Young movie makers use town backdrop for project
A venue in Telford is being used as a film set for a feature which will star a string of famous faces.
Seventeen-year-old film makers Alex Yousefi and Luke Haughton, who goes by the name Luke Allen for film projects, are using The Wakes in Oakengates for their latest production.
The pair, both from Telford, started writing the short film during lockdown last year, initially intending for it to be something light-hearted to work on with a few friends.
But when they came up with their "dream cast" and contacted several of them to see if they were interested, to their surprise the actors agreed to volunteer their time unpaid to support them.
Reduced To Clear is a surrealist comedy and follows Mike, a charity shop volunteer, on his first day at work.
He experiences a large variety of insane moments in the shop, from dim-witted and demanding customers to an armed robbery – and all in the course of the first 10 minutes of his shift.
The cast is led by London actor Edward Tidy and features Britain's Got Talent semi-finalist John Archer, Simon Fisher-Becker (Dorium Maldovar from Doctor Who, Fat Friar from Harry Potter), Ewen MacIntosh (Keith Bishop from The Office, who is also executive producing the film) and Ninette Finch, who is considered to be one of the UK's most prolific extras and has appeared in more than 1,000 films and TV shows.
The film has a budget of around £1,700, which was raised through crowdfunding.
Shrewsbury College student Luke and Telford College student Alex know each other from being in the same film class at Telford Priory School.
"This project is just for our own enjoyment and not connected to a college course or anything," said Luke.
"Some of the cast members I knew already through mutual friends in the film community but contacted them all through social media.
"It was a real surprise to actually have a reply agreeing to be involved.
"We expected it’d be a small project between friends but now it’s easily the biggest thing either of us have worked on."
Filming has taken place over three days at The Wakes and, following editing, the pair expect to have their film finished around December and ready to screen early next year.
Luke added: "We both hope that this film will get noticed by people high up in the film industry and that this will be something we can present to people to show our potential as film makers."
