Exposures - New Talent in Moving Image

THE GREAT HAT HEIST
(Animation, 8mins)
Dir: Lewi Firth Bolton
Home tutored
Music: Original score by Daniel Brett

In the warped world of Mr. Haten Bungleperp all that matters is his kleptomania for his hats. Addicted to gambling and a fondness for living the high life, his descent into genteel seedy poverty forces him to come up with a daring plan to rob the vault of his favourite hat shop. Aided by his grovelling, witless manservant Homburg, the arrogant and unstoppable Mr Haten Bungleperp attempts the greatest hat heist of all time and in the end gets to wear a very different kind of hat.

Lewi is a home educated student, allowing him to manage his time between his educational studies and animation projects. The Great Hat Heist was his, as he writes, ‘biggest project to date’ doing all filmmaking himself and taking more than 18 months in production. It was joint runner-up for Best Animation Film at exposures: UK Student Film Festival 2007 and his film The Wardrobe also won second prize in the youth section at Bradford Animation Festival 2006. Lewi currently lives in Bridlington, working on ‘a short animation based on a twisted nursery rhyme’. He hopes to continue developing his own style of animation, aiming to study animation at film school and to eventually work in the film industry.

SNAPSHOT
(Drama, 9mins)
Dir/Pro/Wri: Tessa Wood
Bournemouth University
Crew: Alexandrea Botwright, Dalibor Iliskovic, Adam Sheldrake, Joanne Rhoderick, Martin Stirling, Christian Aldridge, Sahar Blue, Tarryn Pual, Christian Aldridge
Music: Original score by Paul Andrews

When Maude looses out on a promotion at work to Doloris, her life seems even emptier then before. It isn’t until she receives a mysterious magical gift that the tables finally turn and Maude gets the power she’s longingly craved for. But with this new power comes a new Maude, one more selfish and bitter, surely the only way to curb her greed is punishment?

A self-confessed artist rather than director, Tessa describes the making of Snapshot as ‘a huge learning curve’. Studying BA Television and Video Production in Bournemouth her work displays an interesting ‘concoction of influence that range from personal experiences to film and also art’. Snapshot was awarded the runner-up position for Best Drama Film during exposures and Tessa dreams of creating ambitious films in the future, capturing a critical audience to discuss fondly of her work.

TAKEN
(underexposed, 8mins)
Dir/Pro/Wri: Tom Beever
City College, Manchester
Crew: Tom Beswick, Ian Beever, Damien Allsopp, Joe Ashcroft

A bike ride in the country goes horribly wrong when a cyclist is kidnapped.

Taken won Tom the Best Film award at underexposed 2007 and was also awarded joint Best Director and Best Cinematography. These accolades and the film demonstrate Tom’s main interest in cinematography, plenty of fast paced action captured by hand held camera to enhance the tension of the thriller. Tom wanted to ‘lull the audience into comfortable viewing’ and plays with the idea of ‘what isn’t seen’ on screen to heighten the fright factor. Tom currently studies in Manchester and further projects will be tied to his course at University. His long term aim is to be Director of Photography on feature films.

WHEN TWO FRIENDS MEET
(Animation, 2mins)
Dir/co Wri: Anthony Campbell
WFA Media and Cultural Centre, Manchester
Assistant/co Wri: Richard Amphet
Music: Original score by Anthony Campbell

When Two Friends Meet is a graphic horror, slasher animated short film. Two friends meet and a horrific encounter unfolds beneath some railway arches.

When Two Friends Meet is a striking film influenced by a graphic comic book appearance, using special effects and contemporary compositing techniques with separately photographed locations and characters. The scenes constructed with an interesting aesthetic quality which Anthony hopes to develop further with stories written by his production partner. Both are ‘committed to making short films that have substance’ and together have produced two music videos that have been aired on MTV2. Anthony is currently working on a number of shorts.

HIDE
(Drama, 6mins)
Dir/Wri: James Easter
University College for the Creative Arts, Farnham
Pro: Elena De Palma
Crew: Matt King, Jenna Coles, Jenna Davies

Raymond enters a stranger’s house where he makes a life changing discovery.

