FILM and media students from Wiltshire College & University Centre will get the chance to quiz the director and cinematographer of a critically acclaimed feature film when it is shown on the big screen in Salisbury.
Will Stone and Adam Pickford based The Fence, a gritty comedy drama about teens on a 1980s Bristol housing estate, on Will’s graduation project when the pair where studying for a degree in Film Production and Cinematography at the College in 2017.
They will be back in Salisbury at The Everyman Cinema in Endless Street on December 11 from 4pm to 6.30pm for a screening and Q&A with current students.
They will talk about how after the short film gained six million views on YouTube, they managed to get the funding to expand it into a full-length film in 2022, which Will wrote and directed. It featured a host of locals alongside How To Train Your Dragon star Gabriel Howells and Bridget Jones and Smack The Pony star Sally Phillips.
The film was described by The Guardian as a likeable and sparky debut, given a five star rating on the filmgoers’ review site Rotten Tomatoes and was chosen as one of 20 films to tour Australian cities in a Best of British promotion.
Tim Dodd, who works closely with students on the college course, said the screening will be a chance for the degree class of 2025 to hear about the real-life struggles of getting a film made.
“I hope they will get a little inspiration from Will and Adam because they are proof that it can happen,” he said. “It will also be indicative of how hard it is to get a film made.
“It was a big struggle for them and maybe this will be a good lesson to learn and an opportunity to be a bit more realistic about the fact that you’re not just going to walk out of the course and go and make a film.”
He remembers Will and Adam as being an effective team, despite being an unlikely friendship. “They were like chalk and cheese really but their skills complemented each others’ and they worked very well together on each other’s projects all the way through their three years here.
“They still work together quite a lot, although Adam is now a freelance cinematographer. Will is writing and developing his second film and has already raised the initial development money towards that. It’s a long journey but it can be done and I hope that will be an encouragement to our students.”
The screening will be attended by film and media students but there are also free tickets available to the public via Eventbrite.
Tim said the college is grateful to the Everyman for allowing it to use the cinema. “It’s very generous and we are incredibly thankful for this support,” he said. “We had a very successful screening of our students’ projects last summer so it is nice to be back there.”
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