Tummy Monster movie interview with writer and director Ciaran Lyons
When a self-centered tattoo artist discovers his latest client is a world-famous musician, his fixation on getting a selfie with his client embroils the pair into a bizarre and dangerous game.
When a self-centered tattoo artist discovers his latest client is a world-famous musician, his fixation on getting a selfie with his client embroils the pair into a bizarre and dangerous game.
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00:00I represent a client in need of an immediate tattoo.
00:03My client is an extremely successful and well-known musician.
00:10Hi, Tails. Nice to meet you. Hey.
00:14My name's Ciaran Lyons. I'm the writer-director of Tommy Monster.
00:17I'm a self-taught filmmaker. I started out making music videos for Glasgow bands.
00:22I've made over 50, including for some of Scotland's biggest acts like
00:26Proclaimers and Belle Sebastian and Arab Strap.
00:30I made a handful of short films as well.
00:33But as a filmmaker, what you really want to do is make feature films.
00:36And it's very hard to make that happen.
00:38So the only way I could do that was do it myself.
00:42Can you get a selfie for your niece?
00:50No.
00:51I knew that if I was going to wait around for funding
00:54and make a film the way people say you've got to make a film,
00:57costing millions, I could be waiting my whole life.
01:01So I thought, I've got to do this with the resources that I can access myself.
01:08So I'm not a very wealthy guy,
01:10but with all my experience making music videos and short films,
01:13I thought, I think there is a way that we can make an entertaining film
01:16on an amount of money that a normal person is able to raise.
01:20And Tommy Monster proves that.
01:23Calm down. Right.
01:24No, look.
01:25It'll take two seconds.
01:26Look, I'll just get up.
01:27Don't even think about it.
01:29Tommy Monster is a very strange film.
01:31It opens with this narcissistic tattoo artist down his luck.
01:35He's living in his tattoo studio.
01:37And he gets a visit, an unexpected visit in the middle of the night
01:41from this touring international pop star.
01:44And he thinks that he's got an opportunity to prove to everyone
01:47that he's not a loser by getting a selfie with this guy.
01:50But it really badly does not go to plan.
01:54It really escalates from there.
01:55And it's, yeah, all sorts of twists and turns and strange things happen.
01:58Am I being unreasonable here?
02:00Let it go, Tails.
02:01Trust me.
02:02One of the things that's unusual about this film is that we shot it in only five days.
02:06And that's essentially what made it affordable to do.
02:10There's a real DIY ethos to the film.
02:13We made it for, you know, with really limited resources.
02:16But from all my experience working on music videos, I knew that I could work fast
02:20and I'm working with a lot of people I've worked with before.
02:22And also it's like the way that we structure the film, it's very, very performance driven.
02:27There's basically this battle between these two very extreme characters
02:31and these two actors who are giving amazing performances.
02:33And they were living together at the same time that we were shooting.
02:36So you're essentially seeing like this, like this intensity of interaction
02:43between these two people and also just like the whole making of the film.
02:48We're just on a sprint the whole time.
02:52And I think this intensity of filmmaking really comes across on screen.
02:56And that's what I wanted to do.
02:57I wanted to make something that feels like a very intense experience.
03:01Taking inspiration from filmmakers like, you know, the Safdie brothers
03:05and, you know, the recent Oscar winner, Sean Baker.
03:07These are people who make films in a very DIY way.
03:12The film's shot in Brigton.
03:14It's an all Scottish crew.
03:17I think it will play really well with the Scottish audience.
03:19And I want people to be able to, yeah, see very relatable and recognisable
03:24Scottish characters on screen.
03:26This feels like, I think, the lead character Tails.
03:29I think he feels like someone we all know, for better or worse.
03:33The film's played at film festivals all over the world.
03:36And it's been great to see that, yeah, it travels.
03:40You know, people from all over the world, they do laugh when they're meant to laugh.
03:44And they cry when they're meant to cry and they wince.
03:47And, yeah, the humour does, it carries, which is great to see.
03:51But you think he's better than you?
03:53He better than you.
03:54That's commitment!
03:56Tommy Monster is a very performance-driven film with a really great cast of actors.
04:02It stars Lorne MacDonald, Orlando Norman, and Michael Akin-Saluri.
04:08And when I approached the actors with the script, part of the offer was that they were going to become co-writers of the film.
04:15So what's the verdict? Are you happy?
04:23Just give me a minute, I'm assimilating.
04:28Part of what gives Tommy Monster, I think, its real, almost like dangerous energy,
04:33is that there was actually quite a lot of spontaneous improvisation was happening during filming.
04:40And we're doing that in five days.
04:41We don't know exactly how every take's going to go.
04:44And the way I described it to Lorne,
04:48it's like we're not looking for perfect, we're looking for real.
04:52The shoot itself was so intense and so stressful doing over this short period of time.
05:13In this very claustrophobic environment,
05:15these two guys constantly vaping and losing their mind in the film.
05:20Yeah, I think we captured something quite real.
05:23Yeah, I just don't think that you're registering how big a deal this is that he's in my shop.
05:28As part of the release of the film,
05:29there's a number of the screenings that are also being supported by filmmaking workshops,
05:33where I'm going into detail about how we managed to shoot a film in five days.
05:38And I want these things to be empowering for aspiring filmmakers
05:43to see how they can make films in similar ways with achievable amounts of money.
05:48So Tummy Monster is playing in independent cinemas all across Scotland and the rest of the UK
05:52throughout May and June,
05:54kicking off with the GFT on the 1st of May.
05:57And you can find your nearest screening at TummyMonster.co.uk.