SubzeroFilms.com is an independently produced film drama
Title
"Sub Zero" a Superkrush and Sub Zero production in association with Redcar and Cleveland Council - written and directed by Ian Dowson
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Excerpted from the website:
- Award winning north east flash web design by Aelius Superkrush Productions Synopsis Middlesbrough; sometime soon. Mayoral Candidate Ronnie Lord is on the verge of victory because of his popular stance on law and order and anti-social behaviour. His tough solutions are backed by the public; he’s a ‘local lad’ and knows what he’s talking about. But Ronnie has yet to play his trump card; a groundbreaking law and order initiative that would see every young person between the ages of 11 and 17 ‘tagged’ and surveyed 24 hours a day. Ronnie hopes that the proposal will seal his victory while the secretive businessmen, Harris and Bridges, hope that the production of these surveillance devices will seal their fortunes. There’s much at stake. And Harris and Bridges demand that Ronnie is above reproach, that he’s seen to be ‘whiter than white,’ that there’ll be no scandal to bring him down. And there isn’t....not, that is, until his daughter, Sabrina, falls in love with ‘Grangetown Lad,’ Carl, whose best mate, Mark, has just been murdered in a drugs feud.What Harris and Bridges don’t know is that Carl is just an ordinary lad trying to make a good reputation in a bad area. They don’t know and they don’t care. They know they have to act to preserve Ronnie’s reputation and their own profit and so sanction a series of events that lead to more murder and chaos. It’s against all this that Carl and Sabrina’s love has to survive. Making of Sub Zero was made, within the confines of a ‘Community Film Project’, to the point of completion, for £27,500. It was shot in 28 days and edited entirely on a basic G5 computer. The reason for this, in part, was to find out whether or not it was possible to make a genuinely compelling film in the face of such daunting logistics and adversity. But most of all, this film was made to realize the vision of a young drama group reacting to the claustrophobic circumstances surrounding their everyday lives. The script was specifically written to tap into this paranoia of a surveillance-driven and controlling state. Locations were largely within the Grangetown, Redcar & Cleveland area which is one of the top 10 most deprived boroughs in the U.K. Premises included the actor’ own houses, their parents’ houses, friends’ houses, or abandoned properties. Shooting permits were neither sought nor granted. With the exception of a select few adult performers, the principle cast had either little or no professional film experience. The crew were paid, at best, a fraction of the industry standard, though were all, without exception, either seasoned practitioners or very highly regarded young talent. There was no facility for any re-shoots and the film was completed without a single ADR or additional voice-over. The film was made very much in conjunction with Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council, and with the assistance of the Barclays Bank ‘Community program’. Teeside, North East England The British public have finally had there fill of anti social behaviour and ‘Yob’ culture. Ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair’s “Respect” initiative has failed in its target of civilising the nation’s youth. More and more young people were dropping out of school, more and more choosing the laws of the street to the laws of the land. The public wanted “Law and Order” and now politicians are giving it to them. Following a ground breaking initiative on Teesside led by the popular Mayor, Ronnie Lord, every young person between the age of 11 and 17 has, by law, to wear a surveillance “bracelet” that, when combined with state of the art satellite technology, can track their movements every minute of every day. At a local “Domestic Security Centre,” banks of computer monitors flash with the images and names of thousands of young people as they go about their daily business. Operator Dave Sedgemoor says “Only the hardcore cause trouble anymore. Those that might have been encouraged to join in now know that we’re watching them every second of every day. We see everything that they do and if they cross the line then they havn’t got a leg to stand on.” Combined with Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s initiative of “One Strike and You’re Out” (to a newly built detention centre) then it’s no surprise that youth crime is falling and people on estates like Grangetown in the Redcar and Cleveland Borough are beginning to feel safe again. Local resident Sheila Proctor says “Not so long ago, I lost my son in a violent street incident. He’d been mixing with the wrong crowd. There was nothing to deter him from doing any other. If these bracelets had been in place then, then he might be here today. He was a good lad really.” Ronnie Lord, now a household name, sympathises with people like Sheila and remains immovable in his quest for Law and Order “We can’t trust young people to look after themselves anymore” he says “…they make the wrong decisions and everyone suffers. If they go through life doing nothing wrong then we and they have nothing to worry about.” Which could also apply to Falcon Industries (the sole suppliers of the nation’s bracelets.) End of year accounts showed a £10 million profit. Chief Executive Miles Harris was unavailable for comment. What do you think? Should politicians be judging young people this way. Follow the link and see what 24 young people in Grangetown had to say. Director's Statement It was November 2001 and Jackie Philips had asked me to help with devising a play for a new drama group she was helping to form in Grangetown; a sprawling estate within Redcar and Cleveland District Council on the edge of Middlesbrough, illuminated by the flaming towers that inspired Scot’s ‘Blade Runner’ and whipped by winds coming down the A66 from the North Sea. I had a mental picture of the area, everybody had, from the era of twockers and house burners that plagued this corner of the north east in the early to mid-nineties. Grangetown was Anti-Social a decade before Blair and his Witch Doctors had put a spin on the phrase. I’d also just finished work on the BBC Docu Drama ‘Little Angels’ that followed the struggle of a teenage heroin addict from just down the road. To be honest, after that experience, I was looking forward to some youth theatre. And I wasn’t disappointed because the 24 young people that I worked with over the following weeks were some of the keenest and talented I’d ever met; a bunch of kids to challenge anyone’s pre-conceptions of Grangetown. At the end of the project both Jackie and I knew that we had to keep working with them. So it was that, from the Spring of 2002, the challenge of creating and producing a feature film with the Grangetown Coyotes Theatre Group began. We started by introducing some basic themes; what it was like being a teenager in Grangetown, what they loved, what they hated, what they thought others thought of them and where this picture of their lives came from. We also threw a literary premise into the mix, Orwell’s 1984, and the concept of ‘Big Brother’ and surveillance culture. They picked up on it straight away: their neighbourhoods were covered left, right and centre by CCTV. It would have been easy to create a straightforward piece of ‘British Realism’ out of these themes and the kids’ lives but we wanted, as did they, something more exciting, more challenging. It was decided that that challenge would be to take these real lives and themes, hack into the conspiracy genre and try and produce a new contemporary British thriller. By Summer 2002 I had written a treatment for a story which we hoped would do the job. Its title: Sub Zero. At this stage the project was being managed by Derwentside based theatre company Cap-a-Pie and thanks must be extended to Jez Arrow who, that summer, helped us film a ‘pilot’ based on devised and scripted scenes from the treatment. It was eventually edited by Neil Marshall (Dog Soldiers, Descent) whose input was also invaluable. We hoped that the pilot would draw attention of funders to our ambitions and it did. However it was an anxious twelve months up to the Summer of 2003 before Northern Film and Media provided a writing development grant to fund the first draft of a screenplay. Thanks to Redcar and Cleveland District Council the kids had been able to keep working on their characters and individual scenes and now it was down to me to justify their hard work by making the story come to life on the page. That Autumn the first draft rolled off the printer. It wasn’t bad: the kids liked it and there was a favourable