How New Nottingham Short Film Hamster Is Putting a Twist on the Typical War Movie

Where did the inspiration come from for this project?
I had just seen 1917 and I knew I wanted to do something like that, but obviously I was going to be very constricted by a small budget - so that scale was always going to be too ambitious. As a result, I looked into making a film that's more about the aftermath of war, and what it's like for a soldier after being on tour. I’d looked around and hadn’t found many decent films that really looked into PTSD and having to try and integrate back into society. So that was where the original idea came from. 

I was lucky enough to sit down with a local veteran. I thought it would be weird for me to go much further with this idea without having actually met a veteran myself. Obviously, I've got no military background, but I thought if I could at least sit with someone and get a bit of information and insight from them, that could help to guide the process. So I sat with veteran Johno Lee, who's a local veteran and amputee. He was nice enough to share everything with me, from the high points of being a soldier, to the lowest points that he went through. Off the back of that conversation, I went and wrote the script, and sent it to John. He’d say, ‘This is wrong. This is wrong. This is wrong.’ I’d make the changes and send it back until the script got to a position where it was ready to go.

What makes Hamster stand out from other films that have explored war, and specifically the war in Afghanistan? 
This is very much focused on a soldier back in his home country, back in the UK after the war. There are flashback scenes in the film, but I always wanted to make sure the film would work without them. They certainly help, but really the main focus of this film, and 90% of this film’s runtime, takes place on home soil, and it was very much about focusing on what happens from the moment you get off that plane or off that bus and you're back home. A few soldiers described it like being hit by a tonne of bricks, that realisation of not knowing what they need to do now. A lot of soldiers join the army at a young age, they've gone into the armed forces as soon as they could. And then when that's all over, they find themselves not really knowing what to do themselves. It can be quite a difficult transition for them to then come back to society where everything is moving so quickly, and the pace of life is just so different. So that was a big one. 

You mentioned that there are some flashback scenes to the warzone. How did you manage to shoot these on such a small budget? 
That was probably the toughest thing we had to do, was to organise that flashback scene. We actually shot that sequence at a later date to the rest of the schedule, just because sourcing a location that even remotely mirrored what it'd be like in a warzone was so difficult. And obviously I need to get that approved by veterans; they need to see it and be like, ‘Yes, that works.’ So that was difficult in itself. But then having a constraint on budget and time made it even more difficult. But at the same time, I think when you've got a group of people who really believe in the project, you can overcome these obstacles together. It almost felt like anything was possible, that we could achieve anything. 

The film was made in partnership with PTSD Resolution. Why did you choose this as the charity to support?
They're obviously a charity specifically focusing on specialised therapy for veterans. I relied on them for getting advice on what their procedures are, in terms of how they deal with veterans. There's a therapy session scene in the film, and they were so helpful for guiding that. They were instantly keen to be involved and offered to support us where they could. 

This film follows the success of Cheeseburger, which picked up awards when it was released. How did you find the response to that? 
It was a really nice surprise, actually. Again, that was made on a very low budget, so I was quite overwhelmed with the response to that. The script came from a place that was quite close to my heart, but you never know how it's going to be received by the wider audience. Yet we got one acceptance, and then another, and then some awards started to roll in and it was really nice. Obviously we don't do it for the awards, but it is nice to get some sort of recognition - especially when we were accepted at festivals in and around Nottingham and the East Midlands, because we shot it in Nottingham and it was made by Notts creatives. 

What’s next for you in your career? 
I would really like to make a feature film next. I've been doing short films for a while, and I feel like I'm now ready to make that next step. Whether it's an extension of Hamster, taking it to a broader scale, or something completely different, I'm not sure yet. But I just know that I'm going to write a script that can be made into a feature, and then see where it goes from there.

@scottdriver_