Obviously Ian is the epitome of someone who has grown up under that shadow and basically
has become a man and it's what kind of man he's become because of his past.
I'd already made a film with David Harewood about his psychosis and so I was kind of thinking of high profile
people to talk about interesting subjects that aren't really talked about much
and I thought wow Ian Wright I didn't know that so we approached him and his
management company and started a conversation um and we pitched it to the BBC and they took
quite a long time to decide to do it in the end it got commissioned just as lockdown happened.
I think basically right at the start when we first met um I think we all felt very strongly
that we wanted the tone to kind of like reflect to be raw and very honest and to reflect who
Ian was, his humour and um and also once we started the research process looking at
um all the people who have experienced domestic abuse as well there were incredible kind of like
stories of resilience and courage and we just felt that was although it's quite a dark subject
and people go through a lot of pain there is a way through it and I think we all felt through
this process that that's one of the things that we wanted to represent to show the true palette of
Ian and the people who experienced and who were brave enough to talk to us and actually when we
were making the program there was a big domestic abuse bill which I think has just gone through
Parliament where they were trying to change the definition of a domestic abuse because it was
it wasn't only until quite recently that children were acknowledged as victims of domestic abuse
before it was just kind of like oh they're in another room they're not going to be affected
and obviously Ian is the epitome of someone who has grown up under that shadow and basically
has become a man and it's what kind of man he's become because of his past
Well I think you know intimacy with your subject is really really important and the shooting that
me and Charlene were kind of taking part in was kind of trying to push towards that
in general in everything that we did you know more importantly was kind of like developing a
relationship with Ian and our contributors um and then that allows the shooting of kind of being
closer and everything follows in from that kind of point of view um you know uh you mentioned about
locations so you know like his home is obviously a huge sanctuary for him um but then also
other locations where you know you take him back to his house uh you know the house in
the first scene or the bench were you know him and his brother sat on and played football
nearby and things like that so I tried to make sure what me and Charlene tried to make sure that
you know that everything had a reason to be um and would be significant to Ian in terms of that
I mean you're totally right yeah it's a very delicate line and there's a lot of
chat went on with his family um people around him his friends that you know we did a lot of work
with and we're talking about it and everything feeds into to Ian in that way to know that we're
trying to do things in the most responsible way that we are people who are empathizing and
trying to you know really understand his situation and very slowly you kind of build
that relationship because you're going through things with him there's something to be said
with uh films like this that you know people are reliving some of these things but putting them
making them go through that experience opens them up a lot more to what we all want to see which is
you know the vulnerability because you know that makes you understand what that person's
going through and that you know that's very difficult Ian had you know like most people
like any normal person would quite a lot of shields or quite a lot of protection
around them but I think once you know Charlene kind of showed that we are people
who can be trusted then with his whole um circle of friends and family then I think that's when we
got to the better scenes and and that's the stuff that's in the program.
But also in terms of the development of the relationship with Ian that would involve you know me going around to his
house and you know I always came around with it with a camera even though I would not necessarily
be planning to use it because fundamentally I wanted him to understand that I wanted to try
and capture something real rather than something fake.
You know getting the trust and finding these the individuals that Ian ends up meeting um and I took um a real personal responsibility in
finding not only the individuals that he would meet but ensuring that they felt safe and that
they felt that they could contribute meaningfully to the project um and that was difficult I mean
you know domestic abuse um doesn't have a start and a stop for many people it's an ongoing trauma
um and so when you add you know potentially filming someone unveiling part of themselves to
a camera for the world to see that's a different level layer of discussion of duty of care
um of honesty and openness really. I think you know between me and Dan personally we really wanted to
make a film that felt fresh um there are lots of instances of programs that have delved to some
extent into domestic violence domestic abuse and me and Dan were constantly questioning
me what can we say that feels new tangible fresh um and profound
and I think a part of that really laid the foundation of my casting process
and how I dealt with the individuals that are in the program. Firstly, nuance who
are telling me stories um Wez who is in the program um is someone who has
who was an abuser who perpetrated domestic abuse and you know me and Dan were very aware
that including a perpetrator of abuse could be seen by some people as excusing the actions of
someone who's done something horrible like that but we felt that it was pivotal and necessary
to um ensure that that was part of the wider discussion around domestic abuse and that it
emphasized and highlighted the cyclic nature of domestic abuse which is what Ian's story
effectively comes down to you know. I mean likewise someone like Naomi for me personally as a producer
it was very important that we had inclusive storytelling and Naomi being a black woman
speaking about her experience of domestic abuse was for me really really important personally um
not only in humanizing her and humanizing the black female experience and traumas like that
um but also for visibility. Logistics as a producer is really important budget's really important
but for me fundamentally it comes down to are you creating an environment where the
contributors that you work with can trust you are you as a producer doing your best to
ensure meaningful relationships with the charities and organizations that you're working with
because ultimately I don't believe as a producer a brilliant documentary like this can be made
without the help of organizations like you know the Hampton Trust or the NSPCC who are so pivotal
in providing us with um great information but also people who are willing to come forward and share their story.
The main thing is watch as much as you can in the genre that you're interested in.
Gather as much information as you can about storytelling about music and also um if you're kind of new to
editing is try and get in a dub or something and find out what works what doesn't work
what the dub can do and online all of those things just find out what everybody's job is
I think as a producer and thinking about people I think people are very much at the heart of great
stories and great storytelling and something that I've learned along my journey is finding people
who can speak to the shade of humanity the shades the different shades the light and the dark
the funny and the not so funny um and who communicate that in their own really special way.
So I would say it's very one of the key things is staying true to the story remember what it exactly
is that you started out trying to do because there will be many distractions.
What am I looking for in terms of editors is just you know it's really intimate relationship you know
editor and director and I think being able to be frank and honest about you know and vulnerable in
front of your editor is really really important because it gets you over that first hump of
you know like Alex said he's the first viewer of the material in a lot of ways um and so he can be
if you allow him to be he can be really tough with you know about the material but that gets you to
a certain place faster and it allows you to make the best film in the time that you're allotted.