mum, her home has become a war zone. So Mia does what all teenagers do in that situation: she parties every night and refuses to come home.
Something has to give. When Heath gets caught up Mia’s bid for freedom, it catapults them and their friends on a
wild pilgrimage across beautiful British countryside to the greatest show on earth.
But, having recently lost his wife, Mack isn’t going to let go of his daughter easily and he
doesn't trust Heath not to lead her into more trouble. He kidnaps Libby from her meditation
among the fairies, and sets out to thwart their kids’ escape plan, not knowing that he’s about to embark on his own hallucinogenic voyage of self-discovery.
On arriving at the party island, the Mia and Natalie flirt their way to a set of VIP wristbands and leave their unfortunate male companions in the dust. Deserted by his friends, and with fifty thousand terrifyingly loud revelers standing between him and the comeback that might never happen, Heath goes in search of his hero Kurtz. But he should be careful what he looks for…because you never know what you may find.
Over one unforgettable weekend, nothing will go to plan for Heath and his friends. But if they can survive the crowds, the toilets, the aerial acrobats, the chaos, the Swedish hipsters, the unwelcome appearance of maniacal parents, and an apocalyptic backstage encounter with a rock legend, then their lives will never be the same.
ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
How do you make a film about a music festival without taking an entire film crew into the midst of 60,000 dancing, partying kids? You can’t.
“The writer in me has always thought, ‘what an exciting thing to try and do, to make a film at a music festival’” laughs writer and producer Oliver Veysey. “And it was only when I put my producer’s hat on that I discovered how challenging it was going to be!”
Every summer, fields all over the country fill with thousands of revellers who make their own pilgrimages to experience the mad, muddy magic of the British festival. Events like Glastonbury, Bestival, Reading and Leeds bring people together from all walks of life, creating pop-up cities that turn a single weekend into a transformational experience.
“When I was 17 I hitchhiked to Glastonbury” says Veysey. “And for a period of time I went to 10 festivals a year. It was a big part of my life, and my friends’ lives.”
With documentaries like Woodstock (1970), Glastonbury (2006) and All Tomorrow’s Parties
(2009) only ever seeing the crowd as vox pops, Veysey knew that no one had ever really managed to capture the feeling of being at a festival – let alone used it as a backdrop for a dramatic movie.
Co-producing The Railway Man in 2013 with The Who’s manager, Bill Curbishley, Veysey started trading festival stories when he heard the perfect set-up for his script.
“Obviously Bill’s been involved in music his whole life, but he told me the story of how his daughter went to her first festival. She was 16 at the time and she begged him to go until he said, ‘okay, you can go, but this young man is going to come with you’– and he found her a chaperone. He told this guy, ‘you’re going to take my daughter to her first festival and if anything happens to her you’ll answer to me’. So off they went, the boy terrified and the girl mortified… They went in and within a matter of hours the girls had ditched the boys and the next time anyone saw Bill’s daughter she was on the shoulders of some random guy in the mosh pit of the main stage… on the BBC.”
Mixing Curbishley’s story with his own, and bringing the rock legend on board as his coproducer, Veysey wrote Access All Areas as the ultimate festival experience – a feel good road trip with an emotional, dramatic heart that was going to be set, staged and shot right in the middle of a real festival.
Taking the idea of the ‘pilgrimage’ as his cue, Veysey’s script told the story of multiple journeys, and multiple generations. Just as Heath and Mia have their own problems to work out, so too do Libby and Mack – with everyone in the film searching for something they’ve lost along the way. Access All Areas might be a freewheeling festival film, but it’s always anchored by its characters. Knowing how delicate this balance was going to be, Veysey knew he needed a director who understood both sides of his story – leading him to director Bryn Higgins.
“Bryn really understood what I was trying to do,” explains Veysey. “We really connected in terms of the energy and what it needed to feel like. He’s a very assured director and he knows exactly what he wants. He understands music, he understands the characters and he really knows how to tell a story.” “As ever, you start with the script,” adds Higgins, who went from Casualty 1909 and
Privates, to Black Mirror and 2014’s hard-hitting epilepsy drama Electricity. “I thought Access
All Areas was a very characterful, warm script. It was always meant to be a film that gives the experience of going to a festival, but it obviously had to have a great story at the heart of it. It’s a good strong family drama, but at the same time it’s never soft or easy. So it was the script that attracted me first, and then the pedigree behind it.”
Describing the film as a “feel good road movie for two different generations”, Higgins’ own love of music made signing on an easy decision.
