BAD DAY

Cult filmmaker Ian David Diaz has been working as a freelance director since 1987, born in London, England and growing up in the rough end of Battersea, Diaz’s working class Catholic family (Ian is one of seven) struggled to make ends meet so when Ian left secondary education going to film school was not an option, the school’s fees were too much and this option was quickly dismissed.BAD DAY TEASER TRAILER
..
Add to My Profile | More VideosDiaz held a succession of odd jobs before finding employment as a runner at a TV post production house in Camden, this company was linked with a small production company and Diaz’s plan was to work his way up and slide into production. After a while he was offered a post in the TV graphics area and was paid minimum wage, Diaz figured it was better than being a runner plus it got him closer to production. He quickly becoming an experience graphics designer realizing his dream to enter production was futile as the door was always closed to him being working class and of a different hue. Diaz finally convinced the owners of the company to part with three thousand pounds to shoot a fun little kids short called Meg Foster which won the Best British Kids short Award, Chicago Kids Film Festival 1992, Diaz couldn’t afford to attend the awards so his award got sent to him.Diaz quit being a graphics designer and became a freelance director which only made him poorer. Writing his first screenplay while working he hooked up with a friend to get his script “The Killing Zone” off the page and onto celluloid.After getting rejected from every film funding body in the UK Diaz came up with the idea of putting an ad in a free newspaper (UK’s Loot) to raise finance for the movie recognizing that the only way to achieve this goal was to encourage co-operation with other filmmakers in a similar position. Surprisingly enough it worked helping Diaz raise a small amount of money for his picture, using the people who responded to the ad as crew he formed the production company The Seventh Twelfth Collective to producer his movie.Diaz admits The Seventh Twelfth Collective was really born out of the frustration he felt trying to make the difficult transition from short films to features in the British Film Industry. Working with budgets that wouldn’t pay for Bruce Willis’ breakfast and getting no love from the British film / TV industry Diaz learned very quickly how to shoot fast and get the best out of his actors. The Killing Zone an entertaining and elegantly written crime drama was shot in 2 weeks with the tiny budget of 14 thousand pounds; it went onto win the Grand Jury Prize best feature Award, at The LA & New York International Independent Film Festival 2000 and as per usual couldn’t afford to attend the awards. The Killing Zone gained a great review from Harry Knowles’ famous and well respected Ain't it Cool movie website and though time the movie has become a cult classic.Ain't it Cool review: http://www.aintitcool.com/node/6223Since then Diaz has co-produced feature Small Time Obsession produced micro budget movie Dead Room which he co-wrote/directed and produced, co-wrote and directed a UK/Canadian horror picture called Fallen Angels starring Michael Ironside (Total Recall, Perfect Storm and Starship Troopers) and Jeff Fahey (The Lawnmower Man).Diaz a fast efficient director who has learnt his trade through the independent sector works well with actors helping them to achieve their potential performance wise. His working knowledge and style suits the fast turn around of movies that require a close eye on the budget, with his working knowledge of the post-production process and common sense attitude he has completed movies that were considered impossible to achieve.His common sense approach helped to complete his latest movie Bad Day and the film is now gaining a lot of interest. The movie a homage to the US cop movies and stars Claire Goose from the hit Emmy Award winning BBC TV series Waking The Dead, the actress and model Donna Air, Sarah Harding from the successful UK girls band Girls Aloud and Robbie Gee from the hit move Snatch. Diaz is now the independent film maker to work with in the UK, actors, agencies and production companies are now insisting on reading Diaz’s scripts. Diaz has a number of screenplays and projects in development.Ian David Diaz Director's Showreel
..
