Pebble and The Boy

Chris Green is a filmmaker, screenwriter, and Modernist advocate since his early teens. I caught up with him to discuss the progress of his latest project, The Pebble and The Boy; a film which anybody interested in scootering, Modernism, Paul Weller or ev

Sharp-dressing scooterist Rik Bardsley takes a behind-the-scenes peek at this upcoming film.

When did the idea for the film strike you?

In 2011 my wife and I flew over to Cork to see Paul Weller. The concert was fantastic and the next morning we were sat in the airport – and I said to Debs (my wife)… You know, I’ve a feeling I’m going to meet Weller. I was so convinced of it, that I had my phone ready to take a picture. My wife said, don’t be daft, he’ll have left early and he won’t be in this part of the airport anyway.

And I’m sat there, nodding off like. Then there he was, looking cool as you like, walking towards me, and I went all fan-boy. I stood up and went to him. What I meant to say was… Hi Paul, I thought last night was brilliant. But, unfortunately, what came out was… “Hi Paul… (and worse still I was looking directly in his eyes). Thanks for last night.” I thought, that doesn’t sound right! Then I dived in with… “Can I have a photo?” He said: “Yeah, alright.” So, I got my phone out and took a pic – it was a shambles. I looked at it and I admitted it wasn’t the best, I showed it Paul and he agreed. “Nah, it ain’t the best.” I threw my phone to Debs, she screamed: “Don’t give it to me!” Anyway, a half decent pic was taken, he went one way and we went the other.

About half an hour later I was sat on the plane, reflecting – by this point in my life I’d been writing for 10 or 11 years, and the old adage about ‘write what you know’ came to mind. That’s when and where the idea was born. The original concept I had was called ‘Finding Paul’, it was about a guy of about our age doing the pilgrimage to Brighton and the like, but then I got chatting to a producer and he said it would be better if there was a younger element to the film. I sat and thought about that, and I just had this image I couldn’t get out of my head. An image of this young lad, an almost Jimmy type character, on the beach all hunched up with his parka on, early morning, Brighton, and the waves coming in – and the whole thing stemmed from there. I worked the story backwards from that point. What if it was a kid, that wasn’t a Mod and he had this relationship with his dad, they got on okay, but he was a bit embarrassed about his old man? He didn’t really know that much about him, he was aware that his dad was a Mod. A Mod who also happened to be a postman! The only postman to go on his round on a Lambretta. That’s enough to give any teenage child night terrors.

I know it for a fact, because I remember pulling up next to my daughter Nancy and her mates; I was on my T5 with all the lights, bars and mirrors on – and it was a case of ‘Dad! Noooo!’ I had to drive off pretty sharpish I can tell you.

So I worked further through this idea. This boy John, his dad had died, and the lad had decided to take the ashes to Brighton. I lost my own dad at the age of 15, and it was devastating for me, and to some extent John’s story is partly inspired by my own. My dad was a truck driver, and we had an amazing relationship, so when he died suddenly, of a heart attack, it had a deep effect on me. I was very angry, just like John is when we meet him at the start of the film. During the journey, the scoot breaks down, he gets lost, gets in trouble, and loses his money. On the way, he meets the mates of his dad and the free spirited and beautiful Penny who he falls in love with. He also meets the drug addled DJ wannabe Liam, both of whose fathers have a vested interest in keeping John away from Brighton.

Penny tags along because John has found two tickets to see Paul Weller in concert in John’s dad’s parka and she wants to go and see him – and Liam is forced to come along by his own dad to keep an eye on John’s progress and report back. So, three young people riding through the English countryside on classic Mod scooters, on their way to Brighton on an adventure none of them will ever forget. Through meeting Penny and Liam’s dads, John gets to know more about his dad, after his death, than he ever had while he’d been alive. He actually grows to love and respect his dad more as the film continues. There’s also another angle to the plot… but you’ll only know that when the full film’s released. No spoilers here mate. Chris gives a cheeky grin and continues.

