Short Films, Big Questions

MarBelle co-founded the platform Directors Notes in 2006 as a way to make filmmaking more accessible by sharing useful knowledge on how to make films. Sixteen years later, Directors Notes has become the home for thousands of short films looking to premiere online, featuring filmmakers like Mark Jenkin, Rob Savage & Ben Wheatley. As a bit of recent news, DN has just partnered with BIFA’s The Do...

In this episode, we speak with actor Amit Shah, well known for his outstanding performances in TV, film, and theatre. Amit's TV credits include Happy Valley (for which he was nominated for the BAFTA Best Supporting Actor award), Crashing, Mr Bates vs the Post Office and The Witcher. His feature film work includes roles in The Infidel, Final Score, and The Courier. On stage, Amit has appeared i...

Philip Shelley is a script editor, producer, and the head of several screenwriting courses, including the Channel 4 Scriptwriting course. Philip began his career as a freelance script reader/consultant, working for numerous companies including the BBC, Granada TV, Thames TV, the First Film Foundation, Channel 4 Film, Paramount Pictures, and Paines Plough Theatre Company. He later transitioned to a...

Cinematographer Stuart Harris has shot over 4000 commercials, several feature films and loads of renowned Pink Floyd music videos with director Storm Thorgerson. Stuart now heads up the Directing Commercials course at the NFTS and co-heads its Cinematography course. He is an Honorary Full Member of the British Society of Cinematographers (only the third person to ever receive this!) Stuart started...

Grant is a writer and director with a passion for telling upbeat stories about disability and care.  His award-winning shorts have screened at BAFTA, BFI and festivals worldwide. He’s directed LGBTQ+ series ‘Flatshare’, web series #Reality, award-winning short ‘Emigrant’ and his latest film ‘Ecstasy’ is a heartfelt adventure about a disabled father and son’s attempt to buy drugs so the Dad can dan...

Charlotte Hamblin is a British actor, director and writer based in London. She trained at RADA on the Foundation Course and studied English, Drama with Education at Cambridge University. Charlotte's acting theatre credits include 'Strings' (Royal Court Upstairs) and 'Miss Julie' (Jermyn Street Theatre).  Her acting TV credits Includes 'The Alienist': Series 2 (Netflix),...

A departure from the norm for us here at Short Films, Big Questions… In this episode, filmmaker Sam Baron helps us workshop two of our short film ideas. He guides us through his process of breaking down an idea, interrogating character motivation, and examining what we can personally bring as filmmakers to the story. The approach Sam takes can be applied to all short films, as well as fiction gene...

Sam Baron is a writer, director and actor. In 2014, Sam won the coveted Academy's Nicholl Fellowship for his script, The Science of Love, kicking off an impressive career as a screenwriter. He’s written for TV shows including the BBC’s “Chloe” and Netflix’s “Lockwood & Co”, as well as developing his own originals with Sky Comedy, Netflix and the BBC. However, our main focal point in our co...

Gregg Chilingirian, also known by his stage name Gregg Chillin, is a writer, director and actor.  He recently directed and lead performed in the short film, George. It's achieved much success on the film festival circuit, with official selections at Bolton International Film Festival, Kerry International Film Festival and the Hollyshorts Festival .  A lot of what we discuss is specifically abo...

In this episode we have the pleasure of speaking to the co- founder of the prestigious London Short Film Festival, Phillip Ilson. Phillip co-founded LSFF with Kate Taylor in 2003 under its original moniker Halloween Short Film Festival, following ten years of running its predecessor The Halloween Society. Phillip is also a vastly experienced short film programmer. He’s currently the Short Film Pro...

In this episode we chat to Elena Muntoni. Elena is an incredibly talented and accomplished production designer. Some of her credits include the BAFTA nominated short film, ‘Standby,’ music promos for artists like Mumford and Sons, Arlo Parks and Dave, as well as commercials for brands like Yamaha, Samsung and Asics.  Recently, Elena was the production designer on the feature film, “Scrapper” the d...

In this episode we speak with Joe Beverley. Joe is one part of the commercial and narrative directorial duo, ‘That Jam’.  Joe talks us through his process working on big budget commercials which have allowed him and his directing partner, Sam, to explore genre and cement their unique style. They’ve made heist films for Cadburys, filmed car chases and flying cars as well as blown up entire film set...

