Irvine Welsh on 'Good Arrows' | Irvine Welsh | Big Think

Irvine Welsh on 'Good Arrows'

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The latest mockumentary deals with a darts enthusiast, Irvine Welsh says.

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Irvine Welsh:

Irvine Welsh grew up in Leith, Scotland. The son of working class parents, he spent his childhood in government housing, a milieu he gave voice to in his hugely popular novel and subsequent film, Trainspotting. The book was an international success and long-listed for the Man Booker Prize in 1993. Welsh moved to London in his twenties and played in local punk bands but returned to Edinburgh in the late-80s. Drawing inspiration from the the rave culture there, he began writing seriously and submitting to literary journals. After Trainspotting, he published Ecstasy, Glue, Porno, The Acid House and The Bedroom Secrets of Master Chefs. His books’ themes range from the Scottish identity, sectarianism, classism, immigration, unemployment, AIDS and drug use. Recent works are The Bedroom Secrets of the Master Chefs (2006), a play, Babylon Heights (2006), written with Dean Cavanagh, and If You Liked School You'll Love Work (2007). His latest novel, Crime, was published in 2008. He has taught undergraduate creative writing at Columbia College in Chicago and currently divides his time between Miami, Chicago, Dublin and London.

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TRANSCRIPT:

Irvine Welsh: Yeah. It’s a film called “Good Arrows,” which is… We’re going to screen it on TV in the UK but we’re going to sell it abroad as a feature. And it’s specially about… It’s a kind of mockumentary, a kind of “This is Spinal Tap” satire on the world of professional darts in the UK the kind of 180 type of guys. So it’s basically about a darts player who loses his mojo and he has to get it back, and the guy who’s making a documentary on him gets involved with his old guru, who is this sort of new age darts philosopher, and he has to get back together, basically.

This is the first kind of feature length thing I’ve done. I’ve done short films and I’ve done music videos, mainly. So, this is a bit of, I’m a little bit nervous a bit because it’s a bit of a step up.

Kind of music videos or short films, you basically kind of 2 day or a 4 day shoot, but it’s kind of, this has been a 5 week shoot, so it’s kind of you do kind of finish [on your knees] a little bit as compared to the the, when you’re just breezing through. But it’s great. It’s great fun, though. It’s just great to sort of be with a bunch of people and collaborate and work and produce something with them. It’s a great counterbalance to being a novelist because you’re just completely on your own as a novelist, so it’s nice collaboration.

Recorded on: September 8, 2008