Tag: Leeds

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Sober the movie – a new film by Matthew Cooper

Sober - Director Matthew Cooper with Dean Smith and Tom Gibbons

Wow, it’s been a long while since I wrote blogpost for this website – I’ve been a little bit busy with my feature film SOBER – which is currently in post-production and only a couple of months from being finished – 2023 has been an incredible year so far – and Sober is going to make a bit of a comedic stir when we finally release it into the wild.

Sober - Director Matthew Cooper with Dean Smith and Tom Gibbons
Sober – Director Matthew Cooper with Dean Smith and Tom Gibbons

‘Sober’ is getting close to being done and myself and the two lead actors and co-writers/producer expect BIG things from the film – its very funny.

Sober is a feature film – which is shot in Leeds, on location in less than  10 days.

The film was made for a budget of less than £10,000 and the cast features some award-winning actors and actresses – who all worked for free.

As post-production nears a conclusion in the next few months or so – I will be blogging on here again – and across on my director website –

There’s also a website set up for Sober the movie – which has a blog sections and a behind the scenes section – we’re still building that website up – but its worth checking out.

So, sorry for the radio silence – but Sober – is gonna be worth the wait.

Matthew Cooper has been a script writer for hire 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 directorial debut, the rubber reality horror thriller ‘Markham’ was released in 2020, his second feature film as director ‘At The Mountains Of Madness’ hit the screen in 2021 and his third horror feature film (and final part of The Sekurig Trilogy) When The Earth Gives Up The Dead (2022) was released on Halloween 2022.

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

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PHASE IV (1974)

My feature debt as a Director confounded a few viewers–  when Markham was released in 2020, it wound up on a few torrent sites quite quickly- one person watching the film illegally gave it 5 stars out of 5 and left a message on the torrent board which read – ‘I’ve never seen another fucking film like it.’   Well, maybe that guy (or gal) might want to watch PHASE IV (1974)

Phase IV is a film directed by Saul Bass.  It’s a small contained sci-fi about ants taking over the world.  But this isn’t ‘Them’  (1954) – don’t expect to see stop motion creatures crunching on military hardware. Instead Phase IV is a visually stunning, cramped and claustrophobic film, that will make viewers uneasy and entertained in equal measure.

There’s not much of a plot to mention, and some of it won’t make much sense – but it will be compulsive viewing.

Saul Bass is a bit of a legend in the film world. He  was a graphic designer by trade, and somehow ended up designing the title sequences for many classic films – from Martin Scorsese’ Casino right back to The Seven Year Itch. Sometimes the title sequences of the films he worked on were better, more interesting and more creative than the films themselves.

So, Saul had a cult following and a reputation for being visually exacting and super creative, but Saul only ever directed one feature film, so PHASE IV is they only fully realised film we have from him, and it’s a trip – and hints at what a talent he could have been given further commissions.

But like my debut film Markham – some reviewers at the time had never seen a fucking film like it! And that kind of put a stop to Saul’s career as a director right there...

Over the 47 years since the film was made, its built up a big cult following. The trailer is below, and I’d recommend you see it, as soon as you can.

Matthew Cooper has been a scriptwriter for hire 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.

Matthew is also a director of feature films including the rubber reality horror thriller ‘Markham’ which was released in 2020. Matthew’s second feature film as director ‘At The Mountains Of Madness’ was released in July 2021.

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

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Wrapped – At The Mountains of Madness – Matthew Cooper Director

Boom, about a week ago we wrapped shooting on my new feature length horror film – ‘At The Mountains of Madness’ – which is based on the short story by H.P. Lovecraft.  This is the second film (after ‘Markham’ released August 2020) in a trilogy of micro budget Lovecraft adaptations.

Unlike Markham, we had a pretty solid script for this production although my actors Tony Coughlan, Ashe Russell and Gary Geeson still had plenty of room to improvise and play with their characters.  

The main shoot was completed in two intense weeks, where at times, we had to be really creative to get the scares and required atmosphere on a tiny budget.

