From Coventry to California - students’ big screen dream

Media Production students from the School of Art and Design have set themselves the ultimate movie-making challenge of creating a crowd-funded, full-length feature film to be shot on location in the UK and in California.

The students are seeking the support of fans and followers around the world to help finance the project and have already raised over £1,300 towards their £7,000 target – but they need more help.

Latitude: The Movie follows the lives of two gadget fanatics, Max and Percy, whose love of ‘geocaching’ – a modern day treasure hunting game in which players use GPS to track down containers hidden across the globe – leads them into a high-tech game of cat and mouse across America in a quest to find the ultimate piece of technology.

Distribution is a key part of movie-making and the students have come up with some innovative ways of marketing the film via the same medium, ‘geocaching’, which is featured in the picture. The students are also filming a documentary recording their experience making the film, which will be posted on the movie’s website.

The movie’s premiere will take place in Coventry in June, at which point the crew is hoping it will become one of the first full length feature films to have been created by students studying on an undergraduate degree.

Pete Woodbridge, lecturer in Open Media and one of the project’s coordinators, said: ‘Making a feature film on such a low budget is a massive undertaking for all of the students involved, especially considering that we are shooting a large part of it in the USA. This involves them taking their production skills to a whole new professional level, and at the same time gives them the opportunity to develop their entrepreneurial, creative and technical abilities. In today’s competitive media job market, it is projects like this that will get them the attention they deserve.’

The film project is supported by Coventry University’s International Experience and Mobility Scheme (IEMS). Anyone wishing to support Latitude: The Movie’s crowd-funding campaign should contact mick@latitudethemovie.com or visit www.latitudethemovie.com and click on ‘sponsor’.

Photo (L-R): Third year Media Production students (and crew of Latitude: The Movie) Mick Le Mare (producer), Adam Davies (assistant director), Sam Soane (assistant director) and Jake Humbles (director of photography).