A movie can't happen without a producer so meet Emily Wylie, our producer and have a little read all about our film!

For the unseasoned film professional Emily, what exactly does a producer do?



A producer's job is essentially to take what the production has such as the script, the directors ideas of what it will look like and how it will be done, and, of course, the money and try to make it all come together to make the best film possible. To give the director the people and resources to bring their vision to life.



How did you become a part of the project? And what attracted you to this story?



Grant and I met at a small film festival in London. He was part of a competition where creators could pitch their idea for a film in a couple of minutes in the hopes of winning a prize for their film. I was in the audience during the final round and of all the stories pitched that day Ecstasy was like nothing I’d ever heard before, it had such heart and such an important message and was so funny even just in being pitched that I knew I had to try and help. So, during the break when the judges went off to cast their votes I went up to Grant, introduced myself and the rest is history!



Filming really is one of the most collaborative things, how’s it been working with everyone on this?



Working with everyone has been an absolute joy. I feel incredibly lucky that we had such a wonderful and extremely talented team on board for Ecstasy. There were some really difficult moments where having a crew who were happy to just give it their all really made the difference.



What were the difficult things that you had to coordinate on Ecstasy?



If you’d asked me a couple of months ago I’d have had a very different answer for you haha! But, along with the rest of the world COVID was a big hit for us. We had just made the decision to start raising money when we went into lockdown and we had no idea when filming was going to be allowed to start up again, where the money was going to come from, if our location was going to be there, how to keep our (reduced) crew safe, where our power and toilets and shelter would come from, plus the weather was changing from winter into peak summer which was not ideal for trying to pretend that no time has passed. So that was a bit of a challenge but we did it :)



How did you feel after the first shoot way back in Jan?



Tired haha! I felt positive on the whole, I knew we could make a film out of what we had shot, even though we had gone through so many struggles on the first shoot day and missed out on hours of filming time, but to do so it would take some editing gymnastics and even then it might not had been the film we’d quite wanted to make. It was a very big decision for Grant and I to say we were going back but the film is immeasurably better for it.



What did you think of the movie before the extra shoot day vs now?



Ecstasy was a good little film before the extra shoot day, it wasn’t perfect and there were definitely elements of the audience having to be slightly forgiving but now it’s looking to be so, so much more (and we’ve not even finished editing it yet!)



Your favourite part of Ecstasy so far?



Making films is an incredible experience, you get to meet so many wonderful people, go on some insane shoots and you learn so much along the way but there’s something very special about seeing the film in a semi-finished state for the first time. Watching it and knowing all that hard work has resulted in this beautiful story. It’s magical.



What are your hopes and dreams for Ecstasy and what do you think it can do?



I have so many hopes and dreams for Ecstasy that I can’t even begin to voice them all here but, when it boils down to it, my biggest hope is just that people watch it and enjoy it. I hope it makes them laugh, I hope it makes them cry and I hope it starts conversations about disability and Parkinson’s.