Making a film called G.S.W (2025) (gun shot wound in medical jargon) in a country with very little gun shot wounds is a choice by British director Jonny Durgan, and I'd argue it's an excellent one. The film works for all sorts of reasons -- Jonny's advertising background; a great script; a fantastic acting performance by Genevieve O'Reilly -- or ten other ones. We explore all the reasons in the pod.

In this episode, Jonny and I discuss:

• whether his sense of humor is a reason for his success;
• naming a film G.S.W. and what he wants people to know going into watching it;
• his transition between advertising and filmmaking;
• how advertising informs his filmmaking;
• the release strategy process for short films and what he might do differently;
• his ability to find great actors for his films and its affect on getting his films made;
• don't be shy on sending out your script if you believe in it!;
• casting for short films;
• how the US market views the film given the higher rate of gun violence;
• making indie films in Britain.
• what's next for him.

Jonny's Indie Film Highlight: A FRIEND OF DOROTHY (2025) dir. by Lee Knight; PROTEIN (2024) dir. by Tony Burke

Memorable Quotes:

"I grew up quite in a rural area, so to...say to someone, I want to be a film director, they might as well have said, I wanna be a NASA astronaut."

"For short films in particular, you really have to be tight with your story because there's no...time to spare."

"And then I put the phone down and immediately pick up the phone to the producer, and said good news and bad news. Good news: Genevieve's in. Bad news: we've got five weeks."

"One of the things I've learned is to always leave space for the actors to do their thing."

"I feel like the kind of the talent of people coming through is so much greater than it's ever been. It's just I feel now that we could be in a golden age of short film really, or independent film, hopefully."

Links:

Follow GSW On Instagram

Jonny Durgan's Website

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