www.gregormovie.com Synopsis.

We first meet Gregor at work, in a job he neither loves nor fully under- stands. He spends his days sat in front of a screen ogling pictures of beau- tiful people and consuming dross on the Daily Mail online. Then he gets fired and has to immediately re-evaluate his life as an opportunist with high expectations and low work ethic. He fancies himself as a writer because he’s seen every TV show under the sun and has lofty ambitions when he can be bothered to think about them. He lives with his best friend Daisy, who is herself toiling at a seemingly ‘cool’ job that brings little satisfaction; working the photocopier in the kind of office that is embarrassed to have a photocopier. But when Gregor meets Terry, an articulate magazine edi- tor, and Amber, a transatlantic trustafarian, he feels his life may be back on track. But just how serious is Terry? Who actually is he? How much of Am- ber’s sexual deviancy can Gregor tolerate in exchange for her Amazon ac- count details? And how far will he debase himself for a ‘perfect job’, stocked fridge and unlimited box sets. GREGOR is a black comedy about wanting everything, doing nothing and focusing on a generation who feel they should be able to do anything by right and end up doing very little by default. WRITER/DIRECTORS MICKEY DOWN AND KONRAD KAY

Mickey and Konrad have been writing together since meeting at Oxford in 2007. After university they both embarked on ill-fated and short-lived careers in investment banking before retiring in 2011. They are currently working on a number of original comedy and drama projects for television, film and theatre including a spin-off series of Mickey’s short comedy filmALEXANDER THE GREAT for NBC/Lucky Giant, an original series JOLLY ROGERS for Bwark Productions, original series for Objective Productions and Hat Trick Productions, an original half hour comedy for Kindle Entertainment, an adaptation of a Danish drama series HAPPY LIFE for Ecosse films, an original drama for Amber Entertainment and a play GIANT LEAP. Most recently they have been hired to write for HOFF THE RECORD, a CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM style series commissioned by Dave and BBC Worldwide and starring David Hasselhoff as himself. They are also currently working on the script for their next feature. When not writing with Konrad, Mickey has also worked with Sacha Baron Cohen. CAST

GREGOR - OLLIE MARSDEN Ollie was born and raised in south London. After act- ing at school he joined the National Youth Theatre and appeared in LETTERS OF WAR which was staged on the deck of the HMS Belfast on the Thames. This spurred on his desire to pursue acting, and after a reading Classics at Manchester University and a visit to New York City, he was offered a place at the American Academy Of Dramatic Arts. On graduating from the Academy Ollie was awarded the Jehlinger Award for Acting. He remained in New York City for a year appearing on the CBS drama THE GOOD WIFE. Ollie then decided to return to London after appearing in Kerri Davenport-Burton’s THERE I AM. Since returning to London Ollie has appeared in feature film SUMMER IN FEBRUARY with Dominic Cooper and Dan Stevens as well as starring in the London premier of the American play THINGS WE WANT by Jonathan Marc Sherman and Freddy Syborn’s EXCESS at the Arcola Theatre.

TERRY - MATT KING Matt most recently shot the feature films PADDINGTON BEAR and GET SANTA. He appeared in two series of Baby Cow’s STARLINGS for Sky 1, a series which he also wrote with Steve Edge. He appeared as Melvin in the hit BBC2 sitcom WHITES which he also co-wrote and created. He also starred in the Australian drama SPIRITED for which he won the Most Outstanding Performance by an Actor award at the 2011 ASTRA Awards. The Second Series is currently airing in Australia. Matt has recently had roles in the feature films LONDON BOULEVARD, directed by William Monohan and MADE IN DAGENHAM directed by Nigel Cole with Bob Hoskins and Sally Hawkins. He also appeared alongside Tom Hardy in Nicolas Winding Refn’s BRONSON, and in ’s ROCKNROLLA. Matt plays the popular recur- ring role of Super Hans in the Mitchell and Webb hit comedy PEEP SHOW for .

