Project Noir - making movies in troubled times with Jason Montgomery
With everything going on in the world, writing and directing a neo-noir gangster film might sound like an impossible feat. But for Jason Montgomery, it was something he just had to do. Here, the director talks about the challenges of starting a film project in a world of chaos.
On the chilly morning of Sunday, 23 January 2022, a group of Seoul-based foreigners assembled in a basement bar in the heart of Haebangchon. They weren’t there to down a few drinks and socialise, but to accoutrement, light, and design the space for a video shoot. An advertisement, or maybe an interview with the owners? Not quite. For the next eight hours, we would interrogate witnesses, negotiate assassinations, and stage gunfights in this usually festive locale. It was a busy day. We did take a full hour for lunch.
This project is entitled TURNCOAT, a neo-noir crime thriller short film that represents the culmination of more than two years of planning and preparation. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.
“Obstacles are inevitable, and the universe will never make it easy for you. Producing this film has been an invaluable lesson in perseverance and commitment. ”
The bar is HBC's The Living Room, a homey watering hole that lives up to its name. Plush sofas surrounding coffee tables stacked with classic board games; everything one needs to experience home away from home; with booze and a DJ added! The walls are adorned with art from a revolving cast of local artists, making The Living Room a hub of creative energy.
As a screenwriter/director looking to make a contained thriller, this venue struck me as a compelling and unique location to portray as the legitimate front of an organised crime syndicate. Around 2019 I proposed the idea to the owners, who enthusiastically agreed.
With the venue secured, I shifted my focus toward the story. What followed was a period of painstaking narrative development; ideas that got lost in logic traps, grew into larger feature film premises, or just generally went the way of Tarantino's Star Trek remake. Combine this with the challenge of working a full-time job, and on several occasions, I was often left questioning whether or not or not to continue with the project.
Shooting a film in normal circumstances is difficult enough. When you add the current worldwide situation, things become akin to pushing a freight train uphill. Government health protocols, the ever-increasing likeliness of cast and crew members being suddenly unavailable due to illness, the growing insecurity of our day jobs: all of these factors served to compound the pressures of organising the production and raising the budget. Projects like TURNCOAT seemed impossible, and I often asked myself: where will I find the will to move forward with this thing?
But find it, I did. I would imagine ideas like this bouncing around in my head, never making it out into the real world. It was either deal with that possibility or figure out how each of those roadblocks could be circumvented. So, thanks to a fierce re-commitment to realising this vision, the concept for TURNCOAT was born in mid-2021.
Some real momentum kicked in when an incredible pool of local talent, knowing full well all the aforementioned challenges ahead of us, started to sign on as cast and crew. These wonderful people helped to breathe some life into this hair-brained scheme, and I'm very grateful to be working with them.
TURNCOAT follows a crime boss's inquiry into his brother's assassination. It takes a deep, introspective look at the moral and psychological implications of thriving in a world where the exploitation, manipulation, and casual disposal of human life are all in a day's work. As avid fans of such genre films, we tried to build on iconic elements of the noir thriller while also taking it in a new direction.
At 29 minutes, TURNCOAT is ambitious for a short film. It will involve producing some intricate action sequences that require near-mystical powers of choreography and effects. But of course, our top priority is storytelling and character development. We hope to deliver an engaging portrait of a pack of gangsters that must confront a betrayal, but not of the variety that they're used to.
Preproduction on TURNCOAT has begun, and a promotional trailer for the film has been shot for imminent release. With the project underway, we now move on to the next phase; financing and distribution. For this project, we hope to work with the crowdfunding site Seed&Spark, who work with emerging filmmakers to help them secure finances for their work and assist them in promotion and distribution.
Wherever TURNCOAT goes from here, it's been an invaluable lesson in perseverance and commitment for me and, hopefully, anyone who reads this. Obstacles are inevitable, and the universe will never make it easy for us. Do whatever it takes to keep your creative energy flowing!
Follow TURNCOAT on Instagram @turncoattheshortfilm.
Like on Facebook: facebook.com/turncoattheshortfilm.
Support on Seed&Spark: seedandspark.com/fund/whoistheturncoat.
