A young Bristol film-maker has told how he spent £2,000 making a feature film - and it’s since gone on to make him $100,000.
Charlie Steeds went away to the MetFilm school in west London but didn’t quite make his break into the film industry there and then, so returned to Bristol and got a job so he could save up to make his first film.
So, with a budget of less than £2,000, he made a feature-length film he called Labyrinthia, a horror film, but had no idea what to do with it next.
“I didn’t know how to release a film and get it picked up by distributors, so I made a trailer, created an IMDb account and sent some information about the film to a movie magazine,” he said.
“I was lucky, the magazine did a five-page feature on the film and it wasn’t long before an American sales company got in touch, wanting to pick up the sales rights.
“The sales company required me to shoot an additional 20 minutes of the film and change the title to Deadman Apocalypse - they felt that it would boost sales, they were right,” he said.
Since then, the film has made more than $100,000 in sales, and Charlie was set on a path to make low-budget horror movies for the DVD market.
He is commissioned to make two films a year now by American distributors, specialising in gory horror movies.
You may have seen his films in HMV, Asda, Tesco and Sainsbury’s, or via digital downloads on Sky, Apple and Amazon.
He even gets his mum Megan Steeds to be in them.
“My mum has been incredibly supportive, as a child whenever I needed a camera, or equipment she made sure I got what I needed. She had to sacrifice a lot to send me to film school,” he said.
“I was delighted when she agreed to play a small part in one of my films, it’s a cameo in The House of Violent Desire, she plays a maid - slashed to ribbons with a razor and dies in a pool of blood on the floor,” he added.
“Natturally I dream of being discovered one day by the big film companies like Netflix, I’d love to make a film with a £500,000+ budget, but I’m happily enjoying straight-to-DVD filmmaking at least until I hit my 30s.
“But if I’m not discovered, that’s okay too – I love the creative freedom of working with lower budgets and I’m having so much fun doing it,” he added.