Hide, the winner of Best Drama Film at exposures, is a film based around a “what if…” scenario enhanced by James’ personal experience at a young age with burglary and intrusion. On the making of the film James states that ‘Hide helped exercise my fascination with burglary and gave me the opportunity to hopefully excite people in a short space of time’ reflecting the anxiety on screen with the accidental intruder, Raymond. James is currently training to become a primary school teacher but hopes to be involved in filmmaking should the opportunity arise.

ROY
(Documentary, 23mins)
Dir/co Pro: Line Nikita Blom
Goldsmiths, University of London
Pro: Mike Woolfe
Crew: Minou Norouzi, Anne Chmelewsky
Music: Ready for Reality by Terminal Head

Roy is a candid portrait of one man’s journey through a life of British institutions. Lost to the world, criminality was all he knew. This film goes back to re-visit key haunts of Roy’s past. It’s an honest and deeply moving insight into the life of a prolific offender who’s had very few chances in life. How does he turn things around? There’s only one thing that can save Roy, an amazing woman.

Director and co-producer Line Nikita has a history of working in the film-industry, mainly drama. After her experiences of working at Wandsworth prison some time ago she realised ‘how many people’s stories needed to be told’. With her personal interest in the criminal justice system, Roy highlights the issues and emotional difficulties for ex-offenders on leaving the prison system. Against the odds, the production of Roy relied on the friendship between the cast and crew and the protagonists strength. It succeeded in winning Best Documentary Film at exposures and Line Nikita is now considering a re-edit to exhibit the film throughout the festival circuit in 2008. Having completed a Masters in screen documentary at Goldsmiths University, Line Nikita plans to make another film on a similar subject and has toured Roy around the country in the hope that the film will open debate ‘to make voices like his heard’.

BLUE COLLARS AND BUTTERCUPS
(Drama, 15mins)
Dir/Wri: Janis Pugh
London Film School, London
Pro: James Young
Crew: Charles C Meyer, Oystein Lunstrom, Allison Jackson, Lisa Muzzolini
Music: Stefan Gordon

On her 16th birthday in a small factory town in North Wales, Tina dreams of escaping her inevitable blue collar destiny – the production lines of the local chicken factory. But will she fall? Blue Collars and Buttercups is a poetic yet political coming-of-age tale as Tina suffers with frustrated by her lack of choice, and yearns to raise above the status expected of her.

Janis wanted to create a personal film, based in her hometown and area around where she grew up. The film, as she states, aims ‘to raise subtle political questions, yet shot in a visually dynamic style’ which she has acquired from previous filmmaking. Blue Collars and Buttercups appears on the front of exposures Best of the Fest 2007 DVD, featuring the iconic image of Tina stilt walking over the rough Welsh mountains, a talent which actress Louise Kempton has just four weeks to master! The film was one of twenty-three titles selected from 2,500 entries for the Leopards of Tomorrow International Film Competition at the Locarno Film Festival 2007, and was the sole entrant from the UK. Blue Collars and Buttercups was also shown in the Short Films Corner at last year’s Cannes Film Festival. Janis was awarded the first Roy Pointer scholarship into the London Film School. With her passion for politics and unheard voices, Janis always aims to involve the community whose story is being told. She has just completed writing her second feature, Balaclava Sands and is securing funding for this. Her new feature film, One Hundred Years (working title), goes into pre-production on 21st September 2008.

ASPERITY
(Experimental, 2mins)
Dir/Pro: Tom Reynolds
University of the West of England, Bristol
Crew: Melanie Hasemore, Rowena Hasemore
Music: Asperity by Bruno Gabirro

Asperity is a visual representation of a piece of music which only uses the viola to create the graphics. The synchronisation of music and image on screen manages to create a hypnotic effect. Going further than the average music video, Asperity is a mesmorising film grounded by its rhythmical nature and meticulous matching of audio to visual.

