Whoops! We’ve made it into Raindance

In the week his movie is accepted into a prestigious festival, York film director Miles Watts is already looking ahead

We’re thrilled that Whoops! has got into the Raindance Film Festival and at the response the trailer has had. It’s a big deal and represents a point in our careers where we’re aiming as high as we can with our films.

And Whoops! was so much fun to make. Our tale of accidental murder in the suburbs felt like the kind of filmmaking experience we dreamed of when we were starting out; tough and exacting as making features always is, but amazing as well.

After having such a great experience making very low budget films with our friends, we wanted to widen our scope and ambition in just about every department; by casting some terrific actors, picking just the right crew and making sure every shot and line of dialogue was right.

After the low budget fun of CrimeFighters and Zomblogalypse, Whoops! is something we’re very proud of and Raindance is a fitting start for the journey we want to take.

We’re learning so much about the film business, which is vital for indie filmmakers. I’d consider myself a creative person, not a businessperson, but we came back from Cannes recently with an international sales agent for a film version of our web series Zomblogalypse.

Working with some great producers (Steve Piper on Zomblog and Sam and Jan Robinson on Whoops!) onboard has been a watershed for us too. We feel like we’re really gathering speed now.

While Whoops! plays in festivals, we’re honing the Zomblog script and preparing zombie designs and plans for what we’re planning to be an original, funny, crazy zombie movie, something that will surprise people.

Again, the scope is huge and we feel spurred on by the reception Whoops! is starting to get.

There are another couple of features in the pipeline along the way, so this feels like a wildly creative, inspiring time to be working in this industry.

It’s just the tip of the iceberg really, I think things are really kicking off now and over the next year we’re going to see some exciting things happen…

What’s Whoops! all about, then?

Directed and written by Miles Watts and Tony Hipwell, Whoops! is a co-production between two York companies, Heavy Elephant Productions and MilesTone Films.

It tells the story of Rose Clements – loving mother to Emma and Patrick and wife to Dave – who is quietly stacking up a body count of accidental murders through nothing but her own clumsiness.

Dave finds himself burdened with the task of dutifully covering up Rose’s deadly path of destruction. Through ingenious body disposal methods and cover-ups, Dave and Rose attempt to maintain an air of normality in the home.

But gradually, the police are closing in…

 

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• Whoops! premieres at the Raindance Film Festival in London on September 28. Go here to buy tickets
• For more information visit the Whoops! website
• See also The six greatest zombies who stumbled on screen