Press enquiries to: onmyownfilm@burningreel.co.uk
A note from Lee (Writer)
Having had close hand experience with depression and mental illness, Lee has made it a personal life goal to truly understand and support those suffering with the illness. A huge factor, (he believes) why men in his age bracket are so highly affected, is due to blokes' inability to discuss difficult and emotional issues that inevitably lead us to stare that dreaded ‘black dog’ in the face. This piece tries to address that through a comical journey of man to man awkwardness, childhood nostalgia, a touch of honesty and finally a big, old hug. Our aim is to open up discussions and get people talking. We like talking. (Especially Tony.)
Lee Hunter is playing Terry
Recent TV and Film Credits: Eastenders, Vikings (Season 4 and 5), Weapon , Homeless Ashes (Feature)
Short Film: Respite, The Grey Cafe
Twitter: @leehunt3r
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A note from Anthony (Cast)
“I will never forget the day I read the statistic about suicide being the largest cause of death for men under 40, and it made me question why? What would it take to get to that space where you can see nothing but the end? So when Lee approached me with this very personal piece, we felt it was a perfect opportunity to not only shine light on that, but to explore the parallels in people of different backgrounds and circumstance, and what drives some people to the edge and others to the light. Through research and discussion we came to the conclusion that we really wanted to highlight the importance of communication, and I think the whole piece is about that and how, when it comes to the crunch, we are all just human beings and our bank balances count for nothing.”
Anthony Lewis is playing Colin
TV and Film Credits: Emmerdale, Torchwood, The Syndicate, Boy A, Undercliffe, Ackley Bridge
Theatre: A Passionate Woman, Whose Life Is It Anyway, The Full Monty (UK Tour 2016/17)
Twitter: @mranthonylewis
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The Crew
Director
Writer Lee is collaborating with Director Kristian Young to bring his story to life. Kristian is a Geordie force of positivity, and his instinctive musical knowledge coupled with his diverse storytelling ability provides a sense of grounded narrative and realistic performances: something echoed in the community he grew up in.
Storytelling is his passion, and working with Lee to understand the impetus of the project and developing it from his personal connection, the pair set out to make a film that not only entertains but provokes a discussion.
Kristian has a diverse background of filmmaking, working on commercials and music videos alongside documentaries. This project needed someone to take Lee and Anthony’s play and transform it into a piece that worked on camera, and Kristian has been working with them to bring their theatrical piece into something that felt more subtle, developing nuances and working around intimate close ups to give even more power to their actions and dialogue.
“I think there are two main parts to this film that really drew me in, the complicated relationship between two opposite characters, the way they unwrap their own lives to each other and we realise they have much more in common that it seems really captivated me. The second was the drama and tension that hangs over the entire piece, every moment has an underlying motive and sense of immediacy attached to it"
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Production Company
Alongside the writing and Directing team are Burning Reel, a creative force obsessed with detail, story, performance and design. Their involvement will ensure the funding is efficiently spent and the creativity is maximised to its full potential from a production point of view. Find their work at http://www.burningreel.co.uk/
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Producer Cal Gordon
Cal started Burning Reel back in 2012 and with his business partner Joe has grown it onto roster talent from around the world. He’s produced commercials, documentaries and music videos all around the world working with crews from a handful of people up to a heaving studio full. His love for story telling developed at university where his efforts saw him be awarded a RTS student prize. Callum is a storyteller at heart, and his passion as a producer to work his creative direction into every project is evident in his music video and commercial past. Working with Directors to curate and critique their project every step of the way insures they maximise their storytelling capabilities whilst sticking to budget time and time again.
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Director of Photography
Our DP is Thomas Hole, An award winning director of photography based in London, England. Working internationally. Coming from a skateboarding background, Thomas Hole went out every weekend as a child filming his friends learn and create new lines in Romford, London. He went on to Study Cinematography at Farnham, UCA. Thomas Hole has created work for Apple, Shawn Mendes, The Army, Nike, The Premier League, Cartier and many more. Recently his music video for The Slaves won best music video at the NME Awards 2017 and his work for Acer won best content marketing award at the Excellence Awards.
Thomas is a Director of Photography with a storytelling focus that touches every frame he composes, constantly obsessing about how his images further the emotional and physical manifestation of the script, a valuable asset to bring to our short film as we assemble a complicated technical process on a rooftop with only two characters from start to finish.
Find Tom's work at http://thomashole.co.uk/
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Editor
Chris Lewis has been in the industry for 20 years. He has worked as editor on a number of high profile entertainment, reality and ob doc shows, including X Factor, First Dates, Love Island and Saturday Night Takeaway. He has also cut a number of TV commercials, music videos and short films, as well as working across a variety of CBeebies and CBBC shows. Chris will bring our film to life in the cutting room as he works with our simple two character environment to grow pace, tension and emotion.
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Executive Producer
Matthew Lewis has been in the Film and TV industry for 24 years. His debut film was Some Kind Of Life in 1994, starring Jane Horrocks. Several credits followed before Matthew landed the role of Neville Longbottom in the Harry Potter series and returned to reprise the role in all eight films.
After finishing Harry Potter in 2011, Lewis has gone on to star in a wide range of projects across the industry. He appeared in the West End in Our Boys and Unfaithful as well as starring in several television series including Bluestone 42, The Syndicate, Happy Valley and Ripper Street. Filmmaking has always been his passion and as well as the Harry Potter films Lewis has also starred in The Rise, Me Before You and The Terminal. Now he’s turning his attention to producing films and creating work which has always been a passion.
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- We are a new team working together for the first time in this capacity.
This 'risk' is actually a brilliant creative opportunity. As a group, we have all worked together in different combinations, from producers and DP’s to performers and editors, we are all closely linked. Although this exact team will be making this film for the first time as a group, our experience, contacts and portfolio prove that together we are a powerful filmmaking force that can combine our previous experiences to bring a fresh multi layered approach to filmmaking and achieve our end goal with passion and pride.
- Availability. for busy people in the film industry, that is a problem!
We have a finished script, all of our heads of department on board and a production company to assist with all elements of production and post. With funding secured, we can set firm dates and deadlines which can be relatively short term, utilising a weekend for production and confirming a solid on the day crew to facilitate our production needs via our incredible heads of department. Giving ourselves a good window of time to aim for with principle photography / shooting days means that although each ember of the team is busy and booked up, we can allocate time to our film appropriately and carefully.
- What if our film isn't good enough?
Our script has reached its final draft at number 11, been scrutinised for the past 12 months by our team, and we already deep into rehearsals. We have a tried and tested theatre play version of the story which went down a storm last year with Lee and Anthony front and centre in a powerful performance, and the coming weeks will work in camera blocking and the final performance tweaks, ensuring our story is the best it can be on our shoot day. We think our film is going to be incredible, and we need your help to make sure it is.
- Locations for rooftops are expensive and difficult to shoot on.
Thankfully we have connections to allow us on a brilliant London roof, with backup options pencilled out in case we encounter difficulty, and a clever shooting technique from our DP which allows us to never have to shoot anywhere dangerous or near the edge of the roof, so we are good to go!
