Shooting Season Commences

Published July 4, 2016

Shooting Season Commences in style for the Exeter Phoenix Short Film Commissions 2016

After being selected in March, our commissioned filmmakers – including our new Micro Short and RAW film strands – have thrown themselves whole heartedly over the production start line, demonstrating a promising range of talent from the emerging filmmakers of Devon.

Bethan Highgate-Betts has been busy in Bristol with her cinematographer James McColl transforming the Edwardian Cloakrooms into 1940’s Iran for her 3-minute micro short commission Pink.

This week, Bethan has reported that they have ‘completed our first day shooting Pink and we’re really pleased with how it’s coming together. Just getting ready to shoot our last couple of scenes and get stuck into the edit!’ We can’t wait to see the final result of this interesting short that explores generational and cultural expectations in the diverse British landscape.

Rupert Green and Jack Oliver have been a busy pair, with their micro horror short Nightmare of Garbhlach wrapping its production phase with the climax shoot next week. ‘There will be blood!’ says Rupert. Throughout the process, Rupert and Jack have been experimenting with different filmmaking techniques, mixing live action, animation and puppetry to create their very own visual style for this story of legend, nightmare and peril. They hit Exeter Phoenix’s Digital Workshop next week to use the ‘super computer’ to edit their way to a final cut.

Dom Lee has been busy honing his script for his micro short Rocketshed that tells the story of six-year old Jack and his Dad as they sit in their garden shed, a home built ‘Rocketshed’ as a countdown timer ticks down. Pre-production on Dom’s film is going well. The process of dismantling a shed to use as the core set for the film has begun, and filming in this confined space will be much easier once the roof is removed! We are pleased to hear that the cast and crew are all in place and filming will commence in a few weeks time.

Also in the final stages of pre-production are University of Exeter students Timi and Hana. The pair have launched their campaign for The Search Party, a short film is set on the beautiful landscape of Dartmoor National Park, revealing the experience of a woman who manages to join her own search party. Check out their Kickstarter video here, showing off a range of rewards to thank those generous supporters amongst you, including teaser trailers, digital downloads, maps and thank you videos from the directors.

Documentaries on the road to discovery…

After months of planning and hard work, Simeon Costello – winner of the Devon Documentary Short Film Commission – is about to launch his cross country adventure on local bus services. Simeon raised over £2000 with a brilliant kickstarter for Bus Stories, his documentary exploring the use of local bus services across the UK from John O’ Groats to Lands End.

The fundraising is over now as he hits the start line on his epic UK journey, but to see more info on the project and the capmpaign offers, take a look here >>

Follow his progress and see the personalities he meets on the way @SimeonCostello as he tweets his way across the country.

A little further east in the U.K, Lord of the Logos is in action as director Luke Hagan delves into the little known world of Christophe Szpajdel, the prestigious metal band logo designer who has en estimated 10,000 designs to his name and exhibitions as far as Japan and New Zealand. This week, Luke has been busy documenting Christophe’s experiences at the first exhibition of his work to be held in London. With a series of exciting interviews lined up with collaborators and fans, we are eagerly awaiting some behind the scenes goodies to share with you.

One Hell of a film…

Despite the cloudy forecasts, summer is here for production work in Devon. After successfully securing his iShorts funding for morris dancing thriller Hell’s Bells, our Associate Artist, filmmaker Luke Jeffery has been shooting out and about in Devon.

We look forward to sharing more updates with you throughout the year. Find out more about commissions at Exeter Phoenix here >>