This month BedlamBD has released a limited to 100 DVD run of my little debut short film shot back in 2014. At the time I was between Twink and Boys Behind Bars II and was somewhat bored, creatively. Here’s a reflection on the filming :
I wanted to try something a little different, something easy to pull together but enjoyable all the same. I got thinking about a concept that took a small glimpse behind somebodies door; a person/persons who exist but are otherwise overlooked. Incorporating mental health seemed a way to portray the struggles people endure but either hide, or are otherwise ignored by a cold world that just doesn’t care! I had been interested in the subject of Agoraphobia, stemming from my teenage years in which I’d go through phases of finding the outside world all too over-bearing, and during darker times would spend time behind the door, full of nerves. Not sure I’d go as far as describing my teenage angst as agoraphobic but it presented the idea of the issue too me and how very real it could be!
Then it came to me that how does one find love so secluded from the outside?
Wade & Ricky in Boys on 8 Tape (Copyright Wade Radford) 2014.
As the project expanded I then liked the idea of two people who had fallen in love, both suffering from Agoraphobia, and as result make their world so tiny (though not necessarily devoid of joy), but at the same time, unconsciously encouraging each others Agoraphobia by not needing to step out from the world they’ve created inside.
But, I wanted it to by ‘fly on the wall!’ I had an old Argos ‘family vacation’ type vibe camera knocking about – it took Hi-8 Tapes – giving the finish the intended look that it once produced when I’d transfer the Hi-8 to a VHS tape as I’d done as a child. It occurred to me that the film could be made with myself and another guy recording each other; like a vlog, but we could also be recording from a tripod when the ‘lovers’ wanted to appear together. I enlisted a guy called Ricky online, we had built up a rapport and he was starting out acting. It isn’t a complex, nor sophisticated shoot – It wasn’t shaped that way!
I picked him up, we set up and started rolling. If I remember rightly I had fucked up with the cameras and the film look set not to happen at all as the cam malfunctioned before we even began. The shoot ended up an hour or so behind and eventually I managed to get the cam operational – however, only if the wire was connected! I had used the very camera for projects as a young’n and it was ready to be left alone, not resurrected from the bag!
Wade in Boys on 8 Tape (2014) – Copyright Wade Radford.
Ricky and I had never met each other in person before, but we seemed to have an easy time getting a long; enough ‘artistic chemistry’ to make it work. I had no idea what I was doing if I am being candid! We came up with stuff on the spot … It really was very amateur, nevertheless exciting. I had this idea that the two would sit by the window discussing the people going by – Like a connection to the world behind safe curtains. The guys discussed, fantasised the lives of those who went by, and scenes of daily basic happenings and the discussions of wants played out. Not to mention the ‘night vis’ roll around on the bed, super long make out scene – No one has yet complained!
The film was sensitive, I wanted it to be that way! I’d been involved in far superior productions on budget, crew, locations whatever, and I was pleasantly surprised that early reviews came in far more positive than many other productions I’d been involved in. I like to think it speaks to others isolation; to their fears, anxieties and worries. Possibly during lockdown people could finally understand those emotions we tried to convey on film back in 2014.
Ricky in Boys on 8 Tape (2014) – Copyright Wade Radford
The film has appeared and disappeared over the years – the only hard media release it ever found itself on was on the ‘ill-fitting’ inclusion of the Boys Behind II DVD in the States. Apart from that it’s been online occasionally, and largely been a ‘rarer bit’ from my archive. All this time later I feel that for it’s no budget thrills, its content largely built out of discussion and no action, it still is not without merit – Certainly not if the world has over-whelmed you and you’ve felt these feelings and mixed emotions! I like the ending, I think it speaks too many of us – but I won’t spoilt it incase you ever find a copy…
It’s great that it has its own little promotional dvd now for the 10th anniversary – even if only 100 copies are on offer. So snag yours!
I never really partook in short films, but I am pleased I did this one. It comes under a bracket of films I largely ignored back in the day in favour of more ‘bums on seats’ offerings we were putting out. But as I am a wee bit older now, if not any wiser, I put within my achievements, when once I may not have appreciated it as much as I should have. Wade
‘Time Spent Watching’ – Wade & Ricky – Boys on 8 Tape (2014) Copyright Wade Radford
The Wade Radford Archive 
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