By Kelly Strodl
Today I spoke with Nicolas Simonin, director of the short film DERAILED. The film, part of a collection of short films called DETOUR.FR, a project that will take the watcher into a dark side of Paris. In DERAILED, An anonymous man finds himself lost on the no man's land of railways in a strange train station at night, in Paris, as he tries to help a woman. A woman who is not all that she seems.
Q: How did you hear about the Newport Beach Film Festival?
I heard about the New Port Beach Festival few months ago in France while I was searching for Festivals to submit my movie to. I found the previous selection of movie interesting and the place really great. New Port Beach is a really nice set for Networking and for enjoying movies.
Q: Tell a little about the story of your film and the production of it.
DERAILED is part of a collection of short stories I wrote a year ago. My goal is to make one or two shorts per year. All the stories share the same concept: “a dark story happens the same night in a large western city like Paris, London, or Sao Paolo”. What’s important is, it always starts with a simple situation that turns to scary life-to-death situation. I am currently working on the feature version of the short ‘DERAILED’.
Making an Horror movie on real locations was very challenging but it worth it. With DERAILED I had to deal with a lot of elements: the weather, the windy cold, the security of the set and of the actors. My first DA fainted the second day of the shooting. I had no choice but to continue shooting the movie without DA. But at the end, we had amazing images and a really scary atmosphere…as scary as it was on the real set.
Q: Tell a little about yourself and your story in filmmaking.
DERAILED is my second short movie. I am a ‘traveling’ film maker. I did my first short in Argentina few years ago. Then with DERAILED I moved to the United States. I am originally an Engineer who switches 8 years ago for a career in the movie industry.
I have been working as a producer assistant in France for 3 years, then as a professional screenwriter for the French TV networks for 5 years. Now I am moving my career toward the Feature movie industry with a first movie in development in France and a lot of projects here in the US. DERAILED is my first success with already 5 official selections since January and two Awards (Honor Award at the NPB Festival and “Best Foreign Film” at the Fearless Film Festival Forth Worth, Texas).
Q: Your take on the performances of the lead actors, (set backs, triumphs, impressions, good surprises, etc.)
Hubert Benhamdine is a well known actor in France. He has done lot of TV shows. His physical performance on the set was so great. He did all the stunt performances. He was so involved physically on the set, that the last day Hubert’s legs were almost paralyzed by the cold.
Julie Louart who plays the Creature of the rail tracks, did an amazing job. We did a lot of rehearsal to built the Creature gestures and movements. She stayed incredibly resistant to the cold. We filmed the movie during 4 cold winter nights in Paris and she was wearing almost nothing during the whole shooting.
Q: What do you do when not making a smash indie film?
By day, I work as a social media consultant and graphic designer. Internet has always been my thing since 6 years now. I also work as a professional TV screenwriter for France.
THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE OF THE FILM: www.DETOUR.FR I suggest Internet users have a look to www.detour.fr : we’re building an Interactive game that will allow Internet users to try to save the main character of the short from his curse. The game will start in late summer on this website. You can Join us on Facebook.
JOIN the film's Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=72869249417&ref=ss
Or check out the film's official blog www.aboutderailed.com
Find Simonin on IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2144991/resume
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