Fear of Greg Ruddock
Fear of Greg Ruddock is a cautionary tale about being subjected to judgement over the most precious things. It is about the harsh reality that we all have to face when it’s our time to go, and it is told through two characters in a dingy brick basement where Frank is bartering for his and his family’s lives.
Like in Kafka’s The Trial, Frank sits, beaten and bound, subjected to inexorable judgement. One gets the sense from actor James Mason’s performance that this is not the first time Frank has been in this situation. Frank Odessa Dragunov is the personification of having a fear of death, and despite this piece being named after his nemesis, the psychopathic Greg Ruddock, this story is about Frank because he represents us.
The character Greg Ruddock is the Grim Reaper who walks among us in corporate attire, and instead of a rusty scythe to slay the mortals, he uses a biro and a notepad, conceptually relegating this profound act of un-aliving mortals to a painfully bureaucratic ritual, which may feel familiar because I modelled Greg’s interrogation on times that I have had to endure in previous damned corporate roles throughout my career.
Fear of Greg Ruddock is a 10-minute short film taken from an excerpt of a story conceived by actor James Mason and myself after a text message brainstorm about what we could do in the short time we had to produce something in the lead-up to James’ indefinite move to Europe.
Much like how The Medium is the Message to Marshall McLuhan, The Process is the Point to us.
As performers of many years, James and myself are familiar with the following formalities, and no doubt you are too:
That well-worn platitude where pleasantries are exchanged at events or through social media communication, but they speak louder than actions:
“Let’s work together,” or, “Let’s catch up!”
Soon after, bullshit is called and you go on with your lives having not made one plan to even catch up, let alone produce something together to work on. You maybe share a drink, you talk, and talk some more, but nothing ever happens because we… we… well, just ran out of time because we’re busy keeping our families alive. Quelle surprise!
James and I are actors of, I dare say, now vintage stock. We’ve had too many of those empty requests over the years, but this time, we endeavoured to defeat them. This time, over a series of maniacal text messages back-and-forth, we decided not to let such basic-ness be a part of this conversation, and this is how this project came to be.
What was established was that we both had hard deadlines and that if this was ever to happen, we had to stick to a timeline. On many occasions, I’m sure we both felt the pressure and thought to pull the pin. But well done us! The deliverable was online before James’ indefinite move to Greece.
In a perfect world, this film would be taken through post-production again to iron out the imperfections (I could give you a shopping list if you dared me). However, it is those imperfections that typify the producers’ — our — constraints, and it is for this reason that I’m not going to fix shitty edits from the one-camera setup or the scratchy lapel mic poorly gaffer-taped to our chests on each reverse shot, etc., as an objective reminder that this is what can be achieved!
Comments