Speaking with Writer-Production Designer Sol Clappier on CASTLES – Overall Runner Up at NAHEMI Student Film Awards

About CASTLES – In this slice-of-life, female-driven film, the past knocks on the door of three generations of women as they juggle the complexities of their relationships, traumas and their notions of family.

CASTLES was Overall Runner Up at the National Student Film Awards 2022.

Born and raised in Buenos Aires, Sol Clappier is a designer now based in London. She started her bachelors in Fashion Design at the Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA) in 2015, and it was while undertaking her studies that she grew passionate about film, leading her to undertake further extra-curricular courses in several areas of filmmaking, strengthening her connection between design, fashion and film. She has won several scholarship contests to study abroad, including a scholarship for The University of Edinburgh International Summer School in which she had the opportunity to experience the Edinburgh International Film Festival, as well as gain invaluable knowledge about the art of world-building.

We caught up with Sol to discuss his work as a writer and production designer on CASTLES.

How did you come up with the idea for the story? What are the themes explored in the film?

I took a lot from my own upbringing: I was raised by 3 generations of women in a mostly female family, so I kind of grew up around their stories and the dynamic of an all-female family core. I came up with the idea from the stories I heard and my own experience growing up. Motherhood, resilience, generational trauma and the complexities of family relationships are the main themes explored in this film.

What was the writing process like? Did you have any feedback from peers or tutors during the process?

The story was born from a few sentences I wrote during a screenwriting exercise during the first term of the MA. My peers and tutors convinced me to pitch it for the grad films. To be honest, even though I had always enjoyed creative writing, when I went into the masters it never crossed my mind to write a film as I had never done anything like that. There were two stages of selection: the first one was a pitch and the second one was a first draft. For the pitch stage in particular I happened to have already crewed up with my producer who was amazing and had a lot of experience in pitches, so we worked on it together. When it got amber lit the real challenge began. It was my first time writing a script and I had to do a lot of research into the format and layout for which I leaned into my tutors a lot. After we got green-lit, I started working closely with the advice of my crew (particularly the director and producer) and Marcus (our screenwriting tutor) in the subsequent drafts. Each draft would be a result of incorporating my tutor’s and my peer’s feedback into the story. I think after the first draft, as you incorporate peer feedback into the story, it becomes their story as well. It can be a highly collaborative stage if you are open to it.

How was your experience collaborating with a director? Did your ideas feed into their vision?

It was interesting! I had never collaborated with a director from the position of a writer. I think like in any creative project, and especially when the roles of writer and director are done by different people, there are bound to be different visions but it’s not a bad thing at all. As I was mentioning before, as you incorporate someone else’s feedback into your story it becomes theirs as well. I think Shuang (the director) really understood the essence of the story and brought a lot of her own ideas and vision into it. The final version of Castles is almost completely different from the first draft but that’s the beauty of a collaborative process: everyone’s vision merges into this one graduation film.

As you were also the production designer on this film, how did you balance both roles, that of a writer and PD?

It was quite challenging and quite hard to balance both roles. As a writer, you are completely immersed in the story on a personal level, and jumping back and forth between roles made it quite challenging to distance myself from the story I had built in my head and bring a more pragmatic and problem-solving mindset that’s needed as PD to bring a story to life. Don’t get me wrong- PD can also be emotional: we convey feelings and moods through design, but there is also a technical aspect in it and flexibility needed for problem-solving that was hard to channel whilst being so immersed in the story.

My Art Director played a crucial part in this process, and I leaned on her for the logistics of my design vision whilst juggling the role of a writer. On the other side, as a writer, I struggled not to write scenes for the sake of the visuals and leaned on my peers a lot in order to focus on what tells the story best. Overall I think it came through, we had an amazing team.

What was the biggest takeaway from this project?

I learned the importance of collaboration across departments when bringing a project to life. I also got to explore a role I would normally have not undertaken (writer) which I really enjoyed and I plan on keep on doing in the future.

How do you think the course helped you realize this film?

I think the course provides a safe space to explore our designated roles and venture into new ones as well. We have a faculty body that we can rely on and resources such as the kit room, printing facilities, 3D workshop, etc which we can count on. The course also has a Collaborative Unit which encourages collaboration across different degrees and universities. In my case, I took this Unit as an opportunity to collaborate with the National Film and Television School. All these experiences and resources added up to my process when realising this film.

What are the next steps with the film after being selected for NAHEMI?

Since winning the Overall Runner-up award at the NAHEMI UK Student Film Festival, “Castles” has also won an Honorable Mention at the Arts Film Awards and has been part of the official selection of Lift Off Global Network 2023. We have also submitted it to other festivals which we hope to hear back from over the course of this year.

You can follow Castles on Instagram @castles.film in which Sol and her team will be posting any further news about the film.