Written & Directed by DAVID YORKE
Produced by DAVID YORKE & PHIL BEASTALL
Young teen Jessica and her kid brother Charlie are setting out on a journey. They leave behind a dark, unsettling home life and set out into the larger world with few belongings. The countryside they travel through is idyllic, stretching out around them in a pastoral, seemingly peaceful expanse. Together, they make a stop at a place they once enjoyed in simpler, happier times. But all is not what it seems, both in the world and between the siblings, as they embark on a trip that will change their lives forever.
SAFEKEEPING took home 3 awards at the 2020 edition of our film festival including Best Director.
READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH DAVID
Welcome back to our Short of the Week series. What have you been up to since the last time we featured your film Eject?
Hello and thank you again for featuring Eject and this film ‘Safekeeping’. Since Eject I have been doing a lot more writing. I also made another short horror film called Eric, we are currently on the festival circuit with that and I’m also in early pre-production for my first feature film ‘Crave’ which is also another horror.
Congrats on taking the first steps to kick off your debut feature. We understand that your latest short Eric was selected for FrightFrest at you were selected for their New Blood initiative. Can you tell us about that experience?
Thank you and yes Eric had its premier at Frightfest and it went down a treat. I was so overwhelmed with the very warm response and all of the kind words. We even got featured as one of the best shorts at heyyouguys. Having the film screen at Prince Charles Cinema was also a dream come true.
The New Blood initiative was a fantastic experience. I got the chance to pitch my new feature script ‘Crave’ to four separate mentors. It was very informal which is the way I like it and it also made it much easier to discuss your idea instead of the added pressure of standing and projecting it across a room.
Overall, it was just nice and encouraging to have industry professionals listen to you and give you advice. Ever since it ended, I have been feeling more confident than ever to get my feature made, watch this space!
Alright, back to Safekeeping. What inspired you to make this short?
I actually had written the script for Safekeeping a very long time ago, there was a script writing competition called Impact 50, the idea was you had to come up with a story that took place during a world ending event and then you submit and if you won you get to make film and it then be part of an anthology. Long story short, I didn’t win and my script was left to collect dust. It was a shame as I really thought it was strong concept.
But a few years went by and my friend and collaborator Phil Beastall was looking to shoot something, he had worked as my dop for many years on shorts and music videos and we always work well together. I told him about Safekeeping and even though it was ambitious we decided to go for it. Phil is also a great producer and director, so not your average DOP. With him on board as co-producer and dop the process was so much easier. I re-wrote the script and removed any restrictions I had from the competition and we were good to go.
What obstacles did you overcome while in the making of this film?
Like most of my films this was also self-funded. We had a very small crew and we were all wearing multiple hats. I was my own 1st ad as well and to say the film was challenging was an understatement.
We shot mostly in a field not too far from Gloucestershire and we only had a few days as the farmer was going to cut it all down. We were also battling the extreme heat, we had constant sound interruptions from trains, dogs and when you’re working with younger actors, your shooting times are much shorter. We also lost a cards worth of footage, luckily the camera we shot on has a monitor that also backs up HD footage, which was amazing but it also has all the time code/text burnt into the footage, so we had to zoom into some shots as there was no way we could do any reshoots.
It was very much a group effort and I learned a great deal from the experience and I’m still very proud of the film we made.
Tell us about the journey of getting your film to audiences.
Like many of my previous films I decided to go the festival route, we had some great success and won a few festivals, but ultimately it didn’t connect the way I’d hoped. But now I’m happy to say it’s just been selected by the amazing platform Omeleto and it’s now reached a much larger audience. The feedback has been phenomenal and I couldn’t be more proud.
What do you think is the biggest challenge at the moment facing filmmakers trying to break into the industry?
It really is tough. I’ve been at this for almost 20 years. I’ve had some success, but mostly rejection. Ultimately what I have learned is that you are pretty much on your own. You are the one that has to get shit done. Sometimes you can be very lucky, know the right people, or your film just hits and doors start opening. I have been trying to get a feature off the ground for over 10 years, I have 6 written and I went through all the proper channels, applying for all types of funding, getting a team together, contact producers and having meetings after meetings that went nowhere and even with the success of some of my short films I still can’t get any funding and without an agent I can’t get my scripts in front the right people.
But the upside is you have more creative control. It may be a little harder, but that’s where gathering a great team comes in because even though this industry lacks resources and support, especially for people from a working class background, you will always find people who will still want to create.
Any film recommendations that we should add to our watchlist?
Yes in no particular order I would definitely recommend –
The Worst Person in the World
X
Red Rocket
Top Gun: Maverick
Everything Everywhere all at Once
Fresh
Petite Maman
Cha Cha Real Smooth
Black Phone
Prey
Pleasure
Men
Orphan – First Kill
The Feast
Kimi
All My Friends Hate Me
The Unbearable Weight of a Massive Talent
Hustle
Watcher
Torn Hearts