my Short Films
As well as my recent short The Last Post, which has its own page, I have made a series of other shorts over the years, always on a micro-budget. These were wonderful learning experiences and Le Boast is one I am particularly proud of. Made for practically nothing it more than made back its budget through a commercial sale and subsequent broadcast on Movieola. All these shorts are password protected but if you are interested in seeing them please send me a message and I'll provide the relevant Vimeo password.
Le Boast is a short film running approximately 20 minutes which Premiered at the World Comedy Film Festival in Toronto in 2008, and has since been shown ten times on the Canadian television channel Movieola having been bought by Ouat Media. The film was shot in the Pigalle district of Paris and features the music of Django Reinhardt who lived in Pigalle. The film was made with volunteer actors and crew on a micro budget.
View 'Le Boast" here: https://vimeo.com/86709158 (please note this is the broadcast version and has 1 minute 40 seconds of 'blank' at the front, as requested by the broadcaster. Skip this!)
View 'Le Boast" here: https://vimeo.com/86709158 (please note this is the broadcast version and has 1 minute 40 seconds of 'blank' at the front, as requested by the broadcaster. Skip this!)
I recently decided to rescue my older shorts in their various formats before they become completely outdated. Using a company called The Great Bear in Bristol (www.thegreatbear.net) I have had the films converted to digital and uploaded onto Vimeo, beginning with 'Unsuitable Ties' which I wrote while studying English Literature at university which you can view here: https://vimeo.com/87075556 . The film was shot on VHS and the only copy was suffering from severe mould so Adrian at The Great Bear has done a brilliant restoration job. Made in 1988 this was a time before the internet or personal computers - and the plot (involving a man trying to become a yuppy by writing fake business letters) seems as archaic as horse drawn transport. The film was directed by John Rogers who went on to work as a movie trailer editor and Harvey Weinstein's 'scissor man' at Miramax (he was once given the task of cutting two hours off the Anthony Minghella film The Talented Mr Ripley). After working at Transatlantic Films I was determined to make a low budget horror and wrote and directed the film Still Life (1990) on super 8. I edited it at the London Film Maker's Co-op in North London where they had a super 8 Steenbeck with a 16mm sound track (all the film's sound had to go on this one tape). You can watch the film (which is about a deranged taxidermist) here: https://vimeo.com/80078866
After making Still Life I went to live in New York and worked at the 'direct cinema' company Maysles Films (famous for the films Salesman, Gimme Shelter, and Grey Gardens). Using a borrowed VHS camcorder I made several films, the only survivor being a a zero budget 'comedy sketch' video we shot entirely in my lower West Side basement apartment. Titled "Lady Chatterley's Brother" it can be viewed here: https://vimeo.com/80459680
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Another micro budget camcorder film was shot at the farm where I grew up. Called "The Farm Hand" it was edited in-camera and is really just a riotous piece of nonsense whose value now lies chiefly in the fact that the people in it can see themselves when they were younger! But I love the way various dogs and even a child manage to wander in and steal the show! View it here: https://vimeo.com/86708235