Luke Andrews is a BAFTA Cymru-nominated, broadcast-credited director, who has been actively screenwriting and short film-making since leaving school. Luke then went on to study Film and Video at the International Film School in Wales, obtaining a 2:1 honours degree in 2006.
Newport film-maker, Luke Andrews
My love of film
I’ve always had a love for film, having been brought up on horror films from an early age by my Mum, and then having my filmic horizons expanded by my Dad as I got older. I always had a fondness for storytelling, and was encouraged to write my own material so that when I grew up I could ‘become the next Stephen King’. My Dad used to pay me for every manuscript I completed, and if I ever won any short story competition in school my Mum would buy me a prize. So my creative side has always been encouraged.
It wasn’t until sixth form however, when I took Media Studies, that I discovered ‘filmmaking’ as opposed to just ‘film’. A screenwriting module introduced me to the art of screenwriting, and access to an iMac, basic iMovie software and a mini-DV camera enabled me to construct a short film for the first time. It was then that I decided that I was going to go to university to study film, as opposed to a more ‘academic’ degree, in the hopes of becoming the next Steven Spielberg instead of the next Stephen King!
Getting into film-making
I studied Film and Video at International Film School, Wales and graduated with a 2:1 degree in 2006. Between 2006 and 2009 I never really engaged myself in a lot of active film-making, instead choosing to work full-time and screenwrite as and when I could. But then I met some local filmmakers who were serious about independent short film-making, and got to experience making a film like I never had before. I first assistant directed on a short film with a full cast and crew, and shot at interesting, cinematic locations (unlike my uni shorts, most of which were invariably made with a crew of two or three and a single actor), thereby gaining my first ‘real’ film-making experience, which gave me the confidence and motivation to pursue my own film.
Generosity goes a long way
In 2009 a close I friend I had made in university had recently won the lottery, and generously gave me £5000 to finance a film, so having this sum of cash meant that I could be a bit more ambitious with my storytelling. I wrote and directed my first ‘proper’ short, WW2 thriller VIVE LA FRANCE, a film about a French child forced by the Nazis into a horrifying act of defiance. We shot the film in French and German, with a cast and crew of 40 people, so for a first time film-maker it was a real trial by fire. It eventually played at several festivals and got a lot of positive feedback from all around the world online, despite its rough and ready look and feel. You could tell that it was made by a first-time film-maker, but I think that the ambition and intent came across.
Ambitions
After that I decided on a personal remit of producing one short film per year until I achieved some sort of career in the industry. So in 2010 I used VIVE LA FRANCE as a showreel piece to apply for the annual It’s My Shout television training scheme. I was one of six directors chosen to direct a pre-selected screenplay. I was given EDNA’S BENCH, the story of a young boy who, in trying to deal with a personal tragedy, defaces a memorial bench erected by a grieving husband for his late wife. It was an experience that allowed me to make new friends and professional contacts, gained me valuable experience in shadowing editors and sound designers at BBC Wales and HTV Wales, and subsequently gained me a 2011 BAFTA Cymru nomination for Best Short Film.
In 2011 I wrote and directed zombie thriller FAMILY FIRST, and utilized many talented people I had met through It’s My Shout. A lengthy post-production process in 2012 didn’t see me publicly release it until this month, but during 2012 I established myself as a video editor, and have edited numerous short films and music videos (some to be generally released in the coming month or two).
So I’ve always been pretty active in short film-making outside of my day job, whether it be as a writer, director or editor, and hope to carry this momentum forward into 2013 on some even more ambitious projects.
Focus
After having directed EDNA’S BENCH, I wanted to return to the type of short film-making that was more cinematic. EDNA’S BENCH was specifically tailored for television, and wasn’t necessarily a story I would have written myself (although it did kind of conform with themes of broken families that seems to infuse most of my work). I wanted to do something that was equal parts ambitious and intimate. So I came up with the idea of a mother/son relationship put to the test by a zombie apocalypse.
