Artist Gillian Wearing places an ad asking, "Would you like to be in a film? You can play yourself or a fictional character." Her film Self Made documents the intense, revealing and sometimes disturbing experiences of seven people who sign up for the project. They take part in a series of workshops led by Method acting teacher Sam Rumbelow, who uses different techniques to help them access their memories and personal experiences so that each participant can create a vivid and authentic moment of performance.

Gradually, we see five members of the group working towards their own individual 'end scenes', filmed dramatic vignettes that directly emerge from their personal histories. The scenes range from episodes of violence, to images of imagined love, via an excerpt from Shakespeare's King Lear. As the lights finally go off in the studio, the participants leave the experiment having for the first time confronted and articulated deep truths about themselves.

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Who are we - and who do we think we are? How do we make the selves we present to the world - and who are we really, underneath the social masks we wear every day? These are some of the questions posed by Self Made, an extraordinary debut feature by acclaimed British artist Gillian Wearing. A hybrid undertaking, Self Made is at once documentary, artwork, social experiment and performance project - bringing together a diverse group from the British public, non-actors every one, and offering them the chance to discover something about themselves through performance.

In 2007, Gillian Wearing placed an advert - in newspapers, online, in job centres and elsewhere. It read: "Would you like to be in a film? You can play yourself or a fictional character. Call Gillian." Of the hundreds of people who replied, seven - chosen through an extended process of auditions, interviews and workshops - ended up appearing in Self Made. Of those seven, five in particular use the acting technique known as Method to delve into their own memories, anxieties, fears, fantasies and inner resources to create a series of individual performance vignettes, their personal 'end scenes', that reveal with particular intensity and clarity who they really are deep down - or who, in another version of their lives, they might easily have been.

With the aid of Method teacher Sam Rumbelow - the participants' mentor in this adventure into the self - Gillian Wearing has made a film that poses pressing questions about individual identity, the way it functions in society, and the extent to which we all create our visible selves as a daily performance. But what if another type of performance were possible - one which enabled us to drop the mask and draw on our deepest emotional resources to create, if only once, a moment of intense, and intensely creative, being?

This is what the Self Made participants work towards, using Sam Rumbelow's Method coaching - a one-off programme of exercises created specifically for this film. Following a process that involves such techniques as voice exercises, 'sense memory' exercises - accessing deep-rooted memories of physical sensations - and acting exercises specifically tailored to the group members, each participant is finally ready to act out a filmed micro-drama that reflects a specific and centrally urgent issue in his or her life. Lian addresses her feelings of rejection and her difficult relationship with her father; Lesley explores her own problems in finding and accepting love; James tackles the scars caused by his childhood experiences of being bullied; Dave, a determined loner and self-confessed 'wind-up', confronts his mortality; and Ash faces up to his worst fears about the kind of man he could have become.

As we watch the group working together in the studio, then performing their own 'end scenes', a complex and searching portrait of each person emerges.

GILLIAN WEARING - Director

DIRECTOR’S VISION

Self Made is about the search for authenticity in the dramatic moment, and the possibilities of creativity.

The Method workshops were designed to aid the participants, as they become the characters they have chosen. Desire to become a character and the actualization are not always in harmony, the space in between these two states is rich and interesting.

The participants found revelations in different ways during these exercises; which were not rehearsed. Sam Rumbelow kept them living in the moment, reacting as each new obstacle arose. He encouraged the cast to lay down their boundaries and not to fear. If resistance occurred, Sam helped each participant face their limitations.

The film moves a step further when the characters explore their fictional selves, sometimes resolving real life issues, other times using the space as a release. Both participant and audience experience documentary revelations, fictional constructs, and the artifice that goes in to making a movie.

I want the film to show that who the participants chose as characters is a projection of themselves, however far fetched or heinous that persona is, and that catharsis can occur through creative and playful experimentation. What does that tell us about the characters, and about society? Are these people typical of us; are we all playing a role, consciously or unconsciously?

