Students give it extra effort for movie trailer filming

Hundreds of students from the University of Northampton answered the call from a film company to star in a movie trailer.

Local social enterprise film company Screen Northants is planning to shoot a feature film, and the first stage of production was to create a teaser trailer.

Two hundred Media and Acting students joined members of the public and local film professionals on a movie set in Northampton’s Cultural Quarter, on Sunday 2 October, for the filming of the trailer for the musical Veto’d.

Written by local writer Suzanna Storey and directed by Screen Northants’ Paul Mills, Veto’d is a British High School Musical-style film. For the trailer they shot the film’s first musical number, Let Me Introduce Myself, in Guildhall Road.

Veto’d follows a diverse group of students as they navigate a journey of friendship through a year of university. Tackling ideas of beauty, identity, purpose and belonging, can they find unity in diversity?

Becky Adams, Director of Screen Northants said: “We are so excited to show off Northamptonshire, its talent and locations, and give local professionals, aspiring actors and the Northants public the chance to work on a feature film in their home town. The students who came to the shoot to be extras were amazing and we’ve had such a positive response from everyone, local businesses and young people alike. Now we’re concentrating on raise the finance to make the feature soon.”

Based in the Grosvenor Centre, Screen Northants is a film production company, with an emphasis on Community, as well as an agency for the promotion of Northamptonshire to the film industry and to develop talent in the county. Screen Northants has received a small grant from the Big Lottery Fund to support this event. Once the trailer has been filmed and the film’s budget raised, Screen Northants will shoot the film in Northamptonshire, providing jobs and work experience opportunities for local people, including students from the University, as cast and crew.

Watch ITV Anglia’s television news report on the filming, including interviews with our students.