Virgin Short film review

Mixtape is directed by Luke Snellin from Essex. Being only 24 years old, he is a relatively young shorts film director/writer. Naively, I was under the impression that Snellin worked independently on the project, but in fact he belongs to a small film production company in London. The production company, LUT MED!A recognises itself as being, ‘a hardworking, straight talking, dynamic organisation.’ Their ways of working have definitely paid of as the awards and nominations have been flooding in.

Mixtape won the Virgin Shorts 2009 competition, which generated £30000 for the company's next film. It has also been nominated for the forthcoming Orange BAFTA Awards 2010 for best short film; not bad for a small production company.

The success of the short film could be down to having the young actor, Bill Milner as the main character who also starred in the blockbuster, Son of Rambow; whereas I do believe that there is more to it than that. The framework takes the theme of love and friendship as a catalyst and relates it to the emotional attachment of music and how that can draw two people together- something that most can relate to.

Would the screenplay work as an affective piece by carrying the love story with adults? I don’t believe it would. Luke has done very well with his casting; there is a certain innocence and purity that the boy creates in his fondness for the young girl, which stands to be refreshing when compared to other contemporary films that touch on the same theme [the 'red titles']. The story is eloquently told by the use of the tape adding an authentic romantic element that a CD would fail to achieve. The tape consists entirely of his Dads collection of 1970's music. The short is skillful in allowing the audience to relate to the young boy so strongly with the running time being only two minutes. I realised that the trick was to relate to what the audience may have experienced in their childhood; everyone has made a Mixtape for someone they love or something similar and there has been a point when you have been into your parents’ music. I took the qualities of the films ability to reach out to the audience and tried to implement it into my film.

The well established actor, Kevin Spacey was on the judges’ panel and he commented about the short listed films: "I was once again hugely impressed with the quality and diversity of the 12 short-listed films in this year's Virgin Media Shorts competition. It's great to see so much new talent."

Mixtape was Luke’s second short film, but the production company he works with are responsible for many other projects including commercials and music videos. In 2009 Snellin also made a short about young boy whose bullied life forced him to think about what it would be like to fly, it is titled Patrick.

To view other projects that Luke has been involved in check out his page:
http://lukesnellin.co.uk/

For more news on the particular Virgin Media Shorts competition that Luke won you can visit the arts council website for interviews with the judges and Snellin himself:
http://www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/article/15953/Nostalgia-rules-as-Mixtape-movie-reigns-supreme


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