Maria Gray in a scene from Your Sin, filmed at York Theatre Royal
INDEPENDENT film director and screenwriter Miles Watts first met movement director, actress and voiceover artist Maria Gray while walking their dogs in Barton-le-Willows, near York.
Maria needed to make a show reel, calling on Miles’s filmmaking skills. “Maria mentioned she’d never made a feature film. We bonded together and set up Outward Films, agreeing to make a film with no budget,” says Miles, best known for his Zomblogalypse horror/comedy web series.
As the company’s profile puts it at mileswatts.com/work/outwardfilms: “Outward Films is a creative partnership dreamt up by writers and filmmakers Miles Watts and Oliver Semple and actor and writer Maria Gray. All three unsavoury characters reside near the hazy metropolis of York, UK.
“Between us, we’ve written, produced, directed and acted in plays, series and films our whole lives, and have joined forces to create an ambitious slate of new work including feature films shot on iPhone, micro-budget movies for international audiences and a stack of screenplays across genres”.
Vicky Parry’s logo design for Outward Films, featuring the silhouette of Wattshisface
If you look at the logo for Outward Films, designed by Miles’s partner Vicky Parry, you will note it resembles a tatty luggage label bearing the image of a scruffy person – not even slightly based on someone she knows – looking out at the big wide world and daydreaming of stories and adventures.
“That’s our entire ethos,” says Miles. “We’re small-town creators with ambitious dreams. Maria is making her break into features with our first iPhone movie, Your Sin, a theatre-set drama-thriller which she wrote and stars in.”
Your Sin is now in post-production for the rest of the year after eight days of filming, wrapped at York Theatre Royal on June 16. “I once shot a film in only six days. That was my second movie,” says Miles. “There are so many limits to film-making, so this time we thought, ‘let’s get our iPhones out’, as there’s a renaissance of this form of film-making.
“Like the indie horror film Obsession, which was made on a budget of under $1m in 20 days, has been outselling the latest Star Wars at the box office!”
The poster for Maria Gray and Miles Watts’ debut film for Outward Films, Your Sin
York Theatre Royal came on board to permit filming in The Studio, such as for a nightclub scene in its guise as The Old Paint Shop cabaret club, and in the Main House too, and further locations included the Brew & Brownie cafe at 7.30am one morning, Kirkham Woods, Howsham Wood and LazenbyBrown in Shambles.
“We told actors there was no money for the film, but they wanted to audition anyway,” says Miles, whose principal players are David Ajao, Kate Hampson and Liam Wilks, alongside Maria.
“A lot of the ladies in the film are students from the film and acting course at York St John University who are making their own iPhone movies.”
Maria adds: “We couldn’t believe how many people came forward to audition. From 10am to 4pm over two days in the Keregan Room at the Theatre Royal, we saw over 30 actors, and we received lots of self-tapes too.”
Miles Watts, second from left, filming on iPhone at York Theatre Royal
Written by Miles and Maria, Your Sin depicts a troupe of actors making a movie for a notorious director in a theatre with a ghostly legend. However, as the filming begins, there are more skeletons in the closet than ghosts in the shadows.
“It’s a film within a film, with the film. Very meta,” says Miles. “A film about making a film about people making a film! Then the film has a ghost element where they think a ghost is having an influence on the film and everyone starts thinking about how every theatre has a ghost – or not!” Should you be wondering, the film within the film is called The Sinful Virgin.
“It’s the first straight drama I’ve ever done, so there are no jokes,” says Miles, whose horror films are usually laced with darkest humour.
Maria, who plays an aspiring actor called Maria, fell pregnant during the film project. “We’ve now written Maria’s pregnancy into the story, with a story strand about the mistreatment of actors who are pregnant. We wanted to show you can work with pregnant actors,” says Miles. “I said, it’s not a problem; in fact, let’s make a virtue of it’.”
A poster image for Outward Films’ thriller Your Sin
Maria says: “The whole concept of the film is to consider how much should an actor say No to something; how much is the actor’s responsibility for their safety and wellbeing if they’re not comfortable with doing something? How much autonomy do they have? How much pressure are they under to say Yes all the time?”
Filming on iPhone has its advantages and one disadvantage. “The biggest problem is running out of storage,” says Miles. “But filming on iPhone is way more accessible. Everyone has a film camera in their pocket – even my mum has one and she’s 80. If you can learn how to use these things, anyone can make a film.
“Using an iPhone makes film-making very liberating, where I’m more in control than working with a cameraman.”
Maria takes on the role of producer for Outward Films’ next iPhone feature film, Drop Dead!, a horror mystery that “looks back to 1999 with its promise of cinematic DIY freedom that’s experiencing a renaissance in 2026”.
