The quickest way to kill a joke is often to act as though you know it is funny. Great comic characters rarely realise they are in a comedy. They are simply pursuing something they desperately want, responding to each setback with complete sincerity - even when everything around them is descending into chaos. For an actor, this requires discipline. The temptation is to underline the joke: to add a knowing look, exaggerate a reaction or signal to the audience that they are in o

We had the enormous pleasure of seeing Macadie last night as Elena in The Comedy About Spies - and she was absolutely brilliant, as we knew she would be. Funny, assured, graceful - and a performance peppered with impeccable timing - Macadie was magnetic and looked completely at home amid the production’s joyful, energetic chaos. Of course, we already knew how charismatic and talented she was. Macadie plays Kylie in our comedy short Little Help, bringing the same commitment, w

We live in an age of constant content. Every day, audiences scroll past trailers, livestreams, behind-the-scenes clips and long-form releases, often within the same few minutes. With so much competing for our attention, it would be easy to assume that shorter films have become disposable. In reality, the opposite is true. Short films still matter because they demand precision. There is no room for wasted moments, superfluous dialogue or explanation. Every frame must earn it

A location is never just somewhere to put the camera. In film, place shapes the rhythm of a scene, influences how characters move, and tells the audience something before a line of dialogue is spoken. The right setting can create tension, intimacy, irony or scale - and sometimes all at once. For filmmakers, this is where production becomes more than logistics. A room, a street, a vehicle, or a café can become part of the storytelling language. Sometimes, restrictions make

Huge congratulations to our wonderful composer Ariana May, who has just graduated from Oxford University with First Class Honours! We were incredibly fortunate to have Ariana compose the original music for our short film in the past. She seemed to understand instinctively what the film needed; creating a beautiful, haunting piece that adds so much to its emotional heart. Film is always a collaboration, and sometimes someone brings something to a project that you couldn’t quit

Casting is sometimes described as the process of finding the best actor for a role. I’m not sure it is. Of course, you want good actors. But filmmaking isn’t an exam in which every performer receives a mark and the person with the highest score gets the part. Some extraordinarily talented actors can be completely wrong for a particular film. And sometimes someone walks into an audition, reads a scene in a way you hadn’t imagined, and suddenly the character makes sense. Castin