Anthony Marshall
02 December 2020
By Karina Caulfield
Anthony Marshall is a local filmmaker and student at Screen Academy Scotland. Originally from Aberdeen, he stays in Edinburgh where he studies for his BA Film course but hopes to make the big move to London or Manchester in the future.
Anthony shared what inspired him to choose film as his career path: “I've always been really interested in film and it's just something I've always loved and I am quite passionate about it and its history…So, that seemed quite logical because the end goal – it’s what I want to do with my life, is make films.”
Currently Anthony is in his final year however, COVID-19 has caused his entire course to go online. Anthony shares some of the struggles which come with this change: “It was a very social course. That’s the thing that's really been the most difficult is…it had lots of big groups getting together for various projects and slowly it's become less of that.”
"the end goal – it’s what I want to do with my life, is make films"
At the end of each term, students were required to create their own film however, the last collection of projects were cancelled. Instead, the assignment was slightly less ambitious in the form a report, outlining what their desired film would be: “…my group was doing a documentary, so that was the most difficult for us probably because there wasn't a script or something where you could analyse a scene and could really go in detail.”
Although Anthony believes his grade was not affected, he feels his new assignment was down a more disappointing process: “you are being graded on a very different thing than what we were trained to be graded on and…more importantly…it's not what you want to really do is it?”
Overall, fourth year has been slightly less affected due to it being heavily focused on their dissertations; although, working alone in his flat is what Anthony feels has become strenuous.
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“it had lots of big groups getting together for various projects and slowly it's become less of that”
As a result, Anthony admits it has been hard to stay motivated in a creativity sense: “..days just kind of form into one another…you aren't really making any progress on something but you also don't really feel the need to make progress on anything because it doesn't feel like any time is passing at all.”
Accessing resources and locations have also proved to be more of a challenge. During a master’s project Anthony was a part of, he reveals how the shooting process has changed: “…you are wearing a mask constantly throughout the shoot... You are cleaning down everything constantly…And it's quite a difficult thing to deal with…you'll be surprised how used to you can get to something and the reality of it is just quite strange.”
However one of the main disadvantages Anthony feels, is not being able to socialise and converse with his fellow students in person, with meetings and lectures held completely online: “...for me that is very difficult because I didn't realise how many people had just formed groups outside of the group chat.”
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"...you are wearing a mask constantly throughout the shoot...You are cleaning down everything constantly...and the reality of it is just quite strange"
Anthony continues revealing communication within his course has become hard: “…so I'm thinking, 'oh so no one knows what they are working on' and then come to pitching your film ideas and suddenly just everyone has a group put together of who's working in their film with them and what their role is.”
Despite this, Anthony feels the university have been “very understanding” with the issues his class are dealing with, stressing, “they weren't prepared for this, none of us were…and they are just trying to adapt really quickly.”
Anthony gives credit to his course leader, Paul along with his other lecturers, who are “really trying to help get this all together.”
Back onto the topic of film, Anthony has been currently working on a music video involving him filming a friend in one costume, “just kind of hanging out.”
Anthony is also using this time to become more familiar with various editing software’s such as : Adobe Premier Pro and Adobe Photoshop to further his skills.
“they weren't prepared for this, none of us were…and they are just trying to adapt really quickly"
However, talking about his love of movies and various directors is something Anthony is very passionate about, especially Korean films.
“My favourite director of all time is probably Bong Joon-ho…I've been a fan of his for many years. He made what was my favourite film, Mother and now has made one of my new favourite films called Parasite.”
Old Boy by Park Chan-wook, is another Korean film Anthony recommends, and one which he is fascinated to see other people’s reactions to: “I have shown to a few people and my cinema that I work at…I got to sit in and I would just watch the back of heads of people as they watched because they couldn't handle it.”
Parasite Trailer
“I won't spoil it all, but I will say the two things you need to know.”
Firstly Anthony mentions the warning description at the beginning of the movie: “my uncle always remembers it; so he was watching it on TV and it came up saying: graphic scenes of a sexual nature, violence, rude language and then at the end it just said, a man eating a squid. Because it is disturbing, he just shows up in a restaurant and is like, 'I need to eat something that's alive'.”
Next Anthony describes briefly what Old Boy is about which tells the story of a man who has been captured in a hotel room for 15 years. One day he awakes in a field and is contacted by his abductor. He must answer 2 questions: Why did he imprison him for 15 years, and why now has he been released, “and the answer to both questions is one of the most disturbing things you'll ever see. Do not watch the American remake, avoid it.”
“It is very different, that's why I like Korean movies, they are surprisingly different in their approach to things.”
Old Boy Trailer
Anthony also enjoy the likes of the Coen Brothers, Martin Scorsese, and the Safdie Brothers. He recommends watching Nashville by Robert Oldman, a country music-based film following a range of different characters going about their lives as well as gangster film, Once Upon A Time in America directed by Sergio Leone.
“It's a film, that I believe, the final cut has still never been completed…it's an old man (Robert DeNiro) wandering around New York in the 1960s remembering his childhood and adulthood as a gangster and sort of how he has fucked up his life permanently”
Once Upon A Time In America Trailer
Anthony continues branching it as one of the best gangster movies of all time: “…it's got some of the best music ever…this is his last idea he had.,. he wanted to do this masterpiece that took him many many years to make. It's a beautiful film, I highly recommend it.”
Anthony ends with admitting “I have 287 films in my Letterbox watch list… I could go on all day about films.”