Private Project

STONEMAN

A Science Fiction Mystery (38 mins)

The last man on Earth must escape the British Isles before the country’s unmanned nuclear power stations go into meltdown.

STONEMAN is an eerie and enigmatic slow-burn performed, filmed, edited and scored by the director. It was made - on and off - over five years and was shot around the world on several generations of the iPhone.

  • Rupert Barker
    Director
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Runtime:
    38 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    September 25, 2024
  • Production Budget:
    1,000 GBP
  • Country of Origin:
    United Kingdom
  • Country of Filming:
    United Kingdom
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
  • The New York Science Fiction Festival
    New York
    United States
    March 25, 2023
    won Best Experimental Science Fiction Featurette
Director Biography - Rupert Barker

Inspired at an early age by old science fiction and horror movies Rupert started shooting his own short films on Super 8. His first attempt at something longer was 'Wastes' - an eerie apocalyptic drama about the coming of a new ice age. Whilst having a parallel career as a producer on NBC's Today Show and across the network (for which he has won three Emmys) he has continued to make films as a sideline. His personal work includes documentaries on the unexplained like ‘Mysterious Britain' and a hammy homage to classic British horror films called 'Crest of Fear' . The dryly comic short, ‘Gull of shame’ and its sequel, ‘Gull of Death’ are based on some truly bad poetry and 'Seaside Shocker' (2020) is a kids zombie feature. Right now he working on the definitive feature documentary, ‘Painting Plesiosaurs’ about the Loch Ness Monster. He has just completed ‘Stoneman’. With a passion for history and the unusual Rupert’s films are experimental, often comic and always shot on a shoestring.
He lives by the sea in Brighton, England.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

Director’s Statement / Stoneman

I realized recently that every film project I have ever embarked upon - whether serious or comic - has been a mystery of some kind. Mysteries have always fascinated me and within sci-fi cinema I have always found the sub-genre of ‘last man on earth’ stories the most compelling. STONEMAN is a synthesis of these two things.

The film came about when I discovered, a few years back, the potential of the iPhone. The image quality was by then good enough and I realized how liberating and flexible it would make the filming of the project I had in mind. I would shoot my film anywhere I happened to be in the world, I'd put myself in it and let the story evolve as I went. STONEMAN was to be a 'last man on earth' film made entirely by one person.

I deliberately didn't start with a script. My first attempt as a teenager at filmaking, 'Wastes', about the coming of a new ice age was made that way and I wanted to try something like that again. This approach I believe eliminates predictable storytelling. I knew that this new film was broadly going to centre around the last man on the planet, but I wanted the story to evolve organically until a narrative presented itself. In that sense it is experimental. In addition, I wanted to evoke a powerful sense of place, to capture the mythical landscape and eerie beauty of the British Isles.

During the edit I abandoned the idea of using voiceover. There are only two lines of dialogue - or rather monologue - in the film. I wish I could have done it without any words at all - it would have made the film truly cinematic and international. All the music in the film is rooted around one note: a D drone.

The result is an eerie and enigmatic story set in an empty world where an alien presence watches from the sky and time doesn’t behave quite as it should. I know exactly what it means but I did not want to signpost everything. I want the viewer to decide what they make of it - the film after all is subtitled ‘a science fiction mystery.'

I had planned to shoot the film in a few months...it took rather longer than that. It was actually shot on and off over five years! (Though I hasten to add it wasn't the only project I was working on). During the process of making, it I went through four identical jackets, several iPhones, multiple haircuts and lost and gained and lost weight again. Some of the locations featured in the film were stitched together from several different places. The castle - for instance - was collaged from shots taken in Scotland, England, Italy and Spain. Spot the joins if you can.

STONEMAN is an experimental project, but it is not an art film. I hope it entertains and the narrative grips. If the viewer comes away with a lingering sense of its eerie atmosphere and a riddle to solve then I feel I will have succeeded.

But I will let you in on a secret: there are easier ways to make a film and I am never going to shoot a movie that way again!