About Matthew Cooper Director

Matthew Cooper began making short films on super 8mm cine film and VHS video, long before the days of the internet and when TV in the UK consisted of only four channels.

At age 18 Matthew won a nationwide UK scriptwriting competition run by Channel Four. His film debut as a script writer ‘Family Style‘ was broadcast on Channel Four to rave reviews. The film starred Ewan McGregor.

This led Matthew to a successful career as a scriptwriter and script consultant working for the BBC, ITV and Channel Four. He was a core member of the writing team on shows like EastEnders, Emmerdale and Hollyoaks and picked up a few awards along the way.

In 2019 Matthew began shooting Markham, his feature debut as a director.
Markham, inspired by the work of HP Lovecraft is a rubber reality horror feature film was shot, guerrilla style over a number of months on a small budget. Matthew retained control over all aspects of the shoot and both pre and post-production.

Matthew used innovative techniques when working with actors, with many scenes improvised and performers purposely wrong footed within scenes, this created credible reactions and genuine scares. Actors benefitted from being given free reign to build their character and assist with the overall mise-en-scene, reacting naturally to the horror story as it unfolded.

Markham was produced through Warehouse Transmedia, Matthew’s own low budget film and video facility – Warehouse Transmedia built the special effects for Markham, as well as having the chroma key studios, stop motion animation facility, and all the equipment required to shoot a feature film. From HD DLSRs, dedicated HD video cameras, as well as high spec edit and post-production suite. Much of Markham was also shot on super 8mm, again the analogue film equipment was also provided by Warehouse Transmedia.

At The Mountains of Madness

Since the completion of Markham (and during the Covid Pandemic) Matthew has written, directed and released two other horror films based on the works of HP Lovecraft – these films are At The Mountains of Madness and When The Earth Gives Up The Dead. These films were released as a trilogy for free on YouTube in 2022 and have proved successful – especially At The Mountains of Madness – which is based on a story that defeated both James Cameron and Guillermo del Torro.

Once the first low budget Lovecraft trilogy was completed – Matthew wrote and directed a bigger budget Lovecraft horror – The Shadow Over Innsmouth – which is currently in post-production and will be released in 2024.

Sober

And in 2023 Matthew took a change of direction when he co-wrote and directed a very funny comedy feature called Sober.

Sober stars Dean Smith (Waterloo Road, Last Tango In Halifax) and Tom Gibbons (Funny Cow). The film is currently in post production and will make a big splash in 2024.

Sober was a project that has been close to Matthew’s heart for many years. You can read more about Sober on this film’s dedicated website.

After the successful completion of Sober, Matthew is now focussed on further low-budget, guerrilla shoots, in which he will write, direct and control retain control of all aspects of production, distribution and marketing, by keeping budgets low and creativity high.

Virtual Production Director

Matthew is also currently studying Virtual Production and Unreal Engine , to help him to keep pushing the envelope on low budget film shoots.

Influences

As a director, Matthew admires Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorsese, William Friedkin, Sam Peckinpah and adores vintage era John Carpenter and Walter Hill.

He runs hard working, efficient, collaborate and friendly but professional sets. He works well with actors and pushes all crew members to deliver their best work, and get maximum on screen bang for the buck.

As well as his own feature films, Matthew is also available as a director for hire, for brands and marketing agencies.

If you’d like to contact Matthew for work, you can get in touch with him directly on; matcoop23@yahoo.co.uk