Stalker Talk: Richard Falkner Chats Up his Film

In his film How to Meet Girls from a Distance actor/writer Richard Falkner wants you to learn how to empathize with a stalker. A comedy, this reel from New Zealand tells the story of a very awkward dude (played by Falkner) trying to get a date. He’s unlucky, but tries hard, a little too hard. A girl rejects him and sticks a knife into his throat. When the traumatized bachelor falls for the next girl, he starts to act creepy and find ways to approach her from afar.

Falkner is in town for the screening of his movie at the Beijing International Film Festival this weekend. He was kind enough to answer a few questions about his flick.

Guy chasing girl. Not the most uncommon plot for a film. What’s your spin? What makes this different? Toby's not just bad with women. The last time he tried to chat a girl up he almost died. Blaming this on a lack of knowledge, he starts 'researching' girls before approaching them. This spirals into, basically, stalker behavior. We wanted to see if we could make the audience understand or empathize with someone doing things that are, well, dodgy!

What do you hope people will take away from the film? Hmmm... The importance of checking the privacy settings on their social networks? It's a bit of a cautionary tale really. I guess what our protagonist learns is that if you want someone, you should be honest and give it a shot as who you are, instead of pretending to be something you're not. More than anything, I hope they enjoy the film and have a good laugh.

What was your inspiration for this story? Dean Hewison (co-writer, director) had written a script with a stalker character years ago and wondered if the idea could be fleshed out. The film itself was spawned at an impromptu, slightly boozy brainstorming session between Dean, Ruth Korver (co-producer), and myself. A competition was about to close in New Zealand, whereby you entered a one-paragraph idea for a film, a tagline, and a poster. The prize was NZ 100,000 (no more, no less), roughly US 83,000 to make your first feature film. We came up with three entries, whipped up some posters, and entered. From 750 entries, it was whittled down to two, and became a scripting competition (we wrote the first draft in eight blurry days). We won! I'm proud to say none of us had any real-life experience of stalking to draw from, and definitely no convictions.

Why meet girls “from a distance?” It's quite normal these days for people to research each other online. Employers look up potential work candidates to check out their lifestyle. You might look up the Facebook page of that hottie from the party (that you never actually spoke to), or the new girl or guy at work (who you've never actually met), and if their privacy settings allow it, have a quick look at their photos. In New Zealand at least, this is sort of considered a 'guilty pleasure'. What we're asking is: Where is the line? When does this sort of behavior become unnacceptable?

Would say your film is a dating guide for men? Or is it more of a love story? No no no no no! This is really not a dating guide! In fact it's not really either... It kind of subverts the genre in a few ways I guess. It's more of a cautionary tale. There is a bit of romance though, and it is a great film for a date!

What do you think women will enjoy about the film? We worked hard as writers to make sure we had intelligent, strong female characters. In retrospect, every male character in the film is some kind of idiot, and all the females are cool, smart and strong. Even the character of Phoebe, who was initially written to be slightly dull for the audience, ended up being portrayed very endearingly by the wonderful Scarlet Hemingway. We were lucky to have a very strong female cast. It was also great having a female producer, who could give us frank feedback about our female characters.

A lot of our readers deal with the issues that arise from cross-cultural relationships. Is this something you would touch upon in a future film? If you could, how would you like to approach it? To be honest, it's not something I'm hugely familiar with, so I probably wouldn't try to portray it... I can imagine it must create some epic stories though. I have enough cross-cultural issues with my partner, and we're both kiwis!

Have you screened the film at in any other festivals/other countries recently? What was the general reaction? This is our first festival outside New Zealand, so we're thrilled. It premiered at the New Zealand International Film Festival, to a home crowd in Wellington. We were all nerves as the lights went down, but of course the audience was hugely supportive. When it screened in Auckland, we actually had a room full of people we didn't know. We were blown away by their response, they laughed harder than those in Wellington! I'd love to see the film reach as wide an audience as possible, so to have it screen in Beijing is fantastic.

What was the funniest thing that happened on set? When you only have seventeen days to shoot a feature, there isn't much time for frivolity... There's an old saying "Laughter on set, tears in the edit suite", which for the most part, we abided by. But there was one moment where our director of photography, under immense strain and after very little sleep, kind of lost it. Whenever actor Johnny Brugh started speaking, the camera started shaking with restrained laughter, and soon the whole camera department would be laughing their heads off! It actually became a problem, as we only really had three takes (and that was a luxury) to get the shot, and two were gone. Thankfully they got it together...

What was the hardest part of shooting this film? Probably the long hours... Being part of a small crew serving multiple roles kept me busy. My house became production headquarters, so I would often come home from a days filming and find I had to shoot back out to deliver some pots to the caterer or something. For me though, the most exhausting part was right at the end, after having been through the writing, pre-production and shoot phases, when it came time to start doing the score and sound design. I was very fortunate to have some incredible assistance and guidance in both, but scoring a feature film is a colossal job, and we only really had a month to do it, recording cellos and drums in blanket tents in the living room!

Would you consider a sequel,” How to Meet a Girl up Close?” Ha! Someone once suggested "How to Meet Boys from a Distance". I guess that would be the 'coming-out' sequel. I can't see any sequel happening really, but we're thrashing out a new film now, so watch this space...

May we ask what’s the most embarrassing thing that’s happened to you on a date? Easy. I've only ever been on two dates, and they were both pretty horrible, but the second takes the cake. I was living in Melbourne, Australia, and managed to get two tickets to see kiwi comedians Flight of the Conchords. I'd always been a bit woossy about asking girls out, and it seemed to me that I had to ask a girl or I'd be wasting an opportunity. So I plucked up my courage and asked the first pretty girl I saw. She said yes! I was chuffed, and looked forward to it all week. The big night came, and we met outside the venue for a quick wine, which she downed quickly and replaced soon after. During the show I started to wonder if something was up. Why? Because every time the performers said something, she commented on it. This sort of crescendo-ed through heckling the kiwi legends, and finally into full blown abuse, complete with gasps of horror from stunned onlookers. On the way to drop her home I discovered she had recently gone off her meds, against her doctors advice. And started drinking again, against her doctors advice. And started talking to the people in the walls again, against her doctors advice. Best. Date. Ever.

Where would you take someone on a date in Beijing? Not to a Flight of the Conchords gig, that's for sure. To be honest I'm kind of stoked the Beijing Improv Fest is on while I'm over there, so perhaps that? I would probably exploit the opportunity to go somehwere I could enjoy as a tourist! But of course, what could be better for a date in Beijing than the romance of the cinema, enjoying a new kiwi classic in style at the International Film Fest? I'll take you all for a date. Really? Really. See you then.

Watch the trailer for How to Meet a Girl from a Distance below; and learn about more fun Beijing International Film Festival events.