HONEYTRAP and Rebecca Johnson

I'd like to draw your attention to an upcoming feature film shooting this summer in Brixton. It's called HONEYTRAP and will be the feature film debut from writer and director Rebecca Johnson. 

I first met Rebecca on the Think, Shoot, Distribute scheme a few years ago and was impressed by her intelligence, passion and talent. She recently launched a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo to help raise money to make the film and like her short TOP GIRL and the other films she's made over the last 10 years, a training and mentoring programme with local young people will be an integral part of the production.

I really do think this is one talent to watch and a worthy film to support.

I also had the pleasure of catching up with Rebecca and asking her a few questions about the film.

You recently launched an indiegogo crowdfunding campaign to raise money towards making your feature film debut  HONEYTRAP. The story is inspired by true events. Could you elaborate on this and how it led you develop it as a script for your film?

Honeytrap was initially inspired by one case but as I continued to write it, over three years, I branched out from there. I work with young people so their input has been instrumental, as has my own creative imagination. Honeytrap centres on a set of characters but it’s much more widely about the pressures on young women growing up in a confusing, pornified culture where they feel they have to be tough like boys but that their worth is also measured by their sexual attractiveness to men.

I am also particularly disturbed by the way the media can portray young girls as sexually manipulative, knowing femme fatales. A young girl may use her sexuality to manipulate people but she is not in control and she is not ‘knowing’ – she is still basically a child.

On your indiegogo biography Paul Greengrass and Chris Rouse are described as you mentors. Sounds interesting. How does that work and did they advise you on HONEYTRAP?

I actually realised that I wanted to tell the story of Honeytrap when I was in conversation with Chris. We were talking about some recent high profile cases where young people had killed other young people for the most tragically trivial reasons. I realised that the way these cases were reported presented an image of these kids as inhuman but that, through my work with young people, I knew this was not the case. I felt there was an important part of the picture missing and I wanted to address it. Both Paul and Chris have shown and taught me an enormous amount about storytelling and about filmmaking. It has been a great privilege to share and develop my ideas with them.

You yourself run a not-for-profit company Fierce Productions that itself is a training and mentoring organisation. Can you tell me a bit more about how you came to be involved with setting this up and helping young people in Brixton?

I fell into working with young people by accident when a friend asked me to work on his summer project about 12 years ago. I found that I loved it and have been doing it ever since. I love the energy teenagers have and I really feel for them because so many are having to fight such huge battles just to survive and keep afloat. My own life as a teenager was a very intense time and left its mark on me forever really. I wasn’t very happy - I was very angry, a bit nutty to be honest! And when I see what some of the young people I work with are facing – 100 times harder than anything I had to face - but coping so much better – I just think they deserve support and encouragement and whatever we as adults can give them. I try to do my bit through filmmaking projects which are fun and bonding as well as a tremendous outlet for creativity and self expression, but using those projects to try to help them on to the next step – whether that’s continuing to carve out a film career or helping them into work or training in other spheres.

Who or what are your influences as a writer and director?

I just love stuff which moves me and takes me on a journey which is intense and all involving! I am quite mainstream in my tastes really – not that arthouse. I loved Monster and Boys Don’t Cry, City of God and Festen. Goodfellas and Alien are probably my favourite films.

What format are you shooting HONEYTRAP on and is this a creative or

financial choice?

I am still exploring different possibilities with regard to format and will be meeting with my DOP David Raedeker next week to start going through them. Creative and financial criteria can’t really be separated though I don’t think. Part of the skill of making the film will be to use the resources we have as creatively as possible.

Your finance plan involves grants from foundations, equity from the

British Film Institute and other UK film funders as well as the automatic UK film tax relief. How important do you think crowdfunding has become as an additional form of funding?

Crowdfunding is a really important part of a new, emerging model of filmmaking – which of course will no doubt keep changing. But what’s great about crowdfunding is that it makes you find and start building your audience for the film - before you even start to shoot - in a grassroots way which is labour intensive but doesn’t involve the huge costs of a P and A spend. And of course showing that we have an audience for HONEYTRAP will, I hope, help us to secure other kinds of finance and distribution.

Why should someone contribute towards HONEYTRAP?

I hope because they think it’s going to be a good film – and an important film which looks at ‘gang’ culture (I use that term here to mean urban young peoples’ lives, not organized crime syndicates) from a female perspective. That hasn’t been done in the UK before. And also because of the way the film is being made. I’ve been working with young people in Brixton for more than 10 years now and a Training and Mentoring programme will be an integral part of the production of HONEYTRAP. Find out more here: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/honeytrap-a-feature-film-with-a-difference/x/2275046

What do you plan to do with the film once it’s complete?

The festival circuit will be important as I want to build international awareness and, hopefully, positive critical attention. I want us to secure theatrical release for HONEYTRAP but in terms of how that happens, we will have to see where we are when we’re at that stage. The market is changing so rapidly what with online release sometimes coming at the same time as theatrical or even before it – and all the other platforms emerging. We definitely want to be responsive to our market and think about how best to release the film with them in mind…so watch this space!