Louis Paxton on BAFTA Breakthrough, The Incomer & Domhnall Gleeson
Today, BAFTA unveiled the members of this year’s BAFTA Breakthrough cohort: 21 creatives in film, TV or games who will receive support, guidance and networking opportunities for a year to help them turn their early success into long and sustainable careers in the industry.
Scottish filmmaker Louis Paxton, who made his feature directorial debut with his hilarious comedy The Incomer earlier this year, is a member of the cohort alongside Ish director Imran Perretta and Retreat filmmaker Ted Evans. You can check out the full list right at the bottom of this page.
I was delighted to talk to Paxton because The Incomer is one of my favourite films of the year. It is brilliant, bonkers and an absolute hoot, and recently earned him BIFA nominations for Best Debut Director and Best Debut Screenwriter. You can read my full review here.
The film is set on Auk Isle, a remote island in Scotland where siblings Isla (Gayle Rankin) and Sandy (Grant O’Rourke) have lived alone for the past 30 years, since their parents disappeared. They defend their home from dangerous “incomers” (outsiders) and launch an offensive when council worker Daniel (Domhnall Gleeson) arrives to evict them and relocate them to the mainland.
In the following conversation, we discussed what the BAFTA Breakthrough means to him, the making of The Incomer and his upcoming film, Waffle House Index, starring Obsession breakout star Inde Navarratte.
Congratulations on making the BAFTA Breakthrough cohort this year.
Thank you. Yeah, I’m thrilled. It’s really exciting.
Where were you when you found out and how did you react to the news?
I think I was at home and I was writing and probably trying to figure out a problem, and then I heard this and it just, yeah, it would have made my day.
Have you done anything to celebrate or will you do anything to celebrate?
I have not done anything to celebrate yet. I suppose they did a big photoshoot for the BAFTA Breakthrough and I wasn’t able to make it because I was working and I wasn’t able to get into London, and I guess that would have been an opportunity for maybe everyone to kind of get together. But in December there’s going to be a couple of days, we get to go to Netflix and we have a day at BAFTA as well. I’m just looking forward to meeting the rest of the cohort and celebrating with them.
What do you intend to do with the resources and the access that are at your disposal?
I suppose the primary thing is meeting with other people on the cohort. I’m really looking forward to that. I’ve done a couple of programmes in the past and I know people who’ve been part of these programmes and they’ve said that you can forge real bonds with people and there’s a lot of support you can get through that. I guess, you know, in a way you’re networking but it’s just nice to meet other people who are in the industry, perhaps in different kinds of practices as well.
I’ve also been talking to the people at BAFTA Breakthrough about, you know, setting up kind of industry meetings which is something I’d love to do as well. I think it’d be really helpful to, because, you know, it’s not necessarily about meeting someone to kind of pitch a project or get the next thing made. I just have an excuse to, you know, contact other people, particularly directors who have worked in the genres that I’m interested in, who maybe come from the UK, whose journeys I could kind of aspire to, to be able to just ask them really frank questions about how they found it, things that they wish they’d done differently. It’s not like you can just necessarily, outside of one of these courses, just call these people and say (hey). So I’m looking forward to taking advantage of that opportunity and also, yeah, I think it’s just a great sort of platform. I’ve just had my film come out and this is another, hopefully, another way to maybe bring some viewers or bring some awareness to the film and get some more people to watch it now that it’s on demand.
You’ve been busy for years making shorts, TV shows, things like that. What does it mean to you to have ‘broken through’ as a feature filmmaker this year?
It’s huge. I’m constantly just reminding myself of how challenging it is to make an independent feature in the UK. Also, you know, a comedy film in Scotland. I have many peers who are incredibly talented and deserve opportunities as well and we’ve all just been, you know, struggling to get things made for a long time, so I think to get this to the point where we not only got to shoot it, but it was released, it was premiered at Sundance and then Edinburgh and got a general release as well. Like the idea that I could go into a cinema for a period and watch this film that I’d written and directed and we made, I think it still just blows my mind. So I have to say it’s been a very, a very positive year from that point of view.
How has your career or life or perhaps both changed since that Sundance premiere of The Incomer?
Well, it’s changed, oh God, it’s changed massively. I think prior to The Incomer, I had worked in television and I’d been struggling to get things made. You know, I was making a living doing it, but it’s tough and to be freelance is tough. I think the film has just opened up more opportunities and more avenues in the sense that, you know, I always wanted to be a filmmaker, I grew up loving film, I trained as a filmmaker, and whilst I love TV and I’m really proud of the work I’ve done there and I would love to do more, there was something really validating about making a feature film and writing and directing it. That’s really what I want to do, and it’s given me more opportunities to do so.
Also, as I was saying, it’s so hard to get a feature made that it’s now nice to be in a position where I’ve actually, I’ve done the first feature. That’s not to say that any subsequent feature is going to be easy; it’s going to be really hard to get it made, and it’s going to be really hard to make it and do it well, but I do feel, yeah, I feel more confident and I feel like there are hopefully more opportunities on the horizon as well.