“Honestly I can say this is one of the most fun films I’ve done,” he says. “Of course it was a big challenge, and of course there was a lot of interesting things that we had to overcome, but it’s a kind of win-win. It’s a film with a lovely character led script, it’s a film that involves the challenge of shooting in a real festival, and above all it’s about music – and to me, those are three fantastic things to be able to take on. You’re building a world from scratch when you make a feature and this was a great world to build. It was an excuse to have a lot of colour, a great deal of music…”
MUSIC AT THE HEART OF IT ALL
Picking a soundtrack that includes everyone from Faithless, Tame Impala and Future Islands to John Holt, Royal Blood and Disclosure – and capturing live performances from The Who and Underworld – music is at the heart and soul of the whole film. The soundtrack to rival any film released this year will be released on Universal Records.
Veysey says “the film carries you away and immerses you for a time in the festival, and the music plays a crucial role in that”.
“At most festivals there’s 20 odd stages playing at once,” explains Higgins. “My own kids are listening to stuff that I wouldn't even have listened to back in the day – so the whole music world is better now than ever. Everybody listens to everything and the soundtrack had to reflect that. So I got to listen to all kinds of new bands. For a brief moment I was quite hip!”
A UNIQUE LOCATION
Shooting exteriors in and around Bristol, with road scenes shot all over the South West, the biggest challenge early on was securing a real festival to double as the fictitious Isle of Sounds. Needing a major event that offered the kind of crowd, as well as the variety of different areas, backdrops and locations needed to stage the bulk of the film’s action, there was only ever one choice for the film’s producers.
“It was obviously a mountain of logistical challenges, but Bestival was the only festival we approached,” explains Veysey. “I’d been to the festival a few times before and I was already a big fan. For me it’s the most beautifully designed, well thought out experience and the best looking festival by far. Josie da Bank designs it – and Rob [da Bank] curates the music – and they’ve done a really wonderful job. It’s a film set that we could just never afford on our budget, so we approached them early on and they were both really into the idea. And then we started to figure out what it would really take to shoot in a crowd of 50,000 people…”
CHARACTERS AND CAST
But before the tents started going up, the film’s producers needed to find a strong young cast to fill them. “We wanted this film to feel very British,” says Veysey. “The music festival experience feels so ingrained in our society, so it was a conscious choice to try and work with British actors.”
Finding four young actors from four very different backgrounds to fill the main friendship group, the rising stars of Access All Areas are as unique as their characters. “The script is very clear in the way it delineates each of the four characters, so it was really nice to cast the young kids as different types – four different flavours,” says Higgins. “They all came with really good decisions, and I think they’re all amazing”.
First up was casting Heath – the angsty hero of the story whose quest to find Kurtz shapes the events of the whole film. Turning to 23-year-old Edward Bluemel, an actor straight out of drama school with no screen credits to his name, Veysey believes they’ve found one of Britain’s next biggest stars.
“Edward had nothing on his CV and that was incredibly exciting,” he enthuses. “I feel really lucky that we’ve given him his first job because I think we’re going to see a huge amount out of him in the future. He’s a wonderful, wonderful actor. He just instinctively knows what it takes to be a screen actor and you can’t take your eyes off of him.”
“It’s been a bit of baptism of fire, in the best possible way,” laughs Bluemel, since going on to star alongside Olivia Williams and Mark Benton in ITV’s The Halcyon. “Learning what it’s like to act in the middle of 30,000 Missy Elliot fans is a bit of a challenge! But Heath is such a great character to play, it’s been an incredible experience”.
Describing his character as “wise beyond his years”, Bluemel was drawn to the complex relationship Heath has with his mother, played by Jo Hartley. “Heath takes himself very seriously,” he says. “He’s grown up being far more of an adult than a child. He’s looked after his mum, who’s a complete loose cannon, and he’s channelled all of his frustration into music and into the worship of his idol, Kurtz. He puts himself through a lot of obstacles to get where he’s going.”
The flip-side to Heath (and to Bluemel) is Mia, brought to life by 21-year-old Ella Purnell –
already a big-screen veteran after the likes of Never Let Me Go, Kick-Ass 2, Maleficent and Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.
With Purnell turning in a remarkably nuanced performance as the troubled teen who deals with her mother’s death by doing everything she can not to think about her emotions, it was a casting decision that almost didn't happen.
