Tag: horror

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The cinematographers who influenced me…

The best cinematographers are German, or were Dutch and worked in the new German cinema of the 70s.

As a freelance film director for hire, I think I’ve been influenced by cinematographers almost as much as I have been influenced by directors.

Certainly two cameraman had a very big impact on my visual style – these guys both started their careers in the new German cinema of the 70s and 80s and both guys finished their careers working in or around Hollywood.

Both guys have passed on now, but their work is still celebrated.  They are Robby Muller and Michael Ballhause.

Muller, to me, had a style so cinematic it taught me to see – his German films with Wim Wenders are famous for their imagery. But later in his career, his work with directors like Alex Cox, William Freidkin and Jim Jarmusch showed he could fit into American films, and see America like no other cameraman.

Ballhause started his career with Fassbinder in Germany, working fast, on low budgets with strong visual ideas, but he ended his career in the USA, and added amazing cinematic style and imagery to the worlds of Martin Scorsese – certainly Ballhause’s work on Goodfellas, and The Color of Money showcase some of the most stylistic camerawork from that era in American films.  

When I took on the camera work in my own low budget film debut as director Markham , the work of Ballhause and Muller was always on my mind.

Below are two videos celebrating these maestros…

Matthew Cooper has been a script writer for hire, UK Script editor  and UK script consultant for over 20 years. He’s written for most of the UK soaps, including writing award-winning episodes of Emmerdale, EastEnders, Hollyoaks and Family Affairs and has been BAFTA shortlisted and Royal Television Society nominated as a script writer. His UK script coverage service, Script reading service and script development service are highly sought after.

You can find some of his broadcast credits on the IMDb.

His directorial debut, the rubber reality horror thriller Markham was released in 2020. You can find out more about Matthew’s work as a director here.

You can contact Matthew directly to purchase his ebook The UK Soap Opera Script Writers Handbook.

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Matthew Cooper Director – Markham – buy the DVD

Matthew Cooper Director

My feature film debut as a director Markham  was released last week, sales have being going well – both on DVD (scroll down this page to buy the DVD) and on demand screenings on Vimeo

Now that the film is finished and released, I’m hungry to start work on my next project asap. I’ve already been working on some test SFX shots.

My next project will be another zero budget horror film (part of what I’m lazily referring to as the Covid Trilogy).

Also, in the last week, almost by coincidence I’ve had a few fairly nice jobs come in as a  script writer for hire and script consultant – scriptwriting pays my bills and helps to fund the low budget films I’m working on at the moment.

We haven’t as yet, done much PR for Markham.   But there’s some coverage in the pipeline hopefully, at the moment we’re testing the sales and fulfilment of the DVD, we’re literally learning about indie distribution as we go along. 

Hopefully, these lessons might pay dividends with the next film.

Keep checking back on this website, as we move into production on the next film I’m going to start a regular blog that actually follows the production, so people can see the process, the problems and some of the fun we have with making a low budget movie.

As well as being a freelance film director for hire, Matthew has also enjoyed a long career as a script writer for hire, and UK script consultant.  He’s written for most of the UK soaps, including writing award winning episodes of Emmerdale, EastEnders, Hollyoaks and Family Affairs and has been BAFTA shortlisted and Royal Television Society nominated as a script writer.

You can find some of his broadcast credits on the IMDb and you can get in touch with Matthew on matcoop23@yahoo.co.uk.

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Markham – available for pre-order on Vimeo now

My feature film debut as a director, the low budget horror Markham is now available for pre-order on Vimeo here.

Markham is a snip to buy on Vimeo at just £4.59

Markham will soon also be available to buy on DVD – so keep checking back.

It’s been a mad ride getting here. We started shooting Markham over 18 months ago with a tiny budget, no script, and only a vague idea of what the story was.

Through shear hard work the film developed through a complicated shooting process that required a lot of improvisation from all of the actors. A lot of material was shot, that we never used as we fine tuned the plot in the editing process.

Markham has been described as a film that deconstructs horror tropes and so far the film has had excellent feedback.  

Considering the low budget, and the process we went through, I’m fairly pleased with the end result, and myself and the same team are moving onto two new horror feature projects with very low budgets – call it the Covid Trilogy!

I’m also preparing another two feature films for me to direct, and we’re hoping to raise some funds for the other two.

Matthew Cooper has been a script writer for hire, UK Script editor  and UK script consultant for over 20 years. He’s written for most of the UK soaps, including writing award winning episodes of Emmerdale, EastEnders, Hollyoaks and Family Affairs and has been BAFTA shortlisted and Royal Television Society nominated as a script writer. His UK script coverage service, Script reading service and script development service are highly sought after.

You can find some of his broadcast credits on the IMDb.

You can contact Matthew directly to purchase his ebook The UK Soap Opera Script Writers Handbook.

