Once: A Case Study

Written by: Felipe Echavarria & Maggie Drayton

Synopsis
Once is a modern day Irish Musical written and directed by John Carney in 2007. The film tells the inspiring story of two kindred spirits who find each other on the bustling streets of Dublin. One is a street musician who lacks the confidence to perform his own songs. The other is a young mother and Czech immigrant who is trying to find her way in a strange new town. As their lives intertwine, they discover each other’s talents and push one another to realize what each had only dreamt about before. During one eventful week, they write, rehearse and record songs that reveal their unique love story.
This naturalistic drama stars musicians Glen Hansard (of popular Irish rock band The Frames) and Markéta Irglová. Musical collaborators and friends prior to making the film, Hansard and Irglová composed and performed all of the original songs in the movie.

Once was shot for only €130,000 (US$160,000), and earned substantial per-screen box office averages in both the United States, and Europe, racking in a total of $20,710,513 over its six month release period.    It received enthusiastic reviews from nearly every critic and awards such as IFC’s 2007 Independent Spirit Award for best foreign film and the audience award at Sundance. Hansard and Irglová’s song “Falling Slowly” received a 2008 Academy Award for Best Original Song and the soundtrack as a whole also received a Grammy nomination to cap off the film’s success.

 

Production
In early 1990, Carney started playing bass guitar for Dublin band The Frames. There he developed a strong interest in film-making while working on music videos. In 1993, he decided to leave the band to follow his new artistic call. Carney started a career in film directing music videos for The Frames and two award-winning shorts (Shining Star and Hotel). His first feature film was November Afternoon, which he co-directed and co- wrote with Tom Hall in 1996. In the years that followed, Carney worked on TV shows and independent films, becoming familiar with the Dublin film scene. In 2001, he directed On the Edge, Starring Cillian Murphy and Stephen Rea. This was his first film to gain wide release. Following, On the Edge, Carney directed three TV series for a RTÉ.

One of them, Bachelors Walk, became the most successful independently produced TV series in Irish history. In 2003, he co-directed and co-wrote Zonad with Ciarán Carney and Tom Hall. The extremely low-budget film followed the story of an escaped convict who fools a whole Irish village into thinking he is a visitor from outer space. Again, Cillian Murphy, by then a renowned star, was Carney’s protagonist. This movie was never released, which hurt Carney’s marketability, but further inspired him to revert back to realistic filmmaking on the micro-budget level.

In 2005, Carney began working on the idea of making a modern day musical with his friend Glen Hansard, vocalist of The Frames. They agreed to develop the story and write its soundtrack together. Carney wanted to find a simple setting and storyline that could use songs in a way that modern audiences would accept. He was a big fan of classical musicals, similar to those of Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra, but was aware that modern spectators, just like his 16-year-old niece, struggled to believe the inescapable artificiality of the traditional genre. Thus, he set out to redefine the concept of the musical and began working on a paradigm in which verisimilitude was the most important goal. His film was to be seen by spectators without them necessarily being aware that they were watching a musical.

Carney finally settled on the story of a 26-year-old male busker and a 30-year-old street seller female from Czech Republic on the streets of Dublin. The idea not only challenged the Musical’s conventions but also seemed to be a contradiction to chick-flicks, presenting a romantic story in which the characters never kiss and in the end are not together. For several months, Glen and Carney collaborated, further developing the narrative and writing 10 original songs which they eventually compiled in a 60-page script. Their story line was simple, their theme profound, their characters easily relatable, and their song quiet touching. Carney has described in several interviews his script as a “postcard,” a short guide to a simple story in which mood is more important than plot.

Before pre-production started, Carney visualized the film as a 2.5 million dollar production to be shot on 35mm in 5 to 6 weeks. Cillian Murphy had agreed to play the
male lead as long as his female counterpart was a famous Czech star. With his name attached, the production was able to raise the budget Carney had envisioned. Thus, they started looking for a famous Czech actress who could sing and play the piano. However, nobody seemed to be good enough. One day, Hansard introduced Carney to Markéta Irglová, a formally trained 17-year-old Czech musician with no acting experience who had worked with The Frames a few times. After hearing her voice and performing some acting tests, Carney decided to cast her as his female lead. This decision made Murphy pull out of the project, which in turn led to all of the investors retracting their money. Thus, the production team had to develop a new shooting strategy and find a new male lead.