So was there a notable shift after the Sundance premiere?
Yeah, definitely, and you know, I think the release as well, the fact that it was picked up by Universal, just felt like a real kind of seal of approval in many ways. I think that people saw it as a viable kind of financial option as well, because I definitely, you know, I love cinema and I want to make films that people will pay to go and see that, you know, could play in a cinema. I really believe in the theatrical experience and I want to make films that bring people together and sit in rooms and share.
How long did you work on The Incomer from the very beginning of the script to the premiere in January?
A long time. I started writing it over 10 years ago and I wouldn’t say I was necessarily working on it kind of exclusively; there were periods where I had funding and then periods where I didn’t, and I just kind of did the draft myself when I could. It was maybe about four years ago, five years ago, I met producers Shirley O’Connor and Emily Gotto, and whilst I wrote this film, they got it made; you know, they made it happen. There was a couple of years where it was like, are we going to go this year or are we not? And then when we got the cast together, it all just seemed to happen quite quickly actually. We shot it in August last year and then we were premiering it in Edinburgh this year (and) premiered it in Sundance in the beginning of the year. It was a pretty quick turnaround actually.
I’m a huge Domhnall Gleeson fan, which is part of the reason why I came to The Incomer, and then I ended up loving it so much, like it’s one of my favourites of the year. When you look back at filming, is there a memory of Domhnall that springs to mind?
He’s the best person to work with. He’s so smart and kind of really interrogates everything, but also he’s really playful and fun and just really respectful. Everyone really enjoyed working with him.
The only day where we didn’t complete the day was because we were shooting the clifftop stuff where he’s hung over the cliff by the siblings, and we just did it for real with harnesses and things like that. We did it as safely as we could, but we essentially did have to hang him over a cliff and then put a camera over him, and the midges were just terrible that day. I remember everyone’s already really nervous about hanging Domhnall over a cliff, and I’m sure Domhnall was nervous about that as well, but then on top of that he’s got a camera hanging over his head and then he’s just covered in midges, being kind of eaten alive.
It was the only day where we were like, actually, we’re just going to cut this. We actually ended up shooting it on green screen, and I remember he was sort of taking the piss out of me, saying like, ‘So we could have just done this on green screen the (whole) time.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, but you know, that’s not what Nolan would have done!’
No, you’ve got to give it a go for real.
We want to at least give it a try, but the plates that we shot are real, so the shot, you know, the actual (shot), we did end up getting that. I felt so sorry for him; it felt like I was torturing him. It was horrible.
What can we expect from you next?
Well, I’m writing a couple of projects – comedies, comedy horrors that I’m really excited about that I’m developing in the UK, but I’m attached to direct Waffle House Index with Inde Navarrette starring in it. We’re aiming to shoot that summer next year, so that’s with Apple and Plan B. I’m really excited about that because it’s a wild project and really original.
Was that an opportunity that came your way following The Incomer’s premiere?
Yeah, it was a meeting I had with Plan B, kind of right after Sundance actually, and Yuri Chung there, who’s a great producer, shared this project with me by Andrew Nunnelly called the Waffle House Index, his original script that’s on the Black List. I just loved it, and I pitched the hell out of it because I really wanted it, and they brought me on to direct it, and then we got Inde Navarrette to play the lead, and then Apple are the studio we’re making it with. We’re really excited and sort of gearing up to shoot next year; that’s the idea.
Here is the full list of members of this year’s BAFTA Breakthrough programme, supported by Netflix:
FILM
Hollie Bryan, Producer – The Ceremony
Louis Paxton, Writer/Director – The Incomer
Lucy Allen*, Casting Directors – Sunny Dancer
Imran Perretta, Co-writer/Director – Ish
Regina Meessen, Hair and Make-Up Designer – Dreamers
Ted Evans, Writer/Director – Retreat
Tom Payne*, Casting Directors – Sunny Dancer
DOCUMENTARY / UNSCRIPTED
Chris Lynch, Presenter and Producer – In the Driving Seat
Myrid Carten, Writer/Director – A Want in Her
Runako Celina, Producer and Reporter – Death in Dubai
TV
Ella Bruccoleri, Performer – The Other Bennet Sister
Izuka Hoyle, Performer – Prisoner
Philippa Mumford, Production Designer – Juice (Series 2)
Sophie Stone, Performer – Falling
Tom Cousins, Creator and Executive Producer – Rafi the Wishing Wizard
Yassmin Abdel-Magied, Writer – Emmerdale
GAMES
Eloise Singer, Writer/Director – The Pirate Queen: No Safe Waters
Husban Siddiqi, Game Director and Developer – Rogue Eclipse
Kate Killick, Creative Director – Pieced Together
Niru Fekri-Arnold, Creator/Designer – Cursed Words
Tom McKay, Performer – Mysteria Ecclesiae: Kingdom Come Deliverance DLC
This interview has been edited for length and clarity