Director’s Notes – Helena Brooks
“The story of Nothing Special appealed to me because it’s funny and has such a unique premise. I like films that are strong on ideas and offer different ways of looking at the world.
Forefront in my mind when casting and directing the lead character of Billy was for him to be likeable and attractive, despite the fact that he is quite eccentric. Kip Chapman was perfect for the part, playing nervous in a very funny ‘Frank Spencer-like’ way, while also being easy on the eye. Together in rehearsal we worked hard on making Billy’s neurotic behaviour an endearing trait.
Creating a beautiful stylised world for the film and the characters has always really important to me in filmmaking. The idea behind the production design of Nothing Special was to have a childhood saturated with colour, signifying intensity of feeling and emotion. I was inspired by Dr Seuss books, which like the film have unusual, mad themes. From Seuss came the limited colour palette of red, green, mint, yellow and stripes.
When Billy runs away from home and creates the life he has always wanted, it is visually very different from his childhood. We pulled out all colour and made his new world a safe haven of greys and whites. The intrusion of anything intense is signified with saturated colour; red ‘Special’ labels, the girl dressed in red, and his mother in bright green.”
