Rob Ayling is an award-winning writer & director we’ve had the pleasure of featuring before. A UWE Bristol graduate, Rob started the first film based radio show for Hub Radio which led to him being commissioned to write film reviews and articles for Intuition Magazine. Since graduating from the Met Film School with a Masters in Film Directing, Rob has worked in television, corporate videos and feature film productions. Some of his films have won awards and been selected at prestigious festivals including BAFTA qualifying film festivals. In March 2017, Listen To Me won Shooting People’s Film of the Month competition. In 2018, Being Wild, a short film made in 60 hours, won awards for Best Short Film and Best Director at the Royal Wolf Film Awards in Los Angeles, USA. In 2019, his award-winning screenplay Living in Crime Alley (A Batman Story) was screened at the British Film Institute (BFI). The story is of a struggling single father, trying to provide for his young daughter in downtown Gotham City. We had the pleasure of speaking to Rob about the film and future projects.
Congratulations on the making of ‘Living In Crime Alley’. It respectfully pays homage to the Dark Knight. What inspired your approach to making this short film?
“Thank you. I am a huge fan of Batman and to hear you think it respectfully pays homage to the Dark Knight is awesome to hear. Living in Crime Alley is essentially a confessional piece of work about how one deals with financial struggle. Back in 2017, I had lost my job and I was at a creative low. I was able to work here and there as a freelancer but I still didn’t feel ‘creatively fulfilled’ and the money was just not good or not coming in. During that difficult time of trying to find better, consistent work, I had written Living in Crime Alley. I had written a screenplay which, if I’m completely honest, I had no interest in adapting into a film. However, I decided to submit the screenplay to a festival, where it won an award. Having industry professionals (including a former comics editor) praise a screenplay, which I only wrote for fun and to keep myself creatively positive, was an amazing acknowledgment of my skills as a screenwriter.
It was only until late December 2018, that I realized that Living in Crime Alley was THE project I needed to work on. If I was to be creatively happy again, I would need to work on something with my heart and passion for storytelling to shine through. In my eyes, filmmaking is about taking risks. Without a doubt, Living in Crime Alley is the biggest creative challenge in my career so far.
Living in Crime Alley is a high concept short film, trying to convey a big story, with challenging themes on a relatively low budget, which was shot in 2 days. In pre-production, I knew that two things were going to make this project succeed; the casting and the believability of Gotham. My approach to filmmaking is summed up in three words ‘strive for truth’. Every choice I make as a director must serve the story and the truth I want to convey to an audience. My vision of Gotham is a harsh, depressing reality for a working-class citizen. Where I work best as a storyteller is through visual storytelling. With Living in Crime Alley, visual storytelling was so key to an audience’s engagement and, in my opinion, a refreshing approach to the superhero genre, which at times can be expositional heavy and self-reliant on telling rather than showing. With superhero movies, there is a certain level of high production value to bring these fantastical worlds to life. Any scenes involving Batman would be the most expensive. I had to approach and use him cautiously. Therefore, making his presence aware to the characters through the bat signal and shadows was essential. I owe a huge debt to early silent movie horror movies like Nosferatu as a major influence on my approach to the dark knight. The scenes without Batman is where I knew resource-based filmmaking was going to be key. I’m a believer in resource-based filmmaking and collaboration. Therefore I was able to work with a group of friends/filmmakers who brought their unique skills and resources to bring Gotham City to life. A small team, but they are all dedicated and passionate in their field and loved the source material. I learned so much in the making of Living in Crime Alley. This was my first production with heavy use of green screen, special effects and nighttime exteriors. All of which was a challenge, but made easier with a fantastic cast and crew that shared my vision of Batman and Gotham.”
Please explain your choice of characters and the plot?
“Living in Crime Alley tells the story of a single father struggling to bring up their child, a huge fan of the dark knight, in downtown Gotham, known to citizens as Crime Alley, which is famously the place where Bruce Wayne’s parents were killed. For 80 years, in comics, films and other forms of media, Bruce’s mission to defend Gotham as the dark knight has been explored in many various ways. However, the perceptive which been explored but I don’t think has been fully realized in film form is the citizen’s eyes and ears of Gotham. We’re always looking at Gotham from above from Batman’s perspective. When we see Bruce Wayne, we’re seeing the socialite, wealthy billionaire, corporate lifestyle but very rarely do we see the struggles of everyday reality for a citizen on ground level. Therefore my choice was to explore the everyday Gotham citizen and answer many questions; what would it be like to live and breath the worst of Gotham City? How does someone, a parent, bring up a child in a dangerous city? How does a citizen deal with the belief that there is a potentially a 6 foot Bat roaming the streets of Gotham? Living in Crime Alley does raise questions too, for example in regards to the theme of justice; is Batman making a difference to the people of Gotham? Living in Crime Alley is a sharp focus of today’s recession and the reality of everyday struggle.
