Let's rewind 32 years:

Paula Morris, a 16 year old school girl, writes a play and enters it into a young writer's competition. And would you look at that, she wins. She is fortunate enough to have her play performed at the Oldham Coliseum Theatre and due to the show's popularity, other venues after that.

The name of the production?
Last Summer.
And who is one of the two cast members?
My mum.

Paula's play had a minimalistic set which consisted of only a park bench. The piece also only had two characters. I carried these factors forward to my script.

Zooming up to 2016, my mum tells me about this play and that's it. I'm hooked. My brain is whizzing, and soon enough I have the perfect idea for the final shot of the film. That's it. I'm getting straight to work:

I then spend three days at the Oldham Archive centre, searching for every scrap of information on Paula and Last Summer...Nothing. So I contact local newspapers...Nothing. So I contact 26 Paula Morris profiles on Facebook...Nothing.

After three months of trying to track her down, I arrive at the conclusion Paula has vanished, taking her script with her.

So what do I do?
Crawl home, bury myself in blankets?
No! Dear Reader!
I set about writing my own version!

A few weeks later, at 3am, the script is finished. 
I cry.
I read it 1,000,000 times (to make sure it's both correct and real).

I cry again.
I send it to a few close friends.

And the pre-production begins.

I form a crew.
I start fundraising.
We do a recce of locations.

And right at the last minute, the funding falls through.

The team disperses. The shoot is put on standby.

Christmas comes and goes; it's now 2017.

I have kept my promise of trying again!

I have gathered the available original crew and gathered new members to join us.

I have learned where I can improve and I believe everything happens for a reason; it's a blessing in disguise that we are on our second go because things are going much better already!

If you remember the previous campaign, thank you for coming back and having faith in us. If you are new here, then thank you for expressing an interest in what we are trying to achieve...

Because we can't do it without you!

Finally, in June 2017, we successfully raise over £4,000 with the help of people like you.

We spend 6 days on set in and around Greater Manchester and then many many hours of post production, getting the director's cut ready for the screening.

The sponsors who attended are over the moon with the result, much to my endless appreciation, and word spreads about its success.

We then spend another year getting the shorter, festival edit absolutely perfect, and this dear reader, is the version on this website.
If you've watched it already and you're reading this post-viewing, I hope you were both impressed and moved by the film. 
If you're about to go in for your first viewing, then I welcome you to my debut in film making.

If you've come back for another go, then thank you once again, and let's see if you can spot everything you missed the first time around...

​

Amy JK xx