A Different Place is online now!

['A Different Place' is live on YouTube now! It's also on my Vimeo channel.]

Just a quick post from me today, as I've been (gratefully) very busy with client work this month. But I didn't want to miss the opportunity to let you all know that my previous short film, the BFI NETWORK-funded romantic drama A Different Place, has been released on YouTube and Vimeo today!

The final online release always feels like a bit of an end of an era, so it's rather bittersweet, much as I'm excited to share the film with new audiences. Over the last few weeks, the team and I have had a great time reminiscing about the film and sharing things like new trailers and behind-the-scenes videos over on the Triskelle Pictures YouTube channel.

A Different Place also had its online premiere with the wonderful streaming platform Lesflicks earlier this month (it's still available for their subscribers to watch), and on the same day we started our limited cinema run at Derby QUAD, where A Different Place played ahead of all of their screenings of The Last Showgirl. We were only supposed to have a four day run, but that got extended to seven days and eleven screenings in total. We were delighted!

I've spoken to another independent cinema that's also willing to screen the film, I just need to confirm dates and details with them. But I'll share more info as soon as I have it.

[Above: 'A Different Place' screening at Derby QUAD as part of its limited cinema run. Photo by Tommy Draper.]

I hope you'll all throw some love towards A Different Place by watching and sharing the link to the film on YouTube and Vimeo. It's also been listed on Letterboxd if you want to give it a review. An incredibly talented cast & crew poured so much fantastic work and many hours into making this film a reality, and it remains one of the highlights of my career to date. I am so proud of this film and will be forever grateful for how well people responded to it at festivals (including more BAFTA-qualifiers than I've ever screened at before!).

I could wax lyrical about this film all day, but it's time for me to get back to work. Alongside my client work, I'm also in the final stages of post-production on my NFTS & Amazon Prime short film, Lacuna. That will be ready for festivals soon, and I'm excited to share it with the world.

I'll end this blog post by sharing my director's statement from A Different Place's FilmFreeway page, which I wrote in the happy but exhausted post-shoot buzz, back when I was hopeful for a successful festival run, but never could've dreamed that we'd have so many globe-trotting adventures, much-deserved acting awards & nominations, and enthusiastic, emotional audience reactions along the way:

Creating ‘A Different Place’ felt nothing short of a privilege for me. Obviously it was a dream come true to work in collaboration with the BFI NETWORK, but I felt particularly honoured to do so on a film which I knew would mean so much to so many people. The film tackles subjects still rarely shown on screen, and so I felt a great sense of obligation as well as excitement, at every stage of the production, to do this story justice - showing people who are going through or have been through similar experiences that they are not alone in their feelings or their view of the world.

The thing which most attracted me to the project was its protagonist; Evelyn is an incredibly complex and relatable character, as emotive as she is flawed, and I fell in love with her the moment I read her on the page. We need more middle-aged female protagonists, particularly within romantic storylines, and it is fantastic to be creating work which encourages a positive change within our industry. Furthermore, I feel that Michelle Darkin Price’s performance in the role is definitely one to watch. The part was always intended to be hers, and even with a strong list of credits under her belt, I believe that she has delivered a career-best turn in our film.

Finally, after two years of production delays (and numerous film industry jobs disappearing altogether) through the terrible effect of the Covid-19 pandemic, the experience of making ‘A Different Place’ felt all the more special; we were lucky enough to have a cast and crew at the top of their game, finally back together doing what they love most, and eager to pour their long-supressed creative energies into a film which we think will have a lasting impact on the people that see it. I can’t wait to share it with the world.