This Carlton Scroop director filmed his latest project in the Grantham area and screening it at the Savoy Cinema
A young director is screening his latest film at a Grantham cinema.
Oscar Hewitt, 22, is from Carlton Scroop and will share his latest project, A Van Called Muriel, at the Savoy Cinema on Thursday September 7 at 7pm.
The film tells the story of four aspiring musicians who embark on a chaotic road trip as they struggle to make it to their first ever gig.
In 2021, Oscar’s short film, Happy Together, was a winner in the Best Short Film on a Global Pandemic category at the The London Arthouse Film Festival.
A Van Called Muriel is the first film that Oscar has created and directed through production company ‘Jacco Macacco Films’, which he established with three friends that he met while studying film-making at the London Film Academy in Fulham.
The 50-minute long film was shot in the Grantham area last summer over four days, which Oscar described as “really intense”.
It only cost the group around £300 to make the film, with much of the costs going on hard-drives to back up the footage.
The writing process of A Van Called Muriel was shared by the four people that run ‘Jacco Macacco Films’, Sara Beshiri, Jude Crook, Gus Herbert-Muller and Oscar, who directed. Gus and Jude also have acting roles and are joined in the cast by Rheanna Trueman and Travis Cullum.
“We wanted to get it written as soon as possible because we knew we wanted to film it over the summer holidays, so we all came up with the beats of the film together,” Oscar explained.
“Then each went off and wrote the scenes we’d chosen, then came back together and merged it all to make it cohesive.
“It was the first time I’d worked like that, but it was quite interesting really.
“It’s a film about a folk band travelling across Lincolnshire. If you live locally to Grantham, expect to see a lot of places that you recognise.
“We wanted it to be set in the countryside. My dad happened to have a campervan, so we just wrote for what we had and would be able to film with. It’s a gorgeous environment in the outskirts of Grantham. It was the perfect backdrop for the film.
“We’ve got some scenes in the town centre, at the antique store, and a lot of stuff inside a van on my parents’ drive!”
When asked what other films had inspired A Van Called Muriel, Oscar said: “We tried not to be inspired by anything necessarily, because we wanted to make something that we hadn’t really seen before and we were going for this absurdist, whimsical comedy, and there’s not loads of them out there, strangely.
“A film that we watched after we made it, was ‘Frank’ by Lenny Abrahamson.
“That’s an incredible film and if I’d seen it beforehand, I think I would’ve drawn very heavy inspiration from that, but luckily I didn’t.”
With the film focusing on the fortunes of a folk band, the music was important for the filmmakers.
One song that is played by the band in the film, called Swimming Stars, will be released on Spotify later in the year.
Oscar said: “It’s all original music. We’ve got a really brilliant composer on board called Isabel Woodings, who is studying at Guildhall. She’s done a great job with the score.”
Having shot the film locally, Oscar wanted to show it in Lincolnshire and eventually ended up at an 185-seater screen in the Grantham Savoy.
He said: “I was just reaching out to a lot of different cinemas, mainly independent ones, trying to get quotes for a screening, because it felt like a perfect farewell for the film to show it on the big screen to as many people as possible.
“I knew I wanted to show it in Lincolnshire and there’s only so many cinemas nearby. Savoy were really kind in giving us a fair quote.”
Tickets start from £5 and can be purchased here. Any money raised from the screening will be used for future projects.
Oscar and the team at Jacco Macacco Films have recently made a second film, called Saving Penelope. It is a spoof heist film, and is due to release at Christmas.
