Winner of Best Short Short at The London Independent Film Festival 2021 & nominated for best screen play at the Papaya Rocks Film festival. The film was retweeted by Oscar winning actor Riz Ahmed when it was released on World Mental Health Day and I was interviewed live on Talk TV on the day it was released.
Starring Thunderbirds & Indianna Jones actor Bhasker Patel, in this drama short, ‘Mark’ (30) has a conversation with his 10 year old self. But, he hasn't met his younger self's expectations. He is in a hole. But, things take a positive turn, when his seventy year old self makes an appearance.
The mental health crisis has been spoken about during this pandemic. But there has been a mental health crisis affecting men in particular for many years now, with suicide being the biggest killer of men under 45. I wanted to create a film that balances the expectations we have in life, and how sometimes not meeting them can be incredibly challenging.
Having 'Mark' in his 30s speaking to his 10 year old self was my way to dramatise that tension before he meets his older self. A conversation I had with my make up artist lead to an important symbol within this film, which is the semicolon ';' For those who have attempted and survived suicide, it symbolises that life didn't end but it continued. Amongst that community, many have chosen to have tattoos of the semicolon. For me, it was important that this film is for both a wider audience but also for them, which is why I integrated the symbol into the end credits of the film, the film poster and even our protagonist has it tattooed on his finger. Hopefully, this film can give people experiencing a dark time a feeling of hope that their older self will thank them for sticking around.
Full film at bottom of the page (password: benchmarks)
Logline:
In this black and white drama Michelle, a white girl from Bradford, is deeply in love with her British Asian boyfriend Asif. But, the local skinheads from the city and her parents from the countryside aren’t accepting of the relationship. The true reason for their hostility is only revealed at the end.
Shot over 4 days, we had a great team involved the award winning cinematographer Brendan Harvey, and amazing up and coming acting talent in Omar Hashmi & Lauren Clancey, as well as a Vogue costume designer Andrew Majtenyi.
Watch below with the password ‘inmydayfilm’
Winner of best Long Form Short at The Skiptown International Film Festival in LA
A pumpkin survives halloween and lives on the streets of a London with a homeless man. But, will they make it to Christmas?
In this original Christmas fairy tale, our pumpkin comes alive through POV shots and changing expressions between cutaways and POVs. BSC nominated feature film cinematographer Jamie Touche has come on board as a passion project. His feature film Scandal was on Sky and his short When She Was Good got into the Oscar qualifying festivals of Aesthetica and Brooklyn, and earned him a nomination for a BSC award.
On the strength of the script and the treatment, the NFTS kindly donated a camera package, including an Alexa Mini for a week for free.
To make the homeless theme as authentic as possible, I have brought on board the formerly homeless actor Jeremy Triscott. Him having a missing pinky finger and his hands weathered by life on the streets, and to be able to be in dialogue with him about the true nature of life on the streets, made the homeless scenes moving and believable.
It is a silent film, which means music will help create the emotional heartbeat of this film. Recording to picture with the award winning Americana artist Danni Nicholls was really inspiring. Songs like Frozen, Unwanted and the optimism in Lemonade match the sentiment of some of the scenes in the film so well.
You can watch the film here
and see more behind the scenes at thelastjackolantern.com
Featured at the London Independent Film Festival 2022, Love & Hope Festival in Barcelona & was selected as the winner of ‘Best Foreign Documentary’ at The Tennessee International Indie Festival.
His curse was his blessing. Singer songwriter Jean Claude Madhero retells how his homeless experience on the streets of Paris fifty years ago made him the artist he is today.
For behind the scenes with our animator Michelle Brand, find out more here: https://michellebrandanimation.com/madhero-animation-bts
and on the website: madherodocumentary.co.uk
Watch the full film below (password- madhero)
Inspired by the odd sock in your sock draw, Tumble is a dark comedy about two star crossed socks getting separated in the wash.
Shot often from the socks’ perspective, the ambition is to create a cinematic mini-epic about the most everyday story. Thankfully, to help us bring it to life, we have Martinique music legend Jean Claude Madhero serenading our love story.
A distribution deal has now been done for the film with Gonella Films. For more information on Tumble go to thatsockfilm.com
I wrote the Greenlight District and collaborated with director Alvaro Ramirez to produce the film. Inspired by dozens of true stories from sex workers living in Bristol, I crafted them into a single story that shows there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
The film featured on the BBC news.
TV series Logline:
Daniel was a 9-to-5 shell of a man until he became a human statue. But, his family doesn’t know about his secret life yet.
Synopsis:
Daniel is trying to become more human by turning himself into a statue. 12 years married and a father to a ten year old boy, he’s still trying to find his feet in the world when most people think they’ve settled down or at least settled. Well, he stopped settling. After working 20 years in a bank branch and the same old same old, Daniel pressed the eject seat to do something completely different.
The fact his life is now up in the air is reflected by his ‘windman’ human statue character. Performing in his suit, he seems like a normal London worker except, with his tie aloft in the air, he looks like he is caught up in a hurricane. He’s still learning the ropes. He sneezes when it's sunny. He doesn’t know how to handle hecklers. But, day by day he grows in confidence, amongst a community of other living statues. Eventually, he doesn’t want to just make up the numbers but be the best too in what turns out to be a very competitive world. Thankfully, he has a guardian angel on his journey: Jim, a veteran of 60 years on the living statue circuit, takes him under his wing.
Keeping up his secret life, unknown to his wife Kate and son John, is another challenge in an already troubled marriage. At the end of the first episode, John skives off school following a big argument between Kate and Daniel. Disaster strikes when John spots his Dad performing along the South Bank. They almost both become human statues, as they freeze, not knowing what their next move should be. Throughout the series, their secret actually brings them closer together.
The Logline:
Having lost his job to automation 30 years earlier, a former truck driver in his twilight years tries to take down a super tech company that has created an algorithm that controls everything. But, he has to get past his daughter, CFO of the company first.
Contact me (willgrave@gmail.com) for the full script.
Logline:
Irresistible to women, an average looking fat guy from Berlin has a super-power. He’s the voice of Leonardo Di Caprio in Germany. But, will he ever become his own man or forever be stuck in Hollywood’s greatest star’s shadow?
Logline:
A rollercoaster tester has lost her passion for life and her job, until an accident changes everything.
