New trailer by budding film makers released for Charlie Higson’s The Fallen
Trailer created by winners of unique film making competition
with Penguin Books and the BFI
A group of young film making enthusiasts have made the official trailer for Charlie Higson’s new thriller The Fallen, after winning a unique film making competition. The Fallen is the fifth book in cult thriller series The Enemy and is published by Penguin on Thursday 12 September.
Penguin Books teamed up with the British Film Institute as part of the BFI Gothic: The Dark Heart of Film blockbuster project, which runs until January 2014, to run a unique film making competition to make the official trailer for Higson’s new book. The competition launched in May and entries equates to hundreds of hours’ worth of blood, sweat and tears, from budding film-makers around the nation.
Author Charlie Higson judged the competition and announced the winner at an event at BFI Southbank, London, on Saturday 7 September. He said, ‘This was a really professionally made trailer, with particular attention paid to sound and music. It also captures the story and atmosphere of the series well and has some really powerful shots. It will be a great advertisement for The Fallen.’
The competition was open to all ages, in three different categories - under 16s, 16-24s and 25 year-olds and over. The best film from each category was chosen by Higson, before the overall winner was selected to become the official trailer for the book.
The winners are a group from the over 25s who made the film on a budget of £300. It took just over a week and was shot at Kingston University, where one of the group studies. They had two make-up artists on the team, which was led by 24 year-old James Lee from London.
He comments, ‘Two of us had worked on a short film a month earlier and were really motivated from that experience. We wanted to work on another film project from the ground up and see what we could do. It was a great experience but quite intense, as we came to the competition quite late. Coming up with the idea and script didn't take too long and I tried to write it in a way that would make it easy to create. After working on the project, I'm excited to get my hands on the books and dive into the world Charlie Higson has created. I would definitely do something like this again!’
The winning group is made up of twelve people including James Lee (24). The others are Saruta Puff Pisanwalerd (25), Poom Saiyavath (25), Carl Ward-Reid (25), Mui Vattanasiriporn (24), Luke Doolin (32), Leanne Alamiri (19), Claudette Fruchier (33), James Pickering (35), Emmett Glynn (22), Maxwell Sweeney (22) and Ed Matthews (30).
In addition to the main prize, the group will also have the chance to meet with industry specialists at the BFI Film Fund. Each of the category winners gets £350 vouchers for film making equipment, BFI Membership and signed copies of The Enemy series. In addition, the winners of the 16-24 category, win a mentoring experience with IdeasTap.
The category winners:
A group of twelve children who made their trailer during a BFI Future Film DIY film-making workshop in August, won the under 16s category. They include Ava Bogdanovic, Luc Dellaway (10), Joe Walker (11), Jamie Moreland (13), Jack Moreland (10), James Rantell (12), Izabelle Chappell (13), Victor Jack (14), Grace and Beth Volante(13), Bill MacKillop (11) and Fred MacKillop (9).
Charlie said: ‘The trailer really encapsulates what kids love about zombies and the fun they must have had making these films. It was great to see so many trailers with all members of the family getting involved and I think the kids making them must have had a blast being chased around by zombie adults. This trailer also had the added detail of the two little boys remembering how things used to be. The shots of them are really strong and make this video stand out.’
Joe Walker said: ‘I love the books because of the action, suspense and fun. I also liked the children being in control. Making the trailer was a fantastic experience and overall just a brilliant day. We were so lucky to have professional directors helping us. We learnt so much about filming and make up. I really hope we do get to meet Charlie Higson, he is so Epic that would definitely be the icing on the cake!’
The winning film was created by a group led by Samuel de Ceccatty, a 23 year-old French-American living in London. He worked with animator Caroline Landry (22), composer Gaston Ardisson (17) and producer Manon Ardisson (24).
Charlie comments, ‘This was a really strong category with a huge number of entries, so it was very hard to pick an overall winner, but I loved how original and spooky this trailer was – so different to all the others. The clever use of animation and the ghostly figures of the children are very effective and this trailer really sticks in the mind.’
Samuel de Ceccatty said: ‘I entered the competition because it combined the two industries I'm interested in: my ambition is to become a film director but I work as a book cover artist. I'm also really interested in zombies. The experience was creative and intense! I worked with illustrator Caroline Landry non-stop for two weeks. She designed and animated the characters in photoshop and then I integrated them in photographs I took around London. I graded the whole film to give it a zombie-like feel. It was great working with Edward Newgate on the music! He sent me some initial suggestions and then we spent a day tailoring the soundtrack to the trailer.’
