Run Riot last caught up with Film Directors Matt Hopkins and Ben Lankester back in 2014, when they were about to embark on a crowdfunding campaign to raise funds for their feature film A Divorce Before Marriage, a documentary following the band I Like Trains. 

In 2006 I Like Trains had the world at their feet. Signed to a major record label and playing sold out shows the world over, there appeared no limit to what the band could achieve. The now completed film picks up the story five years later, finding the quintet in a startlingly different position. Following the collapse of the music industry, I Like Trains are now a band stuck in the middle. 

Ahead of the World Premiere of the film, I sit down with Matt and Ben in their Brighton based film studio to discuss their experiences, expectations and ambitions for the film.

Beth Wood: Great to see that the premiere date is set, I assume the Crowdfunding was a success? Could you tell us about your experience and the filmmaking process?

Matt Hopkins and Ben Lankester: When we started this project we only had a slight idea of where we would end up with it. The film began through working with I Like Trains on a series of music videos, albums trailers etc. Getting to know them a little bit, we realised that they were not full time musicians, which was initially surprising. As we began to follow them with our camera, we unearthed this idea of making a film about a band in the middle, a band we saw as representative of many creative people in the same position, those having to lead double lives in order to keep creative expression alive.

After nearly two years of shooting, we launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise completion funding. With a trailer to show the direction of the film and a significant fan base of the band to appeal to, the campaign was a big success. After our Kickstarter campaign finished, we took a step back and looked hard at the film we wanted to make. We ended up shooting for another 18 months, allowing us to tell a three and a half year story about these five individuals. We’re now finally at the end of this journey.

BW: This is your first feature film, what were the main differences you found between working on this and your shorter film work?

MH & BL: Making a feature is much more of an endurance test, especially making one over this length of time. But it’s also a lot more rewarding, seeing a story come together over a number of years.

The way we’ve made it has been quite sporadic. We’d check in with the band members two or three times a year, shooting key scenes we needed, before taking a break again and letting the story unfold. These breaks in production meant we could go off and pursue other projects. We’ve probably made fifteen or so commercials and a number of short films during the period we’ve been making the feature. Shorts and features are satisfying in different ways, and the fun is in combining the two. I think a lot of our fellow filmmakers would say the same thing.

BW: A coming-of-age documentary, that I’m sure other bands/musicians and creatives must relate to, what were the difficulties of capturing the hard and defining moments experienced by the band first-hand? And did any of these themes resonate with your own life experiences?

MH & BL: What initially drew us to the band was this idea of them leading double lives - working regular jobs alongside being in a recognised rock band. We saw similarities in our own lives. We ourselves combine working commercial jobs for pay, alongside doing passion projects such as this one, projects that make no money back at all.

It was a similar thing for the band with the making of The Shallows, the record which we tell the story of in the film. The opening of the film sees David drive straight from his job at the council to the studio where he’s making the album. We’d often find ourselves in a similar position, arriving home from a commercial project to start an evening of work on a personal film. We enjoyed these similarities, and this felt like a good jumping off point for our narrative.

In terms of capturing the film’s defining moments, the band’s trust in us grew over time. There is a scene in the middle of the film where David is at home with his two year old son. He opens up to us on camera while he plays with and feeds Oscar. It’s one of the film’s most honest and heartfelt moments, incredibly bittersweet. These kind of moments can be nerve-wracking to capture, but there’s a real magic to them, too. The band learnt to trust us the more we filmed with them, and I think making the film over a four year period helped this trust grow.

BW: How do you feel this film has informed and developed your style of working and aspirations as filmmakers?

MH & BL: We’ve grown up a lot during the making of the film, and hopefully matured as filmmakers at the same time. You learn a great deal over the course of putting together a feature, and I imagine that’s particularly the case when it’s your first one.

One of the frustrations of making a film over this long a period is that the mistakes you make at the beginning of the process stay with you! We’re just about to premiere the film, and we’re still looking at footage we shot over four years ago, and there are certainly things we’d do differently if we went back and started over. However, the film is still very close aesthetically to the one we set out to make back in March 2012. Our style has developed and improved during this period, but our tastes as filmmakers have largely remained the same.

BW: How have you managed to work on this film whilst managing your own growing film company?

MH & BL: As we’ve been making the film over a prolonged period, we’ve been able to oversee the development of Progress simultaneously, building a structured company of trusted colleagues. The way we’ve combined the making of the film with working on commercial projects has consistently generated new business for the company, and in fact the film itself has opened doors for us with a number of commercial clients over the years.

Since we started the film in 2012, we’ve seen Progress grow from just four or five people to fifteen full time staff members. A number of the team have been involved with the project over the years, and we’re excited about putting the company’s first feature film out into the world.

BW: What are you long term plans post-premiere? Do you have any other feature films in the pipeline?

MH & BL: We have a number of projects in the pipeline. These include new features, short films and ongoing series. At Progress we always say that every project feeds the next, and that is especially true of our independent work. We hope A Divorce Before Marriage is just the beginning.

You can book tickets for the Premiere via: https://www.picturehouses.com/cinema/Picturehouse_Central/film/open-city-2016-a-divorce-before-marriage

Website: adivorcebeforemarriage.co.uk/

Film Trailer: vimeo.com/104184190

Kickstarter: kickstarter.com/projects/benlankester/a-divorce-before-marriage-feature-documentary