When we say say that we love what we do, we really mean it! Which is why as well as working all week long making cracking films for our clients, our directors often find themselves spending their “free time” on evenings and weekends making short films and personal projects for no reason other than the love of it! This past month has seen our Assistant Director Ashley doing just that; writing, directing and editing his own short film called ‘An End, A Beginning’.
The film features Luca Moore playing the daughter character, and Victoria May as the mother. The short was filmed over the course of one long afternoon, and put together in post-production in just a matter of days (we’re very fast here at STANDBY)! For the exterior location, Ashley chose a stunning spot up at Werneth Low Country Park which overlooks Manchester, which made for some incredible views – and also some incredible gusts of wind!! With the grading, time was spent tweaking the colours of the film to give it more of an Autumnal look and feel. The feedback so far has been extremely positive and both actresses were delighted with the finished product, with Victoria in particular saying that she was incredibly proud to have been a part of it.
This is what Ashley had to say about the film:
“The original idea came from an interest I had in people leaving a mark on places – that when you visit certain places that held an importance or significance to someone you perhaps felt something had been left behind, even if you couldn’t quite put into words what that was. And I’ve always had an interest in family dynamics and relationships as well, so it was just about bringing those two things together in a way that felt kind of fresh and new to me. Despite the films story being quite an emotional one, the shoot itself was actually a lot of fun and we had a lot of laughs along the way. Working with Victoria and Luca was great and I really can’t say enough kind words about them, they really threw themselves into every aspect of the shoot – including dancing around in the freezing cold wind on a giant hill with people looking on!! Now that the film’s complete I already have several ideas about what I’d like to film next – one of the best things about STANDBY is that we get the freedom to work on amazing films all week long in the studio and then do exactly the same on weekends!”