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The making of ASSUMPTION

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At BIAFF 2012 Alfie Barker won  a 5 Star Award, Best British Young Film-maker and Best Entry in the Under 16 Age Category with Assumption.

In all films we watch today, we are always trying to get to the end of the story and trying to predict the end before it is all told. I hope that my film shows that you're not always right when you try to assume the ending.

The idea for this came from a film I watched at Leeds Young People's Film Festival (www.leedsyoungfilm.com) last year, called My First Movie. It is a documentary that shows young children in Afghanistan watching film for the first time. My inspiration came from a boy in the background throwing a paper aeroplane on the banks of a steep and dangerous valley. It was at that moment I almost began to imagine what this film would look like.

I don't really like to give much of my film away if you haven't already seen it. So if you haven't done so, please watch it now.

      Opening title.       Jordan Brown and Alfie Barker.
At Leeds Young People's Film Festival
      Filming in the car park.
Filming in the car park

Additional Info

It took a while to actually get consent to film in the NCP car-park as I had to get written permission from the council. This is a very low-budget film, in fact I had no-budget at all. The whole production took around a month and the shooting took about four days.

About me

I began filmmaking in 2004, when I was 8 years old after taking part in a stop-motion animation workshop as part of the Leeds Young People's Film Festival, inspired by Wallace and Gromit (www.wallaceandgromit.com). Nick Park (creator of Wallace and Gromit) saw the film and he wrote to me saying how much he liked it. This made me more determined to make even better films and to become somebody like him. I am now a member of Mediafish who present and help organize the Leeds Young People's Film Festival every year and have been involved since the age of 9.

Comments on this Film

From a recent screening in New York as part of the Epiphany Children's Film Festival (www.epiphanychildrensfilmfestival.com): "The audience's reaction was wonderful and you received the longest and most enthusiastic applause of the evening."

Shane Meadows (Director of This is England): "I honestly thought it was a really touching film. Very restrained (which is rare!) yet poetic"

Alfie Barker
Watch more of Alfie's films at www.alfiebarker.com


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Page updated on 28 April 2012
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