One gallon of fake blood has helped a graduate filmmaker win scores of awards and nominations from international film festivals for his debut short movie.
William Oates, from Union Mills has so far received more than 44 nominations and 13 different awards for his short film ’The Performing Chef’, which was produced on the Isle of Man last year.
The short horror-influenced film depicts a graphic and gruesome meal created by a bitter and frustrated chef and eaten by gluttonous diners who end up drenched in gore.
The film has been called a ’masterclass in foreboding tension’ and has, to date been handed 44 official selections, nominations and awards across film festivals from New York, Los Angeles to Amsterdam and India.
At the time of writing, the film has picked up 13 awards from a multitude of categories, most notably ’Best SFX’, ’Best Horror’,’Best Gore’, ’Most Disturbing’ and ’Best Poster Design’.
With help from special effects company SynysterFX, Will liberally applied litres of fake blood and used unflinching close-up shots to create a stylish and effective, visceral film which, in the finest traditions of the horror film genre, contains many hidden messages behind the splattered gore.
The former St Ninian’s student takes influence from his favourite film makers Quentin Tarantino and Danny Boyle and cites classic films such as ’28 days later’ to ’The Thing’ as his favourites of his preferred genre.
However, despite the graphic nature of his film, William said that he did not intend to make a horror film at first.
’"The Performing Chef" was never intended as a true horror in my eyes,’ said Will.
’It was more an exercise in how much I could do and show. It’s a very quiet atmospheric film with well placed practical effects.
’I felt by bringing a heavy element of body horror and graphic imagery, it might help visualise the impact not speaking verbally can have.
’Bottling thoughts up, allowing them to grow into something bigger and more poisonous is all too easy, and what is a clear sign to one person may not be to another.
’It’s important to talk to people and I hope the film conveys this.’
A former art student from the University College Isle of Man, William studied visual communication and Illustration at Loughborough University. The success of the short film has taken William aback slightly, given that he had never considered himself as a film maker, and that he had never set foot on a film set until he began work on his own production.
’I had never walked on to a film set until the first day of shooting my own short,’ said William. ’This was very much the make or break moment for me and it was one of the few times in my life where it was exactly how I imagined it would be.
’From that point on I knew for a fact that this is all I want to do for the rest of my life.
’I’m very thankful that we had somewhere like the Isle of Man to shoot,’ he added.
’It would have been extremely difficult logistically. The practicality of already knowing so many talented people locally really helped see me over the line.
’The UK has ground to a halt with a lot of its film making capabilities yet the island is free to continue as normal which is a huge advantage that every local filmmaker should be taking.
’An overlooked aspect of why the island is a great spot for filmmaking is location, or more specifically how close everyone is to one another.
’It’s so easy to set up meetings as no one is more than half an hour away.
’I look forward to making more shorts in the island and working with other skilled filmmakers in the future.’
by Mike Wade
Twitter:@iomnewspapers