Last month, I interviewed Noah Caplan, a 19-year-old film director, writer and actor. Caplan shared his experience of making his short film Stepping Stone, starring EastEnders’ Danny Dyer, and gave lots of valuable advice to aspiring filmmakers.
Stepping Stone follows four characters from varying walks of life struggling with different aspects of mental health, ranging from anxiety to physical abuse. Throughout the film, they learn that the first step to healing is talking to someone. Caplan’s film champions an optimistic attitude towards mental health, centring the importance of normalising conversations around this issue. The filmmaker described each of his projects as a “bookmark of his life”, allowing him to channel real-life experiences into his work. Following a tragic accident in his family, Caplan recognised the importance of vocalising his feelings and wanted to work on removing the negative stigma surrounding mental health through this film. His film has also raised money for various mental health charities, including Mind and Samaritans, as well as suicide helplines, by selling the film’s props and receiving text donations.
Caplan told me about his upcoming project which will focus on the tension between positive and toxic masculinity. As mentioned, Caplan enjoys creating work that is relevant to his life, adding a sense of authenticity, honesty and ease to his films. Inspired by Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, which he stated, “perfectly captures the confusion and the complexities about being a woman”, Caplan wanted to explore the nature of masculinity and what it means to be a modern man. He talked about the confusing representation of men in some forms of media, identifying toxic role models such as Andrew Tate influencing young boys as a troubling example in which the lines between what is harmful and what is not are easily blurred. He wants his new film to provide positive role models for young men in an attempt to reduce instances of toxic masculinity, a problem that he recognises is often “self-inflicted”. This film will take the form of a fantasy adventure, a genre Caplan has wanted to venture into since his obsession with the Infinity Saga. Its capacity for both storytelling and escapism is a duality he prizes in films.
As a young filmmaker, Caplan has had to take many risks to get to where he is today and insists that anyone can find success and fulfil their goals if they believe they can. He advises aspiring filmmakers to “just go for it”; something Caplan did when he enlisted Danny Dyer onto his project by tirelessly contacting everyone on Dyer’s Instagram ‘following’ list until he reached the actor himself. He reiterates that writing what you know and persevering in the face of criticism, and in fact using such criticism to improve your work, is the best advice that he has been given, and urges others to do the same. Caplan reminds us that our aspirations are always attainable if we believe they are and, whether through writing, directing or acting, through the medium of film, you can inspire others to fulfil their goals too.