Sometimes the mind will set you free itself...

Screening date October 10th @3pm. 

Tricycle cinema, London. 

Tickets £7.50 (single), £18.00 (festival pass)

"when you first sent me the link to watch Worship I had a look at the synopses and I immediately thought oh god not another film about dreams.. then I watched it.. this film HAS to be in the F$#€ing festival, I don't care what anyone else thinks!" 

-- London Lift-Off submissions judge.

We dare you to not feel transported by this film...

Please tell us a little bit about where the idea of making the film came from, and why you felt that it was a story that had to be told?

The film was inspired by a book my father had been writing for most of his life called a Century of Insight. He finished it on his death bed and the last words of the book, and film, were the last words he ever said. Upon reading I found it was full of so many profound ideas that not only was it perfect for a film, it was important to get his message out there.

Roles within Calum's fathers life are taken on by characters from other worlds.

It is a very inspirational film, in it we only see the images of the dream rather than the descriptions, does the original chapter from your fathers book have the descriptions? 

Yes the book has the specifics of his psychological situation at the time and how that was expressed in dreams. He used his own experiences to tell the history of psychiatry and the unconscious mind in a more understandable way which adds an emotional depth to it all.

And if so was there any elements that were impossible to film? 

Yes there were a few ideas that would have been hard to film in an interesting way. For example at the end of the film when he looks up at a the never ending council estate, - in the book it was actually a staircase he found in an estate. In the dream that staircase symbolised him finding a god of his own in the most mundane place he could think of it. Of course in the film I needed to show that mundane image transforming into something powerfully spiritual, hence the never ending council estate. I did that using after effects and photoshop but would have need a 3D package to do the same with stairs.

Where was the film shot?

The film was shot in my mate's pub cellar, my mums bedroom (both in Clapham), and Epping forest 

What was the total budget of the piece?

The funding I had was £500 from my agent at Great Guns and then I put in around a grand. Of course that's very different to the production value budget, I had so many friends working for free and favours from people in the industry, the film would come to about £400,000 to make commercially

Has it been screened anywhere else, what has been the general feedback?

Yes we hit the festival circuit about 9 months and have won half the festivals we've been in which was fantastic. some of the festivals we've won were LA and Hollywood so its great to see americans appreciating this rather personal, british art-house film.

Did you encounter any problems?

Yes the main problem was due to the lack of budget. Because I was asking favours of everyone to get the thing made, it meant having to work around other people schedules and having to smile politely when people pulled out of a shoot last minute.

What would you have done differently?

I would like to have spent more time writing the script before shooting. we shot it pretty early and then spent 6 months in offline still writing the film which was a bit ridiculous... Luckily the editor Nathan Perry-Green had the patience of a saint.

Do you have any advise for aspiring film directors?

My main advice is to get out there and do something rather than talking about it. The other is to be realistic and write something you can actually make, allot of people say 'I want this to be the best film you've ever seen' and blow all their cash on 35mm stock or won't settle for less than a feature. Unless you've got a spare 5 million and are a genius this will end in a mess. Keep it simple and achievable as you will always underestimate just how much work making a film is.

Worship is part of the official selection for London Lift-Off FIlm Festival running 10th-12th October 2011 at the Tricycle Cinema in North West London. Click here for tickets,  or call the box office now on 020 7328 1000.

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