Irene Ng plays the sniper in the film. She is a British Chinese actress, who has worked internationally on varies production in Film, TV and Theatre. Notably she was Lead Supporting actress to Pierce Brosnan and Ewan McGregor in feature films “Nightwatch” and “Rogue Trader” respectively.

One of the key screenings was at the Shanghai International film festival. I had the privilege of being there for the screening. After the film there was a Q&A for the audience and press to ask questions. It was great to see the impact of the film on a very different culture.

Derelict was selected to be screened at the Singapore International Film Festival. It was shown as part of their well-loved International Shorts programme.

The Macau International Movie Festival screened DERELICT. The organizers said it was a great movie, and were honoured to be able to screen the film to a broader audience.

The Stepping Stones Film Festival, Bengaluru screened DERELICT. They were grateful for  it’s involvement in the festival.

Clyde Taber (Visual Storytelling Network) loved the film, he was a massive fan of the opening sequence…He kept saying ‘Lovin’ the parkour, man!’.  After watching DERELICT, he gave some advice on where he thinks it could be screened. He like the film so much that he introduced us to other film makers in LA.

We had an interesting conversation with Ralph Winter (X-Men, Planet of the Apes) in a beautiful LA restaurant about the power of cinema. Ralph shared his thoughts on DERELICT, he was hugely positive about it. He told us it has great production values with a powerful story. We also spoke about the state and direction of the film industry today.

We enjoyed a personal tour around Paramount Studios with producer Vicki Perez (American Judy). We did our best to avoid becoming unintentional extras on TV series.

We met Hudson Hickman (MacGyver) at the MGM tower, walking through rooms lined with oscars. Hudson said; “It’s an excellent film, beautifully made in every respect; the script, the acting, the camera movement, direction, locations, lighting and sound. So it’s a really beautiful made film, and the film stands on it’s own.

We joined Justin Bell (Away We Go, Our Family Wedding) outside a cafe for a coffee. He watched our film, and enjoyed it a lot. He opened us up to a network of film makers called Act One. We had a great time talking with Terence Berry (That Evening Sun, The Interview) who runs the organization, about future project ideas. We watched DERELICT in the M-Power offices with Seth David Mitchell (Roshambo), he thought the film was great. We also met with Ian Eyre (Spider-Man 3, Star Trek), we watched each others films. Ian loved DERELICT, particularly the stunt sequences at the start.

Gavin Scott (Borrowers, Small Soldiers, Young Indiana Jones) watched DERELICT in his quintessentially English home. We chatted with Gavin in his office just above his room dedicated to classic toys. His review of the film – “It’s an extraordinary piece of work, it’s exciting, it’s superbly shot and directed. It’s a brilliant piece of production design, editing all the qualities of film making you are looking for. An amazing achievement from the film makers.”

Just before returning to London on the plane, we met with David Oyelowo (Spooks, The Last King of Scotland, Rise of the Planet of the Apes) . He said “I’ve just had the privilege of watching DERELICT, fantastically well shot great performances, really high production values. I do not know how they managed to stretch the budget. I was really impressed by the quality of the film making. The director of this could easily work on a TV series like Spooks.”

DERELICT was also screened at The Other Venice Film Festival, LA. One of the writers of the film, John Lumgair (Quirky Motion), attended the festival. The film had a great audience reception. One of the audience members is a prominent LA producer, who came especially to view the film.

You can view the trailer here…

Owen Peters is probably one of the nicest blokes in the world, and happens to be behind the sound design for Derelict. Owen came onboard through the Production Designer, as they have worked together on numerous projects before.

Owen is from deepest darkest Wales, and rumour says he was raised by wild bears. Apparently he would climb the highest mountains of Wales just so he could better understand silence. Owen had a lot of enthusiasm for the project, and worked hard to capture the changing sound level the actor’s performances brought.

I was always surprised by Owen’s ability to hold his recording gear, boom mic and still have a cup of tea at the same time. Owen was also involved in the sound mix, and layered up a great sound canvas. He mixed the sound at Molinare Studios for the final sound mix, making use of the rich depth of sound and the immense score.

I first met Matt Streatfield the Editor through another film maker called Francis Annan (Woyzeck). For almost a decade, Matt has been working as an assistant editor for a number of well known projects such as Atonement, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Calendar Girls. I immediately liked Matt, and shared a similar world view and approach to film.

Matt began the edit at the end of the first day of shooting. After the shoot I popped around to his studio which over looks the Greenland Quay. I could see that he had a clear idea of where I wanted the film to go. During rendering and exporting we would sit on the balcony and observe the life of the Greenland Quay while drinking tea beneath the sunshine.

This is the final day of shooting. We managed to get through all the shots on the shot list today. There was some very heavy acting, particularly with the penultimate sequence of the film. We have three very powerful lead actors. Despite the rush, we managed to get the film competed reasonably on time, before the location people released the hounds. We also had great food. This is a rare thing on any film set, the food was provided by a lovely couple from a local pub. There were a lot of smiles and full bellies!

I felt like the cast and crew were hugely talented and massively friendly. They managed to get on well the whole week. Today was an emotional time, with genuine sadness that they won’t be working the next day.

We were all very thankful for the cast and crew we worked with. There is a very powerful vision to the is film, and I felt privileged to be part of that, and being able to tell this story.

My big concern was the rush to shoot the final scene. We had an hour to set up all the shots and clear the scene of all the unwanted elements. We over ran by a few moments, but we were able to stall the location man from realizing we were still on set by our Producer sharing a conversation about the history of engines and water pumps with him. Thanks Luke! There was lots of good feedback on the way it looks, and the performance of the cast. The editor was very excited about the footage he was receiving. Despite being a challenging shooting day, it was a positive time.

Tuesday held a heavy schedule, and I felt like we achieved less today compared to the previous day.

It was the first day at the warehouse location. The budget could only afford for us to be there between 9 am and 5 pm. For every hour over, we would be charged a triple figure fine. We needed the morning to set up time for production design, art direction and lighting.

We started shooting in the afternoon, so there was lots of pressure. We were all set up for the next day’s shoot.

Today was one of the most complicated days because of the difficult shots and stunts involved, but it went extremely well. Many of the cast and crew were meeting and working with each other for the first time. People providentially got on well, and we were blessed with a talented and friendly bunch of people. We kept to the shot list, and left the day with only a couple of injuries. I l looked forward to the week ahead.