Over the past years, the Salford Star has covered all sorts of strange and weird films produced by Mat Johns and Chris Lane – everything from a Gangnam style music video shot guerrilla style around Media City (see here), to a movie made in the toilet of the old Colgate factory in Ordsall (see here) to a mini wild west adventure in a back garden (see here).
Now the duo has produced a massive six films, all released at once, and five of them need votes in national competitions to help promote a further film, Radio Silence, which has at its core, the small subject of the end of the world.
Here's the films and here's the competitions…
FOUR4 FILM COMP…
Four of Mat and Chris's horror films have been shortlisted for the Four4 short film competition, run by River Film, in which movie makers had to scare the pants off the judges in only four shots totalling 16 seconds.
The prize of £1000 goes to the film with most votes via Twitter. All you have to do is watch the four films, if you dare, and click the vote button, if you have a Twitter account.
The four films are…
Going Out by Chris Lane
Last Person by Mat Johns
Smile by Mat Johns
Moving In by Mat Johns
As each film is only 16 seconds we won't even begin to say what they are about, apart from being rather chilling…
"We're both delighted that all four of our entries made the shortlist" says Mat Johns "It's surprisingly hard to create something genuinely scary in just 16 seconds but the response that we've had online has been terrific. All four films are very different, there's a poltergeist in one and then several zombies in another. Everybody seems to have their own favourite too, which is a good thing."
You can view all four of them and vote via Chris Lane's blog site – click here or you can see these and all the other films on the official Four4 site – click here. Voting closes on August 5th, so hurry, hurry hurry!
The producers are asking for people to vote for Moving In as their main entry but you can vote for any of the films or all of them.
Mat and Chris want to win the £1,000 prize so they can pay £50 each to the cast of their new film, Radio Silence, and promote it to worldwide festivals…
RADIO SILENCE
Directed by Mat and produced by Chris, Radio Silence is about the end of the world – shot, naturally, in Salford. Where else would the world choose to end? It stars up and coming actress, Tracey Sheals and features a cameo by Neil Bell (Dead Man's Shoes, 24 Hour Party People.
"Radio Silence is the most ambitious project that Mat and I have made together" says Chris "The reason we entered the Four4 competition was in the hope of raising money for Radio Silence so that we could, in turn, get the film worldwide exposure. It isn't cheap to submit the film to film festivals…"
You can see a trailer for Radio Silence by clicking here
WHEN I'M SIXTY FOUR
This is a charming little short film, shot on Duchy Estate featuring a young lad (Leo Fernandez-Arias), an old man (John Dutton) and a mobility scooter trundling, or not, around the streets as the kids look on.
When I'm Sixty Four has been entered into the Virgin Media Shorts competition and you can see the film either on Chris Lane's blogsite (click here) or the Virgin Media Shorts website (click here).
To vote for When I'm Sixty Four either click on the Twitter 'share' option found underneath the film on the Virgin Shorts website or by pasting the following text into a tweet…
I've just voted for When I'm Sixty-Four http://www.virginmediashorts.co.uk/film/5234/when-i-m-sixty-four (via @VMShorts) #VMShortsVote
There you go – six films – and five need your Twitter votes
Main photo by Kenneth James shows When I'm Sixty Four shoot in Duchy
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