Narrative Work

Alongside freelance camera and drone work, I’ve occasionally been involved in narrative film projects. These have mostly been passion productions created for the challenge, the experience and the enjoyment of making something unusual rather than commercial productions, and each one came about in slightly unexpected circumstances with very enthusiastic collaborators.

South of Sanity

South of Sanity is the first fictional feature film ever made in Antarctica, filmed and edited during an overwintering season at Rothera Research Station while working for the British Antarctic Survey.

The project began purely as a way to entertain ourselves during the seven-month Antarctic winter. With 21 people living on base and nowhere to go, the station doctor wrote a slasher script set on the base itself. None of us were actors, which actually worked in our favour. After months of living together 24 hours a day, everyone was completely relaxed around each other and surprisingly willing to be murdered on camera.

Filming happened in spare time during evenings and weekends. It started with us inventing imaginative death scenes and then loosely stitching a storyline around them. Casting strategy was simple but effective: quietly kill off the weaker actors early and keep the strongest performers alive until the end.

The special effects department was cutting-edge in the most questionable way. Fake blood came from kitchen ingredients, gore effects came from a children’s paint set, and on one occasion “brains” were convincingly portrayed using bacon and blue food dye. Despite this elite level of improvisation, the results were often alarmingly realistic.

Antarctica turned out to be the perfect horror set without trying. It naturally provided isolation, extreme conditions, a confined cast of characters and absolutely no escape. I filmed, co-directed and edited the entire project on location, completing the film on the continent itself.

The film premiered in Antarctica before later screening in Scotland at Aviemore Cinema on Halloween. Two weeks before release, a BBC News article about it unexpectedly became the most-read story on the BBC website for a time, which led to radio and TV interviews, international press coverage and features across outlets including Time Magazine, as well as even appearing in the crossword of the Hindu Times in India.

It was never intended to be a serious production, just a creative survival tactic during a polar winter. That spirit of fun is exactly what makes it memorable.

South of Sanity is available to rent or buy online via Vimeo, and DVDs can also be purchased from the shop for collectors and anyone still proudly committed to physical media.

The Quest for the Golden Roll

The Quest for the Golden Roll was created for the first international Antarctic 48-Hour Film Festival, open to anyone overwintering on the continent, which meant roughly 1,000 people scattered across research stations from multiple nations suddenly became filmmakers.

Bases from all over Antarctica took part, including British, American, Ukrainian, Russian, Japanese, French, Italian, Australian and New Zealand stations. Each team had just 48 hours to write, shoot and edit a film while also including a list of required elements, some sensible, some gloriously ridiculous. One of them, naturally, was a toilet roll.

Our entry quickly turned into a full-base production. People jumped in as actors, camera operators, costume designers, sound-effect specialists and enthusiastic chaos coordinators. After months of Antarctic winter, everyone was more than ready for a creative distraction, and the result was a weekend of organised madness with cameras.

I shot much of the footage, let others take turns behind the lens, and then edited the final film together, adding sound design and finishing touches once the creative storm settled.

Against strong international competition, the film won three awards, including Best Film, which made our station disproportionately proud for a team that had just spent 48 hours making a cinematic quest centred around a toilet roll.

It’s still a crowd favourite whenever it’s shown and remains proof that teamwork, enthusiasm and a slightly absurd idea can be a very effective filmmaking formula.

Availability

Available for narrative productions as a camera operator, drone operator or aerial cinematographer across the UK and internationally.

Perfect View Productions Ltd — Company No. SC588785

Aviemore, Scotland, PH22

kirk@perfectviewproductions.co.uk | 01479 812739 | 07788 553559

Narrative filmmaker based in Scotland, available UK-wide and internationally.