Hopes Falklands War veterans film shot in Bridgnorth will be shown on BBC
For Myles Petford, directing his first-ever feature film at the age of 24 was a dream come true.
Now, two years later, Myles is in talks with the BBC to get the film, ‘Falklands Square’ shown as part of the BBC’s Falkland anniversary content next year.
Myles is a second director on BBC’s Casualty after getting his big break in the industry but it was a couple of years ago, straight out of his film production course at the University of West London and in a dull internship, that he had a phone call that changed his life.
While at university, Myles, from Bridgnorth, made a short film called Cole which garnered a bit of buzz around it, especially for a student film.
He was approached by Great British Entertainment to direct a film based on the aftermath of a veteran returning from the Falklands War, which they were trying to secure funding for.
It hadn’t all been plain sailing. After university, Myles went through a tough break up and had moved to Canada to start an internship at 21st Century Fox in Vancouver, which didn’t turn out to be what he expected.
“It sounded amazing,” Myles said. “But when I got there it was converting film rolls to digital. I had moved to the other side of the world and it just wasn’t what I expected.
“Luckily there was an opportunity for someone to work in the kit room at Vancouver Studios and I did that, started talking to people there and three weeks later I was the driver for George Clooney and was on production sets and it all sky-rocketed. I had a final call from the producer here in the UK saying they got funding for the Falklands film and my dream just became a reality by making my first feature film at the age of 24.”
He added: “The film is about a veteran from the Falklands who is kind of trapped in a vicious circle of coming home and being homeless, and then if you’re homeless you can’t get a job without a bank account and you can’t really get one without a home address. The story is about his dog getting poorly and him trying to afford vet care, his PTSD and mental health in general.
“On the biggest budget films, you have about 10,000 members of crew. For us, we had about 95 of us including post-production teams. We shot some scenes in Bridgnorth as well as London and Portsmouth. It was a 28-day shoot, and was quite hardcore. It was so fun to actually make it happen though.
“The film went into post-production and then Covid hit so in March last year we had to stop as all the studios and everything closed. Then I got a job this year at the BBC as a director so I have been building up contacts to try and get the film on the BBC next year.”
Parts of Bridgnorth were used to shoot some scenes, though Myles is keeping quiet on where exactly in his home town they filmed, with some scenes also shot at David Austin Roses in Albrighton. Myles and his team are now trying to fundraise to get the final pieces of the film finished and to enter it into film festivals, which creators have to pay for.
He said: “We need to raise £10,000 to complete the film and hopefully submit it to film festivals and so we are asking for help to raise that.
“If people donate there are different rewards, like merchandise or tickets to a screening.”
Myles said he absolutely loves his role on Casualty and is hoping this will only be the start of his film career.
To donate to the fundraiser visit indiegogo.com/projects/falkland-square-feature-film
