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’ 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 hireand 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.
Hey, just a quick update – The Light on Leeds podcast recently featured an HOUR LONG interview with yours truly – taking about my work as a script consultant and director.
Matthew Cooper has been a script writer for hireand 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.
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 hireand 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.
After the two low budget horror films Markham and At The Mountains Of Madness one of my upcoming projects requires a lot of old school stop motion effects and miniature work. I’m looking forward to getting my hands dirty one-frame at a time – but any sort of stop motion work is a huge undertaking.
One of the last great practitioners of stop motion animation is Phil Tippett – Phil was the AT-AT man on Empire Strikes Back as well as the genius behind Robocop and Starship Troppers amazing special effects.
But almost in secret and in his spare time between Hollywood projects Phil has been working away on his own feature length stop-mo epic. Mad God has been 30 YEARS! That’s right -30YEARS- in the making, but from the trailer below it looks like it will have been more than worth the wait.
I just hope that my project using these effects doesn’t take as long to finish.
Matthew Cooper has been a scriptwriter for hireand 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.
I’m quite near to a first cut on my second feature film as a director – the low budget horror ‘At The Mountains of Madness’ and I’m pleased to say it’s coming together nicely. There have been a few surprises in the edit suite, but nothing too bad, so that’s good.
As a break this week I watched Robert Altman’s ‘The Long Goodbye’ his hip 70s, update on Phil Marlowe.
I’m an Altman fan, chiefly because of this film – and ‘McCabe and Mrs Miller’, ‘The Player’, ‘MASH’ and ‘Gosford Park’ are all great too. That’s a handful of very interesting and original movies right there. I’d say McCabe is my favourite. There are few westerns like it, and Warren Beatty has never been better.
But Altman made a ton of films, a lot of them hard to see, or considered disasters. He himself said that he just carried on doing the same thing, sometimes the films hit, and sometimes they didn’t. Sometimes the films didn’t work themselves and he knew it.
Altman was a gambler, and made a very good film about gambling called ‘California Split’. He also knew that filmmaking, like gambling, depended a lot on luck. Sure, skill and know how is involved, but luck too. And when the films didn’t work, it was down to luck, the same as when everything came together and you’d shot a masterpiece like McCabe.
So, on my second film as a director, I’m slowly learning that being lucky sometimes helps. I’m sure Altman will tell you he worked as hard on the films that didn’t work as on the films that did. And I’m sure that’s true, and other directors will tell you the same.
‘The Long Goodbye’ works, it transcends the detective genre, it’s funny and cool and sad as well. It’s Jazzy. The camera slips and slides, Elliot Gould is doing his own thing in scenes, listening to another beat. This whole thing could come crashing down around the story and crush the film, but luck keeps it together. And some directors are luckier than others.
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.
Matthew’s directorial debut, the rubber reality horror thriller Markham was released in 2020
I’m one week into post production on my second feature film as a director – ‘At The Mountains of Madness’ (ATMOM) and already, the process is much smoother than on my first feature film Markham which was released in 2020.
On ‘Markham’ we used improvisation, and never had a real script or storyline. While this made ‘Markham’ a pretty unique film, it also made it hugely hard work.
‘ATMOM’ had a script, I didn’t entirely stick to it, but for the most part, the actors had set lines to learn, we had set scenes and a pretty strict structure too. And, that has made making the film and editing it soooo much easier.
As a script writer for hire and in demand script consultant of course, I should know this myself. Yes, everything works better with a good script – but it’s a gentle reminder to the director in me to get the script working before you do anything else – something I didn’t do with Markham, I almost attempted to write the film after we’d shot it. A mad idea.
ATMOM is already looking like a winner, like Markham it’s a horror film based on the writings of H.P. Lovecraft. It’s the second film in what will be a low budget trilogy of horror films based on Lovecraft stories.
All being the well, the film be finished very soon, for a late April release. Keep checking back more info.
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.
Matthew’s directorial debut, the rubber reality horror thriller Markham was released in 2020
My debut as a director Markham has been selling well on DVD and on demand on Vimeo and its slowly picking up interest from bloggers and critics (spoiler alert – big review coming soon from one of the foremost critics in the UK).
This week, the first official review came in from prominent horror blogger David Dent across on his website – Dark Eyes of London.
David really got what we were trying to do with Markham and gave us a great review which does the film, and how we made it a lot of justice. Quotes for the poster include;
‘…amusing, baffling, often incomprehensible, and inventive as hell…’
‘You can keep your multiplex blockbusters or your costume dramas, this is inventive, nuts guerilla filmmaking…’
The review ends with one word – ‘Brilliant’.
We’ll take that.
Pop over to Dark Eyes of London and have a read of the full review yourself.
I’m excited to announce ‘officially’ that I’ll be writing and directing a low budget re-imaging of H. P. Lovecraft’s ‘At the Mountains of Madness’. We’re currently at script stage. But this is a dream project. And all being well, it will move pretty quickly into pre-production.
In 2020, I released my feature film debut as a director Markham, which despite its low budget has garnered some interest and development funds for other horror projects.
So, keep an eye on here for more news.
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.
Matthew’s directorial debut, the rubber reality horror thriller Markham was released in 2020
As my feature film debut as a director, the horror film Markham is now available to buy or stream, I thought I’d discuss a few horror directors who have influenced me.