Despite having a great love of the zombie genre, there’re actually very few zombie films I actually like, as most tend to focus on gratuitous gore with no real story and 2D characters who spend 90 minutes running away from the shuffling undead. I like character-driven stories, where you really get a sense of how such an apocalypse would affect the people trying to survive. I’m mostly drawn to stories that tell of people who lose loved ones to zombie outbreaks and have trouble trying to cope. There’s a zombie in DAY OF THE DEAD, ‘Bub’, who is groomed into retaining memories of whom he was as a human, and it was this retained humanity that I wanted to inject into the FAMILY FIRST story. I wanted to explore zombies as monsters who were once people, as opposed to just mindless corpses. Hence, in my film, it’s all about families being broken apart and coming back together again (whether alive or undead) through the memories they retain.
FAMILY FIRST sees civilization being ravaged by an undead apocalypse. Fleeing to the country, a son is asked by his mortally wounded mother to do the unthinkable, but his hesitation proves costly. Now, aimlessly adrift in a rural landscape, the boy is unaware that a scenic lookout point will play host to multiple family reunions, in this life or the next…
I think the crux of the film is about a boy who tries to run away from the notion of death, but is forced into accepting it against his will, thereby losing his innocence and coming of age all at the same time. I’ve always maintained and been fascinated by the idea that a young person takes a first step into adulthood when they acquire an understanding of death. STAND BY ME is one of my favourite films and is a great example of this. In FAMILY FIRST, the boy is a childish character being asked to take on the burden of adult responsibility, and to make a choice that no child should have to make when staring death in the face. For me, it’s about a boy who isn’t ready to become an adult, but by being forced into it is corrupted in the process.
Cardiff’s thriving film industry
Living in Newport, where the film-making scene isn’t quite as prominent, it’s always a pleasure to go to Cardiff to be a part of the film-making community that thrives there. I’ve been lucky enough over the years to make some really good film contacts through attending networking events, screenings such as the brilliant Chapter Moviemaker, and film festivals. These people have been able to bring the knowledge of their chosen field of film-making into the short films that I have produced, and I’ve been able to learn from working with them, and make lasting friendships in the process. Cardiff seems to be a central hub for the South Wales film-making scene, and I think things such as Cardiff Film Festival and Chapter Moviemaker are great platforms to rekindle older working relationships and building new ones alike. The fact that there’s always stuff going on shows that the Cardiff scene is fit and healthy, and it’s always a pleasure to release a new film into the community and see how it goes down. I’ve kind of locked myself away in 2012, in focusing on video editing, so I’m looking forward this year to reentering the Cardiff film-making community, and the release of this short film is a good way to do that. Most film-making events in Cardiff are fantastic ways of promoting independently produced films, as the scene is so thriving and varied, and is a draw not just for South Wales, but for the film-making communities beyond. A central hub with a great culture, it’s the perfect place to push your film.
Goals and ambitions
My goal for the future would be to make a living of making films. Whether it be as a screenwriter (my number one passion), director or editor, I’d like to continue at short films until I have the confidence to branch into features.
As far as 2013 is concerned, I’d like to be able to gain more editing experience on narrative short films, and I’d also like to make another of my own.
Another short of mine that deals with coming of age through an understanding of death, A GOOD GERMAN tells the story of two young brothers living in rural southern England of the 1940s. Viewing the war as an exciting time to be alive, and the nightly bombing of distant London as some great fireworks display that lights up the night sky, the boys embrace an adventure when a stray German scout plane is shot down over the woodland near their village. Upon finding the mortally wounded pilot, and learning through their encounter with him that he isn’t the evil monster that propaganda has made the typical German soldier out to be, their childish views on life are thrown into turmoil when the solder dies in front of them.
It’s quite an ambitious short which I will somehow be looking to acquire financing for, and I hope to make it sometime in late summer/early autumn. SO watch this space!
View Luke’s Vimeo page to keep up to date with his upcoming work
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