Gillian Wearing won the Turner Prize in 1997, in recognition of her innovative work addressing public and private lives and the question of the self in society. Self Made may be her first feature film, but it is also the latest in a long series of projects that work with members of the public to ask questions about the aspects of people's lives that they don't always feel free to reveal. Her early work Signs that say what you want them to say and not Signs that say what someone else wants you to say (1992–93) asked members of the public to reveal something of themselves by spontaneously writing messages on paper and holding them up to the camera. Confess all on Video (1994) invited people to confess all on video, while wearing masks.

Wearing's work is experimental both in the artistic and investigative sense: stemming from a deep curiosity about people and social conventions, it uses different media and artistic structures to enable her collaborators from the public to explore hitherto-concealed aspects of their own identities. As befits any truly experimental work, Wearing is never sure at the outset what her projects will reveal. With Self Made, she says, "The idea was always to work with people who were not actors and have them come up with an idea of who they would like to portray in a film. I wanted a 'process' film, in which you see someone become their character through a drama workshop. The idea was that the participant was involved in creating their character - and through this they would also discover more about themselves as they begin to think about the choices they made for the film. Even when they're not creating a self-portrait their fictional character will reveal an element of themselves"

"A lot of my work is about creating structures in order for people to express themselves", Wearing says. It was when drama teacher Sam Rumbelow entered the picture, after Wearing's first auditions in 2007, that Self Made crystallized as a project. His Method approach provided the framework that would allow the group members to delve further into themselves, using techniques such as the 'sense memory exercise' that unlocked profound feelings in certain group members. Gillian Wearing: "I visited some of Sam's Method classes and was fascinated how involved he got his students in workshop exercises, that they were prepared to go into these emotional states through memories and senses. In a way, it was like I imagined Method to be - but I never thought you could reach deep states from imagining having a bath or drinking a cup of tea."

When he was asked to join the project, says Sam Rumbelow, it was immediately clear to him what questions needed to be asked. "Why and how would the Method classes fit in? What were we going to do and why were we going to do it? What are the storylines? We had to articulate what journey we were going to take with each participant. There was quite a clear notion, and for me it extended from the questions: What goes on inside? What is the mask that we present? What is real? What is fake?"

It also needed to be clear what Method really means. For Rumbelow, Method is "an approach to creativity that is rooted in the notion of exploring inner truth - a means to get beyond performance." Derived from the pioneering ideas of Russian acting teacher Konstantin Stanislavsky, and famously associated with the work of Lee Strasberg and the New York Actors' Studio, Method, explains Rumbelow, is often misunderstood.

"There is no such thing as Method acting because it's not a style, it's a body of teaching and techniques and approach. In simple terms, it comes down to what we would define as a creative state of being. That comes about when you start to work from impulse, thought and emotion, when you let go of your worldly needs and concerns and involve yourself in something more artistic and spiritual." One of the exciting prospects for Rumbelow of working on Self Made was to collaborate with people who had no acting experience. "If people have no prior training, the bonus is they may be more willing to unlock parts of themselves that transcend a polished premeditated performance."

The 'end scenes' - the culminating drama of each participant's own experiences - were written by playwright Leo Butler and Gillian Wearing. Butler was involved in Self Made from very early on, as he explains, "It’s about getting them to live through the primal emotions that they've been dealing with - allowing them to enact those issues in their lives that they've needed to confront for many years. Whatever it is that they needed to get out of their system, they needed to do it in that scene. Whether it is being hung upside down, or knifed, they needed to live through it in that scene, because it's the only chance they'll get."

What distinguishes the participants of Self Made, Rumbelow says, is that they were able to open themselves wholeheartedly to the process. "For me, it wasn't so much the stories they told as how much they communicated them, consciously and unconsciously - how willing they were to deal with the intimate, to reveal rather than act. We could sense immediately that these people had a willingness to get involved with the self. In Self Made, most of them ran with it and were profoundly informed and affected." For all the participants, including himself and Gillian Wearing, Self Made was an excitingly risky adventure. "Humans are fundamentally animals that respond to crisis, and crisis is when we become most creative. In a way, the film is a crisis, because we weren't approaching it in a normal formulated way. The crisis is: we don't know what this movie's going to be. That was the remit."

