Tag: Matthew Cooper

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Dark Eyes of London put their focus on Matthew Cooper director

David Dent is a horror and fantasy films critic who has set himself an incredible task of cataloguing every British fantasy film from 2020 onwards across on his blog Dark Eyes of London.

While doing this, David came across my feature debut as a director Markham (2020), which he was enthusiastic about.  He then followed this up with some very kind words about my second film At the Mountains of Madness (2021).

David has been so supportive that when he launched his Dark Eyes of London fanzine in print, he feature both films in the first issue, and myself and the team are really honoured to feature in the fanzine – because apart from anything, the magazine is a brilliant read.   

 
With the world wide web appearing many moons ago printed fanzines kind of died a death – but it’s so nice to actually have a printed copy of something (and I say this as a digital first person).


I remember buying horror fanzines like Deep Red back in the 80s and this magazine is along those lines.


If you want to buy a copy its £3 and you’ll have to track down the author on Twitter – David Dent – Dark Eyes of London – Twitter handle (@darkeyesofldn)


Also in the mag are directors Louisa Warren (Curse of the Scarecrow) , Tom Lee Rutter (The Pocket Film of Superstitions) and Charlie Steeds (Death Ranch).


I guarantee you’ll end up buying some DVDs or streaming some films you’ve never heard of – which is kind of the point.

You can buy Markham on VOD here. You can also buy At the Mountains of Madness on VOD here.

If you want to purchase either film on DVD click here.

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. You can find out more about Matthew’s work as a director here.

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

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At The Mountains of Madness (2021) Rough cut completed

At The Mountains of Madness (2021)

My second feature film as a director – the micro budget Lovecraft themed ‘At the Mountains of Madness’ had its first rough cut completed this week, and has been sent off to the composer to start work on the score.

A few clients in my day to day work as a UK script consultant, have asked how we could have possibly shot a feature film (on any budget) during the last 12 months – most of which were spent in Lockdown in the UK, due to the pandemic.

The answer is, it wasn’t easy.  But, making a feature film never is, and it often feels like trying to walk a very strong dog, which has ideas of where he wants to go.   You try and pull the leash, but a lot of time, the dogs superior strength means it gets to go exactly where he decides, however hard you pull.

‘At the Mountains of Madness’ is due for release later this year. I’m very pleased with the film and especially pleased with the effects work, nearly every shot in the film has had something done to it from a special effects POV, but it has retained its naturalistic black and white look, which at times was hard to do.

Keep checking back, as I intend to reveal more about the making of the film as we approach the release date.   

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.

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.

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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.