ITMS interview Alperen Emirzeoğlu: Creator of Seishin

Emirzeoğlu is a self-taught filmmaker based in London. He is currently working on extending his previous short ‘Seishin’ into a longer feature and took some time to talk to ITMS about life for a start-up independent movie maker, and how certification may or may not influence the creative process.

ITMS interview Alperen Emirzeoğlu: Creator of Seishin

Light’s, Camera, ACTION! Emirzeoğlu keys up his next shot

“I got to the stage where I found movies really boring and I always thought to myself that ‘I could make a better story than this’!” – Emirzeoğlu

Emirzeoğlu confides in ITMS that he has “a fire in his belly” to make a good movie. As a young start-up movie maker based in London with a story to tell, Emirzeoğlu has been working on extending a previously well received short about the ‘Seishin’: child like angels who fall from heaven and become permanently entangled with specific humans. They grow as their unwittingly entwined human grows. “Seishin are not good or evil,” he says. “God is not good or evil, he can create both and therefore he is both. Seishin can only act how the human heart acts.”

Making the movie is proving to be an interesting challenge without funding or official backing, but Emirzeoğlu is relishing having to do it all virtually by himself, including writing, directing, casting and filming. He says, “There is no cash, it’s strictly everyone’s own motivation. It’s taken me several months to write it and refine it. I have a friend who has a Master’s degree in scriptwriting and he gave me some insights.”

Emirzeoğlu talks motivation with his sister / star in preparation for the next shoot

He continues, “I’m directing it myself. I contacted someone on a film forum, just out of university with a Masters in sound design. He was keen to build up his portfolio. I’m looking forward to working with him and the future scenes that we do. There’s a real passion out there for people who want to get involved in projects for free.”

We put it to Emirzeoğlu that it must be tricky to make the filming look professional. ”I’m doing most of the camera work myself,” he says “but I have one other person who’s helping me. We’re filming it on DSLRs. The actors are friends, the little girl is my sister!” He is referring here to the exciting teaser clip currently on YouTube (which we have embedded below).

When ITMS ask about his own experience, he laughs, “It’s difficult, I didn’t go to film school or anything like that. Everything I know is self-taught from the internet and online tutorials,” he says. “If I can get people to say ‘this guy’s done a really good job’ they will be asking me ‘what school did you go to?’ and then I’ll say to them that I didn’t actually finish secondary school! For me, I want to show how good it can be…and then go on to make more films.”

So many millions are poured into the blockbuster Hollywood industry that it can almost seem pointless to even try to have a go on your own, but Emirzeoğlu is keen to make ‘Seishin’ regardless of a lack of official funding, although he has tried to use the currently in vogue funding vehicle: Kickstarter. “I wasn’t really too happy with Kickstarter. They seem to go for the big shots. People who want grands of money. People are asking for £30k just to make a film with maybe two war soldiers going out on a battlefield, but they are just going out on a park essentially. What I am doing involves quite a lot of effects and scenery but I only need hundreds. Hundreds is still a lot of money!

With the BBFC recently announcing that it is undergoing a consultation process in order to ascertain that it is still awarding age certificates at the standard of suitability that people expect, Emirzeoğlu is very aware of the different factors that can affect children’s enjoyment of a movie.

“There’s a lot of films I’ve seen lately that have sex scenes or a lot of swearing and it’s not called for or needed,” he says. “They just chuck it in there to try and boost sales. You should focus on the story. I completely rule out anything to do with a sexual nature. That’s not my style. I want to be able to have children as young as 8 watch it and enjoy it.”

It isn’t just about age appropriateness though, he also wants Seishin to have a positivity that children as well as adults will pick up on. “I want to get a message across. You should do well in life. When you get older things do get serious. ‘Seishin’ will be a metaphor for life as you get older. Writing the script, I didn’t have an age range in mind, all I had was morals.“

However, he acknowledges that it can be difficult to predict how children will react, “I’ve shown it to friends and there have been kids in the background watching it and getting scared…that wasn’t the intention…but then do I want to change my original vision? This is my first short, I really want to get my first vision across to everyone. In this film I’m not aiming it at anyone specifically. In my mind I don’t think ‘is this going to be suitable or not?’ all I had is the morals in place”

Is the 12A about choice, or fighting for larger audiences?
By: Images Money

Whilst the 12A certificate has certainly promoted individual responsibility, some see it as a way of cynically trying to increase audience numbers for a movie that otherwise wouldn’t be acceptable to a younger audience. We asked Emirzeoğlu for his views on the 12A certificate: “I’m a big believer in if you’ve got a confrontation you should face it. It’s good to have these emotions, a sense of worry. If no-one taught you about danger, how would you know danger is there? You can’t keep children away from things. They have to get frightened. All children have their level of course. Some get scared more easily than others. Some can watch anything and not be fazed by it.”

We digress to talk about the movies that we first remember scaring us, and ITMS are trumped by a young Emirzeoğlu experiencing ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ at the tender age of 7. “It didn’t terrify me. I didn’t hide in the corner for days and cry, but it did cause some after effects,” he laughs, but goes on to say, “It must be hard for the BBFC to judge a film. 15, 12A or PG? To get an average idea of what scares children to certificate at that level, it’s something that I couldn’t do. I wouldn’t know where to bring that level to. I do think sometimes they go overboard in their ratings.”

What can we expect from ‘Seishin’ when it hits the big screen? “It will be mind-boggling,” says Emirzeoğlu, “it will be about friendship; about how people fight for each other and have to make tough decisions. Humans are starting to realise they can control their Seishin, even absorb them and gain god-like powers in the process!”

The Seishin project can be found on Facebook and Twitter as well as with updates on Emirzeoğlu’s Youtube channel.

Interview by Mike Record