ATMOM had exteriors shot in Greenland and Alaska, but the majority of the film was done on custom built sets in a studio environment.  Like Markham, ATMOM will be black and white and some of the film is shot on Super 8mm.  The most fun I had on the shoot involved fake snow and a snow machine – which resulted in me nearly breaking ankle – but hey, the shots looked great.

I’m looking forward to diving head first into post production, and the film will hopefully be released online in April 2021.

Obviously, Covid-19 made shooting the film a challenge and at all times we stuck to the Covid-19 film industry guidelines.

Keep checking back over the next few months as I detail the post production process and start releasing a few images and trailers from the film.

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.

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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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Scoring Markham – All killer – no filler

This morning I’m due to sit down and watch the latest cut of my feature film debut as a director Markham.

Markham is a zero budget horror film, which was shot in Staithes in North Yorkshire, and a few other locations up and down the Yorkshire coast.

One thing I can firmly say about Markham is that it pretty atmospheric. Partly thanks to the moody locations and stark black and white photography. But, the music has added an extra dimension too.

I commissioned the score from LA based composer Mariella Nelson Renaud, and gave her free reign to come back with a horror soundtrack which would befit the movie.  She did an amazing job.

Music makes such a big difference in film, and especially in horror cinema. The score can make or break a movie. Watching Markham with all the cues in place makes such a difference to the experience.

Working with composers is one thing directors rarely consider. Directors happily work with writers, actors and technical crew – we speak the same language, but how do you work with a composer, musician or someone from a discipline that’s different from film, and who might not speak the same language? With Mariella, I gave pretty specific examples of scores that I like, and that I considered a ‘type’ that would work with Markham.

Mariella took these examples, ran with them and added her own unique style and personality.

The score feels like a cross between Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind’s work on Kubrick’s  ‘The Shining’, Carpenter and the late great Ennio Morricone’s work on ‘The Thing’ and Giorgio Moroder’s music for Paul Shrader’s Cat People (1982) – a personal favourite amongst all these great works. These are great scores to be compared to by Mariella’s work really warrants the comparison.

When I heard the score the first time I was over the moon.  If anything comes from Markham at all, it should be that Mariella Nelson Renaud’s work should be recognised.  She’s a really talented film composer with a great work ethic and ability to interpret what’s on screen in music; she was also a pleasure to work with.

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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Countdown to Markham (2020) release

My feature debut as a director – Markham – is only weeks away from release now, there’s a little bit of work still to do on the film, but in these Covid crazy times I’ve found that my services as a script writer for hire, UK Script editor  and UK script consultant  have been highly in demand, as people have taken the downtime brought on by Covid to seek help developing their scripts and screenplays.

As well as being busy with my specialised script development service, I’ve also just finished the first draft of another feature film which I’m hoping to direct – The Battle of Belgrave Street. This script is one of the most hard boiled screenplays I’ve ever worked on, and is aiming for the action simplicity that Walter Hill gave to some of the screenplays he penned as writer and director. It’s a terse, script, with as few words as possible, it features laconic, easily defined characters, who are judged on action they take, and a very clean narrative which features a straightforward if difficult goal to obtain and lots of obstacles to overcome. In this case, a handful of bouncers need to protect a club from Yardie gangsters in Chapeltown, Leeds in the 1980s.

As well as writing for myself and for hire, I’ve also found that the extra time, given to post-production on Markham has helped a lot, and I’ve shot some extra scenes and increased the amount of practical special effects in the film.

Markham will be available to buy on this website very soon, before it moves onto one of the streaming services.

I’ve also, had some distribution experts’ look at Markham, with a view to giving the film as wide a release as possible, some of these guys are big ‘Hollywood’ type players with prestigious reputations in the industry. I’m still waiting to hear back from a couple of the bigger players, I’m pleased that in some way that Markham a low budget film, has put me on the map as a director in some way already (even before it’s released proper).

Feedback, from cast and crew so far has been positive too, I’m hoping to use many of the same actors in future productions and some of the same production crew too.

So, there’s no further news as of today (01/06/2020) but I’ll continue to add blog posts as we count down to the release of the film – very soon.

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 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 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.