MANDY - BELINDA STEWART-WILSON Belinda is currently appearing in THE INBETWEENERS MOVIE 2, and she has recently filmed the feature film THE BROTHER as well as EVERMOOR for Disney. Her TV work includes recently appearing alongside Matthew McFayden on BBC’s RIPPER STREET, and and Olivia Colman in MR SLOANE for Sky. She also has recurring roles in Channel 4 comedy THE IT CROWD with Chris O’Dowd and Richard Ayoade, and all three series of THE INBETWEENERS. CAST

AMBER - RUBY THOMAS Ruby Thomas graduated from Oxford University in 2012 with a first in English Literature. While studying she played roles including Blanche in A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, Masha in THE SEAGULL and Miss Cutts in THE HOT- HOUSE at Oxford Playhouse and toured Japan and the UK as Beatrice in MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. She has starred in feature filmWILD CHILD. Her television credits include THE GOLDEN HOUR, GUNRUSH, CASUALTY, , LEWIS, LIFE OF CRIME with Hayley Atwell and Blandings with Timothy Spall, Jennifer Saunders and Celia Imrie. She recently finished touring in Anya Reiss’s new adaptation of SPRING AWAK- ENING for Headlong.

DAISY - DAISY MOSTYN Daisy is a producer and first time actor. She also produced GREGOR. CREW

PRODUCER ALICE PEARSE

Since graduating from Oxford University with a degree in English Literature, Alice has worked in film. She was the Production Co-ordinator on THE TRIP TO ITALY, directed by Michael Winterbottom, staring and Rob Brydon. Alice is currently a Creative Executive at Shine Pictures, working alongside producer Ollie Madden. At university Alice was a member of the Oxford Revue, starring in and co-producing two full runs at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

PRODUCER TOM LAZENBY

Tom has been working freelance in television since leaving university. He currently works in development for the drama label Newman Street after being a story editor on two series of the Channel 5 programme SUSPECTS (Fremantle Media). Over the last few years, he has worked on programmes in development for the comedian Alexander Armstrong and The Garden Productions, and in production for the BBC and ITV.

PRODUCER DAISY MOSTYN

Having previously worked at Tiger Aspect, Blakeway and in production at M&C Saatchi, Daisy has moved into commercials and is now working at Smuggler London. She is a TV and sofa enthusiast and has worked with Mickey and Konrad on many of their projects. She also plays Daisy in GREGOR.

DOP SAM GOLDWATER

Sam Goldwater is an award winning cinematographer living in London. He has worked on a number of shorts, features, commercials and music videos.

1ST AD CHARLIE GALUSTIAN

Charlie Galustian is a very potent 1st Assistant Director who enjoys crass comedy, choreography and gardening. Universally loved and feared in equal measure, all agree he is a superb new dynamic force not only within this industry, but all indus- tries.

PRODUCTION DESIGNER VIOLET ELLIOT

After graduating from University College London in French and Latin, Violet began her art department career working extensively on graduate films at the National Film and Television School, art directing for both fiction and animation. Since then she has been working as a freelance Production Designer for short films, commercials and music videos, as well as photo shoots for those such as GQ US, Flaunt and BAFTA.

Q&A with the Directors

How did you come up with the idea for Gregor?

We always wanted to create something about how we interpreted the experience of being in your mid- 20s. We wrote a few things before GREGOR and at their centre would always be dialogue and characters that tended towards that area: people choosing the path with the least resistance and with their eyes on a prize that they couldn’t be bothered to work for. The initial tagline for the film was “a generation who feel they can do anything by right and end up doing nothing by default” (‘Do nothing’ was punchier!) Rather than make it too serious, mumbly or introspective we wanted to eke as much comedy out of it as possible in marrying the very real and the surreal, the naturalistic and the heightened. Ultimately, it’s about a guy who wants it all (even if “all’ means a carton of milk, a widescreen TV and a boxset of THE SOPRANOS) but in return for as little effort as possible. That’s the way the Penrose stairs on the poster came about - he’s locked in a never ending cycle of pleasure and punishment, getting nowhere and learning nothing.

What were the greatest influences on the film?

We watch a lot of comedy so it’s hard narrow it down. If you were to break it down beat by beat, line by line, like a poem or something, you would find at least five different influences a page. We always had Louis CK’s LOUIE at the forefront of our minds, and admire Lena Dunham’s ability to make people in their mid- 20s believable but interesting. Given we were also writing about a man at a similar stage in life to us many of the situations and snatches of dialogue were drawn from our own lives. Apart from all the sex stuff. That was other people.

The film cost £8,000 and is almost entirely crowd-funded. Why did you decide to use Kickstarter and would you do it again?

The whole production process was incredibly fast - 6 months from idea to screen. We knew that Kickstarter was a great way to directly access people who believed in the project (or were bound by blood to give us their money) and were overwhelmed by the speed at which the money was raised. We’d love to use it again.

What sacrifices did you have to make on such a tight budget?