His directorial debut, the rubber reality horror thriller Markham will be released in 2020. You can find out more about Matthew’s work as a director here.

You can get in touch with Matthew on matcoop23@yahoo.co.uk.

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Markham – locked and ready for release

As well as being a script writer for hire, UK Script editor  and UK script consultant for over 20 years, it now appears that I’m in the feature motion picture business, as my debut as a director – the horror film Markham is now locked, finished and set for release at the end of August.  It’s been quite a journey.

Markham is an experimental, rubber reality horror feature that was shot for a zero budget, and used improvisation in nearly every scene.

As well as being the director, and DOP, I also act in the film under the name Thomas Cody, I did this because of the way the film was shot, and the lack of budget.  It meant that the actor ‘Thomas’ was always available when Matthew Cooper the director was… It helps with scheduling!

As an actor, I try to do as little as possible and be as naturalistic as I can. I’ve been around and worked with some great actors in my career as a script writer for hire, so I picked up a few things from people like Ewan McGregor, Brian Bovell, Dean Smith, Tom Gibbons and writing for some soap actors like Dominic Brunt (in Emmerdale, he’s an amazing actor and very underrated) has taught me the odd thing about acting and performance.   So, I can get by as actor, but what people don’t recognise is that acting can be, physically and mentally exhausting.

So, the strain of acting, coupled with being THE DIRECTOR of the film is double whammy.  I also, don’t particularly enjoy being in front of the camera, which I was a lot in Markham.  I like to be behind the lens to check the shots (and often make last minute adjustments).  And again, to save money I also acted as the director of photography (DOP) so that’s three roles I was often doing in each shot. All three require terrific concentration.  It was miles tougher than I expected or even considered.

The film, so far has had good feedback and a warm response, especially from fans of the horror genre.  My performance even got a few mentions, but gladly I’m dwarfed by the pro actors we used such as Ashe Russell, Tony Coughlan, Dan Martin and Gareth Parry.  All these guys knew what they were doing (thank god).

I won’t be in a rush to act again, but it’s always useful to know that while I’m not comfortable in front of the camera, I can serve up some prime ham if needed.  

As well as being a freelance film director for hire, Matthew has also enjoyed a long career as a script writer for hire he’s written for most of the UK soaps, including writing award winning episodes of Emmerdale, EastEnders, Hollyoaks and Family Affairs and has been BAFTA shortlisted and Royal Television Society nominated as a script writer.

You can find some of his broadcast credits on the IMDb You can find out more about Matthew’s work as a director here.

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Markham – notes on making a zero budget horror film

My feature debut as a director Markham is all but finished as of today.  It’s been around two years in the making.  With no budget and no script Markham has been an experiment to see if we could actually pull of a film of any worth, starting from scratch.

Well we did. Markham is a tight, arty, experimental little horror film, with a cool look, cool music, some very good acting and some great locations. 

It’s Grindhouse in a way as well, parts where shot on film, it’s experimental, and wouldn’t be out of place alongside a lot of Shameless films  or  Arrow films releases. 

But what have I learned from making a zero budget horror film?

Okay, when Peter Jackson made Bad Taste, he did it, in a style similar to how we made Markham.  Shooting on a part-time basis as and when cast and crew where available, without much of a script to go along with – it took Peter Jackson FOUR years to complete the film, and now I know why (it’s taken nearly two years to complete Markham).

When I started shooting Markham I thought it might take six months.

Working without a script is a crackers idea, especially in low to zero budget filmmaking.  Initially when we started out, me and the actors just shot scenes that were interesting visually and we improvised the characters, and narrative, eventually a fitting plot emerged. This is an interesting and creative way to work (Kubrick worked like this sometimes).  But, it means it will take years to finish and you never know (as a director) what you’ll need – from a simple coverage POV – right up to major scenes that are required that only become apparent later.

The first lesson for next time, is to write a script and stick to what’s written.  There’s always room for experimentation but have the blueprint in script form first.

Another thing I’ve learned never to ignore is sound, especially when shooting on location.  A lot of ADR work was required in post production that would have been better avoided with more attention to paid to the sound recording on location, although admittedly recording dialogue on the open sea, in a raging storm is always going to be hard. 

Difficult locations is another point of learning. We picked some spectacular coastal locations to use in Markham.  But we didn’t consider how difficult they were going to be to get there, or actually shoot in these out of the way, and often dangerous places. 

The locations look great, but I should have considered the impact on production of where we shot.   We filmed in places never used in productions before – these were startling virgin locations for UK film.  But there were reasons why nobody had shot there, and they became clear to us as we used the often dangerous locations ourselves…

Finally one of the main things I’d say I learned at this stage is that IT’S COMPLETELY feasible to now shoot a low budget film, post produce it and edit for very little money and have an end product that’s completely serviceable.   The film is going to be released on DVD and on VIMEO at the end of August, but I could easily in future put the film on AMAZON PRIME myself.

