FIX FILMS: AN INTRODUCTION TO GENIUS

Click link to check out their work:  http://www.fixfilms.co.uk

Aside from being a humble clock-puncher by day and semi-amateur comedian and film blogger by night, since 2005, I have been involved in the making of a series of amazing short films that should by rights have seen me rise to top of the Hollywood food chain. But since I left my job at Blockbuster at the end of the 1990s I have found employment in the movie industry hard to come by. Still, I hang onto the hope that success eluded many geniuses in their lifetime notably Van Gogh, John Kennedy Toole, Vermeer, Kafka, Emily Dickinson and Herman Melville. To ensure my legacy is assured I am revisiting all the short films I have been involved in order to bring them to the attention to a whole new audience of unfortunates who may have missed them first time round.  In order of production:

GETTING BACK MR HUNT (2005)

Revenge is a dish best served hot!

This is Fix Films Ltd first short film and was entered in some Channel Four competition but got nowhere.  It’s a simple story of one man’s revenge on the boss who done him wrong; a situation I imagine a lot of wageslaves wish they could enact. It’s really about the naivete of ambition versus the real world of office drudge.

A FAR CRY (2006)

War is a far cry from home!

This is Fix Films biggest budget movie to date and their 2nd short film.  It’s a heart wrenching WWII drama featuring a soldiers’ attempt to escape from behind enemy lines with an orphaned baby. It’s an ambitious short done on a low budget with a stunning ending. It  was screened at some pretty big festivals; well, Sutton film festival.

THE TWO MINUTE SILENCE (2007)

Penny for Your Thoughts

This is Fix Films 3rd short film and was successfully received at several short film festivals throughout the country. It’s an incredible ensemble comedy centring on the thoughts and desires of a set of office workers during a two minute silence.  While they should be respecting the silence and the lives lost the characters find their minds wandering to more selfish contemplation. Essentially, it points out the inherent self-centredness of human beings in an amusing and compelling way.

ELEPHANT TRUNK (2008)

The night before the morning after. . .

This is Fix Film’s 5th short film written by Paul Laight and directed by Gary O’Brien.  Produced by Robert Ward and Paul Laight. It stars Tom Frederic, Lucia Giannechini and Chris Crocker. Matt suffers the hangover of a lifetime following a night of drunken celebration. Only a chance meeting with the beautiful SOPHIE offers a ray of light, on an otherwise dark, dark night. A hilarious contemporary black comedy – this is probably our most entertaining film with laughs and humorous twists similar to After Hours (1986) in structure and style.

JACK & DANNY (2008)

Two Cops: One Dilemma

Comedy featuring two cops on a stakeout. Young DANNY’S head is all over the shop about his upcoming marriage. Reluctantly, he seeks advice from his partner, the older world-weary, JACK. Jack and Danny was inspired by an email which did the rounds at the office I was working at and concerned the story of a man’s possible infidelity.  We shot it in one day and what it lacks in budget it makes up in great writing, characterisation and performances with fine chemistry between the two leads.

THE CHESS GAME (2012)

Not all of us are destined to be Kings.

Lonely Russian, Viktor Korovin, wiles away his retirement playing chess and drinking at his local village pub. When a stranger offers to play chess for money it sets in motion a game of cat and mouse; forcing Viktor’s bloody past to confront a deadly future.

Fix Films 6th short film is an ambitious thriller focussing on themes of guilt, revenge and war.  It starts simply with the offer of a ‘friendly’ chess match culminating in a deadly endgame.  It’s the first Fix Films short to be shot on HD and like many of mine and Gary’s films it is brilliantly cast with Bill Thomas excelling in the role of Viktor. Phil Delancy, Tyrone Atkins, Andy Davies, Gary Colman, Bobby Freeman also provide sterling support in another low budget gem.

HELL IS… (2014)

Welcome to the Neighbourhood

Influenced by Kubrik and Polanski it concerns a career criminal who while on the run must contend with the “neighbours from hell!”   Holed up in a ‘safe-house’ a career criminal’s sanity is questioned and tested by the behaviour of the couple upstairs. Unable to act he begins to unravel mentally culminating in violence. It’s really about urban existence and proximity to other humans who have no awareness of how their actions may impact on others.

This is arguably Paul and Gary’s most mature work cinematically speaking. Critics are already describing Fix Films’ latest short epic as “Kubrikesque” and “an incredible vision of hell!”  Well, they would if they’d seen it.

Fix Films are the dynamic duo of Paul Laight and Gary O’Brien. They don’t do cat videos – they do brilliant stories with proper characters.  It’s not about the quantity but quality.  Check it out http://www.fixfilms.com.

They are currently working on new short film and feature projects plus a comedy sketch show.