Exam

Stuart Hazeldine built his first feature on a rule set: 8 candidates in one room, an armed guard at the door, 80 minutes on a clock, 3 things they must not do. No question is ever put and the papers are blank, so the pressure comes from how far the rules bend. He began from a school exam story, made it a job interview, wrote the ending himself because the original had none, and stripped the science fiction from early drafts. The room looks sealed but was built to come apart: the roof lifts off and the wall sections between the columns move. He puts the budget near $600,000 and the shoot ran 26 days. None of it came back. Box Office Mojo records $394,717, all of it from outside North America, with no domestic figure at all: IFC went straight to video on demand at home. It was still nominated at the 63rd BAFTAs for outstanding debut by a British writer, director or producer, an award taken by Duncan Jones for Moon. A good fit if you can take candidates left nameless, called by hair and skin colour, tracked like pieces on a board. Not for you if you need the ending to come from a person, not a riddle made from the invigilator’s opening line.