nod from NFM’s professional reader but most of all everyone agreed that here was a film that could, and needed, to be made. The real momentum behind Sub Zero had started. Another twelve months unfolded, another draft, frantic and frustrating fund raising, finding a crew, looking for pro-actors willing to help. The clock ticked by. We’d set ourselves a shoot target for August 2004. People let us down. People came in and inspired us, made things real. We got there by the skin of our teeth and the shoot was one of the best experiences of my life. Of course the genesis of a film doesn’t stop there. More fund-raising, more hand wringing ensued until finally in Jan. 2005 me and our editor Nick Light were locked away and started piecing together the film that you’ll see...Sub Zero. Did we do well? I think so. 108 pages of screenplay, 118 scenes shot in 28 days on a Panasonic DVX100A with a cast of about fifty people on location in the homes, landmarks and the streets of Grangetown and Middlesbrough on a budget of around thirty grand. Of course we did well... But more importantly we were true to our story, true its characters and the real lives that inspired it. True to our ambitions of making an exciting and engaging film. True to that film making cliché: if you want to make a film....if you want to learn about film....go out and bloody do it. So we did. Enjoy. Respect is due to many but awesome respect is due to: The Grangetown Coyotes, Jackie Philips (Dave and Molly too,) Chris Taylor (Superkrush,) Paul Tuffs, Tracey Slater, Grahame Slater (Snr.,) Richard Lawson (DOP,) Steve Brett (1st AD,) Nick Light (Editor,) Karen Penman (Web-Site and Marketing,) The Grangetown Neighbourhood Centre; Angie and all those that helped, Stella (Barclays,) Joanne (Redcar and Cleveland District Council,) Alan at Gilbrook, Bill Fellows, Jack Mcbride, Phillipa Wilson, Dekka Walmsley, Trevor Fox , Janey and Woody and all other actors and crew that made this happen. Thanks also to Z and the boys for putting up with me. Ian Dowson 2005 Sub Zero Cast List Ronnie Lord Deka Walmsley [Mayoral candidate] Laura Lord Phillippa Wilson [His wife] *Sabrina Lord Kelly Campbell [Daughter] *Kate Lord Jenny Stephenson [Daughter] *Mica Lord Stephanie Mayo [Daughter] *Ray Whitworth Graeme Slater [Community worker] *Carol Whitworth Tracy Yare [His wife, Care worker] *Carl Whitworth Paul Watson [Son] *Lisa Whitworth Jennifer Millican [Daughter] Sheila Proctor Jacqueline Phillips [Care worker] *Mark Proctor John Warrior [Son] Harris Jack Mc Bride [Powerful business man] Bridges Bill Fellows [His colleague] Operative Paul Wood [Henchman] Jennifer Johnson Jayne Mackenzie [Ronnie’s Campaign Manager]] David Jenkins Trevor Fox [School Headmaster] *Hooded man Andrew Tyler [Harris & Bridges henchman] *Paul Tuffs Paul Tuffs [Community worker and activist] *Mrs Robinson Debbie [Teacher] *Chris Roe Darrell Apery [Local journalist, early 20’s] News Reporter Matthew Davies Terry Skinner Gavin Bell [Dealer] *Jason Danie Elcoate [Terry’s mate, school excludee] *Simon Simon Harrison [Terry’s mate, school excludee] *Taffy Taffy [Owner of garage] *Scotty Scott Weir [Carl’s mate] *Digga Graeme Slater Jnr [Carl’s mate] *Matty Jason Slater [Carl’s mate] *Suzie Jodie Welsh [Lisa’s mate] *Stacey Katie Temke [Suzie & Lisa’s mate] *Eddie Skinner Matty Draper [Terry’s younger brother] *Anth Anthony Elcoate [Eddie’s gang] *Luce Lucy Weir [Eddie’s gang] *Dobbo Chris Donnelley [Eddie’s enemy] *Toni Dobson Beccy Lancaster [Dobbo’s sister] *Mickey Callum Stubbs [Dobbo’s gang] * denotes the parts played by Coyote members and adult members of the community, other parts are played by professional actors. At least 30 - 50 other young and adult members of the community appear as extras. Sub Zero Crew List WRITER/DIRECTOR: IAN DOWSON PRODUCERS: CHRIS TAYLOR JACKIE PHILLIPS PRODUCTION MANAGER: REBECCA CREMORE 1ST ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: STEVE BRETT 3RD ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: ANDREW HAGAN DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: RICHARD LAWSON CAMERA ASSISTANT: ALEX WHEATLEY SOUND RECORDISTS: MAX EDGAR DAVID GIBSON PRODUCTION DESIGNER: JOHN MCDERMOTT M/UP & HAIR DESIGN: MARTINE GOLDMAN EDITORS: NICK LIGHT CHRIS TAYLOR SCORE RORY CRAIG SIMON WATKIN
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English
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