In this episode we speak with film director, Richard Raymond. We focus on his journey from directing the feature film ‘Desert Dancer’ which starred Freida Pinto and was distributed by Relativity to directing the short film “Souls of Totality” - the only film ever to have been shot during a solar eclipse! ‘Souls’ won Best Short Film at Raindance in 2018, the Grand Jury prize at Hollyshorts, had a s...

For this episode, we had the pleasure of speaking to Alexander Jeremy. AJ is a filmmaker, actor and member of the comedy improv group, "Shoot from the Hip." He’s recently wrapped post production on a film called The Spaceman, starring none other than Woody Norman (C’mon C’mon, Poldark), Colin Farrell (Banshees of Inesherrin, The Lobster), and Amanda Abbington (Sherlock, Mr Selfridge). Our...

In this episode we speak with Academy Award winning film director, Chris Overton. Chris received the 'Best Live Action Short Film' Oscar for ‘The Silent Child,’ along with his wife, Rachel Shenton, who wrote the project.  Chris shares how he started life in the industry as an actor, performing in films directed by Joel Schumacher and Roman Polanski, and the current projects he's workin...

In this episode Will and Ieuan had the pleasure of speaking with Owain Astles; a neurodivergent director and 1st AD based in Bristol & London. Owain’s work focuses on social impact, participatory filmmaking and visual activism, and spans narrative, documentary and commercial. We talk about Owain's perspective on docu-dramas, his work as a first AD, his experience teaching prison inmates fi...

In this episode, we have a conversation with the visionary filmmaker that is Mark Jenkin. Mark Kermode referred to his debut feature film, Bait (2019) as a "genuine modern masterpiece, which establishes Jenkin as one of the most arresting and intriguing British film-makers of his generation.” The film premiered at Berlinale, and won him the BAFTA Award for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer...

In this episode we sit down with George Magner to speak about his journey as a filmmaker and his latest short film, 'Fall Better'. We go into all sorts of topics in this episode, from his decision to shoot on film to how George pitched his short film to charities in order to secure funding. He goes through the long pitching process and the hustle required of both him and his producers to b...

In this episode we speak to renowned casting director Andrea Clarke.  Prior to setting up her own company Andrea co- cast many acclaimed feature films, including Dog Soldiers, Keeping Mum and The Thief Lord, which starred a young George MacKay and Aaron Taylor Johnson.  As an associate casting director, she collaborated on the casting of blockbusters such as Hellboy, Blade II and Hidalgo. Since fo...

In this episode we had the pleasure of speaking with Riffy Ahmed, an award-winning Film Director, Writer, and Visual Artist based in London.  Riffy trained as a visual artist at Central Saint Martins, and graduated with a masters in Directing fiction at NFTS with a full scholarship from Channel 4. Riffy loves to tell stories about ‘unlikely heroes’ we don’t always see on the big screen at turning...

In this episode we interview the inspiring Amos Eretusi. Amos is the founder of The Kusp, an organisation that facilitates accessibility into the film and fashion industries for people from underrepresented backgrounds. They recently partnered with Somesuch and have been running some awesome talks with directors such as Oscar winning Aneil Karia.   It was fascinating to speak with Amos about his p...

Today on the podcast, we’re lucky enough to be in Hansel Rodrigues’ office to ask him all sorts of questions. Hansel has directed several short films to great acclaim, including Horseplay (Cannes Film Festival), and The Messenger (Norwich Film Festival). He’s just had a large, award winning production company come on board for his latest documentary project, ‘King Putt,’ the story of the current k...

In todays episode we speak to the incredibly talented Rose Baker! We cannot explain how excited we are about this one. We met Rose at Aesthetica Film Festival in York last year where Rose was screening her latest short film “Lesbian” which was commissioned by Random Acts and made in collaboration with the poet Lisa Luxx. It was also an official selection for the Iris Prize (world's biggest LGB...

Today’s episode is a fun one. Get ready for Wouter Verheul and all of his energy. Wouter is an amazing Director of Photography who worked with Will on a commercial back in December. Wouter has shot everything from music videos to documentaries, short films and commercials. He details his journey so far, from living and partying in Mexico to working his way up to being a successful cinematographer...

In today’s episode we speak to the super talented Alexandre Do. Alex has made some incredible short films. His latest short, Aniccam, premiered on Nowness, and was subsequently selected by the prestigious online outlets 1.4, Shots.net and Ibbo. We delve deep into his process and what it really takes to make a short film. He is very candid about his experiences so far and does not shy away from the...