FemmeFilmFest20 Day One Showcase: Caz Armstrong and that Darn Clawford

Day One of the 5th Femme Filmmakers Festival kicked off with a bang on Friday afternoon as our opening film hit the internet. Anticipation was high, not just for the very first film of the ten day event, but whole commencement of the 2020 festival.

The first film out of the traps and chasing that rabbit was The Clawford Trilogy by Caz Armstrong. A ridiculously low budget gem inspired by and shot during the painstaking lockdown we have all had to endure. Featuring Armstrong herself as a young woman who comes into contact with a rather troublesome toy lion.

Look out on Day Two of the Femme Filmmakers Festival as Caz joins us on the Filmotomy Podcast, alongside Julia Bales, whose film Uproot is in the Competition Selection. Until then, here are the highlights of the Twitter Q and A Caz was subjected too following the viewing of The Clawford Trilogy. And keep on scrolling to watch all three parts of the film.

I’m so excited to be kicking off such a great festival with #Clawford! I really hope you like the film.
If you have any questions use the hashtag #Clawford or #FemmeFilmFest20 or just ask below! https://t.co/0FLrcAVoRn— Caz (@SheSpoiledIt) August 28, 2020

@Filmotomy: I have a question. How did Clawford carry the cat?

Caz: Haha. Umm. I think his cronies did it. Just don’t ask how he reached the entryphone at human height.

@thechriswatt: Given you shot ingeniously within lockdown restrictions, in what ways do you think film production will change, in terms of a post-covid rules and environment?

Caz: Well I’ve never been on a proper film set (I’d LOVE to see one in action). But I imagine that in the absence of big crews and lots of actors you have to rely on a more intimate and interesting story that can really hold its own. A bit more indie-style.

@cherryphosphate: On rewatching it I was really impressed with the soundtrack; how did you score it / where did you source it?

Caz: YouTube audio library has loads of music you can use without crediting or paying. So shout out to them for making this kind of project much more accessible! You can search by genre or instrument. It takes some time but it’s really exciting to find a piece of music that will fit. Although I did have to tweak some music because it was too long or the beat hit in the wrong place. So I removed or duplicated a few bars here and there.

@peppermintsodas: Your filmmaking is very playful. Do you see this as something stylistically you would’ve done anyway, or as a product of the toy animal character?

Caz: I think it’s mostly because I wanted to do something fun. Lockdown had taken hold and everything was very bleak. So I had great fun just being silly. I think I laughed to myself the entire first day of filming. It was a chance to play and forget the world.

@peppermintsodas: The biggest impression I was left with is how creative this project was. Any challenges you had assembling this film with limited collaboration and location capabilities due to quarantine?

Caz: The hardest thing was getting it in focus! I used a cat toy on a stick to focus it then jumped into frame. The lighting was quite hard as well, I only had household lamps for the first part. I only had my flat so I had to think of dangers that could come to me hence the doorstep being the entry point.

But by the third one my friend offered his rooftop so I did get two locations.
Doing it entirely on my own was great because I could go at my own pace but it was hard too. I’d love to collaborate in future and keep learning about filmmaking!

@peppermintsodas: The Clawford Trilogy has the same kind of wonder and spontaneity as the stories we often invent as kids. Do you see that as a primary audience for the film, or do you lean into the nostalgia of it more?

Caz: It was definitely more of a nostalgia thing! Remembering what it was like to play with toys, imagining time bombs and baddies. It was so fun to regress for a while and find joy in playtime. I think more adults should just play without having to commit to an entire hobby.

@peppermintsodas: In terms of sound design, outside of speaking and music added in post production, the background noises you kept in are very limited (removing footsteps but including the sound of tea stirring)- what did you want to achieve with this almost rhythmic effect?

Caz: I didn’t want a natural soundscape, I wanted the sound to just illustrate what was on screen. Like a comic book ‘pow’. I also wanted some of the sounds to be clearly ridiculous so I used a lot of foley FX to I could control it. So not much of the natural sounds made it in.

@Franglais27: Great film, Caz! What was the inspiration for Clawford?

Caz: Thanks so much! I wanted to make a film that was fun and exciting, to apply what I’d learned at night class and to get some relief from lockdown gloom. So the simple idea of an evil toy just evolved and escalated with each part really!

@Franglais27: Well done! There are many scenes that seem reminiscent of some of the Hitchock suspense filled thrillers, was that a genre covered during your filming classes that you specifically wished to apply to the film?

Caz: Suspense or psychological thrillers are my favourite, I love being on the edge of my seat. So I did want to bring some of that tension even though each part was only 5 minutes. I didn’t want to use words so I had to create suspense visually. A shootout while a timebomb is ticking. What could get more thrilling! The class looked at different genres as an introduction but it was about practical filmmaking so it didn’t go in depth. I do like the idea of doing a different kind of genre film next. Maybe a neo noir.

@Franglais27: A neo noir sounds good as there were quite a few of those elements within Clawford. You made everyday objects seem quite sinister with the click ticking and the tea stirringautomatically in the cup. The classic, black telephone was quite striking was that sourced to connect to films such as Psycho and other psychological thrillers?

Caz: Thank you for saying so! The only thing I sourced was the police tape so my entire budget was about £2.69. The phone is just my real phone but I love the style. An evil call isn’t quite as interesting on a silver plastic cordless. You don’t get that nice click when you pick it up and you need that click and dial tone to create the question who is he calling? The electronic beep just doesn’t cut it. It’s not threatening enough.

@Franglais27: It certainly did look quite sinister as well! The ending without spoiling anything reminded me of ‘Us’ slightly, would you say that the idea of the ‘other’ was a theme that you also wished to explore with Clawford?

Caz: Hmm, not consciously. It started out being more about loneliness. The phone that isn’t ringing, the single toothbrush, getting human interaction through the phone. I suppose if trusting the stranger ruined ‘my’ life that would be a bit bleak!

@Franglais27: Those are certainly good themes that many will have resonated with during the lockdown period. I will look forward to your next projects!

Follow Caz on Twitter: @SheSpoiledIt