Add to My Profile | More VideosBAD DAY starring: Claire Goose, Anthony Ofoegbu, Donna Air, George Calil, Sarah Harding and Robbie Gee Directed and Written By: Ian David Diaz Produced by: Gena Helen AshwellBad Day is a hard-boiled Crime Thriller that takes place over the course of 24 hours or one day.Rebecca Ryan (Claire Goose) has been working as an undercover agent for the Organized Crime Division (OCD) posing as a taxi driver, while investigating London's south-side mob.When she finds her young daughter Lynn brutally murdered she fears her cover has been blown wide open, so she turns renegade and begins a brutal campaign of vengeance against the mob she believes killed her daughter.As she trawls the seedy depths of London's underworld hunting down her daughter's killers, the lines between good and evil, right and wrong begin to blur as do her notions of justice and revenge.It falls to the world-weary OCD agent Darius Cruise (Anthony Ofoegbu) and his newly-assigned, hot-tempered partner Abby Barrett (Donna Air) to track down Rebecca and bring her in before all hell breaks loose.As implied by the title, the events take place over a 24-hour period, with each of the main characters having their own problems to over come as the day unfolds.Bad Day thank you note
..
Add to My Profile | More VideosThink Death Wish or the recent Brave One with Jodie Foster crossed with ‘French Connection’ and ‘Narc’ with a British feel. Bad Day is gritty and edgy. 90% of the movie was shoot hand held.The vision of the movie Bad DayThe movie is ultimately a homage to the '60s and '70s US cop television shows and movies but played out in England, we have all the things you’d expect from a cop movie including: the screaming black boss, the good looking hot-tempered rookie, the experience older world-weary D.I., the driving back projection shots and the wicked looking cop car all wrapped up in a cool story.Bad Day Behind The Scenes Footage
..
Add to My Profile | More VideosQ&AWhat is Bad Day about?Bad Day is me paying tribute to the US cop movies of the '60s and '70s but shot in England. The story focus is on an undercover cop, the Claire Goose character who finds her daughter brutally murdered, she goes all Death Wish thunder doming everyone’s arse until she finds the person who actually pulled the trigger. Then we have these two cops played by Anthony Ofoegbu and Donna Air assigned to track her down before the shit hits the fan. It all takes place in one day and everyone in the movie has a very bad day.Simple but cool in its concept.Yep.What was it like working with UK’s top TV actress Claire Goose and why did you cast her?Well, I felt this movie was a performances piece so casting right was bloody important. I needed to cast an actress who is a typical character actress but she had to have a lead presence together with charm and Claire had ticks in those boxes. As a writer and director I can create a scene but in the end it’s down to the actor who has to perform within that moment as the camera turns and Claire had what it takes she’s an amazing actor incredibly focused.I’d seen her in Waking The Dead and didn’t think it would be a roll she’d be interested in. But slap me side ways if she didn’t say yes. I was really surprised she wanted to do it. She liked the script and felt it was something she hadn’t done before but needed to do.She had seen what I wrote very clearly, the Rebecca character is the hero, the good guy but the Rebecca character has two parts to her, the good side and the dark side. Claire executed those two parts, as far as I’m concerned very well.Casting Donna Air a TV presenter as one of the leads is a brave move, how did you get her to star in your film?Our casting agent Jane Frisby suggested her; it seemed like an odd suggesting but it worked. Even though she started off as an actress she’s known more for her presenting on MTV, she came to the auditions memorizing every word on the sides she was given. This alone convinced me that she was serous and willing to work her arse off for the movie. She understood from the off that the movie had a hip edgy quality to it and to understand the script before she started working on it made me realize she was going to let me kick her arse to get the right performance out of her. A lot of people bitch me out for hiring Donna, saying all kinds of negative things but I ignored them because I had faith in her. Donna prepares herself meticulously and it was really cool to watch our work in rehearsals all coming together for the better when the camera started to roll on the set. She’s a very sweet girl and I loved working with her; when she’s cowering for her life to the Claire character it’s an exciting moving moment, you feel for her and more so when she mentions she’s pregnant.I wanted an actor who would fit into the mold of the good looking rookie, which so many of these cop movies have. Donna fitted into this roll very well. I hope to work with her again.How do you justify the violent scenes in the film?I don’t feel the need to justify it because in