Unto A Good Land: Interview With Ross Barnwell (EDIT – Sneak Peek!)

29th November 2012

Ross Barnwell is currently in his final year of university studying Television Production and has written and started directing his final major project ‘Unto A Good Land’ – a First World War based television drama pilot. Ross is working closely with Andy Robertshaw (Spielberg’s consultant on War Horse) on this project and have recently shot the trench scenes at those that he built last year.

I spoke to Ross last week.

What prompted you to come up with the idea?
I was fourteen and studying for my GCSEs when I first read Michael Morpurgo’s other beautiful First World War novel ‘Private Peaceful’. After finishing the book I was put on a coach with my history class and sent off to Ypres in Belgium. Staying in Belgium and immersing yourself in this subject will only ever have one result – no matter who you are. As fourteen/fifteen year olds go people seem to assume that anything with an air of education about it offers them no interest whatsoever. This trip proved otherwise – and is actually a great testament to kids of that age and their willingness to learn once they immerse themselves in a subject matter. I was captivated, we all were. I came home and read Faulks’ ‘Birdsong’, Barry’s ‘A Long, Long Way’ and watched films like the 1979 adaptation of ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’.

Writing and directing drama came later. Once I realised this is all I will ever want to do, I just had to find a way of putting my two fascinations together. And what prompted me even further was the lack of factually accurate, realistic First World War dramas. The lucky old Second World War with it’s Saving Private Ryan’s and Band of Brothers’ (to name a few) demonstrate how realistic depictions of war are entirely within our grasp. But it seems that the First World War has a predominant ‘Downton Abbey’ vibe in almost all of the current portrayals. This is something I want to change.

Why the First World War? How will it be put together?
Essentially, ‘Unto A Good Land’ is a 6-8 part television series with episodes aiming to be from 45 minutes to an hour. However, creating this under the bracket of ‘university’ lends itself to some alterations. Our project must be no more than 20 minutes long – so to create a full pilot episode would be out of the question. Instead, I am seeing our production as a pilot of a pilot. The story lines and story arcs remain the same but (without giving away any spoilers!) I have taken certain points of interest that would have occurred later on in the episode/series and have slotted them into the first 20 minutes. I’m a big fan of television drama that doesn’t rush itself and that lets the audience think for themselves and the only way I can feel I am able to demonstrate this in ‘Unto A Good Land’ is by choosing one or two main story features that I can then decorate with my desired themes – even if one of the features is, for instance, a cataclysmic change in a character best fitting episode 4. A ‘pilot of a pilot’ is my get out clause.

What are you hoping for when it’s out?
Myself and our producer Tasha Roche have always wanted to be able to demonstrate how student work can be just as professional as that of industry work. We want to dispel the sweeping stereotypes often associated with student film but, moreover, student television drama. We are looking to enter ‘Unto A Good Land’ into a variety of film and television festivals in order to achieve the aforementioned and to tell the world ‘we’re here!’.

The dream would be for our concept to be picked up. We’ve been so fortunate with our contacts – with arguably the most influential being Andy Robertshaw who provided us with his beautiful set of trenches, along with his expertise, uniforms, props and everything in between. He was also Steven Spielberg’s military advisor on the film ‘War Horse’ so, without any need of an explanation, to work alongside Andy on a project like this is nothing more than a dream come true! Thanks to Andy and co our production values have soared far above what our student pockets would be able to afford which is why I hope there will be some interest out there.

What will we expect when we see the finished film?
A First World War drama that has space to breathe. That encompasses period themes without the typical values of a period drama. Thanks to Andy I had the opportunity to spend 24 hours in his trenches alongside a group of re-enactors. Those 24 hours wouldn’t have been anywhere near what it was like back then but what it did do was allow me to experience the routines. For instance, it was dark by the time we had finished dinner and I put my tin down on the fire step. And that was it, gone for good! I don’t know if somebody had picked it up, or if the mud had just consumed it – the disorientation was unreal. And it was instances like that, that with that experience I was able to consider the mundane and the routine that is often lost in film. I applied what I had learnt, as best I could, to the script.

I want to fight a lot of our preconceived notions of how we perceive many of these characters. For example, we often forget that the Field Marshalls, General-Majors and all the top brass were still people. I am not defending what Sir Douglas Haig did over the course of the war but I sometimes think that we, as an audience, are so wrapped up in these preconceptions of the ‘Blackadder’ type general that we seem to forget that these were intelligent people who had to often make quick and sometimes fatal decisions. I am desperate to make a First World War drama that doesn’t fall into the trap of automatically making frontline soldiers the ‘good guys’ and generals the ‘bad guys’. I want ‘Unto A Good Land’ to be a human account where there is no right or wrong or good or bad but simply reflects the lives that our grandparents led.

With a focus on life beyond the battles and a semi-improviational style I want the audience to forget about the camera and stand with my characters shoulder to shoulder in the trenches.

Anything else you want to get off your chest?!
Our amazing cast of actors. The casting finished the other week and we are taken aback by how fortunate we have been. Jaymes Sygrove (Lieutenant Percy Dennis), Rebecca Birch (Nurse Amelia Amsel), Jonathon Reid (Colonel Browning) and Tony Manders (Major-General Woodhouse) each bring something so unique to their roles and we are incredibly lucky to have them on board. I want (I suppose more than anything else) to fight the stereotypes often associated with these characters. Their interpretations of the character that they are playing and the ability to draw them out of the confinements of the associated clichés is amazing and I consider myself incredibly lucky to be working with them.

EDIT – Sneak peek below!

Unto A Good Land – promo from Ross Barnwell on Vimeo.

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