A TREE FELL TODAY was the winner of BEST PERFORMANCES at the May 2022 LGBTQ+ Film Festival.
1. What motivated you to make this film?
This film was made and dedicated to a close friend of mine who suddenly passed away, to help raise awareness of various issues and try to help push the conversation regarding mental health and other important topics that are often hard to discuss.
2. From the idea to the finished product, how long did it take for you to make this film?
4 weeks prep, 2 day shoot, few months in post. From the start we had always planned to make something that could be shot n cut together relatively simply with no need for any VFX or grewling post work
3. How would you describe your film in two words!?
‘Hard Hitting’
4. What was the biggest obstacle you faced in completing this film?
As always when shooting anything time is key and we had 2 days to knock back a 16 page script, due to some of the more heavy prosthetic shots we ended up having to drop some scenes to either make time for the more important story points or because of application times causing issues
5. What were your initial reactions when watching the audience talking about your film in the feedback video?
With any story its always interesting to see how the public react to the work you are putting out there and what is has been great across the board, in my opinion, is that all audience members have fully embraced the key topics we are trying to discuss and what the characters are going through.
Watch the Audience Feedback Video:
6. When did you realize that you wanted to make films?
I moved out quite young so luckily realised very early on that in order to live our lives and do what we want to do in that time, we must work, cinema had always been a love of mine from a young age so I started to work towards seeing if that was a possible career option, from there I began working my way up in the film industry learning on the job and then using this knowledge to tell the stories I wanted to express
7. What film have you seen the most in your life?
What a question ha I have a bit of a cheat ‘go to answer for this’
1) The Usual Suspects – when I first saw this film it blew my mind and I had no idea films could be so intelligent and really have the audience in the palm of their hand, you had everything in front of you the whole time but had no idea, genius
2) Old Boy – After watching this for the first time I realised I want to make films and tell stories for the rest of my life, I wanted in and proceed to do what I could to make it so
(I also love love love Grosse Point Blanke as my go to watch when ever film)
8. What other elements of the festival experience can we and other festivals implement to satisfy you and help you further your filmmaking career?
Obviously Covid has been tough but live events really do make all the difference, as you get to interact with the audience directly as well as have live Q&A’s etc
9. You submitted to the festival via FilmFreeway. How has your experiences been working on the festival platform site?
A lot of work was done by our incredible producer Simone so unsure
10. What is your favorite meal?
Full English breakfast ha
11. What is next for you? A new film?
We are currently working on an adaptation of a novel and a few other various bits (but unfortunately cannot say too much at present)
Matthew Toffolo's Summary 