AN ASPIRING Pershore filmmaker is set to pay tribute to war veterans by creating his very own Second World War project.
Calum Rhys, who grew up in the town, will head back to his roots to record part of his short film ‘Our Father’, which follows the life of a private in the British army in the war-torn landscape of France in 1944.
The 20-year-old, who studied Product Design at the University of York, dreamed up the idea early last year, but didn’t begin the full pre-production until January.
Croome Court, Hanbury Woods in Bromsgrove and areas of Malvern will be doubling for Normandy as the locations in the film.
“Since I made my first ever film, I always said to myself that one day I want to pursue a project revolving around the Second
World War.” he told the Observer.
“During the war my Grandad created a journal, which is full of photos and mementos he had collected during his tour in Italy.
“The visual impact of the journal really inspired me further to push this project forward.
“I had previously studied film in sixth form, but decided to take another route and attempt to look at a different style of creative media.
“However during my course I still worked a lot on films and since I finished university a month ago, I’ve just continued to do so, hoping to make it my career.”
Calum, who has made between 25 and 30 short films since the age of 11, has also launched a fund-raising campaign called IndieGoGo, as well as supporting Droitwich-based charity Spectrum Days with his project.
“This community supports those with learning disabilities and as of now they are quite a small and up-and-coming charity.” he added.
“So I decided 50 per cent of our profits made through distribution and theatrical release will go to them, which we hope will help them out a lot.
“We launched the IndieGoGo funding campaign two weeks ago, we weren’t really expecting much to begin with but we’ve nearly raised £1,000 with still three weeks to go.
“We’re pretty happy with that and are near enough ready to make a start on the film, however we are aiming to push it further so we can afford to build sets, possibly buy pyrotechnics and more equipment.”
Anyone who wants to help Calum’s cause can visit www.indiegogo.com/projects/our-father-world-war-ii-film/ to make a donation or for more information.
He hopes the premiere of ‘Our Father’ will take place in January or February 2015 at the Odeon on Foregate Street in Worcester.
Our Father poster, designed by Balazs Pakozdi. (s)
