Watch more of our videos on ShotsTV.com
and on Freeview 262 or Freely 565

An award-winning Worksop filmmaker has thanked his hometown for the generous donations that helped his team make their dreams a reality.

Harry Downing, of Appleby Court, Worksop, and his team have completed filming their short film ‘If We Be Friends’ ahead of schedule, which Harry says is all down to the ‘fantastic cast and crew’.

Police appeal as Worksop arsonist strikes again with new car fire

The team of 24 are all members of the National Youth Film Academy (NYFA) ‘SetReady’ Course and are scattered across the UK from Scotland to London.

The group came together through NYFA's SetReady programme.

They are well on track for the film’s premiere in mid-October at the NYFA’s event at the Odeon in Greenwich.

In June, film producer Harry and the rest of the team set up a Crowdfunder page to reach the film budget which many generous people across Worksop and beyond donated money to.

Harry, who is 24, said: “The contributions that everyone had made to us and our film were phenomenal.

“We were never under budget or going over budget or anything like that - we got exactly the amount that we needed.”

Harry Downing, the award-winning filmmaker from Worksop on the film set.

Through the pandemic, the team all planned their film through apps like Zoom before meeting for the first time for the week of filming in Greenwich in August.

Harry said: “It was just a wonderful experience meeting everybody and realising who's taller, who's smaller than we thought, and ‘oh my god, you're real’, and things like that.

“We all just jelled so quickly because we already knew a lot about each other to begin with.

Harry says his top three inspirations are Steven Spielberg, Christopher Nolan, and Damien Chazelle.

The team of 24 filmed a whopping 95 shots in just four days.

“My overall goal is to keep making films because that's what I love doing,” he added.

“We have all learned so much from it and so I’m hoping that I get to work with either the same people again, or through the processes that I've been taught through the National Film Academy, that I can reach out and make my own that way.

The NYFA’s SetReady premiere event is available for booking, and will take place at 11am-3pm on October 16 in Greenwich.

The event will be showing the 12 groups’ short films, including ‘If We Be Friends’.

You can watch the trailer here: https://www.nyfa.org.uk/setready-films/if-we-be-friends

Ready, set, action: Worksop filmmaker on track for October movie premiere as filming concluded