Your Sin’s principal cast and production team in tandem at York Theatre Royal
“We start production for film number two in Harrogate in under a week’s time, with the last day of filming set for September 8 after two blocks of three-day shoots,” says director Miles, who has written the script with Alan Melikdjanian.
The cast will include Tom Mordell, Juné Tiamatakorn and York Theatre Royal pantomime star Tommy Carmichael in the tale of six friends deciding to capitalise on the DIY filmmaking boom in 1999 by making their own horror movie, but the forces of evil have other ideas.
Tous Love Me, directed by Victor Claramunt, showing at the Aesthetica Short Film Festival 2023
FIVE days of short films lead off a week long on Latin pop and school rock musicals, plus science and sticks, dance moves and festive designs, as Charles Hutchinson reports.
Festival of the week: Aesthetica Short Film Festival, York city centre, November 8 to 12
THE 13th edition of York’s Aesthetica Short Film Festival combines 300 films and 15 venues in a five-day showcase of worldwide independent film that champions emerging creative talent.
Guest programmes explore the climate crisis, Black British cinema and LGBTQ+ experiences. Look out too for the Aesthetica Games Lab, in celebration of video game culture, plus multiple masterclasses, networking sessions, kids’ workshops, AI workshops and the VR Lab’s selection of 360 (degree) and immersive film experiences. York residents can save 50 per cent each day with the York Days Discount. Full programme and tickets: asff.co.uk.
Shower After Swimming, linocut by Anita Klein, from the Comfort And Joy exhibition at Pyramid Gallery, York
Exhibition launch of the week: Comfort And Joy, Pyramid Gallery, Stonegate, York, November 4, 11am to 3pm, until mid-January 2024
PYRAMID Gallery’s Christmas show, Comfort And Joy, combines paintings, prints, ceramics, sculpture and glass. Look out for needlepoint by Dinny Pocock, jewellery by Joy McMillan and sculpture by Paul Smith, Lynn Muir, Helen Martino, Peter Hayes, Eva Mileusnic, Gwen Vaughan, Fidelma Massey and Louise Connell, among others.
On show too will be paintings and original prints by Sarah Williams, Anita Klein, Lesley Birch, Eliza Southwood, Emma Whitelock, Trevor Price, Mychael Barratt and Hilke Macintyre, porcelain origami by Kate Buckley, plus glass by Keith Cummings, E&M Glass, Hannah Gibson, Tracey Knowles, Will Shakspeare, Morag Reekie, Jo Kenny and more besides. Attending today’s launch will be Smith, Birch, McMillan, Whitelock and Knowles.
York illustrator Elliot Harrison
Inspired event: York Artists & Designer Makers’ Annual Christmas Show, York Cemetery Chapel, Cemetery Road, York, November 4 and 5, 10am to 5pm
YORK artists and designers return to York Cemetery Chapel this weekend for their Inspired festive showcase. Adrienne French will be exhibiting paintings; Jo Bagshaw and Richard Whitelegg, jewellery; Elliot Harrison, illustrations; Catherine Boyne-Whitelegg, pottery; John Watts and Wilf Williams, furniture; Petra Bradley, textiles; Sally Clarke, prints, and Simon Palmour, photography.
Safia Bartley’s Filomina in Tutti Frutti and One Tenth Human’s The Lightbulb Princess at York Theatre Royal
Science show of the week: Tutti Frutti and One Tenth Human in The Lightbulb Princess, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, November 5, 2pm
LEEDS company Tutti Frutti Productions and Lancaster’s One Tenth Human team up for a magical, fun-filled 50-minute extravaganza for children aged four and upwards that explores the science behind electricity.
Kai’s sister Ray is determined that Mum will enjoy a perfect Christmas. It may be way too early, but already she has Kai and Ali hunting everywhere for decorations. When they find tree-top sparkly fairy Filomina, an unexpected adventure begins, one where they will need your help in a show full of electrifying storytelling and original songs. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Anton Du Beke: Chat and cha cha cha at York Theatre Royal
Song and dance of the week: An Evening With Anton Du Beke And Friends, York Theatre Royal, November 6, 7.30pm
STRICTLY Come Dancing legend and judge Anton Du Beke sashays into York with his live band, guest singer Lance Ellington and dancers for a fab-u-lous evening of song, dance and laughter. The ballroom king will be combining songs and dances that have inspired him with behind-the-scenes stories from his many years on Strictly. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
La Bamba! leaps into the air at Grand Opera House, York, from Tuesday. Picture: Pamela Raith
New musical of the week: La Bamba!, Grand Opera House, York, Tuesday to Saturday, 7.30pm; Wednesday and Saturday, 2.30pm
NOT to be confused with the 1987 film of the same name or Richie Valens’ teenage hit from 1958, La Bamba! is a new musical fiesta of passion, pride and Latin pop anthems starring Strictly Come Dancing champion Pasha Kovalev, The Wanted’s Siva Kaneswaran and rising star Inês Fernandez, choreographed by Strictly’s Graziano Di Prima.
