In this psychological thriller, we follow a very highly strung principal as he searches for the student who’s been defacing the boy’s bathroom with vulgar graffiti. He’s a tortured man and must contend with difficult students, uncomprehending teachers and a mysterious, dark-clad figure haunting the classrooms. The film was directed and co-written by Charlie Norton, and we’re lucky enough to be able to ask him a few questions about the film.
Chris McClure, UniversalCinema Magazine (UM): First, the credits list three writers and mention that the script was based on an original story by Jess Foster. Could you tell us about the writing process and how the final script came about?
Charlie Norton (CN): Graffiti is an original story that was first written by my aunt, Jess Foster, when she was a graduate student pursuing her masters in screenwriting at The University of Iowa. Her inspiration for writing it at first came amongst her travels where she would see graffiti artwork almost everywhere. From in-between the walls of buildings, the markings on tables in restaurants and even the bathroom stalls! She told me that seeing graffiti in everyday spaces was a way for people to creatively express themselves in order to communicate with someone you may or may not know.
When I was a freshman in high school, I started developing an early interest in filmmaking. Jess sent me a draft of Graffiti in screenplay form because she was working on adapting her short story into a short film at the time. This is where I was first introduced to the project and where I immediately fell in love with the concept. It was actually the first screenplay that I ever read!
After Jess’s original short film version of Graffiti was put on hold, I re-discovered it when I was a sophomore in college. It was at this time that I felt more confident to direct a narrative that I had some history with. Jess gave me permission to adapt Graffiti into a short film of my own about a year or two before pre-production kicked off. The original draft was expanded and reimagined to explore the insanity of the school principal, Don (played by Matthew Stannah), as well as the ways of life in the school. With the help of my co-writer and 1st Assistant Director, Brendan Egan, we went through about 6 or 7 drafts re-telling this story the best way possible.
Graffiti was originally intended to be much longer. In fact, there are scenes in earlier drafts that never made it into the final film. The ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic and time constraints left us no choice but to cut them. However, we were able to crunch the final draft into a tight, 16 minute short film in a style where we can see Don and the nature of the graffiti he faces at full force.
(UM): What attracted you to this project?
(CN): There were two things that attracted me to this project. 1: the family history behind the conception of the story, and 2: the demeanor of graffiti artwork as a form of communication. When I was in high school, I never truly felt that I could confidently communicate my creative energy to others because of where I was attending school at the time. I attended a private catholic high school and I always felt oppressed by the school system’s image because their beliefs and values always forced me to censor my work. This was so they could look perfect to their audiences as well as their target demographics. In fact, they looked almost too perfect.
We live in a world where nothing is perfect. When making Graffiti, I wanted to reveal imperfections of not only Don himself, but the administration he runs and the scandalicious activity he unknowingly covers up. Even Jess, who is a teacher herself, shared some similar feelings to me on the corruption of both public and private schools as a whole. Grasping on this information as well as our personal encounters, we decided to unleash it all in the script and then translate it into the film. I guess our experiences of being restricted from our creative freedom of speech fueled some of the fire that conceptualized the world of Graffiti in its rawest form. This project is very personal to me because this was truly the first body of work that challenged myself to make a film that was out of my comfort zone. I did not want to be pressured by anyone in any way when making Graffiti, I just wanted to artistically perceive how I saw it on a personal level.
This is also where the inspiration of the graffiti artwork came into play. I remember there was a special bathroom in my high school near the boys locker room where there were all sorts of messages, drawings and of course, slanderous writings in-between the stalls. These ranged from the most detailed visualizations of the male and female human body, gut-wrenching rumors and political affiliated cartoons. My friends and I from high school all agreed that this bathroom was the only place where we could not only express ourselves, but also to be able to go to the bathroom in peace. Alongside Jess’s fascination with graffiti messages as a form of communication, romanticizing these two ideologies helped produce a luring attraction for Don’s obsessions, which we would see all blow out of proportion.
(UM): The principal is really a fascinating character. We sense right away that something’s not quite right with him. His dark eyes go a long way to alerting us to his issues. He actually reminded me a bit of Jack Torrence from The Shining. Was that one of your inspirations? Were there other films or characters you were channeling here?
(CN): The creation of Don was inspired from a few film characters and some personal encounters. First of all, I knew school teachers from middle school and high school who had very similar personality traits to Don. This fireball of rage mixed with a flair of bi-polarness was such a raw character to me. I’ve seen these personality traits from other people in school and they’ve been fresh in my mind since my teenage years. Without calling out on specific people, I felt like I couldn’t be able to interpret Don the best way I could without releasing some emotions of mine, caused by academic demons and other students, who challenged my well being when I was still in school.
A lot of people who have seen Graffiti compared Don to the likes of Joker from the 2019 Warner Bros film, Joker. This was kind of the direction that I was going for when not only developing the character, but also auditioning talent for the role of Don. We went through about 40 or 50 Dons’ before casting Matt. He had the right fit for the character’s demeanor based on my written interpretations of him; a teacher with a short temper who has an unstable amount of ability in doing his job.
That’s funny that you brought up Jack Torrence from The Shining and that he came to your mind on the character of Don! I can see the insanity of his personality more clearly in him and especially how he is never sane in any given situation!
(UM): I loved the over-the-top tone of the film. Could you tell us about your directing style and how you achieved this tone?
(CN): The over the topness of Graffiti’s tone came in part thanks to Matt’s performance on Don. I couldn’t even imagine what the film would look or even feel like without his interpretation of the character! Matt, Brendan, Jess and I had many discussions in pre-production about the film and how the character should be portrayed on screen. I had a few clear ideas on how the film should pace beforehand, but both Matt and Brendan brought some awesome concepts that helped coincide with these pre-existing ones.
