VET-MAN focuses on Tim Stewart, who has always aspired to be a vet, but after failing his degree certification, he seeks to establish himself as a mobile vet. After printing out his own diploma, he meets with naive third year veterinary student, Luke, as they seek out work in the ‘Vet Van’, but they soon realise that being a vet is more difficult than they anticipated.
The original concept for VET-MAN was conceived during the Transition unit toward the end of second year, and the idea has evolved dramatically as we decided to continue through to the Pre-production unit and finally for our final major project. I have already gone into depth on the inspiration for the concept in the pre-production package so I will avoid repeating myself too much. The overall concept began as a parody of The Supervet following an arrogant yet dangerously incompetent vet incorporating a fixed-camera mockumentary style. This evolved into more of a sitcom to give us more freedom with camera movement and style.
We agreed to shoot VET-MAN using a handheld camera throughout to provide an observational and realistic feel, as if the viewer is there with the characters and is involved in their antics. This follows a lot of popular sitcoms which adopt similar filming techniques, such as The Thick Of It, The Office, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and more. We wanted to utilise crash zooms and free-flowing camera movements to simulate this tone and I feel this has really helped to maintain a constant visual throughout which has helped to emphasise the comedic elements. Bowen and Thompson cite the use of handheld camera movements to create an "amateur" feel as well as for realism, which we intend to use to reflect Tim's amateur veterinary skills (Bowen and Thompson, Grammar of the Shot, pg. 169). They also explain that a well-controlled handheld camera can add "kinetic energy" to a film, which will boost the sense that the audience are the characters on their adventures.
VET-MAN opens to a dimly lit room with a man, Tim (played by Ed Allenby), frantically searching through drawers and cupboards, desperately trying to find something. This our very first introduction to Tim and I opted to introduce him as a dark, mysterious character so that when his sister, Tess (played by Skevy Stylia), finally switches on the light, our expectations are immediately switched and we that he is not a cunning and mysterious character, he is actually a clumsy, arrogant and incompetent man chasing a dream that he can never achieve unless he overcomes his hubris. As we discover Tim is actually searching through his sister's house, we capture a glimpse of his scheme which is to practice as a vet, illegally, using his father's old veterinary instruments. We can see they have a strained relationship - she cares about him enough to warn him against doing anything illegal, but also calls him a "twat". As a younger brother to two older sisters, I was inspired to write Tess' character to embody the stereotype of the 'know-it-all' older sister who puts Tim down at every hurdle, but deep in her heart, she does truly care for him. There is a small callback in this scene to the 'original' VET-MAN film that we created back in the Transition unit through the photograph in the frame which is a still from that short film which we developed into what VET-MAN is now.
Tim's "I'm Vet-man" line is a motif found in many superhero films, such as The Dark Knight and Iron Man (see right) as the hero finds their identity through their super alter-ego. Where this is often used to empower superheroes, this is subverted in VET-MAN as his delivery of this line is overshadowed as he accidentally smashes a vase on his way out. Rather than building himself up as a confident and capable hero, he has shown that he is actually clumsy and not heroic at all. Subverting tropes such as these is the basic formula for creating comedy, whilst it is not necessarily 'laugh out loud' funny, this adds a layer of Tim's comedic flaws as a character. The musical build-up adds to Tim's views on himself, which cuts as he smashes the vase, further accentuating the expectation versus the reality of his character.
The next scene introduces us to Tim's sidekick, Luke (played by Daniel Hemsley), and we see how he looks up to Tim as a role model. Luke's character was inspired by a character on Peep Show, who is blindly infatuated with one of the central characters because he admires his music. Similarly, Luke looks up to Tim because he believes he is a talented vet but his boyish innocence causes him to overlook Tim's ineptitude. We are also introduced to the van, which plays a key role in the story and also leads into the Chekhov's Gun device through Uncle Pete's drugs stash that Tim and Luke find in the glove compartment. Finding the drugs in here plays into the later scenes in which the two scheme to poison an owl to trick the owner into letting them give it treatment, only to find out they accidentally give it the wrong 'antidote' which sends it into a frenzy.
The first obstacle in their journey comes in the form of a dog, which Tim carelessly runs over with the van. I have always been a fan of macabre humour, especially through shows such as The League of Gentlemen. I took some inspiration from the character 'Mr Chinnery', who is a cursed vet who kills every animal he touches, usually in very ironic and graphic ways. In my research, I found that it was the generally muted tone and the sudden bursts of gore that made his scenes so funny - this comes back to comedy forming the the subversion of the audience's expectations. As Tim tries to save the dog, he accidentally kills it in a small explosion of blood, just as Sheila (played by Susan Baskerville) arrives, looking for her pet. It is here that we see Tim's illicit and cold-hearted nature shine through, as he agrees to help Sheila find her Sooty, just as he has killed it (or so he thinks).This scene is an example of how I looked to our cast to provide their own input into the script. The conversation between Tim and Sheila is quite different to how it appears in the original script. This was because I wanted the cast to feel comfortable in delivering the lines in a way that they sat right with them, and in a way that maintained the nuance of their characters. I looked to Armando Iannucci throughout the project - in series' such as The Thick of It, Iannucci gives the cast a lot of creative freedom to provide their own lines, which often works to create a realistic and spontaneous tone to their dialogue, or as Iannucci himself puts it "dirtying up the dialogue, making it feel more natural and real". From the very beginning, I wanted to keep the cast as involved in the dialogue as possible to know what works best for their performance to emphasise the humour already present in the script.