Producer Lisa Marie Russo says, "Self Made grew out of the Moving Image Initiative, a programme between the UK Film Council and Arts Council England, who worked with Film and Video Umbrella to bring artists into feature filmmaking. Self Made was shot in Newcastle and was funded by UK Film Council, Northern Film & Media, Arts Council England, Channel 4 Britdoc Foundation and Abandon Normal Devices. All the financiers were excited about supporting a sensitive and perceptive artist of Gillian's stature on her feature film debut."

Gillian's work often reveals revelatory moments in the lives of ordinary people, and with Self Made, these moments build towards an overall portrait of individuals who discover unexpected truths about themselves. Her quietly inquisitive nature gave the participants the confidence to go out on a limb, resulting in a unique and surprising film. What is revealed about individuals, society, performance and authenticity in Self Made results in a film that is a fascinating hybrid – at once documentary, art project, social investigation, and implicit commentary on the British tradition of social documentary.

Thanks to those intrepid participants, Self Made emerges as the latest chapter in the career of an artist fascinated with society beneath the mask - whose work has always looked deep into the hidden inner lives of real people. As Leo Butler puts it, "Gillian holds the looking-glass up to human beings - to each and every one of us – and tries to show us who we really are."

LEO BUTLER - Writer

Leo Butler is one of Britain's most acclaimed and controversial contemporary playwrights. His plays include Made Of Stone (2000), Redundant (2001, winner of the George Devine award), Lucky Dog (2004), and Faces In The Crowd (2008), all staged at London's Royal Court Theatre. Other plays include the hugely controversial I'll Be The Devil (2008, Royal Shakespeare Company), and The Early Bird (2006, Queen's Theatre, Belfast).

His plays have been staged all over the United Kingdom, as well as in Moscow, Budapest, Ireland, South Africa, Michigan, Rio de Janeiro, and Philadelphia. In 2002, his single television drama Jerusalem The Golden was broadcast on BBC4. He has also been the Writers' Tutor at the Royal Court Theatre since 2005, mentoring over 150 young playwrights every year.

Self Made is Leo Butler's first feature film.

FLY FILM COMPANY

Fly Film Company is a new venture, formed in 2009 by producers Lisa Marie Russo and Kate Ogborn. Prior to setting up Fly, Kate was Head of Television at Revolution Films. She co-produced Tony Grisoni's adaptation of David Peace's crime novels, The Red Riding Trilogy and Samantha Morton's directorial debut, The Unloved, which premiered at Toronto Film Festival, and screened in competition at Thessaloniki International Film Festival and Stockholm International Film Festival. The Unloved won a Bafta for Best Single Drama in 2010. Kate's other producer and executive producer credits include the award winning Under the Skin and Shane Meadows' This is England.

Fly is developing films with directors Ken Loach, Terence Davies, Tony Grisoni, Marc Munden and Julian Jarrold. Self Made is Fly Film Company's first production.

SAMM HAILLAY AND DUANE HOPKINS, Third Films - Co-producers

Third was founded in 2001 by writer-director Duane Hopkins and producer Samm Haillay with the intention of creating challenging work by directors with unique cinematic handwriting. After two multi-award winning short films, Hopkins' debut feature Better Things premiered to international acclaim in competition as part of Critics Week at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival and was released theatrically worldwide winning a clutch of awards. Third has also produced award winning short films for Andrew McVicar and Daniel Elliott, whose BAFTA nominated Jade won the Silver Bear in Berlin in 2009. In 2010 Third co-produced Gillian Wearing’s feature debut Self Made while developing a slate of short, feature and installation work.

