Spending time on a film set

Eva and Davro

Recently I had the privilege of visiting the film set of Only Child. A gypsy community scene set on the old

Talywain golf course in Aberyschan in South Wales. Only Child is the short film idea of Andy Toovey who was the winner of The Pitch film competition earlier this year. Director of his own company 2v studios in Pontypool, South Wales,  Andy is already an experienced film and video maker but this project is taking his career to a new level of directing. The competition prize includes amongst a whole host of other things the luxury of a director of photography, full production crew and cast; something he is certainly not used to! Not only challenging his writing skills, which at times were gruelling for him, but having to redraft and rewrite his story to refine the key aspects of his story, but directing and trusting a director of photography to the cinematic interpretation of his story was another key learning point for Andy. I was very excited to learn that a talented cast had been selected for Andy too. The two key characters Eva and Davro were awarded to Eva-Jane Willis, the South African born actress Humans and Julian Lewis Jones, Welsh actor famous in Wales for his role in Stella, fishing programmes and his appearances in Under Milk Wood (2015), Zero Dark Thirty (2012). Just visiting the set for a few hours I was staggered at the dedication and stamina of the whole team and so was Andy, I think. When I had a few moments to catch up with him he said: “I am blown away by the way everyone has worked so hard to develop my vision. Now that I’m a few days into the filming I’m really starting to enjoy it. It’s unbelievable what can be achieved with so many other people sharing my vision – it has really made the story so much fuller and richer than if I had told it on my own.” In fact it has been a privilege to learn about Andy’s journey with Only Child. I remember him sharing his personal story of grief with me last year and how he and his wife had coped with the devastation. The raw feelings of grief are embedded in this story but somehow by writing it and sharing it with his cast and crew the story has developed further. I got the impression that this story of loss, grief and desperation has now evolved into one of hope with an underlying powerful message. It has been a pleasure to visit and play a small part in what I’m sure will be an amazing film. I can’t wait to tell you the next instalment in the journey of this amazing story of Only Child short film.