Our Film

Party Animal // A Short Film by Olivia Parkinson & Alexander Nijhoff

A university student’s first meeting with his in-laws turns from awkward to disastrous when he accidentally kills their pet dog at a christmas party. Party Animal  is a black-comedy short set in Liverpool, created by students at Westminster Film School including the film's writer/co-directors Olivia Parkinson and Alexander Nijhoff.

Synopsis

Finley and Rachel begin, then continue, arguing throughout the first introduction between Rachel’s  parents and her new boyfriend. The differences and secrets in their relationship appear as Finley fights then fails to impress, and Rachel equally tries to impress in order to gain a contribution into her now empty student loan. As a result of racism from Rachel’s father, hosting panic from Rachel’s mother and Rachel’s own complete lack of interest in Finley as she flirts with a former boyfriend, Finley retreats dejectedly to an empty room. There he finds comfort in a loveable dog and feeds it a chocolate, only for it to collapse and die. Terrified and ignored by Rachel, Finley searches for a bag to hide the dead dog, noticing a bag of decorations under the Christmas tree to use. Reaching for it, he is stopped by Rachel’s mother, panicked by her Christmas party and forcing him to help decorate as he stares angrily at Rachel making advances on her ex. Distracted, he drops antique decorations, prompting a nervous breakdown in Rachel’s mother and a call from Rachel’s father to get spare decorations in the room secretly containing the dead dog. Alarmed, Finley offers to go, then meets a young woman, Hannah, whom he bonds with, then trusts with his secret. Opening the door, Hannah announces that her dog is in the room and that he should be careful as it does not like large crowds. Startled, Finley tries to slam the door but suspicious, Hannah fights for the handle forcing Finley to grab her as she screams and pull her away. A crowds gathers, seeing Finley seemingly aggressively restrain Hannah. Then to Finley’s horror, Rachel’s father opens the door: Hannah runs in crying, Rachel stares disgusted, and Finley is left trapped with no way of escape.

The Plan

The Development phase of Party Animal is complete. Pre-Production Planning & Paperwork was completed on-schedule by Mid-November. Casting was completed in late November 2016, followed by an immediate casting process and formal rehearsals in early December. Principal Photography was January 13th - 15th 2017. 

Update: Wednesday 18th January 2017

Thanks to your tremendous support during the Pre-Production Stage of #PartyAnimalFilm we managed to shoot the film on time and to an incredible standard on-location in Merseyside. 

Now that we've shot the film, we're going to be moving into Post-Production in under three weeks time but we need your help to ensure we can complete the film so we

The Cast

Michael Oku - Finley

Michael Oku is a British actor, born in London, England on April 28, 1993. He began acting sporadically through his childhood, participating in various community theatre productions before deciding to create MySpace and later YouTube videos in his teen years, referring to himself as "The O.J.M.O" - a cocky, self-absorbed American vlogger. From there, Oku began acting professionally and has since been part of various theatre productions, most notably, "Blackta" at the Young Vic and most recently, "Calais" at Barons Court Theatre.

Laura Brailsford - Rachel

Laura Brailsford is a British actress with three years professional training under her belt; she graduated in 2010 with a Diploma in Acting and Performance and it was during this time at The School of Theatre in Dundee that she gained the technical skills such as strong vocal and physical work, an ability to devise theatre, and text analysis. In 2013, She worked with London based company Fourth Monkey, who specialise in Repertory Theatre and performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in two plays simultaneously over a month long run. Laura has experience in screen work also and is currently training with The Actors Class and The National Youth Theatre on their Playing Up course.

Jason Imlach - Ethan

Jason Imlach is a British Actor who was trained at The National Youth Theatre where he performed The Merchant of Venice, Wuthering Heights and Consensual. His other theatre credits include; The Cherry Orchard and Uncle Vanya both with The Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York, All My Sons at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre and The Theatre of Illusion and A Sexual Congress both with East 15 Acting School.

Blu Hardy - Hannah

Heather Carter-Drake - Jill

Heather Carter-Drake is an actress, known for Warrior Sisters (2004), Honest (2000) and The Eleventh Hour (2013). She is also a writer/filmmaker and directed her first short film for the Festival De Cannes in 2009. Heather was an extra for 10 years and worked on several major motion pictures such as Fifth Element, Eyes Wide Shut and Shakespeare in Love. She has also worked in SFX.

Freddie Merrydown - Albert

Freddie Merrydown is an actor, known for Any Other Day (2014), Big Fat Gypsy Gangster (2011) and Odd One In (2010). He has worked in television with a variety of production companies including Talkback TV, Endemol UK, ITV Studios and BBC.

The Team

Olivia Parkinson - Writer/Co-Director    

Olivia Parkinson is a first year Film student at University of Westminster, she was the Editor on One Night More (2017), an independent feature film directed by Louis Holder. She says she is so happy to be involved in such an ambitious project and to collaborate with other people on her course. Additionally, she was the assistant editor on The Substitute (2015) and is currently working on a short film written and directed by fellow Westminster students Ross Dixon and Oscar Perillo entitled ‘For Mum’ of which she has also worked closely with the script through it's development and shows great passion for film.

Alexander Nijhoff - Co-Director

Alexander Nijhoff is also a first year Film student at University of Westminster. Recently, Alex wrote, directed and edited the surreal existential short film ‘Of the Beholder’, a Zenith Films Production. Alex was the Co-Director of Party Animal, working with Olivia to direct the actors and ensure the best possible performances were grasped during principal photography.

Louis Holder - Producer

Louis Holder [BFIFA] also studies film at Westminster and is an experienced creator, producer and teacher to young people on filmmaking. He has created, directed and produced many shorts, documentaries and featurettes which have featured at film festivals worldwide and is an alumnus of the BFI Film Academy. He is currently working on his feature-length directorial debut One Night More and other projects.

Cezar Tatarau - Director of Photography

Cezar Tatarau is an emerging Cinematographer, Video Editor & Director with credits such as the short documentary Soul of Bucharest. He was commissioned to produce a series of commercials for Vagabond Hair Studio in his home town of Bucharest, Romania. He is also an experienced photographer and within post-production, including video manipulation and retouching. Cezar enjoys working in a high-paced environment using technology that is both advanced and practical for the task at hand.

Matilda Vidal - Sound Operator/Designer

Matilda Vidal is a First Year Film Student at University of Westminster and an aspiring filmmaker. Interesting in all areas of filmmaking, Matilda is passionate about storytelling and in Party Animal used dialogue, Atmos and Sound FX to create a rich soundscape using advanced sound recording and editing equipment. She is currently learning ProTools as one of many pieces of specialist software.

Liam Winter - Production & Costume Designer

Liam Winter is an aspiring filmmaker and first year student at Westminster Film School. He studied a Diploma in Performance Design at Central St Martins, and is considered a filmmaker and designer. 

Melina Namdar - Casting Director

Melina Namdar [BFIFA] [NYT]  is an Actress, Artist & Director for stage and screen and Casting Director. She is a Screenwriting graduate of the BFI Film Academy, a graduate from the National Youth Theatre and a freelance producer. Recently, she directed 'Together We Can', a diverse theatre show of spoken word artists and musical performances played to a sold-out Lyric Hammersmith. Her theatrical connections combined with her professional casting process experience make her the perfect casting director.