A FILM, shot and created in Westbury, is to be screened all over the world – to the delight of the three local film-makers who made it.
Westbury director John Wheeler, Westbury producer Laurence Williams, and Freshford actor Aaron Long of Music Box Films spent 17 months making their film, The Last Road, in Westbury. Locations featured in the film include White Horse Country Park, the White Horse, and Westbury’s High Street, and over the past months they have welcomed local people as extras while benefiting from their support.
Now, the group is in the process of signing contracts which will see the film distributed on DVD, pay-per-view, and TV worldwide.
Producer Laurence Will-iams said, “We’ve got an agent/distributor in New York, and several in London wanting to take it further. The company in the States that I’ve been talking to has 119 million viewers – even if only a small percentage choose to watch the film that’s a lot of million people! Then there’s the rest of the world, so it’s very exciting at the moment! It could be worth millions, we don’t know until it’s out there.
“It’s very difficult to get your first film out, some distributors want big names before they look at a film.”
Described as an action thriller, the film follows the main character, a fighter, who dies in the ring and follows his journey into the afterlife.
Laurence explains, “Everything was filmed in Westbury! We spent five months on a set at the White Horse Country Park, the fight scene is in Dilton Marsh, the rest is the streets of Westbury and pubs and clubs. The Christmas light-switch on is in the movie. You can’t miss Westbury, and we’re also doing a documentary about the making of the film.”
With the film created from a tiny budget, Laurence, John and Aaron had to scrape to get by and characters were contracted to be paid on a percentage basis once the money starts coming in.
Laurence explains, “We actually made this film in 17 months with £9,000. That’s never been done before. We spent it mainly on cameras, computers, and software. Myself, Aaron, and John were skint, but you just keep going. I sent one of the distributors a trailer and he said he thought we’d spent £150,000-£200,000, I said no, nine grand!
“Our idea was to show people we’re ordinary people who can manage to do this. It totally destroyed us, physically, mentally, emotionally, and it’s all paid off.
“Once the contracts are signed we will show the film in local pubs and hopefully the council offices. We want to thank everyone who helped in the film.”
You can view the trailer by searching for “The Last Road official trailer” on youtube. Music Box Films hope that the film will be available to the public by the end of October, while work on their next two films is already under way.
