Charlotte Simons
January 13, 2025
Hello Edward! So cool to have you here for an Artist Spotlight interview. Could you please introduce yourself and your art to our audience?
Hey - I’m Ed, I’m a British Writer and Director, living and working in London at the moment. I have some recently released work as well as some exciting new projects coming up and I’m looking forward to answering your questions.
How did you get into filmmaking and writing? What is it about these artforms that spark your passion and creativity?
I got hooked on iMovie and a Canon HV30 HDV tape camera when I was 11. It was a lens to the world that didn’t seem random or arbitrary or unknowable - even though that’s paradoxical to pointing a camera at things that aren’t you. It has always been about the intersection and synergy of multiple artforms working together to create harmony and synthesising an opinion of an experience that for some small moment, whether in the final product or the making of - makes life feel more knowable; all the psychological architecture and depth of writing, the command of performance, the evocation of music and sound, the composition of images which arm all the above with physical presence - so many wonderful moving parts to create a machine which generates experiential empathy. Roger Ebert coined the ‘empathy machine’ analogy, it’s a beautiful quote. We’re all just looking for connection in some capacity.
Filmmaking can be a pretty complicated craft, with lots of moving parts to manage. How and where did you learn to execute your projects successfully? How much of it would you say was self-taught, vs what you learnt in school?
I don’t think execution is a learning experience you ever ‘complete’ but I think there is probably a level of ‘net-proficiency’ you can reach in order to become competent enough to sell ideas and be a bankable option for creating future artwork. Then that’s when the real learning starts. Going to film school didn’t achieve that - not a single person in my professional adult career has ever asked me for proof of higher education. It’s all about the work. So spending time outside of class and making shit with friends has been the most influential learning experience I’ve ever had. Engorge yourself with books, films, art, plays, history, science, helping other people, falling in love. The learning is in the living. Don’t rush it, and if possible, don’t seek to quantify it. Doors have a funny way of opening when you’re ready for them. If you’ve been doing the work.
How have your films evolved over the years? Are there specific areas in which you would say you’ve grown?
When I first started out, I felt like I knew what I wanted to say, but I was very much looking for the guideropes of execution by pastiching my favorite filmmakers at the time. It’s an excellent way of figuring out those stylistic bits of you that are unique - where you might stray from your influences. Keep at it and those differences soon become your primary language and you start thinking in your mother tongue, rather than the language that taught you how to be affected by the medium - which is inherently 3rd person. Don’t rush to identify yourself with a style - we’re all guilty of it, and it can be very transparently conceited. Just take your time and slowly you’ll feel it out yourself - and if you’re working with the right people, they’ll start pointing things out to you about your own work that makes you even more fluent in the language of you.
And what are themes or technical aspects from your films that you’d like to explore even further for future projects?
I’m obsessed with the concept of fatalism - I think it stems from the idea of films making the world more knowable; it’s certainly the reason so many projects of mine play with multiple timelines/intersections of fate. Executing this on a major longform scale such as television would be an extraordinary technical feat from a writing perspective - so many moving parts and such expansive space to play in. ‘Exports’ - a crime drama series I’m pitching at the moment - does this. A century’s worth of dark secrets dragged up in a sleepy modern day island community - and the crossing points of different interior worlds happen over many generations.
Talking about future projects, you seem to have quite a few in the pipeline. On your website, you’ve announced “Lunch Rush”. What can you already tell us about this project?
Lunch Rush is a 10-minute documentary celebration of migrant cuisine and the success of multiculturalism through street food in London. Through the lens of three different food stalls, the audience is taken on a high-octane journey through a day in the life of street food vendors, from shutters up to shutters down. It’s out now and available to stream for free on Minute Shorts and Waterbear.
I believe this is the first documentary-type project from you. Was that different for you from creating narrative films and music videos?
The opportunism and flexibility of documentary filmmaking is a real muscle strengthener and teaches you valuable lessons about staying malleable in the narrative world. You shoot critical moments on a whim because you’re so alert, and you find your story in the edit - a cliche mantra, but no less true. It also teaches you a potent lesson about the ethics of context. People share extraordinary things if they trust you - and that comes with a responsibility to portray them with empathy and accuracy. I think the current factual/true crime culture has muddied the waters a lot about the relationship between documentary and real people’s lives. That’s not such an issue in narrative work. If people see themselves in your work, then it’s a private observation, not a literal one, and normally not accurate in the first place.