“I wanted a holiday!” laughs Purnell. “I’d already done two movies that year and I didn't want to do anything else for a bit. But then I read the script and it was the weirdest script I’d ever read. It was mental. So I skyped Bryn to find out a bit more and as soon as I got off the call I thought, I have to play this character.
“Mia is intriguing. I’ve never played anyone quite as strong as this. I’ve played a lot of damsels in distress – girls that need rescuing by a handsome prince – but this damsel nicks the prince’s bike at the start of the film!” With the daunting prospect of having to learn how to play the piano, the guitar, how to sing three songs and ride a motorbike in two weeks, Purnell threw herself into the role and impressed everyone on set.
“I think Ella, having that experience on films, was great because she plays a fairly rebellious character who’s got all sorts of problems dealing with the death of her mum – and I really admire the way she didn't try to get any sympathy from the audience,” says Higgins. “She didn't play it soft or hurt, but you still sympathise with her – and I think that took some really good thinking.”
Next up was Leon – the joker of the pack who starts the film as Heath’s nerdy best friend and ends up being completely transformed by the festival. Needing someone who could play Leon for laughs without losing his oddball charm, the producers turned to 24-year-old Rizzle Kicks star Jordan Stephens.
A Brit School alumni who’s been proving himself in the spotlight since he started the platinum selling hip-hop act Rizzle Kicks with Harley Alexander-Sule in 2006, Stephens is still new to acting. Debuting in E4’s 2014 drama Glue, before going on to a number of smaller roles in film and TV (including a cameo in last year’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story), Stephens wanted to get involved as soon as he heard the film was shooting at Bestival – an event he headlined in 2012.
“I wanted to get involved because I like projects that attempt to do things that haven’t been done before,” he says. “I’ve seen one film set at a festival, which was Woodstock, but obviously that was so stylised. So trying to capture a modern day festival – without a fake set – I don't think that’s been done before. And then I found out that Missy Elliot was headlining that year and that sold me because I knew I’d get a free ticket…”
Geeking out on set whenever he bumped into anyone he’d seen on TV, and laughing at Higgins for wearing a baseball cap and parker and “looking too much like a film director”, Jordan found a lot of himself in his character.
“Leon is a nerd who’s really into his music and then the festival sort of awakens him and turns him into a bit of hippie,” he says. “And that’s pretty much the same transformation that I’ve undergone over the last four years. There’s definitely a lot of Leon in me. I read the scenes and I felt like I knew what Leon would do because there’s a part of me that’s totally him. Even if we don’t like the same music…”
With music playing such an important role in the film, all the cast made personalised playlists to get into their characters: Jordan picking minimalist EDM and obscure Pixies demos, Ed choosing Joy Division and Tangerine Dream, Ella picking Sia, and Georgie Henley defining Natalie in “sugary electro acid pop”.
Rounding off the group as the excitable, fun-loving party girl Nat – 22-year-old Henley was chosen against type. Known to audiences since the age of 10 when she debuted as Lucy in the blockbuster Chronicles of Narnia trilogy, she’s not usually associated with characters who wind up on drunk one-night stands on a tour bus.
“Nat is just mental. She’s batty,” laughs Henley. “I was so excited to play something so different from other characters I’d played. I loved the script – unfortunately it’s quite rare to find a script that depicts teenaged life in a real, raw sense and the group dynamic between these four characters was just so amazing. Nat and Mia are the ultimate troublesome twosome – they’re like chalk and cheese but they absolutely adore each other. I think of Natalie as a sparkly hurricane!”
Thrown together under the most extreme filming conditions, all four actors quickly bonded as a group – a tribute to the sense of fun and good-feeling that filled the set, but a fact made all the more surprising given their real life differences.
“You can’t not bond at Bestival. But we’re all so remarkably similar to our characters it’s insane,” laughs Purnell. “Jordan’s the mental one, Georgie has zero inhibition and Ed’s a bit more reserved. You’ve also got Jordan from the Brit school, Ed from drama school, Georgie from Cambridge and me just floating around after finishing my A-Levels. So we’ve all got the personalities to match our schools!”
With the kids in place, the producers turned their attention to the older generation, picking veteran British character actors Jo Hartley and Nigel Lindsay as Libby and Mack,
Quadrophenia legend Phil Daniels as the festival ferryman and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking
Barrels and X-Men star Jason Flemyng as the mythical musician Kurtz. “It’s a film about teenagers, but it’s also about the parents,” says Higgins. “I think people like Jo and Nigel are fantastic actors – and they did a brilliant job under all sorts of conditions. Jason’s just lovely to work with. He’s done a hundred something films but he comes with this enormous focus. Same with Phil Daniels. It was great to have him as a nod to Quadrophenia, but he’s also a great actor and his concentration on the day is amazing.”
