Papadopolous and Sons - Director's Q&A Session

We had the fortunate experience of having a Questions and Answers Sessions with the director of "Papadopolous and Sons", Marcus Markou. This is a list of the top 5 things I learnt from the session:

• In order to save money, Marcus avoided finding actors via agencies. He instead directly contacted potential actors. This allowed him to get the script to them directly and it just so happens that many of the actors were willing to act for less pay than they usually would, simply because they loved the script.
• When being produced, the film was not aimed at any demographic in particular. It could appeal to Londoners, immigrant families living in the UK, Greek people, Turkish people, people living in the suburbs and even anyone affected by the economic crisis. However, in the marketing side of things, Marcus specifically targeted the Greek demographic.
• Marcus strived to abolish any form of hierarchy in the production team. By this, I mean, getting rid of the superiority complex and benefits from being a lead actor. For example, in the queue for lunches it would be done on a first come, first serve basis and not dependant on the role you play in producing the film. Furthermore, Marcus learnt the names of all crew members by the end of the first day and ensured that the process was as laid back and as informal as possible.
• Marcus told us about a job I had never heard of before. The task of reading through a script and judging how much each scene would cost, belonged to a Line Producer. In the case of Papadopolous and Sons, the Line Producer was Sarah Butler.
• I also learnt that the filming was done in 3 primary locations. This was done in order to cut costs significantly and to make it much easier for crew and equipment to be moved about as there were only 3 major distances to be travelled.