I’ve enjoyed previous success as a producer, but directing was always my first passion, so it’s an incredible honour and a real boost for me personally. Thankfully the tighter, more restricted road boxed us in, creating more claustrophobia on screen and allowing us to get closer to the action. We had to change our location at the last minute. To be willing and ready to adapt when problems arise. Current Top 3: Thor: Ragnarok, John Wick: Chapter 2, Logan. Over 1K filmgoers have voted on the 60+ films on Best Action Movies Of 2017. What have you learned from making the film? The Best Adventure Movies Of All Time, Ranked. Moe Dunford has a great physicality and edge that worked well. I needed an actor who could confidently convey a whole range of emotions – confusion, fear, anger, despair. Losing a child is every parent’s worst nightmare, so I wanted Eoin to be an everyman – someone the audience can empathise with. We held a test screening ahead of locking the picture to see how it played with an audience and one of the biggest compliments was that the film didn’t feel 20 minutes long. The sound design and score were equally crucial in building suspense. I spent a lot of time with my editor honing its pace and flow. You never want a short film to outstay its welcome.

But at the end of each day, everyone would drive away! So we’d have to reset and restage the traffic jam every morning. Given the small budget, we couldn’t afford many action vehicles, so we made the traffic jam using most of the cast and crew’s cars. What challenges did you have to overcome on set?Ĭreating the traffic jam was complicated. We’re both fans of TV shows that fit tension and suspense into a 20-minute episode, so we wanted to achieve that in a short film and create an exciting mystery for the audience to solve. I pitched the concept to writer Darach McGarrigle and he liked how it touched on very primal fears like losing a child and not being able to trust people around you. From there I had the idea of a father whose daughter goes missing from their car. I was stuck in traffic one day, when the idea of a traffic jam thriller came to me and the sort of suspense that could be created in that restricted environment really excited me. I love high-concept thrillers set in a single location. Now I’m finally sat in the director’s chair. After graduating, it was tough getting work or getting films commissioned, but I kept at it and eventually started my own production company. At Ireland’s National Film School I was exposed to different aspects of filmmaking and I also met many like-minded individuals. While he may have had us hooked in our seats in the auditorium, we caught up with the emerging director to find out how he came up with the mystery concept which required the audience to think to understand.Īs a child I spent hours with the camcorder attempting to recreate my favourite movie scenes. The film's opening was relatively low, despite critical acclaim its opening weekend netted only. It was the directorial debut of Curtis-Hall, who also has a small role in the film.

Ian Hunt Duffy's short film, Gridlock, was gritty, engaging and all-too realistic - which perhaps explains why he won the Gold award for the Short Film category at this year's YDA show. Gridlock'd is a 1997 American black comedy crime film written and directed by Vondie Curtis-Hall and starring Tupac Shakur, Tim Roth, Lucy Liu, and Thandie Newton.

Gridlock movie 2017