Tim sends Luke back to Sheila's house to deliver the bad news and he discovers that 'Sooty' was actually a cat and not a dog, so Tim and Luke have actually killed someone elses dog and delivered it to a sweet old lady in a bin bag. The two make their escape and head to their original destination: The Kent Owl Academy. As they arrive, Tim shares his scheme with Luke and we learn that his plan is not a plan at all, but instead just taking a chance on a potential client. Luke, blind to Tim's incompetence, sees this as a brilliant idea and the two head off to meet the owner, Mollie (played by Becky Black). Mollie is based on and named after the real owner of The Kent Owl Academy, who was incredibly important in the making of VET-MAN. She was able to provide the centre for us to film and she was very accommodating in helping us film with her owls.
As Tim's gamble fails, he resorts to a more sinister approach: to break in to the sanctuary late at night and poison the owl with something from Uncle Pete's stash in the van's glove compartment. This is the payoff we have from foreshadowing the drugs coming into play after they are introduced in scene 2, bringing the film in a circle and utilising a significant motif in the film. The Chekhov's Gun principle is used to signify that every element of a story that has any attention drawn to it should play a role in the wider story - Uncle Pete's stash is Chekhov's Gun and it has been used to create a shift in the narrative. The duo return to the owl sanctuary late that night and proceed with the plan. We chose to incorporate music here that is reminiscent of a heist or break-in, in a similar vein to the famous Mission Impossible score, but perhaps not quite as dramatic.
They return in the morning, pleased with how the plan has played out and they are eager to arrive at the centre to help Mollie cure whatever ailment is causing the owl to be so distressed. Reluctantly, Mollie allows them to help but as Tim injects the owl with what he believes is an antidote, Luke makes the horrific discovery that Tim has just given the owl an unknown solution from Uncle Pete's stash. As the owl swoops over to attack Tim, instinct takes over and he punches the owl out of the air. As Mollie recoils in shock and anger, we cut to black. This scene also plays into the macabre by using death as a comedic device and proving exactly how useless Tim really is as a vet.
Tim and Luke are then sat at the pub and Tim has a black eye. We did not need to see Mollie punching Tim, as the audience can fill in the blanks between the shot of Mollie being angry, and Tim having a black eye. As he licks his wounds, Tess appears at the pub looking to get their father's tools back from Tim and Luke spots Sheila in the distance. Sheila spots the pair and just as Tim steps up to confront her, he realises that Sheila is not alone. Tim stands up to find himself face-to-face with the intimidating Mark (played by Al Sawyer). Again, we cut to black and then back to Tim, this time with blood pouring from his nostrils. After the climax of the pub scene, the final moments of VET-MAN feature Tim at his lowest. He has killed two animals, been beaten up and lost the tools that would help him to achieve his dream of becoming a vet like his father. As the two drive away, the credits roll and we hear an improvised scene of Tim and Luke planning their next venture. I chose to end on an optimistic note to leave the possibility that the story could continue and that this is not the end for VET-MAN.
As the credits roll, we hear Tim and Luke discussing the future of the vet business. This dialogue was entirely improvised by Ed and Dan in the sound booth, the only direction I gave was that Tim and Luke are planning the next step in their journey. As the director, this was the most interesting experience for me as I could see how well Ed and Dan understood the characters to the extent where they could perform as them without needing any lines of dialogue provided to them. Going back to Armando Iannucci's work, sometimes the best lines of dialogue arise from improvisation, so I was happy that we were able to capture this for the credits. It has a very natural feeling to it and Ed and Dan had remarkable chemistry, allowing them to bounce off of each other and reach a satisfying punchline.
If I could return to the start of the project, there are several things I would likely change. Firstly, I would dedicate a lot more thought to the consistency of the costume in the film. Tim's scrubs in the first four scenes are very effective at conveying Tim's aspirations but we got a little too wrapped up in the continuity during the later scenes that we did not consider that it would have worked better to keep him in his outfit for longer. I would also have aimed to capture more coverage of certain scenes, which I will go into more detail in the evaluation. The sound of the film is also something that I would have liked to have considered more during the shoot days by ensuring everything was recorded properly and at the highest quality possible.
VET-MAN was the collaborative effort of myself, Katie, Melissa and our incredible cast and crew. What started as a basic concept of an 'incompetent vet' has evolved over the year into something that I am immensely proud of. I feel we have kept a clear and consistent style that benefits with the comedic tone thanks to Katie's cinematography, and Melissa's organisation and flare with the production design. Our cast have helped immeasurably through their enthusiasm and contributions to the script, accentuated through their talent as actors. I started writing the first few drafts of the script with the goal of making an audience laugh and I believe we have achieved that.
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