John Carpenter
Horror is a broad church as a genre and some director’s dip and out. Other filmmakers are more out than in – John Carpenter is a director who is firmly ‘in’ and he’s my favourite director in the horror genre.
Halloween, The Fog, Prince of Darkness, Escape from New York and They Live (to an extent) and of course – The Thing (probably the best horror movie of all time). I even enjoy the lesser works like Vampires and Ghosts of Mars.
Lucio Fulci
Another director who is firmly ‘in’ the horror genre is the late Italian maestro Lucio Fulci – Lucio worked for years in all kinds of genres but spawned a massive hit with Zombi 2 (known under various names) which is a brilliant, rousing rip off of George Romero. But, given a massive hit in the horror genre let Fulci loose to create a masterful trilogy with City of the Living Dead, The Beyond and House by the Cemetery – known as the Gates of Hell trilogy.
Lucio drifted back off into the career doldrums after these films, but they stand the test of time.
David Cronenberg
David Cronenberg is another director who stuck to his horror guns for a long period – for Scanners, Videodrome, The Fly and Dead Zone he will always be regarded as one of the most celebrated genre filmmakers – his career outside of horror too has some classics including History of Violence and Eastern Promises in particular.
The horror bunch
Then, there are a bunch of American filmmakers who have dipped in and out of the genre over the years – guys such as – Brian De Palma, Sam Raimi, John Landis and Tobe Hooper. Between these filmmakers are some genuine horror classics – from The Evil Dead through Body Double, the cult favourite Texas Chainsaw, and up to the best werewolf film of all time (from Landis) An American Werewolf in London.
Stuart Gordon
The late Stuart Gordon also made two masterful low budget classics – Re-Animator and From Beyond. His career included other good low budget horrors, but nothing to match the quality of these two films.
Matthew Cooper Director – For the love of Super 8mm – big name directors first films on the shoestring medium
My feature film debut as a director Markham featured a lot of super 8mm film, and I thought it would be nice to write a blogpost today, about super 8mm and its role in the careers of lots and lots of big name Hollywood directors.
The kids don’t know, but back in the day, directors starting out didn’t have mobile phones that record hi-def video or editing software that is pretty high spec (and often free).
In-fact, directors starting out didn’t have phones or DSLRs and in most cases couldn’t even shoot on video because it was too expensive to buy the kit.
Creative Director for hire
So, directors such as Steven Spielberg, John Carpenter and Jim Cameron made films on Super 8mm.
Super 8mm was (and is again) a film stock; it was made by companies like Kodak and Agfa. Super 8mm film was designed to be played back through a projector, on a big screen at home. It was a very cut down, small format (often called shoelace or bootlace because it was so thin – 8mm- compared to 35mm film, the standard film format for Hollywood films at the time). Super 8mm was designed as a format that could be used by amateurs to record vacations and holidays, or weddings and other family events.
Super 8mm film, came in a cartridge (sound or silent). The cartridge was an easy load design and manufacturers all over the world made cameras that could shoot this film – from low spec point and shoot super 8 cameras- to very high spec semi-pro cameras.
Once you’d shot the film, it was posted back to the company who processed it into a positive print and then returned it to the users – the processing times could be anything from 3 weeks or longer, from time to time, the film you’d shot could go missing in the mail, or even lost at the lab! You were given a unique processing number for each roll of film. In the unfortunate event that the film got lost – all you received was a free blank cartridge.
Each cartridge held about 50 metres of film, which shot at 18 frames per second, would last about 3 and a half minutes, shot on 24 frames per second the film would last just under three minutes.
Matt Cooper Director
For all the faults of Super 8mm filmmaking, it was the best medium to learn the skills a director needs, from the 60s right up to the mid 90s lots and lots of directors and wannabe filmmakers shot on Super 8mm. Gradually video and digital video got more affordable, and Super 8mm died temporarily – it’s back now, and available again form Kodak as part of the analogue resistance. It’s now much more expensive and harder to get hold of, but its making a steady return (Kodak have even promised a new camera – but this has gone on for years, without a firm release date yet).
Many of the old Super8mm cameras are still in fine working order, and can be purchased on eBay. Models by firms such as Bauer and Nizo can be quite pricey still – but a good Bell and Howell or Eumig model (from the 80s) are still affordable for most people.
Editing these days will be done on software – back in the day, if you wanted to edit your super 8mm film it was done by cutting and splicing the film by hand – frame by frame. A real skill that lots of young directors cut their teeth doing (me included).
So, here’s a fun thing – a few big name directors’ Super 8mm productions are available online to see.
Let’s start with James Cameron – his short ‘Xenogenesis’ shot on Super 8mm and made in 1978:
How about Richard Stanley? – Director of ‘Dust Devil’ and the recent ‘Color out of Space’ – his film “Incidents In An Expanding Universe” is below, and feels like a very 80s UK art school student type project:
Sam Raimi made ‘Within the Woods’ a Super 8mm version of ‘The Evil Dead’ was he was in his teens. He used to go from investor to investor and project the film on their office walls.
Below is my little short showreel on Super 8mm – ‘Point Blank 1990’ made in 1990 when I was 16. The film took nearly 6 months to put together in the end.
I’m really pleased that Super 8mm is back available and being used again – I shot a short funky film recently – it’s below.
