That were talking on the day your movie is finally getting a UK release.

What feelings are going through you?

For a start, it feels like a bigger release than I expected.

Thanks to Lionsgate, its really gone out there.

Youre never really sure.

It feels great today.

Then Ive invited a lot of friends to a screening tonight, it feels like an unofficial premiere!

Well today is actually a mixture of going to the dentist in the morning.

Ad content continues below

So you celebrated the release of your film by going to the dentist?

Yeah, just for a check up!

When I booked it in, I didnt really put two and two together!

If Ive got the chronology of this right, you finished shooting at the end of 2013.

Basically hardly anyone had seen the film before Sundance, apart from the production team and the distributor.

I think A24, the American distributors, were the first people to see it fresh and completed.

They sent an incredible email that made me feel much more relaxed.

Then a week or two later I had a screening.

So we scrambled together a screening in London, and it made me feel that I was onto something.

But I still didnt know how people I didnt know would react to it, or an American audience.

It was still absolutely nerve-wracking, showing it at Sundance.

As we sit here on release day, then, how closely are you monitoring the response today?

I see youve been active on your Twitter account, for instance.

Are you absorbing the critical reaction?

Yeah, I am.

Different directors have different ideas about reading reviews.

For me, its just nice to gauge a general overview.

I think its nice to get that general feeling of what people think of the film.

I made the film I wanted to make, so its water off a ducks back.

Usually everyone lies and says they dont read reviews!

Are you that bulletproof on this one?

I am, I am.

I go easy on myself because its my first film, and Im very proud of it.

I wouldnt go back and change anything.

When you feel like that, its hard to take criticism, because what can you do?

Thats my taste and thats my view on it.

I feel a bit like that.

You storyboard quite heavily, dont you?

Yeah, I think it was just before storyboarding.

Between script and storyboard.

It was probably that process, because at that point, youre really watching the film in your head.

Well, I am!

I always felt like it was improving.

Pitch Black Heist, your previous film, was closer to 13 minutes.

Presumably you might pretty much control all of that, he says naively.

But at the point you move up to feature length, what are the particular challenges there?

I think the script was the big challenge.

Working with a script editor Kate Leys in London.

That relationship really helped me go from being able to write, to being able to write structurally.

To carry things through.

That seemed the biggest challenge.

He was freezing cold by many accounts, but didnt care.

Was filming outdoors pivotal to you, even before you came toSlow West?

Were you wanting your first feature to be an outdoors film?

Not outdoors in the street either.

I was very conscious of being in control.

Like onPitch Black Heist[Macleans previous short], there are no extras.

Theres not a guy behind the bar, theres nobody walking in the streets.

Even the outdoor street shots, there are no people.

I think its just a way of me being able to take a step up.

A scary step up would be having to control loads of traffic and extras.

Just to keep it kind of contained.

Once youve made a successful first film, such asSlow West, the temptation is open.

Has there been any interest there?

Is that a temptation?

This film is so tied into its script.

Thinking that I would enjoy to write the next film myself.

Im not sure how confident Id be about being a director for hire.

How important then is writing and controlling your own material?

Is that the highest priority?

Not the highest priority.

The priority is to be on set and shoot.

But having said that, thats the selfish fun bit!

The writing is so crucial for me.

I dont write literally.

I think of the film in my head and write it down in the end.

You already know where the cameras going to go before putting pen to paper.

Its easy then to go from script to storyboard to the set.

Whereas if it was someone elses script, itd be a bit more working out.

Finally then, how many films are currently in your head now?

Im really bad at multitasking, so its just one at a time!

Im going through the next one in my head!

John Maclean, thank you very much.

Slow Westis now in cinemas.