Podcast: Guernsey filmmaker takes gamble with ‘Bet Your Bottom Dollar’

‘Everyone has their own sort of story and the focus of the film is about online gambling addiction.’

Brandon said the film tackles one of the most under-reported social issues of today.

‘We are quite willing to talk about drugs or alcohol but addiction to gambling is much more of a taboo subject. In March last year I came across an article by the UK gambling charity, Gamble Aware, and they published some astonishing research – 1.4 million people were experiencing harms from gambling. What’s the population of the UK? 65, 70 million people? That’s a sizeable minority. And that sparked the germ of an idea.’

The film follows a young man called Jack as he travels through southern France. As a result of his severe gambling addiction, he finds himself indebted to the (fictional) French betting firm, Paria 24.

‘Effectively it’s a journey of self-discovery and the crux of the story is how the industry is a kind of void that sucks the victim in and then keeps them in that spider’s web.’

• Listen to the full interview with Brandon Ashplant on this month’s Guernsey Press Arts Podcast

Although set in France, it was it all filmed locally.

‘We’ve got Marble Bay, St Saviour’s Reservoir, as well as the Grange Lodge, who very kindly agreed to allow us to film in their bar and their restaurant and up in a hotel room, free of charge.

‘Hopefully this proves that there’s versatility in Guernsey in terms of filming locations. Guernsey audiences will recognise those key locations, but to international audiences at film festivals and so on, it could be somewhere on the outskirts of Marseilles. And I think the way the film’s colour-corrected and graded and the way it’s edited together has a French feel and a vibe to it.’

How does the writing begin?

‘I think it’s really important to make sure that the story is as authentic as can be, to have discussions with people. I’ve a friend who could be described as someone that dabbles in betting online so I had conversations with him and others and then did a bit of my own homework, and then put pen to paper. It remains to be seen whether it’s paid or not.’

In the lead role is Brandon’s brother, Cameron Ashplant, who is also a filmmaker. Did he write the part with him in mind?

‘A little bit. He’d been away travelling in Africa. He’d just shot Maroon Awakenings over here and he came back looking a bit haggard and a bit scruffy with a beard and I said: “You look exactly like the character I’m looking for.”’

As well as Cameron and local actor Dave Hyett, some big names add their voices to the film: Paterson Joseph, from the Peep Show, Green Wing and the Beach, and Marc Duret who has starred in internationally acclaimed films The Big Blue, Le Femme Nikita and La Haine.

‘I reached out to Marc’s and Paterson’s respective agents. Obviously they’ve been involved in much bigger projects. So the fact that they said they’d read the script and we love the story was hugely humbling for me. It’s kind of a bit of luck, a bit of a whim and hopefully a good story that propelled them to get involved.

‘Once we’d got Marc on and he’d recorded his lines and sent them through, it was like, wow, this is amazing. So yeah, these guys are professional actors and I think they really brought a sparkle and a flare to the film that we probably wouldn’t have had otherwise.’

Composer Omar El-Deeb, who worked on The Mandalorian soundtrack, is the film’s sound designer and Jonathan Tammuz, a Vancouver-based Academy Award-nominated producer, also came on board.

‘We’d produced a film and it was almost over the line, but it didn’t feel like we had everything together quite yet. I was kind of happy with it, but it was important for me to share it with local contacts, as well as friends and family, to get their honest, critical judgement on it. Certain people fed back and they didn’t feel that this was quite right. I reached out to Jonathan and he very kindly agreed to come on in a producing capacity to mentor and guide from overseas. He gave some critical judgement in terms of pacing and cutting shots to make it more engaging for the audience.

‘It can actually be more difficult with short films because what you’ve got is the constraints of time, 15, 20 minutes, maybe half an hour if you’re kind of extending it a little bit. But generally speaking, it’s 15, 20 minutes and you’re trying to tell a story – a start, middle end – within that constraint of time. Whereas if you’ve got two hours to play with, you can exaggerate the pacing a little bit.’

Brandon is very thankful to Guernsey Arts. ‘When we went out to engage with these guys, obviously we had to have a budget. So the film wouldn’t have been possible without Guernsey Arts and their funding. Russ Fossey and Louise Le Pelley, in particular, were hugely helpful. While the funding is not huge in terms of numbers, it was important in terms of getting us over the lines and enabled us to get important figures, both in the film but also behind the camera.

‘Guernsey Arts are instrumental and hugely valuable to the local scene in enabling that to happen.’

After the premiere, will the film do the rounds of the film festivals?

‘Fingers crossed. Although this is, again, a first for me. I’ve been told to expect rejection. Some of these film festivals, especially the big calibre ones, they’re seeing around 150,000 to 200,000 films a year and they’ve got to select 25. So it’s a big pond and trying to stand out among that crowd is difficult.’

We wish Brandon and Bet Your Bottom Dollar, the best of luck.

• Bet Your Bottom Dollar premieres at the Princess Royal Centre for Performing Arts on Friday 15 September at 7pm. There will be a post-screening audience Q&A with Marc Duret, Jonathan Tammuz and Omar El-Deeb, joining virtually, as well as other members of the cast and crew in person. Tickets are ‘pay what you choose’ – £8, £10 or £12 – and are available at www.guernseytickets.com or at the box office on 229999.