Carer's Groundhog Day

Hello!

Enjoy the video and transcript below! I talk about the use of repetition in my film Moustache Man, based on my experience of being a carer and featuring Mark Gatiss (Bookish, Doctor Who, League of Gentleman) and Josie Lawrence (Whose Line is it Anyway). This experience from my caring years was labelled Carer's Groundhog Day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zt6tbnUn944

I thought Groundhog Day did the repetition of life incredibly well. If you’re doing the same day over and over again, as shown in Groundhog Day — he uses the knowledge he’s gained, knowing it’s always going to be the same. The only thing that changes is his own behaviour.

With Moustache Man, I wanted the audience to feel something similar — that sense of becoming comfortable with the goings-on, knowing this is how it’s going to be. When he comes downstairs and asks the same question, when they have the same dinner every single time, when he does the same joke — these elements allow the audience to settle into the rhythm. They get used to the schedule we’re showcasing.

As human beings, we naturally gravitate toward the rhythm of a day. If you looked back at how you were living — now, last week, last year — you’d probably find you do the same things over and over again.

During the periods when I was heavily caring for the person I was caring for, we essentially lived the same day repeatedly. I talk about this in the Greenlit video -

My brother Daniel and I followed the same routine every single day, a bit like Groundhog Day. This was to avoid any surprises that might trigger a negative episode. In the film, we mirror that experience — but as time goes on, you start seeing the cracks and the differences. Unlike the film, our real life Groundhog Day mainly consisted of breakfast, yoga/stretching videos, and then several episodes of NCIS.

We did that because we didn’t want something spontaneous or sudden to create a negative episode.

I wanted to showcase that in the film — which is why I also wanted to create a sense of unease for the audience when the rhythm is disturbed. People who are being cared for often cling to repetition. They cling to safety. They cling to something they can identify with, something that feels safe because they know nothing is going to go wrong. They have so much chaos going on in their minds at times that what they crave is stability — the kind that can be offered by having a carer and a life without metaphorical (and sometimes literal) fireworks.

There are so many ways you can play with an established rhythm and then disrupt it. That’s exactly what Moustache Man is about. He creates a rhythm, an expectation of “this is the way it’s going to be,” and then he’s surrounded by chaos. He tries his best to contain it, but he cannot contain what does not want — or cannot — be contained. Especially with the rhythm outside the home. He’s led to believe he’s going to get his dad’s job. It looks like he’s going to get his dad’s job… and then it goes a completely different way and Nelly gets it instead. He’s looking for a rhythm he can acclimatise to — something predictable. He can hear the rhythm, he can hear the beat, and he thinks, “This is the way it’s going to go. I’m going to get this job.” And then he doesn’t. He doesn’t get his father’s old job. His rhythm is disrupted. So not only is his rhythm disrupted at home — the one he’s been fighting so hard to maintain — but it’s also being destroyed outside as well.

That’s why the moment with Mark’s character is so heart wrenching. We play with the established pattern: he stands there, the boss comes over, makes a joke, and they both go upstairs. But then we show that this is no longer the way of the world. This is no longer the way of his world. Mark goes across, Ebony goes across, leaving him behind — and now his rhythm has been broken. His life is not going to be the same. It mirrors exactly what happened when his father died and he became a carer.

Repetition — as a plot technique, as a script technique, and in this film — absolutely integral to get right. And I do dare say we did. That’s why there is so much repetition in Moustache Man: to create a sense of establishment for the audience before swiping it away.