Movies You Made: “All in the Valley”
March is Movies You Made month at Go Into The Story where we feature the work of independent filmmakers. Today: All in the Valley. Some background on the project from writer-director Luke Hagan.
I finished my debut feature film All in the Valley towards the end of last year, and it has gone on to win the Best Feature Film at the Cornwall Film Festival, and has more festival and non festival screenings coming up. At the moment we’re looking at getting it up on VOD somewhere, but for now we have a website and a trailer.
Set in Cornwall in 1855 All in the Valley is a powerful story of desperation and redemption played out against a bleak and unforgiving landscape. The film follows Joseph Ballam, a Crimean war veteran who returns home with no money, no job and no prospects. When Mr. Lincoln, a wealthy mine owner, offers him the chance to emigrate to the colony of Van Dieman’s Land it seems his troubles may be at an end, but there is a catch. In exchange for a new life Ballam must go deep into the Cornish countryside to hunt down the Tallack brothers, a dangerous gang of thieves, and return the money they have stolen from Lincoln’s company. Ballam is accompanied by Kneebone, a gruff miner who claims to know where the gang are hiding. The bond between the pair grows as they track the men across the moor. However when they finally come face to face with the brutality of the Tallack brothers Ballam must confront the violence of his past and decide what he is willing to do in exchange for a new life.
The debut feature of writer/director Luke Hagan, All in the Valley is an exciting new take on the classic western genre. The film takes the common western themes of migration, wilderness and lawlessness and transports them to Victorian Cornwall — a frontier just as treacherous and wild as the old west. Filmed on location over several months, with a small and dedicated crew and a micro budget, All in the Valley not only makes the most of Cornish landscape but also it’s rich cultural heritage.
Cast
Stephen Hope — Wynne Joesph Ballam
Daniel Jordan — William ‘Bill’ Kneebone
Richard Pawulski — James Tallack
Rory Wilton — Uther Tallack
Michael Terry — Mr. Lincoln
Emma Spurgin Hussey E — lizabeth Ballam
Nick Delvalle — John
James Cotter — Sampson
Elizabeth Stewart — Cornish Woman
James Coard — Gideon Tallack
Jack Langley — Pentar Heylar
Colin Mattews — Pawnbroker
Kate Entwistle — Farm girl
Leif Townsend — Rotting Corpse
Shaw Grose — Dead man
Brian Abbott — Rower
Crew
Luke J. Hagan — Writer & director
Corina Skerritt — Producer
Jim Hagan — Executive Producer
Carole Hagan — Executive Producer
Simon Norman — Composer
Michele Bromley — Hair and Make-up
Jack Langley — Camera Assistant
Leif Townsend — Production Assistant/stills
Simon Norman — Sound Recordist
Corina Skerritt — Assistant Director
James Coard — Production Assistant
Martyn Hedges — Production Assistant
Kate Hagan — Catering Assistant
Luke J. Hagan — Editor
Billy Mahoney Jr. — Dialogue Editor
Arran Mahoney — Sound Effects Editor
Martin Gimson — ADR Recordist
Mahoney Audio Post — Audio Post-production
Keeley Hire — Prop Supplier
Cutting Edge Combat — Replica Firearms Supplier
Here is the trailer for All in the Valley:
I asked each of the filmmakers in this month’s series to answer this question: What inspired you about this particular story to make it a movie? Here is Luke’s response:
The initial inspiration for the story came from Cornish landscape. It’s beautiful but often quite rugged and bleak and, like a lot of people before me, I thought it would be a perfect landscape to use as a narrative backdrop. When I started doing research into the history of the region the themes of migration, independence and lawlessness kept appearing, and it struck me that, along with the landscape, these were really the same themes on which westerns are based. After that the decision to develop the story as a movie was a natural one because it meant that we could use the themes, tropes and archetypes which appear in the classic American western (and spaghetti westerns) and transplant them to the south west of England.
I have family ties to Cornwall, so apart from all the technical ideas of common themes and genre narratives it was actually just a lot of fun to set a story in a place I love. I spend every summer there hanging out on the beach with family, so the opportunity to reimagine these happy childhood places as the sites of brutal gun fights, or hiding spots for stolen money was very exciting.