- Aria Starlight
EVEN IN DARKNESS, THE LIGHT BRINGS HOPE
Aria Starlight is, of course, the film our company is named after. It’s the story of Melody, a six-year-old girl, on a quest to send a loved-one to the stars. She is pursued by the Murmurer – despair personified – who means to stop her and throw her into the darkness, but she is not alone. With her is her most precious friend, Aria Starlight. In Aria, Melody finds magic and strength to complete her mission.
This is a story which needs to be told. Difficult subjects need sensitive handling, but they also need to be seen, heard and discussed. Aria Starlight presents its themes in a way very rarely seen on screen, with charm and wonder, humour and heartbreak. We need more films like this.
Our crowdfunding page is live.
If you can contribute, you’ll be part of the Aria Starlight team and we’ll love you forever!
We believe that this film should be seen, and to do that, we need to raise the funds to make it. This will pay our fantastic and dedicated cast and crew and meet costs such as costumes, props and on-set catering. Can you help? It doesn’t have to be a fortune – £10 will go a long way and you’ll see your name in the film’s credits.
https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/aria-starlight-an-academy-short-film
We’ve now assembled our film crew and most of our cast. We still need to cast the last few roles. If you would like to be part of this project, do get in touch with us at info@ariastarlightpictures.com. We are looking for people who are inspired by this story and are willing to invest their talent and time to help create a magical film, which we plan to enter into the major film festivals.
- The Websters
The Websters is a 93 minute comedy feature, made on the weekends while I was studying for my MA in screenwriting. Making a film wasn’t part of the course, but I thought it would be a good idea to show I had the determination and resilience to make a film out of pure will. We had zero budget and the cast and crew were made up of film and acting students from Plymouth University. They were fantastic sports, turning up over many weekends across a 9 month period. We had a lot of fun and all learned a lot. The result is available to watch on my YouTube channel, Aria Starlight Pictures. https://youtu.be/jbVd-sedUbs?si=fX1_pZmNyfNMN8EN
Here’s the trailer: https://youtu.be/QHva2GFFHHo?si=-iW9gOOBBUR8xxrD
- Pushing Up Daisy
I had some fun with this one. Having co-written a short for OutWrd (called Tranquility Cove) with a great writer and fellow alumnus from Falmouth University, Katherine Robinson, I decided to write something else for the same platform. They had been sent a lot of quite dark material, so I decided to write a comedy, and this is it. It’s based one a news story I remembered from the Covid-19 lock-down of 2021, so, of course being a writer, I thought: ‘What if…’ and ran with he idea. This led to something so much fun that I had trouble limiting the page count for a 40 minute audio recording. It’s on OutWrd now, and I narrated it myself, also composing the Speak-Easy TV ident featured in the score. There’s so much I had to leave out in the WW2 part of the story, I really must let it stretch its legs as a very British Comedy Feature. This is a very British comedy feature which I definitely want to film!
You can find Pushing Up Daisy on OutWrd here: https://www.outwrdplus.com/free
- Blink
Blink was originally a short screenplay which I wrote as an MA assignment. With the benefit of further writing experience, I revisited the story and refined it, also reducing the page count in order to apply for BFI funding. We’ll wait to see about that one, but I’m keen either to film it as a short or to develop it into a full screenplay. It’s a bit scary, but I love the magical realism in it. Based on an idea by my youngest daughter, Katie.
- Foxglove and the Silver Angel
Another ex-assignment from my MA, this is another story I’d absolutely love to film. It’s an uplifting ghost story about a retired investigative journalist who’s sent, a broken man, to a residential home. What he doesn’t know is that an event from his past is heading towards him in a most unexpected way. I can’t tell you more…it would spoil it!
