Sci-fi film shot at school

3:12pm Monday 19th April 2004

A BRICKET WOOD-based production company has been shooting scenes in a Harpenden school for a £150,000 big screen science-fiction thriller.

The film, Friday's Child, is being shot over three-months, including a three week stint filming in Prague in The Czech Republic.

Ms Claire Uezzell, production manager for the film, said the gym at St George's School in Sun Lane was used for "green screen shooting". Crash mats were put down for action scenes with computer generated backdrops to be added at the post production stage. Filming was completed at Rothamsted Park where some "family scenes" were shot.

The film was directed by Dan Turner, the director of Magician Pictures, and marks the first foray for the nine-year-old company into feature films.

Ms Uezzell said: "We have always been trying to do projects like this.

"Though it was new for us, we made it to the end, finished on time and we are very pleased with what we have got."

The crew previously completed a five-day shoot at The International University in Aldenham Road, Bushey, where the campus's underground tunnels were used to reproduce "a secret base" for the film's final scenes, said Ms Uezzell.

Members of local theatre groups the St Peter's Players and the Pumphouse Theatre Company were employed as extras for the scenes.

The film, which centres on a young woman who has been brainwashed to kill her partner, stars John Hopkins, who plays Detective Sergeant Dan Stott in popular ITV whodunnit series Midsomer Murders.

The film's budget has been entirely financed by private investors. Ms Uezzell hopes the film, which is now in the editing stage, will be picked up by a distributor at a festival screening.

For more details go to www.experimentmovie.com.