the end it’s only a movie and not real. I love action violent films and I don’t find them offensive at all, besides I don’t think Bad Day is a violent movie. It’s comic book, cartoon violent if you know what I mean? The violent scenes are there for a reason. I haven’t put these scenes in because I think it’ll be cool e.g. the scene where Harry shoots the boys in the restaurant are an indication as to what Harry use to be like and actually still is like. He’s tried hard to bury these feelings because he wants to change – because he’s found love. But this disregard, so easily evoked, this open act of violence in front of Rebecca, sparks immediate alarm, pulling into focus the grave situation she is in making her realize how far, physically and mentally, she’s crossed over to the other side, I try to make everything in the movie have a reason.Did that include the Sex Scene? Yes and it was hardly a sex scene. The fastest way to show that Harry and Rebecca are in love was to have an intense sex scene. And I wanted to get to the depth of their love in a short space of time. I think it’s important that we see both of them respond to one another sexually. The sex was rough, especially from Harry, again showing us briefly Harry’s dark sordid side which surprisingly Rebecca responds to.Tell us a little about the Rebecca character?Rebecca’s job, the Claire Goose’s character is to lie to get to the truth – but what happens is that the lies in her mind are becoming true and this is the interesting twist about this character. When she is Margaret – she is Margaret and not Rebecca until she is with Lynn, her daughter. And because of her love for Harry the line between truth and untruth becomes blurred. Hers is one of an internal struggle from the moment she sees Harry kill with such rage it puts into question – who is Harry now? She not only sees Harry kill the 2 boys but sees him destroy them so cruelly; it makes her realize how incredibly little she knows about him and how much of her true self she has lost in this environment. Everyone has a dark side and the killing of Aaron and Triftan coupled with the death of her daughter Lynn causes that demonic eruption within her.She becomes very dark toward the middle of the movie. She kills in cold blood and at the back of our minds we know that the character is lost, doomed but she doesn’t care, all that matters to her is finding the person that killed her daughter. And the reason why in my opinion the film works is that Claire can play those two parts, the Rebecca & Margaret character in an interesting and credible way.The Rebecca character is the lead but you have these fascinating characters assigned to bring her home. Tell us a little about the Darius Cruise character?Again I was paying tribute to the cop movies and the Darius character had to play into that. We’ve seen this kind of character so many times so there’s nothing new here, but to play it in England makes it a little different, the character is at war with himself and Anthony portrayed this very well.The physical character of Darius had to suggest a whole complex and working past without actually verbalizing it and because we’ve seen so many of these US movies where the characters is i.e. the world-weary grizzled cop we instantly get it. You know the kind of thing - married twice, totally out of touch with his social life, lives for his work, wants out of the force, wants to retire. Lethal Weapon “I’m too old for this shit”. That’s Roger Murtaugh’s saying and again we pay homage to that too, Darius’ saying is “Same shit different day”, remember Dirty Harry’s “Do you feel lucky punk?” you get the picture. But for some people all of this will go right over their heads which is okay.I believe you wrote the Darius Cruise character for your long time friend Anthony Ofoegbu, is he like Darius Cruise and what was it like working with your friend?Because he was my friend I didn’t give him any special treatment, in fact I kicked his arse just as hard as the rest. Anthony is nothing like Darius, he’s a hard worker, a wonderful presence; I’m really surprised he hasn’t hit the big time yet. I’ve been friends with Anthony since my first feature The Killing Zone where he had a small part playing one of the bodyguards in the second story. I haven’t been able to get rid of him since. (Laughs) Anthony is a natural comedian and can make almost anybody laugh, so when I approached him on playing Darius Cruise he was over the moon but as he pointed out it seemed far removed of his true nature.I gave him a list of films he should watch to get the character but he never saw them. I’d say he’s like Roger Murtaugh in Lethal Weapon mixed with Morgan Freeman’s Summerset in Seven with a hint of cool like Bruce Willis’ character Joe Hallenbeck in the Last Boy Scout. Anthony, bless his soul would nod his head like he understood but had no idea what I was going on about. That’s what most of the actors are like in England, trained for stage but when it comes to movies they have no idea. “Read less, more film and TV” I