On the outside is now available on
Four stories from conversations with four women in prison. Told in their own words, as authors of their own representation. And retold by four actors.
On the Outside, is the outcome of a collaborative film project involving Director Paul Gray and a group of women who were serving prison sentences in Scotland at the time.
The film is told in four episodes that recount the four women’s stories, in their exact spoken words that were constructed from audio recordings of discussions held in the prison, including song and poetry. The stories are recounted by four actors, and explore the women’s life experiences, their hopes for the future and the relationships and bonds that formed between them.
On The Outside began when director Paul Gray was invited to develop an idea for a film project to involve a group of women who were serving sentences in HM Prison Polmont, Scotland. It was a collaboration where he and Producer Nas Saraei would help with the development and realisation of stories that the participants wanted to share. The premise of the project was to empower the participants as authors of their own representation. Paul led workshops where the group watched films and explored story-telling through the medium of film and followed up with one-to-one discussions. Without any fixed notion of what shape the films would take, they gradually became defined by the willingness of the participants to share their stories very directly with each other, and with Paul and Nas.
In the end the overarching idea that developed was a very simple scenario. The stories would be recounted while travelling on a car journey – the car being both a private space but within a public environment – a safe space akin to the education rooms that were occupied during the project, and representative of a desire to be elsewhere. Participation in the project was voluntary and the resulting work consists of four scripted episodes, one for each of the women who remained involved throughout the process. The scripts were taken from recordings of the discussions, using the participants’ exact spoken words, including song and poetry and were retold by four actors.
CAST
Abigail…….Sarah Dingwall
Vanessa…..Kirsty Strain
Gemma……Kirsty Findlay
Sandy………Marianne McIvor
CREW
Writers…..Paul Gray & the 4 participants of On the Outside
Director….Paul Gray
Producer..Nas Saraei
Executive Producers………Paul Gray, Lindsay Morgan
Director of Photography…Alkistis Terzi
Editor……………………………Olivia Middleton
Sound Designer…………….Jonathon McCloone
Sound Mix…………………….Zoë Irvine
Original Music(writer)……..‘Abigail’
Original Music(performance)…Sarah Dingwall &Matthew Cowan
First Assistant Director…..Demi Sutherland
1st Assistant Camera……..Jane Armstrong
Hair and Make-up………….Laura Hamilton
Gaffer…………………………..Andrew Glen
Sound Recordist……………Jonathon McCloone