Playing Mack with a fine balance of tightly wound aggression and innocent vulnerability, Lindsay (Scoop, Four Lions) was drawn to his character’s complex arc in the script. “Mack’s wife died, not too long ago,” he explains. “He’s left with a daughter who’s struggling to get over it, and he’s struggling to get over it himself. He’s completely closed down as a human being and his daughter has rebelled accordingly. But there’s a lovely journey for Mack. As he chases Mia on her own journey he finds something for himself too.”
Partnered with Jo Hartley as Heath’s unstable mother Libby, it’s Lindsay’s last act transformation as Mack that gives the film its biggest emotional pull – mirrored by Libby’s confessional reunion with her son.
“Libby is a magical character,” says Hartley. “She’s got quite a few sides to her. She’s possessive with Heath and she looks after him, but she can switch that relationship around in an instant.”
Raving about the strength of Bluemel’s debut performance in their tough scenes together, Hartley joins all the veteran cast members in applauding the four main leads. “It’s so great to see young talent delivering like that,” says Flemyng. “It’s not exact science and it’s not easy. You’ve got to do the work, and when you’re that age sometimes it’s hard to do the work because you’ve got other things on your mind – especially when you’re making a film in a music festival…”
ACCESSING ALL AREAS
50,000 people. 18 stages. 88-acres of partying, drinking, dancing and madness. It might not sound like the best environment to shoot a feature film, but Higgins made sure he came prepared.
“I drew on my TV experience, particularly my early work when I made a lot of documentaries and filmed in war zones…” he laughs. “Obviously it’s their festival – it’s not our movie set. So when it came to taking a fairly big drama unit into an environment that you have no control over, honestly, I found it fun. We had a lot of, interaction, shall we say, with ordinary young people – but for me, having done docs, it’s all those accidents that make everything work.”
Not that luck didn't play a part either. Shooting in the late summer of 2015, the crew managed to avoid the rainfall that so often turns British festivals into mud baths – getting a weekend of near perfect weather.
Using a second unit to try and distract the crowd, extensively rehearsing each scene backstage, and making sure everyone was wired with radio mics so they could hear their cues (and find each other), the crew only had three intensive days and nights to shoot more than half the film.
“Obviously if you’re shooting at a festival, trying to shoot a drama with dialogue and actual scenes, you have no control. So you go in with a certain mindset.” explains Higgins. “I think we planned it very well because we have a wonderful DOP and a fantastic Steadycam operator, so we came away with a sense that we bossed the festival rather than the other way around. It’s definitely not just running around grabbing stuff at a festival – the scenes take place and they’re staged and they worked. So it was planning, and then sometimes you just went with the flow when odd things happened…”
Odd things like losing one of the cameras on the last day of the festival. “It just got trapped by the crowd!” laughs Higgins. “Boy Better Know were on and you just couldn’t move. So we lost part of the crew for a while. Again, it informs the quality and the vibe of the film in a really nice way. There was absolutely no point getting stressed. I had already lost my voice on day two!”
Shooting in and around the festival is one thing, but pushing the actors – and a camera crew equipped with a large camera, a set of anamorphic lenses, a boom mic and a lighting rig – straight into a main stage crowd is another matter entirely. Buffering the actors with a small group of extras, the small unit launched themselves from the back of the crowd to the front barrier.
“You can’t prepare for that,” says Higgins. “That’s a real crowd watching the end of Jungle’s set. All credit to Ed Bluemel – I don't think he even knew that this isn’t really how you make films! He really went for it, and [cinematographer] Tony Slater Ling and the camera guys just hurled themselves through this crowd. It was mad, but there’s such a huge visual canvas to draw upon that you can’t ignore it”.
For Veysey, who got to see his script turned into reality with a cast of 50,000 people, the whole experience was made up of a series of unforgettable moments of madness. “There was a scene when Jordan is being lifted out of the crowd by an aerialist and it’s a live stunt that you only get to do once,” he remembers. “We had five cameras rolling and 10,000 kids dancing to their favourite DJ at 2am – and we’re trying to cue Jordan, cue the aerialists, cue the cameras and make it all work. I’d love to say that was a one off, but we attempted that kind of stuff about three times a day. And we pulled it off”