John, our lead character isn’t a Mod per se, but does have Mod sensibilities. He dresses sharp, looks good and all the stuff that goes with it and as much as he rejects the suggestion, especially when Penny teases him about it, we all can see that he is a Mod at heart.

So, back in 2011 a producer came on board and we got the idea to Paul Weller and said he liked it, so we were up and running, but despite several meetings the producer couldn’t manage to raise the finance required to make the film.

But over the last 18 months, the story has been playing on my mind a lot. I just thought… if I don’t do this now then I might never do it and I’ll be kicking myself forever. So I contacted Paul again and he remembered the project, and he was still supportive of it so that gave me the impetus to go out and make a short promo film in order to get the project to the next stage. I contacted some great actors in Nico Mirallegro, Sally Carman, Mark Sheals and Lauren McQueen and

decided to launch a Kickstarter campaign to raise £10,000 in order to shoot the promo. The thing with Kickstarter is that it’s ‘all or nothing’ in that whatever amount you set as a target you have to hit, otherwise you get nothing. But I went for it, and was overwhelmed by the support and good will that came my way. It was amazing how much love there was for the project. Anyway, we exceeded the target and off we went to shoot it over four days, two in Manchester and two in Brighton.

I wanted it to be grim in Manchester – for the funeral scenes and then lovely in Brighton as he arrives with Penny to scatter his dad’s ashes. The shoot was great but not without its problems, and I’m so lucky to have the support of Lion Eyes TV in Manchester who have been behind the project all the way and did an amazing job in post-production, even creating CGI ashes for when John tips them out of the urn on Brighton pier (we used sand and it fell into the sea like a brick!). So, filled with trepidation I sent the 20 minute promo off to Paul and to my delight he watched it and reiterated his support. I decided to put a little teaser up on The Pebble and the Boy Facebook page, mainly to show the kind people who had contributed that I hadn’t run off with their hard earned money, and I was totally blown away by the response.

To date it’s had over 365,000 views, and that’s without having Paul’s music on it. Imagine what the feature film is going to be like with the music of The Jam, The Style Council and Weller’s solo stuff on it? Which is our intention. On the teaser, you’ll see that we had an amazing Lambretta hearse which was loaned to us by the wonderful people at Modified Funerals, complete with a Mod themed coffin inside. In the run up to shooting the funeral scene I put a shout out on social media, but I couldn’t believe it when over 140 scooter boys and girls arrived on the day. It was absolutely amazing.

So, that’s where I’m at with the project, looking to push it forward and get that all important financial backing that we so desperately need in order to get this film made and out to an audience. And I’d like to take this opportunity to ask any wealthy Weller fans, scooter owners or just lovers of great stories to get in touch and help make this dream a reality. Anyone who thinks they can help is more than welcome to contact me at greenymod@hotmail.co.uk

I reckon I need to raise about £250k – which is a tiny, tiny budget to make a film, but it will give us the ability to shoot it over four weeks and do The Pebble And The Boy justice. We’ll be able to pay for proper stunts and the like. At one point in the script, John falls off his scoot and we want to do it for real, not just him disappear out of shot and you hear a crash type noise! It’s got to be realistic, and we need money to make it happen.

As well as private investment, there’s a strong chance that we will run another crowd funder, and we’ll be offering perks for anyone who contributes, like ride on parts, small speaking parts, set visits and première screening tickets. If the people that have been in touch from all over the world come good on their pledges I really believe we can do it. If the support and love shown to the teaser is anything to go by then I think we’ve got a really good chance to make a film for the fans, by the fans. All being well, I’d like to be in Brighton for the August bank holiday weekender with a film crew shooting some additional footage for what I’m sure will be a cracking British Mod road movie…

The film is a story about the love between a boy and his father. So people… do we want to get this off the ground or what? There are many films jumping on the Mod/scooter bandwagon these days, but The Pebble and the Boy is one of the few films made for us, by one of us, that’s why it rings so true. Oh, it’s not only me it chimes with, The Modfather Mr Weller agrees, so much so, he’s allowing his music to be used in it. Nuff said, eh?

To see the trailer of the film, go here: https://vimeo.com/198195639

Interview by: Rik Bardsley