I was very fortunate to work with Vincent Jerome on this film. A fellow Batman fan who discovered the screenplay and approached me to read for the role and I knew straight away that he was the Father for my Gotham. My approach to casting is simple, can the actor take direction, and importantly, are they the role? Vincent Jerome lives and breathes the role of the Father, delivering an honest, raw performance. Isabella Champagnie is a newcomer to screen acting and was able to bring a lot of charm to the role of the child. Danny Chase is an extraordinary physical performer and can convey so much in his eyes alone and with no dialogue, his Batman stands out from other actors who have donned the cowl. In any production I work on, but most importantly with this film, the casting of Living in Crime Alley is based on pure talent.”
How much research was undertaken ahead of its production?
“In many ways, I have been researching this film since the age of 5. That’s where my fandom for Batman first began. I grew up watching Batman The Animated Television Series, the 66 Television show, reading the comics/graphic novels and of course watching the Batman films. Living in Crime Alley is full of Easter eggs from the Batman universe, be sure to be on the lookout when watching the film again, thereby highlighting my fandom for this world.
In previous depictions, New York, Chicago, London, Pittsburgh to name a few, have been the backdrops for Gotham City. Living in Crime Alley was made in the UK, Bristol more precisely, so a lot of the research for the film’s production design was understanding the look and feel for America and on top of that bringing a new vision to Gotham. Bristol is a beautiful, creative city but it also has very gothic architecture and a dark color palette which I think is appropriate for bringing Gotham City to life. In regards to the use of DC characters, as long as I don’t make any profit on the film, and highlight that with a disclaimer on all paperwork, and in the opening of the film, I am freely able to use the character and its world for my own entertainment purposes. In other words, I have produced a film that is being given back to the fans for free, which I think is the biggest respect you can give to an audience.
What has been the reaction to the film?
The reaction to the film has been very positive. Overwhelming in fact. The fans have loved the approach I have taken to Gotham and Batman – Focusing on a ground-level story following a citizens’ perspective instead of our hero. It’s very surreal being recognized at Comic Cons, film networking events and even the local pub as ‘the guy that made a Batman film’. I’m ultimately really pleased with the response to the film and I hope that positivity continues. I know I’m not going to please everyone with this film, particularly the hardcore Batman fans, but my goal with Living in Crime Alley was to not only make a film by fans for the fans, I wanted to make a film that was easily accessible to audiences who may not be Batman or superhero genre fans. In short, a story that everybody can engage with, that happens to have Batman in the tale.
What other projects should we look forward to seeing you working on shortly?
I currently work as a filmmaker at an agency in London. So as well working on various projects there, I am hoping to finally get my debut feature film up and running next year. I am currently in pre-production for my next short film project, which is a thriller/drama. I’m always up for collaborating on other people’s projects, so any writers or producers out there with projects and in need of a director, do not hesitate to contact. Living in Crime Alley has already started strong in its film festival circuit run with two festivals already confirmed. IndieBOOM! Film Festival, currently taking place and the Fan Film Awards in Pasadena, California which takes in late February. I will be planning to attend festivals and many more while working on my projects. Needless to say, 2020 is going to be a very exciting year and I’m going to take every opportunity I can to progress further as a filmmaker.
Where will our readers find out more about you?
Readers can find out more about me via my social media, @robayling on Instagram & @RobAylingFilm on Twitter – they can also view the rest of my pro folio and find out more about me on my website: www.robayling.com – To follow the Living in Crime Alley film journey, check out our Instagram page @livingincrimealleybatfilm, Twitter @LICA_BatFanFilm, and our Facebook page, where you’ll find articles, concept art, storyboards and more behind the scenes content on the making of the film.
We wish Rob the very best with Living in Crime Alley. Check out the film! Like, Share & Subscribe!
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