‘Ssh!’ is a short, silent, comedy superhero film made by young people in the North Lincolnshire area. It was produced by Shooting Fish and Blueprint: Film Foundation for First Light Movies.

We’re making two films with young people under 11, based on their ideas:

When Worlds Collide

What happens when you don’t know if you’re dreaming anymore? What would you do if the things you can do in a dream were possible in real life? What would happen in if you couldn’t wake up?

When Worlds Collide will be an experimental film that explores the line between awake and asleep and what happens when we can’t tell the difference. At the start the joy of being able to do anything will mean our character(s) will experiment and have fun, but it soon becomes obvious that others can be in the dreams and sometimes you can’t control them. The film will use that moment when you realise you’re dreaming and wake yourself up, and initially the character wont be able to, and will have to try and find a different way out of the dream. The character will believe they have left the dream but as ore and more strange things happen it will become clear this is not reality. The film will end with the character being woken by another who had heard their cries and assumed they were having a nightmare.

Ideas from younger children will be incorporated to build the strange dream landscape, such as people being filled with air and floating away, or the ability to grow huge in seconds to scare away things that frighten you.

What is that Sound?

Taking the wonders of physical comedy and exploring their use with sound and no dialogue, this film will be a funny, frantic and silly slapstick comedy. The film will centre around something quite normal, such as getting ready for school or having dinner. This normal event will be sent in chaos when everything starts to go wrong. Taking inspiration from the comic timing and wonder of films by Buster Keaton or Charlie Chaplin (especially the machines that are supposed to make life easier) the film will exaggerate the characters difficulties in the simplest of tasks and the soundscape will take noises out of their original meaning to add further comedy to the visual images. This film will have no dialogue but will have sounds and music. It may have word slides (like in old silent movies) but this might not be necessary and will be decided during the project.

Broken Sleep is an experimental short film made by young people in the North Lincolnshire area. It was produced by Shooting Fish and Blueprint: Film Foundation for First Light Movies.

Robots don’t feel. Why pretend they do?

Well, what if they could? Working with the Centre for the Study of Human Emotion, Shooting Fish have been exploring the ways we learn and communicate emotion and the impact this has on our understanding of our world. Working with theatre, dance and physical theatre performers and the research team at the Centre, we are examining how to explore human emotional interaction on stage and how we can use The Robot as a space to project these ideas.

In association with The Wellcome Trust, The Centre for the Study of Emotion and Lincoln Drill Hall

Shooting Fish have undertaken a number of creative partnerships projects, and most recently we’re working with New Holland Primary and Archbishop Sentamu Academy.

Working with young people from the Youth Centre in Grantham, Laura is helping them develop their first ever radio play.

The group will lead on all roles, writing, directing, sound effects, editing, recording and everything else and we’re really excited about out newest venture!

The group will record the play at the studios of Siren FM, Lincoln University’s Radio Station and the podcast will be available to downlaod here as soon as it’s available!

Download Podcast

Written, produced, recorded and edited the young people at Grantham Youth Centre, Mentored by Shooting Fish Theatre Company and Siren FM.

With thanks to Mediabox.

Mediabox is delivered by a consortium led by First Light and Media Trust in partnership with Skillset and the UK Film Council.

An Evening on Pinter (2009)

In the summer of 2009 Shooting Fish were comissioned by the Lit.com team to produce one of Harold Pinter’s plays for their 2009 festival. Unsure of which of the many greats to tackle, they got to talking about what it was they felt was so appealing about Pinter’s work, even more resonant since his death in late 2008. Eventually they came to the conclusion that they would like to explore a range of his works and examine how audiences engage with the material. They wanted to examine this ‘comedy of menace’ and try to look past the ‘Pinteresque’ world of academic and high brow criticism to see what it was that made his work so popular with the everyman. They explored his texts, his critics, his own words and the words of those who knew and worked with him. It was the result of this exploration that became the final production.

2009 saw Shooting Fish manage the Arts Forum Festival for the fourth year running. Once again we saw a mix of local and national talent showcasing itself to audiences across the region, and the collaboration with Cleethorpes Jazz Weekend proved a great hit with audiences across the country. Highlights included a rare local performance from Martin Simpson and a chaotic and entertaining short production of Billy Goats Gruff from Shooting Fish. You can check out all of the last year’s events here and sign up to the mailing list to keep right up to date with what’s happening next.

Shooting Fish have managed the funding and delivery of the Arts Forum Festival for 4 years since 2006.