Short Film Collection
A Filmmaker's Journal
It occurred to me that my short films are scattered about the internet, so I thought I’d collect them all together. The ones that are currently available, anyway.
I probably need to get an actual website sorted, but I never seem to get around to it. I will one day, but until then, I’ll collect a few odds and sods up here.
(serious director shot)
Here’s a short I made before A Reckoning (2011)—
This is The Caller from 2002. It was an early attempt at a Twilight Zone-style tale. It’s pretty crude and clumsy, but I have happy memories of making it in that long-ago summer.
Shot in Nottingham, Derby, and Belper, where I was living at the time.
Next, I made a short called Primordial Entertainment in 2005. A satire I wrote and co-directed with Jon Walmsley in 2005. Jon also shot and edited The Caller. It was on YouTube for years, but I can’t find it anymore. It might have been taken down for whatever reason. I may have it on an old hard drive somewhere, but if not, I guess it’s a lost film. Shame, because I think it was pretty funny. I appeared in it, speaking with a dodgy American accent. Dena Smiles did a far better accent. She was great. Wish I’d worked with her again. She was in a lot of Shane Meadows’ early work.
Neither of these early ones are listed on IMDb.
Now we jump 13 years to 2018. All of the following shorts are post-A Reckoning. I walked away from filmmaking for several years to focus on writing novels, but was finally pulled back into the madness of making films when I couldn’t ignore the impulse to Go Make any more.
My return to filmmaking. I figured I’d have to start out by making the simplest thing I could think of, and so I wrote a two-hander about two old blokes talking bollocks in a pub. Write what you know, right?
Shot at The Queen’s Head up in Henor, Derbyshire. The crew was just me and Mick Walker, and my cast of two - Mark Tunstall (who I’ve known since I was a cameraman at a low-grade and short-lived shopping channel called Pricebusters - made in Nottingham in 2006, and where I met my wife!) and Phil Molloy. Both appear in my latest feature film, The House on Lidderman Street.
Maria Pike also has a cameo. She’s famous for being the ‘silent nurse’ in BBC Doctors.
I have a real soft spot for this film. Totally inspired (ripped off) by Roddy Doyle’s Two Pints.
The little film that could. I shot Shining Tor after work one night when I was in the Art Department on BBC Doctors - which is how I got Laura Rollins and Ashley Rice, who were both on the show at that time. I just asked nicely. Luckily, they liked the script and were up for making stuff. I shot the Barbarian stuff (with Ash Price) on a separate day.
This film played all around the world and won several awards, including a Best Actress award for Laura and Best Special Effects for Mick Walker. I like how neat this story is.
Laura Rollins has worked with me again on both The Wilding and The House on Lidderman Street. I like the idea of having a stock company of actors.
After this, I wrote a script called One Nine Two (2019) for producer Karlvyn Dove and its director (and my regular collaborator), Ashley Price. However, aside from a few screenings at a couple of festivals, Ash has never released it. It’s a shame because I think it’s a nice little short. It starred Matthew Chambers from BBC Doctors.
An early attempt at a story about Artificial Intelligence. I wrote this script and passed it on to my friend Rishi Thaker (Director of Slaughter is the Best Medicine), and he went full force into making it. It’s had 16,000 views on YouTube. I wish I’d given the script another draft or two, though.
HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO PAY? (2022)
After Shining Tor, I didn’t direct anything again for four years, so this was an attempt to get back in the ring (yet again). I reconnected with an old friend, Edward Wolstenholme, who had become quite a force to be reckoned with on both stage and screen, and shot this on the roof of my extension over one evening. It’s based on the years when I had debt collectors calling me on a regular basis. It wasn’t nice.
I got to work with another BBC Doctors alumnus on this next short. The brilliant Ian Midlane. I wrote this with my regular writing partner, Matthew Waldram. We have written several feature scripts together. I really liked this one when I was making it, but I’m not so sure now, although I love all the performances.
It probably lost out on being accepted into a lot of festivals because of all the swearing. Naughty Ian!
Perhaps my most accomplished short film as a director. Maybe because I was solely a director on it. This one was written by the screenwriting legend that is Stephen Volk. I utterly love both performances in this film. I’ve worked with both Jason Adam and Andre Pierre again (Jason is the lead in The House on Lidderman Street) and I hope to continue to do so. (Andre has a role in The Wilding and the upcoming Improper Bastards, which shoots next year).
I also love the look and feel of this film. Thank you to my DOP, Tom Williams.
Up to the present, and Laura Living Backwards (2024) and The Unknown Refugee (2025) have yet to be released online.
Laura, I believe, is perhaps the best short film I’ve ever been involved in. It was directed by my wife, Kate Horlor, and was written by us both. It’s had quite a festival run and has won a stupid amount of awards. It’ll be released online soon.
It should be a series. Just sayin.
And finally, as a bonus, here’s a music video I directed for Trenton Green in 2024.
Cracking song, this.
This article comes at the perfect time! Love seeing creaters dig into their archives. That 'lost film' vibe is so real, it's like finding a bug in legacy code you wrote years ago.