UK FILM COUNCIL

The UK Film Council is the Government's lead agency for film in the UK, supporting the UK film industry, celebrating UK film culture and nurturing UK film talent at home and abroad. Since its creation in 2000 the UK Film Council has backed more than 900 films, shorts and features, which have won over 300 awards and entertained more than 200 million people around the world. The UK Film Council generates £5 for every £1 of Lottery money it invests.

Our support develops new filmmakers, funds exciting new British films and gets a wider choice of films to audiences throughout the UK. It also invests in training British talent, promoting Britain as an international filmmaking location and raising the profile of British films abroad. In addition, it funds the British Film Institute.

Films backed by the UK Film Council include forthcoming releases including Mike Leigh's Another Year, Stephen Frears's Tamara Drewe, Nigel Cole's Made in Dagenham, Joe Cornish's Attack the Block, Rowan Joffe's Brighton Rock, Lynne Ramsay's We Need to Talk about Kevin, Justin Chadwick's The First Grader, Tom Hooper's The King's Speech, Peter Mullan's Neds, and Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights.

Films which we have funded include the UK's first 3D film, Streetdance 3D, Man on Wire, In the Loop, Nowhere Boy, Bright Star, Fish Tank, Bend it like Beckham, The Constant Gardener, Gosford Park, Happy-Go-Lucky, The Last King of Scotland, Red Road, St Trinian's, This is England, Touching the Void, Vera Drake and The Wind That Shakes the Barley.

NORTHERN FILM & MEDIA

Northern Film & Media is the screen agency for the North East of England. We focus our energies and expertise upon engaging with and developing individuals and companies working in film, television, games, animation, commercials, music, digital media and mobile. Northern Film & Media offer support in a number of ways including direct project funding and provision of initiatives and services, workshops, seminars, screenings and networking events. Northern Film & Media is the only screen agency to launch a public-private partnership with a venture capital firm. Launched in February 2010, Northern Film & Media is Fund Holder of the £2.4m Finance for Business - North East Creative Content Fund managed by Northstar Ventures.

ARTS COUNCIL ENGLAND

Arts Council England works to get great art to everyone by championing, developing and investing in artistic experiences that enrich people’s lives. As the national development agency for the arts, it supports a range of artistic activities from theatre to music, literature to dance, photography to digital art, carnival to crafts. Between 2008 and 2011 the Arts Council will invest in excess of £1.6 billion of public money from the government and the National Lottery to create these experiences for as many people as possible across the country.

CHANNEL 4 BRITDOC FOUNDATION

The Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation is a UK-based not-for-profit organisation backed by Channel 4 TV. It is dedicated to reinventing funding and distribution models for British documentary filmmakers. As well as funding ground breaking social-issue films (such as double Sundance winner Afghan Star, Berlin winner The Yes Men Fix the World, Sundance feature doc The End of the Line and Tribeca winner We Are Together) and creative documentaries (Toronto Festival feature Sounds Like Teen Spirit and Sundance feature How Is Your Fish Today?), the Foundation brokers relationships between filmmakers and the NGO and brand sectors in the UK and abroad to create better, more effective films. The Good Pitch and goodfilm.org are key parts of the Foundation's work in this area.

ABANDON NORMAL DEVICES

This year's Abandon Normal Devices takes place in Manchester from 1 - 7 October when it once again invites a host of international cross-platform artists and filmmakers to investigate the questions: What are normal devices? How and why might we abandon them? AND is presented by Cornerhouse, FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology) and folly and is a new festival, funded by Legacy Trust UK and part of WE PLAY, the Northwest cultural legacy programme for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Cornerhouse is Greater Manchester's international centre for contemporary visual art and film. By engaging in dialogue, collaboration and partnerships Cornerhouse looks to encourage debate around current film, art and cultural practice. Cornerhouse is dedicated to the adoption of open innovation working practices to allow it to continue to deliver its integrated, innovative and risk taking programme.

