The twisted, dreamy Glasgow underbelly Aaron John McIntyre conjures up in his short film Gomorrah feels like a marriage of Wong Kar-Wai’s hazy visual language and the bleak dark comedic sensibilities of Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting. It’s hard to believe McIntyre made this film as a student as it feels so confident and assured both in the story he’s telling and the means by which he tells it. The plot follows as a recovering addict as he relapses in the pits of Glasgow’s backstreets. We see him wonder about, monologuing with a deep pessimism for the world he has found himself in. It’s a really impressive film that has certainly put McIntyre on our radar as one to watch for the future. DN caught up with the filmmaker to talk over the creative decision that resulted in his accomplished vision.
We were so impressed to learn after seeing Gomorrah for the first time that it was a student production as it feels so assured and well-realised. Could you take us back to the start of the journey of making it? Where did everything begin?
Gomorrah, my second short film, started its life like a lot of my university projects; a bit of a confused mess. It’s probably one of the hardest experiences I’ve had creating a project but has definitely been the most rewarding. I’d been going through a pretty rough time, as most of us were during the tail end of Covid and found myself watching a lot of weird, dreamy, shoegaze movies that TikTok had recommended. Fallen Angels, Enter The Void, and Mysterious Skin to name a few. I really wanted to make something that made me feel the way those films did. I especially loved Wong Kar Wai and his use of colour, and how the use of different shades and tones can be so meaningful when painted on a sad backdrop. It was the thing I loved most about each of these films, and I was itching to explore it myself.
You mentioned there that the experience of making Gomorrah was tough but rewarding, how so?
It was very cathartic for me and I think that’s why it took so long to write. I went through countless drafts for about four or five months, much to the chagrin of my lecturers. I won’t go into detail but the film gave me a lot of freedom to express a lot of bottled-up anxieties and fears – a bit of a thought experiment of “What if I was the sum of all the worst parts of myself”.
It’s probably one of the hardest experiences I’ve had creating a project but has definitely been the most rewarding.
How would you describe your creative process during pre-production? Do you have a particular approach when it comes to working with your collaborators during the early days of making a short?
I’m keen to use a lot of different media to help aid not just the writing process, but most, if not all of the creative aspects of production. For instance, I can’t write anything without a soundtrack. I always have to be listening to a specially-made playlist. These playlists became such an integral part of the communication with my team especially the DoP and sound designer. For these specific roles, I had a really clear sense of tone and style and I felt that getting across the ideas in this emotive way allowed the heads of production to build on those ideas in their own way and their own interpretation. Rather than a black-and-white instruction of, “This is what I want and this is how I want you to do it.” Giving it space to evolve and take shape on its own, going into different avenues that I would never have thought of myself, absolutely changing the scene for the better.
As a student, it couldn’t have been easy to get the film off the ground financially. How did you navigate that challenge?
The film was essentially funded by that sobriety experiment, a lot of overtime at Tesco Mobile, and my savings throughout studying. In hindsight, maybe not the best move for a student turned graduate, of an Arts degree, during a cost-of-living crisis. I had initially planned to source funding through some crowdfunders, like Kickstarter or even privately with folks like SharpShorts and Little Pictures, but felt very insecure. I’d never made anything to this scale before and the fear of failure made me feel that if I was going to fall, I wanted it to be on my own sword.
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I remember from making student shorts the sheer joy of seeing actors bring your script to life for the first time. What was that like for you and how was it sourcing your cast?
Casting was probably my favourite part of making the film. There’s something really special for me when working with actors. Especially as a writer, getting to see those characters jump out of the page, becoming living breathing people. It felt extremely collaborative, and I loved just how it changed the film for me in such unexpected ways. I think writers can be quite precious of their work at the best of times, but as soon as we tested Conor Berry and Sophie Sanders together the entire film changed for me; and I didn’t mind one bit.
I was a bit blown away by their talent and instant chemistry. I was particularly proud of Sophie as well, as it was her first time acting and she completely knocked it out of the park. As for Conor, I knew that boy was Dyksey the moment I saw his casting tape. I remember turning round to my flatmate and saying “Do we even need to see anyone else?”, I was jumping for joy.
Similarly, I also remember facing numerous practical challenges when working at that level with locations falling through and people not showing up to production. Did you encounter anything like that?
It was weird, at points the production felt absolutely cursed, and then at the same time, everything seemed to fall into place at the last minute. We had a DoP drop-out, no agreed location, couldn’t find any actors until the month before the shoot, had about ten extras out of the thirty that we needed, and didn’t have a sound recordist until the day before filming, either. Despite all of this, it was probably the easiest part of the whole production. Everyone had this “We’re in the trenches together” mindset that made us just get on with it and push through, and really brought us together as a team.
Everything had to have a homemade, dark and grimy feel.
Could you talk a bit about the technical side of making Gomorrah? How did you collaborate with your DoP to achieve that look that echoes Wong Kar-Wai?
I learnt a lot about technical filmmaking from our DoP, and dear friend, Alex Cormack. The man is an absolute wizard and I could sprawl on for hours and hours about how he can MacGyver a camera rig from thin air. And that’s exactly how we got a lot of those extremely experimental shots, playing around and really finding out how we wanted to tell the story cinematically. We achieved everything on our Canon C70 with a lot of lens whacking and hope. Everything led by this example, lighting set-ups were taped together. Art and set designs were set up and immediately destroyed. Everything had to have a homemade, dark and grimy feel.
How long was the shoot?
The project took about seven days to wrap, inside the coldest little art installation known to man. With days typically starting at 7am and finishing around 1am, to say we were shattered by the end of it would be an understatement. All in all, creating the film took seven days whilst making the film took a year.
Were you working that extensively during post too?
Post was a different beast altogether. Despite the troubles of production, they felt very surmountable; There was a problem and there was a solution. In post there was uncertainty. No definite time scales, conflicting schedules and a whole lot of waiting. We sat around playing with different ideas and versions of the film, on and off for around seven to eight months. I think part of that came from a loss of momentum on my part and also, my inexperience in directing a team in post-production.
Despite the troubles of production, they felt very surmountable; There was a problem and there was a solution.
Sound was definitely the hardest part to get right, because of just how dreamy and surreal we wanted the film the feel. Not only in its mix but also in its composition. I really wanted these aspects of production to inform and evolve with each other. Moulding into one big immersive soundscape.
How is the future looking for you at the moment? Do you have any more film work on the horizon?
*Coming out of the festival run I feel pretty positive. I’m really proud of what our wee team was able to achieve and I’m really happy with the run that we had considering it was our first time. There are definitely things I’d do differently, and things I’d wish I’d have known going in, but overall I’m glad we got the experience under our belts.
On the subject of new projects, I actually just finished a first draft of my next film LoveBug. It’s a story about a boy falling in love for the first time, and how real and magical it all feels, even if it is for the wrong reasons. It’s very music and sound based, using the score and sound design to communicate the complex thoughts and feelings that the wee boy in the film Fergus isn’t able to articulate. Narrating the plot through this imaginary band that lives under his knitted owl hat, which he wears at all times. I’m very excited about it and I’m working closely with my good friend and composer of Gomorrah Alex Korakinitis, which is always good fun. It’s early doors, just trimming the fat off it, but I’m looking to start shooting at some point this year, ideally in the summer.
*[25/01/25 This interview was updated for Gomorrah’s online premiere to discuss McIntyre’s festival experiences and future filmmaking plans.]
An extremity interesting read. I wish you every success. You’re a very brave young man