The whole process has been a massive learning experience for me.  And I can’t wait to do it all again…

As well as being a freelance film director for hire, Matthew has also enjoyed a long career as a script writer for hire he’s written for most of the UK soaps, including writing award winning episodes of Emmerdale, EastEnders, Hollyoaks and Family Affairs and has been BAFTA shortlisted and Royal Television Society nominated as a script writer.

You can find some of his broadcast credits on the IMDb You can find out more about Matthew’s work as a director here.

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Markham (2020) shooting the Yorkshire Coast

Pretty soon my feature film directing debut Markham (2020) will be available to buy and to stream. We’re still putting the final touches to the film and next week we’ll be shooting even more material, which will mean another trip to the Yorkshire coast next week from our Leeds base.

Shooting at the coast brings up lots of challenges.  Most of Markham was shot in winter time, and that meant battling very cold temperatures. I remember shooting one day at Staithes in January (on what turned out to be the coldest day of 2019). It was a day when we needed to shoot a few sequences in the North Sea – and it was so cold that I began to lose feeling in my fingers, which meant starting and stopping the various cameras we were using became a big problem.

Other challenges included the howling wind rolling in off the North Sea making much of the dialogue tracks we shot in some sequences unusable. In some scenes, shot next to the sea, I used a small lapel mike on actors when I could, this worked well, but it couldn’t be utilised all the time. Anything using a boom, even with various types of wind covers really struggled with the persistent winter gale. Sometimes the sound of mad seagulls, especially the seagulls at Staithes, who make some fittingly odd song, became an issue too – lots of wild track needed to be recorded for continuity.

Of course, all shooting days on the coast needed to be organised around the tides, especially when shooting sequences on the beach.  Sequence to sequence the tides need to match what was shot before. This can become a bit of a logistical nightmare day –to-day, and it was my responsibility as director to look at the tide tables and decide what was suitable to shoot and when.  

I’ll admit that on occasion I did get it wrong, and on one day scheduled for shooting in Staithes we had to give up when I got the tides mixed up. On that day we managed to move up the coast to Skinningrove, a small village further up north, and luckily we could shoot some pick up shots and other material that meant the day wasn’t a total right off (we couldn’t wait at Staithes for the tides, because the correct level wouldn’t have arrived until late at night).

Other challenges included general health and safety. The beach at Staithes is surrounded by some cliffs that have regular rock falls (which can, and have killed people, tragically).  Shooting any sort of action sequence with people running on wet rock, near water is always a worry. On top of all this, the aforementioned tides, which can change quickly, are always a danger, you don’t want to get your crew cut off and stranded from safety as the North Sea rolls in.

Luckily, the shoot went well from a safety point of view, but the challenges of shooting on the Yorkshire coast in winter are very real.  Markham was shot for a tiny budget with a tiny crew; clearer thinking in pre-production would have considered some of the issues we faced more seriously. On a positive note, the beach scenes shot at Staithes add massive production value and startling imagery to the film; much of where we shot is not normally used by film and TV crews, probably due to the issues I’ve mentioned.  That means, Markham was shot where no other crews dared to go – at times it looks like the moon, but was a tiny bit easier to get to.

As well as being a freelance film director for hire, Matthew has also enjoyed a long career as a script writer for hire he’s written for most of the UK soaps, including writing award winning episodes of Emmerdale, EastEnders, Hollyoaks and Family Affairs and has been BAFTA shortlisted and Royal Television Society nominated as a script writer.

You can find some of his broadcast credits on the IMDb You can find out more about Matthew’s work as a director here.

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Markham is coming…

Just wanted to add a really quick update to say that Markham, my feature film debut is on its way, and will hopefully be released by the end of this month (July 2020).

Next week I should be able to complete the final cut, with the ADR, music and final special effects sequences locked and loaded.

It goes without saying that this has been a huge effort, to produce a fully independent feature film from scratch, on a very low budget.

Keep an eye on this website and UK script consultant over the coming weeks, I’ll tell you when the film is released for sale, and much more about the making of Markham.

Matthew Cooper has been directing drama films since the early 90s, starting on super 8mm cine film and movie into video, long before it became digital.  His feature film directorial debut Markham was released in 2020.

As well as being a freelance film director for hire, Matthew has also enjoyed a long career as a script writer for hire he’s written for most of the UK soaps, including writing award winning episodes of Emmerdale, EastEnders, Hollyoaks and Family Affairs and has been BAFTA shortlisted and Royal Television Society nominated as a script writer.

You can find some of his broadcast credits on the IMDb You can find out more about Matthew’s work as a director here.