Gus Filgate on Serving Up Pie

Gus Filgate has just shot this moving short film, called Pie, for the Carer's Trust through Little Fish Films. Created as a PSA for the organisation, the piece tells the story of a young carer looking after his grandmother and follows the trials and tribulations of his baking a blackberry and apple pie.

Filgate, pictured below, is well-known in the industry as a go-to guy for shooting food and, below, tells us why he embraced this project and how he pulled it all together.

Tell us a little bit about how Pie came to be.

Originally I just I wanted to push the boundaries of what I am known for within the advertising world (table-top food), and flex my filmmaker muscles a little. I wanted to make a story about food that had real emotional content too, instead of just advertising lip-gloss.

Did The Carers Trust approach you about shooting something for them or did you have the idea and approach them?

Pie is a self generated project we took to the Carer’s Trust. We wanted to do something different for them, and they need help. Little Fish's ethos from when we first set up our company has been to make films for love and not always be a slave to the bread and butter, (although that does obviously pay the bills!).

Like most charities The Carer’s Trust can parade a lot of shocking statistics. Yet stats seem to have little effect on us, and the plight of carers is not really part of our consciousness. It seemed right to try and tell a story for them that would pack a very soft punch indeed, instead of the usual charity-attack.

What inspired you to write the story?

Actually the idea and the music came within a few moments of each other. I typed in the word 'grandma' to a few search engines and, eventually, Craig Cardiff's track popped up.

In it, the song gives thanks to a grandma for all the love she has shown over the years. It is so beautiful. It seemed perfect because the film is a twist on the sentiment of the song. So we wove the two together. But I had the help of genius creative director Paul Quarry, so it was easy.

You’re a specialist in directing food and drink commercials; did centering the story around food feel like a natural move?

Yes. I spend so much time with food, it feels natural to include it in all my thinking. But also I wanted to tell a story in which the food does much more than just look good. I adore the idea that a simple recipe can shoulder the weight of a boy’s unconditional love.

But for me the big challenge and joy of this project was to work outside of my regular field a little, working with two great actors, Conner Chapman and Rita Davies, to create a gentle narrative.

How did you find Conner, the young actor, and what did he bring to the project?

It was serendipitous really, we were looking for someone just like Conner - he has the vulnerability I was looking for, we were thinking modern day Billy from Kes. His agent heard on the grapevine we were looking for someone just like him and she got in touch.

Conner Chapman is an amazing young actor. He has a way of offering us his nature with every action (he would hate me saying that) that he puts on the screen. He is also a bit of a rising star. If you have not already seen it you MUST watch The Selfish Giant (directed by Clio Barnard), with Conner as the lead. It lost at the BAFTA’s to Gravity for best British film of 2014 but it shouldn’t have.

How long was the shoot and what was the hardest part of the process?

We shot for three straight days. Connor is a minor, so there was no chance of squeezing it into two. All my crew did us amazing deals, and I owe them a lot of thanks.

The hardest part was also the best too…in the industry I tend to get a little pigeon-holed as the guy who makes food look pretty, so it was a challenge (and delight) to stretch a little into what is mostly a performance story. I loved doing that more than anything.

It’s a bitter-sweet tale; were you ever tempted to alter the ending at all?

No. It was always important that his granny should not recognise his hard work, because I wanted to show how grown-up he has had to become, and how reduced his granny is. Their roles have reversed so swiftly…it seems that just weeks ago she was taking him to the park and pushing him on the swings, yet now she is lost to the TV like a child. This was the nub of the film.

Do you have any other longer-form projects planned?

Yes I do. I'm working on something completely different now. It is a concept for a blog that will explore different approaches to shooting food. It's a bit dark, but a great subject... Watch this space.

I am also planning a slightly crazier project (on slow boil for a while I admit), which will turn London into a crazy time-warped landscape populated by human puppets. Personal stuff can be a slow process.