Seeing that Irglová and Hansard had a great chemistry together and were both professional singers, Carney ask Hansard to take Murphy’s part. Hansard who was well involved both in the logistics and the creative conception of the film said, “Brilliant! Let’s make this fucking film. Let’s make it for nothing. Let’s show them that this is a great story. “They cut their production budget to about $60,000 dollars they had obtained from the Irish Film Board and jumped into pre- production.

By casting Irglová and Hansard, both non-actors, Carney not only changed his original conception of the characters, who did not match that of the musicians, but also the type of film he was going to make. Not using stars made the film easier to relate to. Using real musicians allowed Carney to have musical performances that were way superior to that of the average actor that can sing. Having a smaller budget forced him create a less polished film that refreshed audiences who were tired of glossy Hollywood pictures. Ultimately, because the characters were singing for sixty percent of the film, doing what they do best, Carney only had to work on their acting performances for forty percent.

After four moths of pre-production, they started production in December of 2005. The film was shot in 17 days over Christmas and New Years on the streets of Dublin. On an Interview for Sheila Roberts from Moviesonline.com Carney describes the production process as follows:

“… it was a real back to basics kind of [filmmaking] stripped back to its very core — no catering, no M&M’s, no fridge, no hotel rooms, stealing cups of tea, changing in restrooms in restaurants and slipping into costumes, very little make- up. Glen and Marketa are non-actors technically so it was a very liberating experience for me and the crew. We did it very quickly because I think anything beyond 17 days people would have started getting very impatient with us, so we kept it kind of low and hard and fast” –Roberts

Although the script was not finished by the time production started, Carney had set for himself and the actors very clear objectives and guidelines in relation to the plot and the mood of each scene. For him, his most important preoccupation on the film was to make it real while making people relate to his characters and the songs. He defined the mood he wanted to convey in each scene and focused on creating that mood mainly with the performance of the actors. He was interested more in the characters and less in the shots he was getting.

The film was shot using a natural lighting scheme. The production did not get permits for the exterior locations and embraced a shooting strategy that resembles contemporary documentary filmmaking. Carney used telephoto lenses, lavaliere microphones and multiple cameras to cover scenes in public places. With this technique, he achieved a sense of reality which is hard to find outside documentary productions. His film is full of accidental extras, most of whom were never aware they were being filmed. The hand held camera work, the use of a mono-pod instead of a tripod and the selection of HDV video as their recoding format allowed Carney to focus on the actors and the story rather than on lengthy technical setups. He worked with a small crew and without the pressures associated with big budget productions.
Thanks to the agility of his shooting strategy, Carney had a good amount of time to rehearse with the actors before each scene. Because they usually ended the shot on time, he also had time to improvise some scenes and try different approaches to those scenes that were in the script, but which he thought that they could be better. In the interview from Moviesonline.com he described his work with the actors as follows:

“These guys were very rehearsed already. I mean they had a working relationship and had produced songs together and had written together. We rehearsed the dialogue on the day and we changed lots of the script on the day we’d come to … I’ve made a lot of TV and film. I’ve been in TV in Dublin for the past three years and you rehearse everything and you block it out and by take 3 it’s done. A lot of the takes in this are… I mean I would roll in the rehearsal which I think sends fear into a production team. There’s a couple scenes in there which are the rehearsal. The lighting cameraman would kill me for saying that but it’s true.”

Carney built on the previously existing friendship between the actors, but also relied on arduous table-work and rehearsals of most scenes prior to starting the production. Ironically, he decided not to rehearse the most emotionally demanding scenes and even to hide parts of them from the actors before the shot. His idea was that the tension the actors were feeling as a result of the scene change, would translate into an emotional force that would drive more realistic performances. Apparently, this strategy worked well.

Although Once was successfully created on an impressive micro-budget, it’s completion did not ensure its profitability. Many, if not all, of the successful, low-cost features have relied on an innovative marketing campaign matched with positive audience and critical reception, to platform their festival and theatrical run. This unfortunately is something that can’t be completely planned. A producer can attempt to reach a large target group, create as much publicity as possible, and position their film in the ideal markets, but since there is little money to be spent in this area, much is left to the mercy of audiences.