Very few because Tom, Alice and Daisy, our excellent producers called in a lot of favours. We had a fantastic crew including a great Director of Photography (Sam Goldwater) and Production Designer (Violet Eliot), who filled every frame with detail. Initially we would have loved to have more money to spend on music rights, but luckily we found a talented composer (Roly Witherow) who ended up making the whole thing a lot better. So that was a blessing in disguise. We’re big believers that a big budget isn’t necessary for good storytelling. Having more toys - lights, tracks etc. - would have been a nice though. Maybe next time. How did you find directing as a pair?

We also wrote it together and have been friends for a long time so it was surprisingly easy. If you’re on the same page at the conception stage, and you’ve had years sharing influences, you’re likely to be on the same page at the realisation stage. We didn’t really have any disagreements. The questions would tend to be “how could this be better?” “Does it work?” “Do you buy it?” In that sense it’s very helpful, because these are questions you might internalise if you worked alone. As a pair you have someone to bounce things off of. Plus, you’re always trying to make each other laugh, which means you’ve immediately got a sense check for if something works. It’s like having an additional quality filter, “no, that’s not working,” and an idea generator, “this might work.” Certainly for comedy we’d say two brains are better than one.

What was it like working with Matt King?

Meeting him and hearing him say how much he liked the script was one of the highlights of the process. This was a guy who’d been directed by Nicolas Winding Refn and had inhabited one of the great comedy creations in PEEP SHOW (we spent far too many hours watching him at university) He showed us im- mense respect, made time to workshop and helped us develop parts of the character. He has the ability to find comedy and pathos in lines you wouldn’t normally expect, which gave us so many options when editing his scenes. He’s great and we’re looking forward to doing more with him.

What was your favourite scene to film?

Each had their moments. We (Konrad) ruined quite a few takes in every scene by laughing, so nobody could accuse us of not having a good time. The dinner scene between Gregor and Amber was fun, be- cause we had our parents in as extras.

As first-time directors, what do you think you learned from the process?

Collaboration and letting people bring their own unique input to the work makes for a much better end product.

What next?

We’re developing a number of things for television and getting to work on the script for the next feature. But we want to get behind a camera again as soon as possible, so we’re working on a series of shorts that we’re going to shoot before the end of the year.

Are you one person?

No.

Prove it.

Ok.

What’s the first film you remember going to see?

MD: LION KING with my mum and 3 month year old brother. He slept the whole way through.

KK: JURASSIC PARK. It probably wasn’t. But my first film memory was the distant sound of the T-Rex -ap proaching, just as ripples begin to form on a glass of water on the dashboard of a car. “So scary, so cool,” I thought, and still do. Favourite Robin Williams film?

MD: MRS DOUBTFIRE.

KK: Depends on the day.

Which actor would you most like to work with?

MD: Jonah Hill.

KK: Eddie Marsan.

If you could guarantee one dream milestone for you career what would it be?

MD: Interviewed on THE HOWARD STERN SHOW.

KK: Yeah, I’ll come along for that too.

CAST

Gregor Ollie Marsden Terry Matt King Daisy Daisy Mostyn Amber Ruby Thomas Mandy Belinda Stewart-Wilson Chris Matthew Tennyson Claire Alice Krespi Fabulous Ed Cripps Michael Mickey Down Glenn Jack Helsby Kate Charlotte Mulliner Ann Isobel Mascarenhas-Whitman Ellen Emma Sidi Sara Kate Kennedy Sabrina Izzy Jewson

CREW

Writer/Director Mickey Down Writer/Director Konrad Kay Producer Alice Pearse Producer Tom Lazenby Producer Daisy Mostyn Line Producer Lauren Davis Production Designer Violet Elliot DOP Sam Goldwater Editor Mickey Down Casting Director Lucy Rands 1st AC Kate Mollins 1st AD Charlie Galustian 2nd AD Luke Chettle Gaffer Edward Vijayavargiya Sound Dom Corbisiero Music Roly Witherow Script Editor Ed Cripps Hair & Make Up Charlotte Ambrose Runner Tom Mucklow Runner Jack Plummer Runner Gareth Belsey Poster Illustration and Artwork Dom McKenzie Promotional Material Design Venetia Kronsten CONTACT

For queries regarding the film please contact [email protected]

Other contacts

Mickey Down [email protected]

Konrad Kay [email protected]

Meathead Productions 43 Medina Road, LONDON N7 7LA

Agent Representation

Mickey Down Cynthia Okoye - Curtis Brown [email protected]

Konrad Kay Alec Drydale - Independent Talent [email protected]