Withdrawal

ROLLPLAY PRODUCTIONS // 2007

 

Film Synopsis

This black comedy explores the true terror and difficulty people go through in quitting smoking. The story follows Joe on his first 30 days of quitting smoking and the situations he endures in order to stay away from the harmful little beasties.

 

Filmmaker Notes

Unlike a lot of the projects I have worked on previously, ‘Withdrawal’ was a fairly quick project to write. The original idea for ‘Withdrawal’ had festered in the depths of my subconscious for a while until it finally escaped into the world as an evil conglomeration of ideas with a half baked plot strung together with what seemed at the time crazy glue. Fortunately the idea was well received by our group and we decided to run with it. As with most projects, time seems to slip into the unknowns of somewhere else, leaving little of itself behind for anyone to work with. But we lassoed what time we could, reworked the script to fit the constraints of time and reality, conscripted some actors, assigned a crew, and filming was underway by mid April. Filming ran smoothly, with only a few gremlins causing havoc along the way. Our crew was small but they battled valiantly against whatever the evil gremlins threw at them, conquering all with but a camera and boom pole to defend themselves. The actors were great, endured freezing cold, evil zombies, badly
cooked turkeys and long tedious hours for little reward and a donut. Finally after a couple days of shootings, fortunately with no arrests, filming was
complete. Even Bella, a dog recruited for the part of a dog, was pure genius. “Hoorah”, the actors cheered and quickly escaped, never to return. I often lay
awake at night wondering where they went…

The editing proved difficult, with some technical problems arising from what seemed the depths of hell or maybe even deeper. But after some minor
setbacks and a minor heart attack from a broken hard drive, the software demons were exorcised, hardware monkeys slaughtered and all was back on track… for the most part. Again time was on my back like an evil hound, chasing me as every day slid into the forgotten.
Many hours were worked, many were spent slamming my head against any wall I could find, but eventually a workable cut was finished. I have always found making films with RollPLAY some of the most rewarding time I have. There are few better feelings than seeing something you, as a group, have spent so much time on come to life. Working with such talented likeminded people is as you can imagine, its own reward. I thank them all for the time and commitment they have shown throughout the making of ‘Withdrawal’, without them this film would not be possible.

Ben Jupp
Writer & Director of ‘Withdrawal’