Red carpet premiere for thriller shot in North East

A feature film shot in the north-east of England has had its UK red carpet premiere on Teesside.

Jackdaw, the directing debut of County Durham filmmaker Jamie Childs, is a thriller that was shot around Hartlepool and the Tees Valley last year.

Earlier the cast and crew, including students and graduates from the Northern School of Art, attended its first showing at Showcase Cinema in Stockton.

Production design graduate Charlie Poole, from Saltburn, said he was thrilled the film had been made in the region.

The film tells the story of army veteran Jack Dawson, who returns home to look after his brother after his mother dies.

He takes on a job which he thinks will be straightforward, but instead it turns into an adrenalin-fuelled nightmare after he is double-crossed and his brother is kidnapped.

Meg Boyle, from Sedgefield, who worked on the film, is in the second year of a BA (Hons) Film, Television & Theatre Production degree.

She was employed as a supporting actor in a warehouse rave scene after responding to a casting call.

She said: “We danced for hours on end as the director ran through the different shots and later ran away from the ‘police’.

"The embarrassment of dancing with no music soon faded, as everyone really got into the role and gave it their all while raving away. The atmosphere was just unreal."

Lewis King, from Stonehaven, who graduated last year with a BA (Hons) Model Making & Visual FX degree, was offered the opportunity to be a set dresser on Jackdaw after working on some props for the production with a classmate.

“The locations themselves were quite challenging environments, being derelict, and we were working in October outside, but other than that I got stuck right in," he said.

Speaking at the premiere, Mr Childs said: "It was important to me to make the film in the North East.

"I'm from here, I still live here and I've grown up with all these locations on my doorstep.

"I've wanted to bring them to the cinema forever.

"We wanted to show filmmakers and people from our region, what we've got to offer here and what can be done here."

He added that the film did not have "masses of resources" and was on a "tight schedule", so being creative and picking the right locations was key.

Mr Child's said he picked to film scenes at Seal Sands in Stockton at night because it provided an almost "futuristic backdrop".

"It provided great production value for free at night," he added.

The film, which features an exclusive new track by Sam Fender, will be released in cinemas nationwide on 26 January.

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