Follow young Los Angeles dreamer Sofia as she takes her first steps toward stardom and witnesses the power of music to unite communities. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Stick Man: Freckle Productions head to York Theatre Royal with Julia Donaldson’s story
Children’s show of the week: Freckle Productions in Stick Man, York Theatre Royal, Tuesday, 4.30pm; Wednesday, 10.30am, 1.30pm and 4.30pm
WHAT begins as a morning jog becomes a misadventure for Stick Man: a dog wants to play Fetch, a swan builds a nest with him, and he even ends up atop a fire. How will Stick Man return to the family tree in time for Christmas?
Adapting Julia Donaldson’s book, Freckle Productions combine puppetry, songs, live music and funky moves in the 55-minute performance. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Emma Dickinson and Jonny Holbek rehearsing with the York Light Youth ensemble for the York amateur premiere of School Of Rock
Are you ready to rock?York Light Youth in School Of Rock, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, Wednesday to Saturday, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Saturday matinee
YORK Light Youth’s tenth anniversary show is the York premiere of the technically and musically challenging musical School Of Rock, combining young performers aged ten to 17 and York Light Opera Company adults.
Based on the 2003 film, the storyline follows Jonny Holbek’s Dewey Finn, a failed wannabe rock star, who vows to turn his clueless prep school students into a rock band to enter Battle of the Bands. Along the way, Dewey finds romance, self-worth, a proper job, while initiating the children and their parents in the beauty of rock. Box office: josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Recommended but fully booked
QUEEN of British soul Beverley Knight’s York Barbican concert on Thursday has sold out, as has indie pop trio Scouting For Girls’ gig there the next night.
In Focus:Gigs of the week: Teenage Fanclub on tour in Leeds and Sheffield with new album Nothing Lasts Forever in tow
Teenage Fanclub: Heading for Leeds and Sheffield on tour. Picture: Donald Milne
GLASGOW indie legends Teenage Fanclub follow up September’s release of 11th full-length studio album Nothing Lasts Forever with a 12-date November tour, taking in Yorkshire gigs in Leeds on Wednesday (sold out) and Sheffield on November 12
On songs looking for positives while faced with the grim realities of the 21st century, songwriters and guitarists Raymond McGinley and Norman Blake are joined by Francis Macdonald on drums, Dave McGowan on bass and Euros Childs on keyboards.
Light is a recurring theme, both as a metaphor for hope and as an ultimate destination further down the road. That said, although McGinley and Blake found themselves covering similar ground, it was pure coincidence.
McGinley says:“We never talk about what we’re going to do before we start making a record. We don’t plan much other than the nuts and bolts of where we’re going to record and when.
“That thing about light was completely accidental; we didn’t realise that until we’d finished half the songs. The record feels reflective, and I think the more we do this thing, the more we become comfortable with going to that place of melancholy, feeling and expressing those feelings.”
Blake reflects: “These songs are definitely personal. You’re getting older, you’re going into the cupboard getting the black suit out more often. Thoughts of mortality and the idea of the light must have been playing on our minds a lot.
“The songs on the last record were influenced by the break-up of my marriage. It was cathartic to write those songs. These new songs are reflective of how I’m feeling now, coming out of that period.
“They’re fairly optimistic, there’s an acceptance of a situation and all of the experience that comes with that acceptance. When we write, it’s a reflection of our lives, which are pretty ordinary.
“We’re not extraordinary people, and normal people get older. There’s a lot to write about in the mundane. I love reading Raymond Carver. Very often there’s not a lot that happens in those stories, but they speak to lived experience.”
While the vocals and finishing touches on Nothing Lasts Forever were added at McGinley’s place in Glasgow, the music was recorded in an intense ten-day period in the bucolic Welsh countryside at Rockfield Studios, near Monmouth, in late August.
This environment led to a record full of soft breezes, wide skies, beauty and space. “We like to get something out of where we go, and you can definitely hear a stamp of Rockfield on the record,” says McGinley.
“We recorded our album Howdy there in the late ’90s. Prior to that, I’d been a bit reluctant to go as everyone seemed to record there, especially if you were signed to Creation, but I thought I’d go and have a look at the place. “
McGinley continues: “When I went down there, I loved the fact that there’s no memorabilia about anyone who’s ever been in the studio. The only visual musical reference is a picture of [pioneering space age record producer} Joe Meek on their office wall.
