Half Hearted

By Stuart Black Last edited 96 months ago

Last Updated 06 October 2016

Half Hearted

This London Short is a mini-movie that skips across the capital from East End pubs — The Palm Tree and Victoria near Roman Road — via a bare-knuckle boxing pit to the grand arching interior of St Pancras railway station.

It opens with hapless Mike, waking up with the hangover from hell, unaware that his day is going to get steadily worse from there on in.

The film's writer-director Max McGill told Londonist: "It’s a proper London story — obviously it’s filmed here — but more than that, I think it’s a very London experience. I’m sure most Londoners can relate to the experience of going out for ‘just one’ and ending up 24 hours later in all sorts of weird, wonderful and frankly dangerous places with an assortment of lunatics from every corner of the world. It’s essentially a love-letter to London in all its wackiness (and a reason why you shouldn’t vote UKIP!)."

"We filmed around Mile End because it's managed to resist the coffee weighing/gastro/organic hipsterfication of other bits of East London, so still feels a bit rough and edgy, which suited the sleazy look of the film. And then we shot in St Pancras because it looks awesome! Shooting in the station was a bit tricky — we were only allowed to be in there for four hours, which is no time at all for filming, and we only had 10 crew including three actors. We ended up having other actors and crew members hidden in cafes and toilets in disguise who would sneak over when no one was watching."

The film was written and directed by Max McGill and produced by Campbell Beaton. It stars Sam Phillips as Mike, Anna Skellern as Svetlana and Ripper Street's MyAnna Buring as Lauren.

To see other London Shorts click here (but please note, links may not always work if the filmmakers are showing their shorts in competition).