Echoes of the Fallen will take over the Lenton cinema this week. We chat to The Actors Workshop's Clare McGill all about it...
Echoes of the Fallen is a short action film shot in two days as part of screen school, a training facility for emerging actors wishing to hone their craft for TV and film. Screen school is part of The Actors Workshop Nottingham & Online. It was co-produced with the awesome team at besq, Chris Wetton from besq is also responsible for the film's amazing cinematography.
The year is 2066. What remains of the old kingdom is now a battleground with different factions fighting for control. Two prominent groups, the Haig’s guardian and the Migos, are locked in a fierce conflict. With the Migos leader held captive and under suspicions of treasonous counter-dealings rife, any thoughts of peace are quickly ebbing away.
Audiences can expect to see two post-apocalyptic vigilante groups going to war with one another. The head of one of the groups is a witch called Eden who is rumoured to have healing hands and the power to bring people back from the dead. There are lots of exchanges of gun-fire and action-packed scenes that are guaranteed to keep you on the edge of your seats!
Shooting the film was an incredible experience. We had rehearsals with the director/producer Tim Bryn Smith and gun handling training with weapons expert Chris Chambers from Monday to Wednesday, which included how to hold and load and even walk with the guns, and we also learned terminology such as how to ‘pie off’ when entering a threshold from round a corner.
I love the Savoy cinema, it has a very familiar and comfortable vibe and reminds me of cinemas I used to visit as a child and teenager, which is one of the many reasons we chose to hold the premiere there
Very excited indeed! I love the Savoy cinema, it has a very familiar and comfortable vibe and reminds me of cinemas I used to visit as a child and teenager, which is one of the many reasons we chose to hold the premiere there. We found the atmosphere there very intimate and personable. And, as you so eloquently put it, it is an iconic venue local to us here in Nottingham.
For those who don't know, what is The Actors Workshop and why should people get involved?
The Actors Workshop Nottingham is a community set up by Tim in 2010 and it’s where actors over the age of 18 in and around Nottingham can attend classes to practise their craft on a weekly basis. Tim runs classes in person on Mondays and Tuesdays 6-8pm or 8-10pm, or online on a Wednesday evening 7-9pm.
Tim also runs other more specific workshops and courses sporadically. I’ve recently attended a couple of workshops on PEM technique and another on voiceovers where we created a voiceover reel. We’ve recently done an abridged sharing of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
There’s a weekend screen school coming up soon, where people can brush up on their line learning and acting skills and receive a showreel to send to agents and casting directors at the end of it.
If anyone has been considering acting as a career or even just as a hobby, I couldn’t recommend The Actors Workshop Nottingham enough
Some of our members are participating in a monologue jam at 7pm on Thursday 1 December at Antenna, which we are currently preparing in class. We have a special guest speaker coming to talk to us about getting cast in a soap opera in the new year.
And Echoes of the Fallen will be available to watch on YouTube shortly, in the days after the premiere next week! Some scenes written for screen school, by our fabulous writer in residence Sara Bodinarand and founder Tim, have just been published. It’s the third book of its kind to come out of The Actors Workshop, it’s called 101 Scenes for Showreels and is available online.
There are also some rumours flying around that there may be a feature length film in the pipeline at some point in the near future, but who knows... Watch this space!
If anyone has been considering acting as a career or even just as a hobby, I couldn’t recommend The Actors Workshop Nottingham enough. It took me around five years to pluck up the courage to walk through those classroom doors, but since I started nearly three years ago, I’ve never looked back. Stepping out of my comfort zone is the best thing I’ve ever done. And the community is incredibly kind and supportive. I’ve made friendships that I know will last a lifetime. So if you’re creatively inclined, why not give it a go?!
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