Hamster, an independent film by a Balderton writer and director, dealing with post traumatic stress disorder, shortlisted in scripted category of regional Royal Television Society Awards
A film by a Balderton writer and director — nominated for a prestigious award — puts the focus on soldiers and their battle with post traumatic stress disorder.
Hamster, the latest offering from writer and director Scott Driver, has made the shortlist for the scripted category of the regional Royal Television Society Awards.
It is a short film with a powerful script, powerful acting, powerful scenes and powerful cinematography, despite being made on a shoestring budget.
It tells the story of Lewis on his return to the Midlands housing estate of his upbringing from Afghanistan where his experiences, and his tragedies, have left him fighting PTSD and struggling to cope with a return to Civvie Street.
While he’s away, his mum has bought a hamster to keep her company. Initially a choice to poke fun at, and with so much to contend with in his reintegration on his return from war away from a regimented lifestyle and the threat of insurgent attack, Luke comes to realise there is solace in the straightforward and gentle existence of the hamster as it makes its wheel turn.
Lewis is played by Luke Boydon-Jones, who hopes Hamster will be picked up by one of the giants like Apple, Netflix or Amazon Prime who would distribute it as is, commission it as a series, radio play or even request its conversion into a feature film.
He said: “It’s been the honour of a lifetime as well as the challenge of a lifetime to work on.
“To get the opportunity of a script like that was incredible for any actor.
“For a director to give me that much creative freedom in the role was incredible.
“It has taught me how to be a better and more empathetic actor. I loved every second of making it.”
Hamster has been described as a story with an amazing inspirational script that has the potential to bring real change or at the least start conversations around post traumatic stress disorder.
To do justice to difficult subject matter, the film-maker worked alongside veterans’ charities to emphasise the important messaging, and Luke spoke to veterans with PTSD.
Among them was Balderton’s Johno Lee, who lost a leg in Afghanistan.
A scene from the film takes inspiration from a photograph of Johno lying on the ground badly wounded, colour drained from his face and clasping a comrade’s hand before he is airlifted to Camp Bastion for life-saving surgery.
Johno, who became the executive producer on the film and its military adviser, pumping his own cash into the venture and assuming his first acting role in it, suffers from the affects of PTSD and says what Lewis can be seen going through his hugely accurate.
Johno said: “It is an emotional story that is sometimes difficult to watch.
“It was tough for me to shoot it let alone to watch it.
“The Afghanistan scene was the most difficult for me and I had to see my psychiatrist before we did it to prepare myself, but even still the explosion took my breath away and took me right back to the day I was hurt.
“We’ve crammed two years of someone’s life into 15 minutes of film — and it works.
“This is a story that needed to be told, and I’m proud there is something of me in it.”
Scott said: “I was nervous as to if what we were producing was an accurate representation, because it was vitally important that it was.
“We shot the film over 11 days before going to the editing, which is always the longest part of the process.
“It was crucial to me and everyone involved that Hamster was a film that veterans could recognise their experiences in and if at any time they objected to something in it, or were unhappy, we’d have started all over again.”
Much of the film was shot in and around Newark. Newark Showground becomes a military base and an airsoft shooting range becomes Afghanistan and a forward operating base.
Newark film-maker Steve Watson, plays Lewis’s dad and is also a producer.
He said: “Being ex-RAF and going through the Falklands, watching the lads come back, serving at Strike Command, it brought back so many memories. The issues raised in Hamster and of PTSD are dealt with in such a sympathetic way.
“Working with a younger breed has also given me a different take on what we do. I’m happy to have been a part of it and impart a little bit of wisdom and experience.
“I’ve known Scott for 15 years. He first came across my radar when he was a Lincoln College student and I needed help on a film.
“For me now, as a seasoned film-maker, I’m being totally impressed by the youngster.
“I am amazed by his writing ability and vision. It’s an amazing gift that he has.”
Scott said he knew immediately, having worked with Luke before, that he was the perfect casting for Lewis.
Luke said: “When Scott came to me with this story; an amazing inspirational script, I knew that it had the potential to bring real change or at the least start conversations.
“Coming into this, I was blown away to discover that we have lost more troops to suicide than we lost on the battlefield.
“I was fortunate enough to interview veterans with PTSD, fortunate that they gave me their time, let me pick their brains.
“A lot of the help came from Johno. How would he feel in these circumstances or feel about this, or faced with that?”
Johno said: "There is a scene in a bar where Lewis's mates are pushing him for a football prediction. He's very much struggling to come to terms with being back in Civvie Street and people are pushing him.
"He doesn't like being questioned or second-guessed.
"It's not something that's important to him as a soldier having faced life or death situations in his recent past, so he becomes angry with them and then angry with himself, but then minutes later he has a word with himself and he's fine. PTSD can be a lot of irrational anger that takes nothing to really set it off. It's like being at war with yourself.
"His mates call him a hero. He doesn't want to be called a hero, doesn't think of himself a hero, and that makes him angry too. That's how it was for me, and that scene came from me."
The film has had several screenings so far, including its first on a cinema screen at the Broadway in Nottingham, where it was met with raptuous applause.
For now, it is back to the drawing board in terms of funding, with £3,000 needed for the film to be shown on the festival circuit, including some major ones.
Scott said: “It is amazing to think that a film with a £5,000 budget that relied so much on the kindness of cast and crew and the generosity of businesses, many of them local, to even be made, has been shortlisted in the scripted category of the regional Royal Television Society Awards.
“If we win, when we win I have to convince myself, we would go through to the national final, with all of the exposure that would bring our subject matter and the charities that we support.
To help their hopes become reality, you can donate to their film company, 4am Pictures, through PayPal to 4ampics@gmail.com