Apart from “Lunch Rush”, there are a few narrative films in the making as well! Do you consciously work on multiple projects simultaneously, or does that just kind of end up happening?
It ends up happening. The only sustainable way of making a career in this industry is with multiple irons in the fire. The writing is less simultaneous (although I am getting better at that!). But once you’ve got a project to a level that it’s ready to go out and be pitched with all its supporting material, then that project stays with you at every meeting you have. It’s like collecting a deck of cards.
The three narrative projects listed on your website are “Disonnance”, “Carpaccio”, and “Exports”. Not asking you to pick a favourite child, but do you have a specific aspect in any of these projects that you particularly enjoy working on at the moment?
‘Dissonance’ - a folk horror short about the music industry, was shot in November last year ( I need to update my website!). We’re still in the edit, and I’m lucky to be working with the most amazing team (Unfold Films) on it, but the whole process has been a masterclass on patience and precision. It’s been 2 years in the making for me.
‘Carpaccio’ is a biting social thriller about a team of migrant cooks who become embroiled in a series of dangerous cover ups in the luxurious Mayfair restaurant they work in. It’s the most violent project I’ve ever written - and is very much a meditation on our capacity for violence; people as wild animals. I’ve gained a lot from working on it, learning about human beings. I think I look at people on the train differently because of it. In a good way. I think…
The ‘Exports’ pilot and show bible has probably been the most fun I’ve ever had developing and drafting work. I can’t say much more about it other than it fits quite nicely between folk horror and thriller, in a very unique precinct. More soon…
Looking back at previous work, such as “Apophenia” and “Youth in Bed”, what are the learnings you took away from those experiences?
I actually watched Youth in Bed for the first time in a few years the other day. Aside from the plethora of bits I would do differently now, I was struck by how well simplicity was harnessed in it. The coverage, the sets, the story etc. I remember at the time of making, I felt so wounded by the gruelling process of doing Junk Mail the year before, I wanted to create an environment that felt almost nursery-like, to rebuild a degree of confidence. In doing that, it really became a safe space to try and be a bit more authentically me in my work - and marked a pivotal turning point that opened a lot of doors for me, and the cast. Even at their most complex, ideas must still be simple. Repeat it to yourself, like a mantra, over and over.
Apophenia was a calculated exercise on production and short form narrative efficiency. We called them ‘etudes’ whilst we were making them - ‘a short composition designed to show or develop the skill of the player’. It was a great use of weekends whilst I was working full time and a testament to not waiting for permission to just go out and make things. Who says you can’t make a 1-min BDSM film about somebody being put-down like a dog, just to see what it feels like to watch it?
What are themes, stories or points of interest that inspire you at the moment? Do any of these interests inspire you to the point of turning into a story?
I’ve become a lot more interested in the psychology of trauma in early development and how these things stay with us into our adult lives. Though we may not feel our decisions are consciously rooted around ‘normal’ childhood traumas like smothering or withheld affection, expectation or rejection, bullying or popularity etc, they form part of our source code and all our future problem solving or thought processes are in some ways built on how we reconciled those emotional experiences as a child.
Adult consciousness and the sense of self has no object permanence in that we are inextricable from the experiences we’ve encountered - even if we’ve done the healthy work to move past those traumas. At present, I find myself moved most profoundly by stories and ideas that look at behaviour later in life, and find effortless ways of bridging that gap between early development and now. It’s a device that can be used for great cruelty, or great empathy. Depending on the genre it’s utilised in I suppose haha.
We always like to end every Artist Spotlight with a personal recommendation from the artist! Any good films, books, restaurants or habits you’d like to recommend to the reader?
You meet me at a particularly insufferable integer in my life. Brace yourself…Therapy, meditation, positive nutrition, the avoidance of substances. Chit chat with your local barista - ask them what their name is and where they’re from. I’ve been enjoying the works of the psychoanalyst Darian Leader at the moment, thanks to my therapist’s recommendation. There’s a meditation app called ‘Balance’ which is free for the first year out of the altruistic belief everyone should have access to peace of mind. I can’t recommend it highly enough. My work has improved tenfold because of it. Restaurant-wise, Lyles in Shoreditch is brilliant for a special occasion. Such a simple dining room/kitchen and the food is amazing. I’m reading The Piano Teacher by Elfriede Jelinek at the moment and have never read a book quite like it. Try it, if you fancy a wild ride.
Thanks for having me!
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