Amy Coleclough: Film Maker

Amy Coleclough is a second-year classics student. I met her a while ago in the bustling SU living room – sporting bright blue eye shadow and some truly fabulous earrings, she was hard to miss! 

Amy is a confident talented filmmaker in all aspects, her experience and drive is something to be respected. Her role as VP of UoB’s InFilm society, as well as her industry experience and big plans for the future make her a person to watch in years to come. 

Photo courtesty of Amy Coleclough

Thanks for being here Amy. As you know, I’m doing a few interviews for Her Campus about creative people in Bristol, and someone in InFilm recommended you to me. Do you want to introduce yourself a bit?

I’m a second year doing classical studies. I’m also the vice president of InFilm, I was on the committee last year as well. I joined in the middle of first year, which is unusual – not many people do it that way, but they had a space. I love making films. I made my first film on my year out, before I came to uni. I wrote, directed and edited it. Basically, all of it. It was interesting, I had a professional crew and actors.

Can you tell me more about the film?

It had to be short, they gave me a certain number of pages. It was ambitious. It was on a film course, and I saw a couple of the previous ones. They were good, but I was very ambitious with what I wanted to do. Which when I watch it back, it’s a bit…

I think ambition is good.

Yes! But it meant I ended up trying to create something with very limited resources. We had to use this old house as a location. I had this idea that there was a girl in the past and a guy in the present, and they were in the same house. She lived there, and he was visiting after there after being run down and abandoned. There were connections between them. There was a book that she was reading, then she would put it down and it would reappear in his present. Things like that kept happening. He would be playing the piano and she would hear it and turn around, but there was no one there. It was this idea of someone in the present being a ghost in the past. They both thought each other were ghosts.

It was very difficult to edit because of the two different lighting styles. The past was in candlelight, and the present wasn’t. In the final climatic scene there was a set of stairs, the girl was at the top and the guy was at the bottom. She was reading the book and saw him, called out to him. He turns around and she’s not there, but he heard her. She could see him, but he couldn’t. As they meet in the middle, he disappears, and she’s left alone. Which is easy for a professional, but this was my first time editing. It took me nearly an hour to perfect this one change.

That sounds amazing, what do you think you learnt?

I learnt everything about film. I had not done anything to do with film prior to that. It was interesting because I was working with professionals. That versus coming here and making films with students was very interesting. The respect was slightly different. That stair scene, I knew exactly what I wanted. I said that to the Director of Photography, who was a seasoned professional. He was resistant, saying it wasn’t possible. But after a while he said he would try. He understood it was my film, respecting that I was above him in this film. In student film, we are all trying to get our voices heard and make our presence known. There’s more competition, so if it was the same situation, there would be more resistance.

That’s interesting, because what I’ve been trying to explore with these interviews is the access in a university setting – as a female creative especially, given the disparity in the film industry. What are your thoughts?

Nowadays it’s different for women, I think. The man who helped me produce my film was saying that now is a good time to be a young woman going into film, everyone wants to say they have you. It’s bad, but everyone wants the novelty of a women in charge. Like Phoebe Waller-Bridge and all her Emmy’s. Everyone wants a Phoebe Waller-Bridge on their crew.

Which is great, because then you have these female headed projects which have great success.

Which is great. So, in InFilm, we have Project Elephant. It’s for anyone non male identifying. It was set up last year, I think it’s a good place for people to come create. Having that area is good as they don’t have to worry about competing with men, who do make up 90% of the industry.

In the same vein, do you think outside of Uni there’s a pressure to be better [than men], to feel that we’re not diversity tokens and our content is to a high standard?

There is a pressure. On the one hand it’s good – if you don’t have pressure you won’t push yourself. You’ll get comfortable. But I think it’s very interesting because everyone is competitive with ideas and can have the amazing idea or the camera angle that’s beautiful. As a woman trying to compete against that, it’s doubly hard because you have the added pressure of proving yourself. At the same time, you’re trying to have innovative ideas. Even if there are good ideas being voiced, you feel you still need to beat them to prove you can.

Do you have any advice for people who are maybe new to university or new to the whole world of film making?

I’d say be very clear about what you want to achieve and know you can achieve. People can overstep their boundaries, because they want to do something they can’t. Which is never good, because you have to try and make it happen. That’s where the negativity comes from. Also be confident in yourself! You don’t have to have the best idea every single time. You don’t have to be the loudest voice on the shoot. You can be quiet and listen to others. You may feel like you need to assert yourself, but just observing peoples process can be useful. Look back on other people’s methods and ideas and make yourself better. Making sure you are who you’re meant to be in that situation. Learning how to manipulate situations for yourself and paying attention to dynamics.

Do you have any influences or inspirations?

I can’t think of anyone specifically, but I know I want to create content that’s different not for the sake of being different. I feel like people are shying away from typical story line tropes, but I don’t think there’s necessarily anything wrong with them. For example, not every single woman is strong, it happens. I don’t want to make films that pander to people. Like here’s my novelty person of colour, they’re there for a purpose.

Do you have any exciting plans for the future?

I have some exciting things outside of Uni. When I came here having done my project, I had an idea of what film making is, so at uni I’ve had to adjust. Shoot days that don’t happen because students are busy, and just general student life. I’m starting to write scripts and hopefully the people I’ve worked with can help me with connections. I was lucky that I’m in this position having done this course, so I have these connections that I can hopefully use.

Are you interested in this as a career?

Yes, it’s something I want to do. Everyone wonders why I’m not doing a film degree.

I don’t think you necessarily need one.

The industry doesn’t always respect them.

Would you say your classics degree would influence your film making?

I would say that Classics would be the one that is most helpful. The whole idea of Classics and the dead society we study entirely influences what we see today. Stories, films, books, politics, the way we live our lives. It comes from Classics. You hear for example J. K. Rowling studied classics, [hence] all the Latin spells in the Harry Potter books. It’s where the ideas of these stories coming, even if it was real life back then. It’s all incredibly impactful.

Do you call yourself a director or a broad film maker?

I’d say a film maker. As we are so young, I think to box yourself off is quite dangerous. Unless you’re 100% certain, that’s fine. With directing and producing, to do that so quickly with little professional experience you have to be careful. The more you learn the more useful you can be. I don’t know much about cameras right now, but I’m planning on learning more. If I know how to work a camera, it gives me options.

Final thoughts?

Fake it ‘til you make it. Even if that’s faking that you know what you’re doing, or even that you have the confidence to know what you’re doing. Learn from other people.

• film