If you could control your parents, what would you do?

A light-hearted short comedy about a mischievous young boy (Jake Pratt) who attempts to control his parents via a computer disc that is passed around at school. Premiered at the Rhode Island International Festival and screened at BAFTA, St. Louis International Film Festival, KIDS FIRST! and Short and Sweet as well as a finalist in the Shooting People Film of the Month competition in July 2010.

"Parental Control" was made after making a previous short which was over complicated and tried to do too much in too little time. The aim with "PC" was to get a script that focused on a simple story of one principal character, but to do it very well and make it accessible to the most varied audience by concentrating on strong fluid visuals and sound design, rather than dialogue.

After putting an ad on "Shooting people" I was sent "PC" and during development I spoke to a friend who develops 35mm negative and started to wonder whether I could shoot on that format. Speaking to the DP of my previous short, this got him very excited as it did a number of others, so got myself a credit card, postponed my marriage proposal and started to get as many deals as possible, including £2,000 worth of lighting for £400 and the camera, lenses and operator for £300 and a dolly grip for a crate of beer among other things. It still had to be cheap, but that didn't mean it had to be unprofessional.

The shoot itself had relatively few hitches, the cameraman getting arrested both before and after the shoot (!), having no monitor and having to use next door’s electricity after blowing the power four times...but generally it was very calm with everyone knowing what they were doing. Having a strong post production background, the offline edit took no time at all and it was merely a matter of getting the more expensive online side for free, which we did with a very helpful post house.

"PC" was a real collaborative effort, and looking at the film reflects that. It certainly hasn't been easy and has gone through three producers and four composers, and has taken 18 months to get right, but everyone has been patient and trusted that we wanted every aspect of it to be as good as it could be, even if we had no money to do so.

Finally, with regards to the film itself, on looking for our central actor I was often asked what the "moral of the story" was and for me it's that your parents always know you're up to mischief, it's just that there's a limit they let you get away with, which was certainly true of my childhood!