Teenage Fanclub’s artwork for their 11th studio album, Nothing Lasts Forever
“Anyway, over 20 years after our first visit, we decided to go back. When you’re there, it feels like your place. We’re really rubbish at trying to find words to describe how our music sounds, but maybe because we recorded in Rockfield in late summer, there’s something pastoral about the record.”
Blake, McGinley, Macdonald, McGowan and Childs arrived at the residential studio without a fixed plan. Their confidence and ease with working together meant the record came together quickly.
McGinley says: “When we got offered ten days in Rockfield, we weren’t ready in our minds but then we just thought, ‘**** it’ and went for it. If you’re sitting around waiting for the stars to align, you can end up never doing anything. We turned up and worked our way through ideas, and came up with some while we were there.
“The song Foreign Land was born in the studio. If we hadn’t gone there at that point through happenstance, that song wouldn’t exist. We like to let things happen. As people, we find a deadline inspiring. We like to put ourselves on the spot and see what happens. We usually get away with it. This record is the cliche of the blank canvas, which thankfully we managed to fill.”
Blake adds:“We’ve all been playing together for such a long time. In the past, whoever had written the song would have been the director. ‘This is how I’m hearing the drums, if you could play the bass like this’…We don’t do that now.
“Raymond or myself would just bring in the idea and people would listen and play what works with it. We’d play for a couple of hours and that would be the arrangement. There’s a trust that comes from knowing each other such a long time, a kind of telepathy. Everyone knows where they fit in the puzzle.”
The seven-minute acoustic closing track, I Will Love You, looks to a point beyond the fury and polarisation of our modern discourse, to a time when“the bigots are gone/after they apologise/for all the harm that they’ve done”.
McGinley says: “In many ways, us-and-them-ism has taken over the world. I Will Love You is looking for positivity but it’s being totally fatalistic at the same time. This s**t will exist forever, what are you going to do about it?
“I came up with the line ‘I will love you/until the flags are put down/and the exceptionalists are buried under the ground’ while I was playing the guitar. I started wondering what that was all about and where it might go. It’s looking for positives within a fatalistic, negative view of human nature.”
The full track listing is: Foreign Land; Tired Of Being Alone; I Left A Light On; See The Light; It’s Alright; Falling Into The Sun; Self-Sedation; Middle Of My Mind; Back To The Light and I Will Love You.
Teenage Fanclub play Leeds Brudenell Social Club, Wednesday, doors 7.30pm, sold out; Leadmill, Sheffield, November 12, 7.30pm. Support comes from Sweet Baboo. Box office for Sheffield: leadmill.co.uk.
Special screening: Zomblogalypse, South Bank Community Cinema, Clements Hall, Nunthorpe Road, York, November 17, 8pm
The poster for November 17’s screening of Milestone Films’ Zomblogalypse at South Bank Community Cinema
MANY Zomblogalypse cast and crew members will be in attendance to introduce the screening and discuss the York-made zombie comedy in a Q&A afterwards, following its release by Dark Rift Films, the York film company behind festival crowd-pleaser How To Kill Monsters.
Zomblogalypse co-director Miles Watts says: “We love screening Zomblog with an audience because it’s got that trashy late-night Rocky Horror vibe. Usually it’s a bit tough to watch your own films with a crowd of people because all you see is the mistakes.
“But Zomblog is a different beast because this year marks the 15th anniversary of the original web series that launched this whole thing, and we’ve always had an appreciative and supportive fanbase.”
The cast includes Watts and his Milestone Films co-directors Hannah Bungard and Tony Hipwell, as well as seasoned York actors Victoria Delaney, Andrina Carroll and Dinnerladies’ Andrew Dunn.
Look out for a flash sale of film merchandise including posters and blu-rays of the film, with details of special discounts on the Zomblogalypse Facebook page. Tickets cost £4 on the door from 7:30pm.
Everything stops for zombie: Zomblogalypse filmmakers Hannah Bungard, Tony Hipwell and Miles Watts
ZOMBLOGALYPSE filmmakers Miles Watts, Hannah Bungard and Tony Hipwell are holding Zomblog Zero Day today for all zombie movie enthusiasts.
“Zomblog fun is coming on Tuesday, all day,” they say on Twitter. “Zomblog is the series we shot that serves as a prequel to the web series and indeed the movie [Zomblogalypse], and a sort of reboot. A prebootquel, if you will. We move with the times.”
For Zomblog Zero Day, these cult York filmmakers will be posting all six Zomblog episodes at Facebook.com/Zomblogalypse and commenting below each one. “We’re encouraging you to watch and ask us anything,” they say. “We’ll also be posting outtakes and surprises along the way. Join us!”
Watts, Bungard and Hipwell are purveyors of a “cult zombie-blog-apocalypse-web-comedy-horror-series and now a big silly movie for 2020”.