TIME OUT

Do you remember the British artist Gillian Wearing's photos from the mid-1990s of people holding up white cards on which they scrawled confessions? Now Wearing brings her studies in identity and self-projection to cinema with this documentary record of a collaboration between her and Sam Rumbelow, a London-based Method acting teacher. Seven daring non-actors, each with personal issues of varying complexity, answer a newspaper advert and join a cathartic workshop with Rumbelow to explore themselves through theatre. What we witness is raw and sometimes uncomfortable as Rumbelow pushes them to reveal themselves. Five finally appear in short films: one deals with father issues by playing Cordelia in an extract from ‘King Lear’; another reflects her relationship fears in a 1940s-set piece about courtship. Documentary segues into drama, and the film is a lucid, concise précis of a project of great emotional intensity.

Author: Dave Calhoun 2010-09-27 / Time Out Online 2010 London Film Festival

THE INDEPENDENT

An advert appeared in the newspaper in 2007 which read: "Would you like to be in a film? You can play yourself or a fictional character. Call Gillian." Was it another reality television show? Or a ploy to get free actors involved in a film project? Well, sort of. Except that 'Gillian' was actually Gillian Wearing, the 1997 Turner Prize winner and bright light on the '90s Young British Artist scene, whose medium to-date has been the thoughts, feelings and interior stories of average people....

The willingness for normal people to bare their emotional innards on film is something of a phenomena that has built up speed since the onset of Big Brother, Wife Swap, Britain's Got Talent and other television shows which rely on the word 'reality' but present only a semblance of it. So it was inevitable that Wearing's project would attract interest. What perhaps wasn't apparent to applicants was that for those involved it wasn't going to be a quick ticket to fame, but instead a serious, and often difficult, exploration of psychological pain....

It's true that at times Self Made feels a bit like group therapy, what with the characters breaking down and talking about their troubles. But this is done in such a creative and thought provoking way, that on top of being a totally frank and honest look at their lives, it becomes at once constructive and compelling to watch. Lian, for instance, sets up her "end scene" as Act 1 from Shakespeare's King Lear. Her performance as Cordelia, who will not pander to an attention-seeking father but remains honest and true, is worthy of a top-notch theatre....

Read the rest of the review at The Independent

Author: Matilda Battersby 2010-09-29 / The Independent

VARIETY

Turner Prize-winning visual artist-turned-helmer Gillian Wearing and thesp coach Sam Rumbelow put seven people through a Method-acting crash course for "Self Made," a compelling exercise that deliberately blurs the lines between docu and fiction. Artfully constructed and thought-provoking, but less pretentious than it might sound, pic probes how drama can serve as a vehicle for both therapy and exhibitionism. Result is moving and has a proper narrative arc, but with its no-name cast, it will have to rely on Wearing's rep and strong critical backing to make something of itself beyond ultra-niche distribution, even in its domestic market....

Along with the likes of Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin and Sam Taylor-Wood, Wearing found fame in the 1990s as one of the Young British Artists (who are now mostly middle-aged), the U.K.'s most significant recent art movement. Over the years, many YBAs had a go at narrative filmmaking with varying degrees of success, and often with a significant disconnect between their gallery work and the feature films. What impresses most about Wearing's debut is how congruent it is with her gallery work, particularly video installations like "Confess All on Video," which featured people revealing dark secrets from behind masks. In "Self Made," Wearing successfully extends her interest in private and public realms while still managing to craft a proper movie that packs a real emotional wallop....

Read the rest of the review at Variety

Author: Leslie Felperin 2010-10-14 / Variety

ScreenDaily

Turner prize-winning artist Gillian Wearing has worked in video art before, but with "Self Made" makes an intriguing feature debut with a film that treads a precarious line between art, documentary and fiction. It is a film destined for cinematheques and art galleries where its challenging premise could provoke debate....

Each of the seven are to work towards a short film that will reflect their inner journey. Along the way, some of the participants don’t make the cut (what happened to them is not clear) and the resultant films vary from interesting to a little dull. But each is clearly cathartic for the participants that ultimately makes the individual stories interesting and at times moving....

Read the rest of the review at ScreenDaily

Author: Mark Adams 2010-10-15 / ScreenDaily