Profiles

Smudge Film Productions' The Soldier came out top in the best film category at the 'Two Days Later Film Challenge' in 2007.

"We had such interest over The Soldier, (including) the executive producer of the Harry Potter films," says Shaun.

"I wrote a script ... and we're looking to shoot it in March / April time (2009)."

'The Soldier'

Out of Notts

The original ten minute film was shot at Blidworh Bottoms and in Chesterfield. Although Shaun intends shooting part of the extended version in Nottinghamshire he says they'll also be looking further a field.

"We will go to Europe to get some shots. We've found some superb locations in Poland."

Showcase Cinemas will be screening the short film in their digital cinemas as a pre-feature for their halloween films such as Saw 4, The Eye and The Orphanage in Derby CDL, Leicester CDL between Wednesday 29 October until 4 November 2009.

The origins of The Soldier

Shaun Smith started out as a special-effects make-up artist. He's been working on the idea of The Soldier for 10 years.

It came to fruition thanks to a short-film competition.

Shaun Smith on location

'Two Days Later' challenged film-makers to create a horror movie of no more that 10 minutes in just a 48 hour period.

'The Soldier' is set 13 days after D-Day and follows the discovery of a Third Reich disease experiment centre.

In true horror style all is not what it seems, and the story soon develops to involve gory appearances from the undead.

Shaun strongly believes that a brilliant musical score is central to a successfully terrifying horror flick, and draws his plot ideas from a number of influences:

"I've watched thousands and own thousands of horror films, and also I draw it from... what made me scared as a child."

The film was completed with a tiny budget of only £500, a feature of what Shaun defines as his "guerilla film-making":

"My filmmaker style doesn't require the whole caboodle... I can do it on a very tight budget."

The company, based in Farnsfield, Nottinghamshire also took Best Cinematography, Best Visual Effects and Best Editing at the 'Two Days Later' awards.

Other Projects

Smudge have a number of other projects on the horizon including the feature film 'Am I Not A Person'.

Shaun estimates that a page of the film's script equates to about one minute onscreen, and not that long ago they had about 2000 pages!

After much editing the final shorter script should soon be ready and the "Alice-in-Wonderland-Tim-Burton-type" film will be realised.