would always say to him, actually I think he’s seen Seven.In many ways this is his film and I’d stuck him centre stage. As an actor Anthony has the whole comic timing thing nailed so I had to suppress a lot of that and make it work when it had to i.e. when Darius shoots up at Trigg’s ceiling, this always gets a big laugh. The reason why his performance works is because in the end Anthony can play the serous roll and the comic roll very well it was just a matter of holding back one or the other when I needed to.The name Darius Cruise is such a good cop name how did you come up with this combination.The name Darius Cruise Anthony and myself made up over a coffee at the office –okay it wasn’t our office it was Neros café in the west end, we called it the office ‘cos we’d always hang out there usually to bitch about not having work. Anthony was talking about a singer called Darius someone and we went on to talk about Tom Cruise’s latest movie then back to Bad Day. Then I joked saying we should name his character Darius Cruise and the name stuck.I thought setting the Harry and Rebecca scene in a Nigerian restaurant was unusual and refreshing how did you come up with that idea?It’s because of Anthony; he is half Nigerian and half Irish. After I had written the first draft of the script I said to him I wanted to change the café scene to a Nigerian restaurant to make it a bit different and asked him to help me re-write the scene sticking in some back humor. He did and it turned out what we have in the movie, Anthony was also responsible for writing dialogue for Sarah Harding (Jade), the scene in the back of Rebecca’s cab.How did you get pop starlet Sarah Harding involved in the movie?Sarah is a friend of Gena, the producer. It was she who suggested Sarah for the Jade roll, I wasn’t sure at first but when I met her she was very pumped up about it. Her part was only a cameo but it’s a part that’s not forgotten because of what happens to the Jade character. She also generated interest in the movie being from the successful girls band Girls Aloud which we needed. She’s lovely, giggles a lot and doesn’t act like the big I am.Tell us a little about the Abby character, I’ve noticed that there’s this theme passing through the movie of motherhood was this deliberate?Not really, we do see Rebecca’s journey and how she deals with the loss of her child, and Abby who is a mother to be, her character shifts through the course of the film and we realize Abby’s character is green. Even with her experience on the force, she is at a pivotal age where the clock is ticking and she needs a career now, but what she doesn’t see is how vulnerable she is. She allows herself to fall for Cummings only to be bullied and rejected by him which increases and alters her emotions as the day goes on. She’s desperate to be perceived more positively among her working colleagues instead of just being a ‘woman in a man’s world’ yet fails to realize respect has to be earned. This drives her to want to be the hero, she wants to catch the bad guy, but life is not that simple as she learns through Darius who has become her mentor. Her encounter with Rebecca and the untimely death of Trig changes the way she perceives herself, even though it was justified; to take someone’s life for the first time shakes her senses.If you had to do it over again, what would you do differently?I would have a little bit more action in the movie, we were dealing with a very small budget here and that kind of dictates what you can achieve on screen, but saying that I’m pretty pleased with the outcome.I’ve noticed that most of the leads in the movie were women, was this deliberate?Bloody ‘ell yes! Bros before hoe’s is always the order when people write drama scripts (laughs) I wanted this one to be different, not your cockney gangster flick. Besides actress always seem to get the short end of the stick when it comes to casting for these kinds of movies, someone’s boyfriend, the older women part and it goes on. So I thought it would be different to have a female baddy and lead, I’m all for girl power!What would you like to do next?Give me the next Spiderman movie or the next Bond movie! (Laughs) I’d love to work with a Hollywood budget and movies like these is what I aspire to do. But saying that I do have some really good kick arse screenplays I’d like financed a few of them are franchise ideas and I’m inviting anyone who wants to take a looksie. Sights set on the Weinsteins and Fox search light, I can dream yes? I just want to work and make a good wage doing what I love then the milky bars will be on me!Ian David Diaz IMDB Page: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0224989/Please Visit Our Website: www.baddaythemovie.co.ukPlease Visit The IMDB Page: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0878649/ Please Visit British Film Magazine: http://britishfilmmagazine.com/articles/-bad-day-makes-good- film.htmlPlease Visit The British Films Catalogue: http://www.britfilms.com/britishfilms/catalogue/browse/?id=4 F40DB4C18fa32EE3AlMji374C54