CFP-E/shots YDA: Douglas Gautraud

Young, gifted and winning at the cfp-e/shots Young Director Awards this year. Our pick of the newbies explain their work with violent hamsters and grandads

How and why did you get into directing?

Growing up in a family of 10 children, we tended to share everything. My mom has great taste in films so, unlike most kids, we were watching Hitchcock, Akira Kurosawa and pretty much anything with Cary Grant in it. We absolutely loved movies, which lead to my brothers and I making short films with Lego and G.I. Joe toys. We were pretty good; we won a national Lego film contest and got to go to Legoland as a family. Eventually we all grew up and got real jobs; except for me. I kept making films and eventually got to a place where other people wanted to see those films.

You were obviously inspired by your grandfathers to explore their lives more closely, but why did you decide to make a film about it?

I have always seen both of my grandfathers as incredible men who led important lives but, more importantly, I saw them as my friends. When they died almost a month apart I was in a lot of pain and I couldn’t stop thinking about them. I felt so compelled to express those thoughts and feelings and a film was the best way to do that.

How long did it take to shoot and what was the most challenging aspect of the project?

For the year leading up to the film I didn’t know I was going to make it; I would just have bits and pieces come to me and I would write them down. After a year of writing down all the little ideas, something bigger started to form. It took about a month to really organise and complete the story and it took another month to film it all. The most challenging thing is writing, because it’s the one factor I feel like I have the least control over.

Does documentary-style filmmaking particularly interest you?

I love the honesty and simplicity of great documentary filmmaking but I am also very interested in great narrative storytelling as well.

What was the most important thing you learned during the process of making the film?

I learned to ask, “how should I do this?”, rather than, “how has this usually been done?”. This allowed me to let my brain come up with solutions I never would have found if I was letting rules get in the way.

And what is the most important thing that you learned from your grandfathers?

Legacy has much less to do with what I have at the end of my life and much more to do with what have I given.

What does it mean to you to win a Young Director Award?

I am thankful.

What are you working on at the moment?

I am currently working as a commercial director at Interrogate which has lead me to do work for Nikon, Dish Network, and Nike. When I am not doing that, I am working on getting things I find interesting out of my head and into a film; which means I spend a lot of my time writing. DE