In some of my past efforts before directing Graffiti, a lot of my friends and associates in film school criticized my directorial choices for being “over-the-top”. I felt that my directing style at this point in my film career reflected on what I had or who I could get opposed to working with like minded filmmakers with good equipment or proficient actors and actresses on set. This restriction made it harder for me to translate my serious writings onto film because of these limitations. My mindset on Graffiti was to go all out or nothing on the film regardless of what gear I had or who was on board, even if it meant going “over-the-top’” one last time. There were two outcomes mentally for me on Graffiti’s merritt, if I succeed, then I succeed. If I fail, then I fail. It was that simple to me.
(UM): Can you speak about the mysterious Damien Constantine? The name suggests he’s either very good or very bad, in the Biblical sense.
(CN): Damien Constantine (played by Nicholas Eaton) is indeed a mystery in the film. Audiences should suspect that his skeptical appearance will be vital to Don’s somewhat obnoxious investigation. Without spoiling vital details to the plot, we should assume that Damien is the culprit to the vandalizations seen in the boys bathroom, especially with his tag @DIC. However, we are always in Don’s point of view and no one else’s. We should keep this in mind as we watch from beginning to end.
The biblical ideologies linked to his name dualitates the balance between good and evil seen in Christianity. The name Damien is a Greek term for “taming or subduing”. In his head, Don feels that he has to aggressively put an end to his student’s viceful work so to speak. His last name, Constantine, was taken based on the first Roman Greek leader who converted to Christianity, Constantine of Constantinople. This can citatate that Damien is a creative renegade and revolutionist to the school. Whatever you think of his existence, I’m going to leave it up to interpretation.
(UM): I noticed that the walls of the school are papered over with all sorts of positive messages: ‘pencils have erasers’, ‘Please and Thank you are the magic words,’ etc. Were these meant to be anti-graffiti in the film?
(CN): You know what’s funny, the posters and diagrams filled with positive messages throughout the school were not intended to be in the film! It was sort of a happy accident when we discovered them on set. Looking back on the film, the anti-graffiti adds an extra layer of depth and curiosity onto Don’s school administration. Messages like “pencils have erasers” and “please and thank you are the magic words” are most likely common to be seen in most educational settings so these ideas can create a neutral social environment for everyone in school. It acts as a distraction to cultivating practices of unorthodox slander found on graffiti artwork, especially in this film’s case.
There is so much we can talk about on this topic alone that brings out the best and worst of this school. I do not want to give away all of these easter eggs, but I’ll say my favorite diagrams can be found in the conference room scene at the beginning of the film. Shadowing Don’s heroic or anti-heroic qualities. Who knows!
(UM): I was very impressed with the make-up and the special effects (especially the violence at the end). Could you tell us about these aspects of the film?
(CN): Make up and special effects were done by the amazing dynamic duo of Alex Barish and Malyn Mayo. These two killed it on set and I am blessed to have their talents be highlighted on screen! Their insane level of detail from black eyes to physical signs of addition and stress adds a gloomy, dark presence that further coincides with the film’s suspenseful tone. A funny memory I have from the set is when we had to apply an intense amount of prosthetics onto Nick Eaton’s makeup. It took about 2 to 3 hours for them to work on him and they had to keep close watch on the makeup applied so it wouldn’t melt on the floor! They were running around all over the place with him applying touch ups!
Continuing with special effects, its inclusion helped influence the opening and conclusion to Graffiti. I knew the film was going to open with a fight and conclude with a fight alongside quick glimpses of the graffiti artwork. With that plan in mind, Jess, Brendan and I discussed during the writing process and in pre-production that some kind of emotional or physical bloodshed would need to be made that revolves around the graffiti artwork in the stalls while coming full circle with the narrative.
To be more specific on the “violence”, the blood on the walls splashed sporadically like the graffiti in the stalls parallel with the consequences of damage control Don seems to be influencing in his administration. Creative expression may have the power to inspire artists, but it can also do harmful damage to those who feel either alienated or targeted against it. The amount of physical, emotional and psychological pain Don and his students go through was something I wanted to have focus on. Whether it is a fist fight or having a deranged episode, I think how we staged it all with SFX from the beginning to the grand finale came out incredible!
(UM): Do you have any upcoming projects you’d like to tell us about?
(CN): I have a cut of my next short film sitting on my desktop. What I can say about the upcoming project is that it is a coming of age 1960’s period piece. A “false narrative” so to speak. I am not sure what I want to do with it at the moment, but it should be expected to be completed this year.
I also just recently Assistant Directed a short film with Graffiti cast member, Kyle Gregory (played as Mike), titled The Critic. It is about a hip hop dancer who strives to become a perfectionist in the wake of an upcoming dance competition. However, he is faced with his demons who challenge him to self harm his value as a dancer. It reminds me a lot of Black Swan. Kyle says the film portrays “another day in the life of a struggling artist.” That project is expected to be completed in 2022.
I am beyond satisfied to have finally directed a project that I have been hanging on for all of these years. Since beginning its festival run, Graffiti has been accepted to not only the Vancouver Independent Film Festival (finalist for Best Student Film), but also to the likes of the Oscar and BAFTA Qualifying Rhode Island International Film Festival, The Los Angeles Student Film Festival and The New Jersey Brightside Film Festival, just to name a few. The film has also won several awards and been nominated for many others. In the next few years, I hope to continue to tackle more serious and cultivating narratives. I am happy to say that Graffiti was just the start.