With this said Carney began marketing the film well before it was finished, by researching and understanding his target market. Carney and his team recognized that there was a generation gap when it came to music and its representation in film. Younger viewers were not relating to the modern big budget musicals (children’s films aside) such as Chicago or even Rent because they were just too grandeur or contrived to represent every day life, and they lacked modern originality. Once was developed to capture the power of song with a fresh approach using realistic techniques that thwarted Hollywood clichés including the traditional “chick-flick” story arch. By understanding what the industry was lacking in originality and content, Carney was able to develop a way for the film to market itself.

After the film was finished Carney developed a strategy that exploited the film’s individuality and micro-budget status to its fullest. It was after the strategy was employed that the film began to speak for itself giving it the needed momentum to exponentially increase returns. However careful attention much be paid to all stages of the distribution process to understand how a film can reach this level with passion, patience, and flexibility.

Carney decided to brand the film as today’s modern musical, automatically peaking interest in the film from fans of the genre, and presenting themselves as something different and fresh. Carney knew that his little film was not destined for major distribution, and therefore ran with the most obvious promotional characteristics of the film; its original soundtrack and musical foundations, its micro-budget, and its love story appeal. By marketing the film in such fashion Carney was able to secure Once a spot first at the Gallway Film Festival and then the two prestigious — Sundance and Dublin Film Fests. He was rejected at several other well-known European film festivals, but the film’s down to-earth indie art film feel was perfect for the young enthusiastic crowds at these two mainstream events. Fortunately for Carney this exposure was just what the film needed to move to the next level of distribution — a step that was not exactly foreseen in Once’s future.

After or during a film’s festival run, is when an indie-feature such as this must have flexibility and faith in the support of others. After Once took home the coveted audience awards at Sundance and Dublin, Carney’s grass roots project caught the eye of a distributor at Summit Entertainment. Carney sold the distribution rights to the film in all countries except for Ireland (the film had already been released there), and Summit later handed off the the North American rights to Nancy Utley at Fox Searchlight. Like many other viewers and critics alike, Utley loved the film, and took a personal interest in the project; ensuring that Once would reach American theaters. Once started in two theaters, and expanded to over 150 locations during its 31 week (6 month) run.

Although 150 theaters in terms of industry standards seems minuscule, Once managed to make over 20 million dollars at the box office (nearly 200 times its original budget). This is partially due to the fact that Once was a charming and relatable film that audiences enjoyed watching and told their friends about. However, the box office numbers were not only reflecting on this factor. After the film opened in America, the Once team consisting of John, Glen, Mara, and a few other crew members set out on a promotional bus tour across the states and Europe. They did television and radio interviews, live musical performances, online video blogs about their experiences, plus they were a moving billboard. They created a presence that along with word of mouth kept the film moving forward, and a consistent opening of new locations. By putting themselves and their music further behind the project, they only enhanced the charm of the film and made audiences that much more eager to take a look. Judging by the trends in the box office the film continued to gain momentum throughout the summer, both by premiering in more theaters across the country, and by staying pretty consistent with the amount of money and customers each theater would pull in, each weekend. This is an impressive feat considering the competition of summer blockbusters.

Once‘s marketing breakdown was both similar and different than other smash indie hits, such as Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity, and Napolean Dynamite. All of these films were produced on the micro-budget level, and eventually earned large profits respectively. The main difference that Once has from these other hits, was that it spoke to audiences on a much more sincere level than the other films, which were popularized by either their scare tactics or utter obscurity. Audiences were ready for a film built on truth and a marketing campaign built on talent rather than pure media exploitation. This reception carried the film all the way to the Academy Awards on February 24, 2008 where the song “Falling Slowly” written specifically for the film by Hansard and Iraglova, won best original song. The film’s path from unknown micro-budget brainchild, to worldwide phenomenon was complete. Some may say the film needed a fair amount of luck to reach this level, but after looking at all of the data and countless positive critical reviews, it is safe to say that audiences really liked the freshness that Once brought to the movie scene, and its overall content and quality. By challenging conventions the director created a unique product with almost inexplicable wonder that captured audiences around the world who were tired of formulaic Hollywood productions.

Links
 http://www.clashmusic.com/feature/director-john-carney-talks-about-hit-film- Once.
 http://www.moviesonline.ca/movienews_12026.html
 http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/Once
 http://movies.nytimes.com/2007/05/16/movies/16Once.html
 http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=weekend&id=Once.htm
 http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2007-08-06-Once_N.htm
 http://www.screendaily.com/Onces-john-carney-teams-with-element-for- zonad/4034472.article
 http://www.premiere.com/Review/Movies/Once