When filming the musician in Asperity Tom began to appreciate the beauty of the instrument’s bow as it slid across the strings and its hypnotic power and the film’s premise was based around this discovery. Tom works in live action, fiction and documentary and also animation. Using all these filmmaking techniques, he says, ‘helps me to explore and discover the world on multiple levels’. Tom hopes to continue working with a variety of methods and experimental film forms throughout his studies at University of the West of England and aims to keep his ‘work fresh and exciting’.

OVERSHADOWED
(Animation, 2mins)
Dir/Pro/Wri: Craig Wilson
University College for the Creative Arts, Farnham

The idea of being able to physically touch and interact with a shadow came to the filmmaker through an old sketch of his. Every time he passed a street light, on his way home from University, his shadow would momentarily disappear although soon after overtake him. Then as the next streetlight approached it would overtake him again. Like Peter Pan’s game of chase with his own shadow in the Darling children’s bedroom, the concept of one man and his silhouetted self had the potential to make an interesting animation, as demonstrated in Overshadowed.

Born in South Africa to a Scottish father and Cypriot mother, Craig is due to graduate in July 2008 after completing his BA in Animation at UCCA. During his second year of his degree he visited the Anifest festival in Trebon, Czech Repulic, where Overshadowed was shortlisted for the short films category. Craig is currently undergoing a Directors Foundation Certificate at Raindance in London and in November will be doing a documentary filmmaking course at the Wildlife Film Academy in South Africa. In the mean time he plans to work freelance within the film industry and his long term ambition is to work in an established and well-known animation studio.

MADE BACKWARDS
(Drama, 13mins)
Dir/Wri: Dean Walton
University College for the Creative Arts, Farnham

Made Backwards tells the story of Martin, a middle aged, once successful scriptwriter. While having lunch one day he is approached by a young fan of the films he used to write. Martin goes on to tell the boy the whole story of his short-lived success, the ups and downs and the thing that enabled him to write such great films… cheese!

In Dean’s own words, ‘Made Backwards is a surreal comedy that pays homage to many classic genres and conventions of cinema’ which came about from an unwelcome period of writer’s block during his Film Production course at UCCA. The scale of the film was Dean’s largest problem with ‘around twelve locations, over thirty actors needed and two sets to be built’, and so Made Backwards proved to be quite epic as far as student films go. Dean’s drive for the film lay in wanting ‘to make a film for entertainment’s sake’, reacting against what he perceives to be “unoriginality that plagues a lot of short films”. His creative and imaginative approach to filmmaking won his film the Audience Award during the exposures festival. Dean is currently in the pre-production stages of his new project, a multi-character online television drama series and his long term ambition is to be a feature film writer or director.

MONKEY SEE
(Experimental, 2mins)
Dir/Wri/Pro: Steven Farrimond
Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester
Music: Steven Farrimond

Monkey See is an experimental observational short film of a monkey, using repetition and focusing on certain actions, rhythmically edited to sound.

During a visit to the zoo, Steven noticed one particular monkey apart from the rest, not sleeping but fascinating himself with what he considered ‘amusing actions’. He filmed the footage and ‘reduced the image so that there was a limited background, allowing the visuals to breath against the white space’. The films success, much like Asperity, lies with Steven’s talent in editing the actions with accurate attention to detail, timing and an awareness for the music to give the piece its distinctive feel. Monkey See was made with significant to the visual aesthetic and editing techniques, typical of Steven’s previous work.

Tragically, Steven died in a road accident in London, on 12th January 2008. Monkey See was made during Steven’s Illustration and Animation course at MMU. At the time of exposures 2007 Steven had gone on to study for an MA in Animation, at the Royal College of Art, who described him as ‘one of the brightest students in the country’. Following his death Steven’s family received calls from all over the U.K with people telling them ‘what an impact meeting Steven had had on them’. This film embodies the passion Steven had for his own style in short films yet remains, in his own words, a ‘glimpse of the breadth’ of his entire portfolio and the unseen future of this talented filmmaker and artist.