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How did you get involved?

I’d known Jon (Director) since college and was blown away by some of the short films he was showing there.  We were re-introduced by a mutual friend (Liz Jasicki, who went on to play Susan in Summer Rain) after Jon moved to Brighton he mentioned he was trying to put together his first feature.

I basically blagged my way onto the project by saying I always fancied myself as a writer and could I get involved.  You’ve got to hand it to him; putting that much faith in someone with a zero track record in writing.

How do you co-write a script?

Good question.  The basic brief I was given by Jon was that it should be about three girls sharing a flat in Brighton and it should be warm and fuzzy.  And that was it.  He then sent me away with a few videos (Videos! Can you believe it?  This shows just how long ago we started work on this baby) for me to get a feel of what he wanted and I started to sketch out the characters.  Michelle and Gary came first, Vicky second and Becky third.  The story started building itself around the characters from there.  As I had never written anything before, I was scribbling away ideas without a clue about ‘character motivation’, ‘plot points’, ‘story arcs’ and ‘three act structures’.  To remedy this freakish behaviour, Jon started meticulously figuring the film out and putting a Post-It on the wall of his flat for each plot point.  I would then take ten or twelve of these away with me each Monday and return with fifty pages of handwritten, faux Tarantino-esque gibberish the following week.  I finished the first draft about ten weeks later and did two further rewrites afterwards.  The script was turned down by everyone and, when my dreams of becoming a millionaire overnight slowly faded away, I gave up on the project (not proud about this, you know).

Director Jon Glendening

& Chris Reiley recording the DVD commentary.

How involved were you with the filming?

Hardly at all.  I’d recently moved to Wales with my new family and Brighton was a long way away.  I’d been at some of the casting sessions which were wonderful and spent a day on set when I was down in Sussex on business.

What is your favourite part of the film?

The final scene by the Kiss Wall.  I got an excited phone call at work from Alice  (my wife) saying that a VHS tape had turned up with ‘Summer Rain’ written on it.  And whilst it wasn’t the whole film, it had several long, unedited scenes with a rough soundtrack, and I was just gobsmacked.  It looked fantastic and the Kiss Wall scene was exactly how I imagined it when I wrote it.

What would you change about the film?

On reflection, I think that the bloke parts are too similar and there’s not an awful lot between the Mike/Gary, Paul/Craig characters (though the actors did an amazing job with the material given).  I think I’ve also mentioned to Jon once or twice that I never liked the break up scene between Gary and Michelle.

Chris Reiley being interviewed outside Mann’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.

What are you working on now?

Nothing. Zip.  I’m a great believer that creative inspiration is driven by misery and pain, and when I wrote SR, I was a miserable, single bloke with a crappy job and a lot to say on the subject.  I once mentioned that writing it was a ‘get well soon’ card to Jon (who, it’s fair to say was going through a lot of the same shit I was, and was also dealing with a break up as well) and still believe that - Alison Moyet said that ‘Ode to Boy’ (from ‘You and Me Both’ by Yazoo) was ‘vomitted up’ instead of just written and I can completely understand the metaphor - it’s something you just have to get out of you.  The script, its theme and, more importantly, the ending were about finding resolution through not returning to what you know and trust, and moving on.  Since writing the script, I met a girl, got married, had kids, got a better job, relocated to a beautiful country, got happy and found I didn’t need to write any more.

Finally, Key memories?

Seeing the film in Hollywood; the wall of Post-It’s at Jon’s flat; the premiere in Brighton (where I met the cast and crew for the first time and my parents decided that this would be the perfect time to bring me several boxes of cereal that my Grandfather no longer wanted!); visiting the University set; the first read-through and thinking it was never going to work...

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