From the ninth to the thirteenth of January Steyning Grammar welcomed Marc Price, director of A Fistful of Lead (2018) and Nightshooters (2018); and his crew into the school to film his latest picture Class 8 (2019). This was arranged through the aid of the screenwriter, Philip Dyas who i had the privilege of interviewing about how the film came to be and will continue to develop until its release later this year.

Dyas summarised the story of the film as “the story of a teacher who arrives at a new school and begins to suspect something is ‘wrong’ with the place, and the students”. He compares it to “Stepford Wives”, a 2004 satirical thriller with a similarly intriguing base concept. Dyas continued however to state that although it is easily accessible to the casual viewer, it “is really about Education, and the idea of how much we are prepared to sacrifice in order to get students to be ‘good’”, drawing surely from his experience as head of Film Studies at Steyning Grammar School. Not to dwell too long on the artistic merits of his script, he quips “But that doesn’t sound exciting, so there are also creepy children with telekinetic power” ensuring there is something for everyone.

Dyas had worked with Nowhere Fast Productions previously and joked that he was confident that “they’d… not destroy the place”. Securing the permission to film at Steyning Grammar School seemed to come naturally as it was beneficial for both parties. Dyas described the conversation he had with Steyning Grammar School headmaster Mr Wergan, stating that they “talked a lot about the benefit of students at SGS getting to experience a real film set, the work experience opportunities”. As for the production team, getting a “location lined up was crucial in getting funding for the rest of the production” and Steyning Grammar School seemed to be there practically on a platter.

“Marc Price is renowned for his ability to work 'small', with a much more compact crew than you would expect in productions that look much bigger on screen” he explains and the results are evident as with a team of less than ten full time crew members and some volunteer students the filming process went through with relatively few hiccups. Dyas did acknowledge “one blip when we set off a smoke alarm” due to the “use [of] a lot of dry ice shooting a film”, however he assures that the “Premises team and the school were very understanding”.  

Where is the film going from here? “There will be a trailer released pretty soon” Dyas proclaims, however he confirms there is still “Quite a bit to do! All told i would guess it’ll be about four or five months”. By this time filming at the film’s other prominent location will be finished and the lengthy process of post-production is beginning. Marc Price once stated “films aren’t released, they escape” in reference to this exact process so we look forward to seeing the finished product once it has “escaped”.

Words and accompanying photos by Benjamin Jesse, Steyning Grammar School (Sixth Form)

Interview statements permission of use provided by Philip Dyas