Watchers Productions Presents... Strange Tales: Dinner Date

It's Valentine's Day. A day to celebrate love in all its forms. A particularly apt day for Watchers Productions to release the next short film in our Strange Tales series, as it's all to do with relationships.

Watchers Productions proudly presents...

DINNER DATE

Written by Christopher Maxwell, and directed by Terrance Marshman-Edwards

Starring: Liz Keech (Jen), Nick Brimble (David), and Nicky Davies (Ceri)

David lives alone and is trying to get himself out into the dating world. He's invited Jen around for dinner to show off his cooking skills. The two laugh and bond, but Jen suspects David might be keeping something from her...

You can watch Dinner Date here!

For more information about our Strange Tales project, the other films already released and those currently in production, please see the Watchers Productions website.

Watchers Productions Presents... Strange Tales: Just Meat

After something of a hiatus, Watchers Productions are delighted to announce the return of our Strange Tales short films, with our eighth offering, and one that's perfect for Halloween...

JUST MEAT

Written by Rhys Jones with Matthew Ford & Terrance Marshman-Edwards, and directed by Rhys Jones

Starring: Victoria George-Veale (Catrin), Hannah Celyn Griffiths (Zoe), Samuel Rush (Tommy), with Jennifer Higgins and John Wheeler

It's just an ordinary night for delivery driver Tommy - until he finds himself in a life-or-death situation with one particular drop-off. What has happened to Catrin? 

You can watch Just Meat here!

For more information about our Strange Tales project, the other films already released and those currently in production, please see the Watchers Productions website.

Watchers Productions Presents... Strange Tales: Deliver Us From Gee

Watchers Productions are delighted to announce the release of our seventh Strange Tale!

We are incredibly pleased and proud to present, in co-production with our friends and colleagues at Dramatic Moose Productions and featuring a very special guest actor...

DELIVER US FROM GEE

Written by Matthew Fisher and directed by Rhys Jones

Starring: Gareth David Lloyd (Gee), Matthew Fisher (James), Jennifer Higgins (Tina), Stephanie Back, Samuel Rush, Linda Bailey, Kelvin Dale-Greaves, with Kell Dommage and Shaz Lancaster

James is on his own for the night, as his girlfriend is away. He orders pizza, which is delivered by a cheery delivery man named Gee. When a delivery mix-up means Gee gets fired, James takes pity on him and invites him in. But when James asks Gee what his real name actually is, he gets a response he really wasn't expecting...

Filming took place during November and December last year, with some pickups done in January this year. The script that this is based on was written some years ago, so any similarities to current world events are utterly coincidental...

Watch here!

For more information about the project and the other films already released and those currently in production, please see the Watchers Productions website.

Watchers Productions Presents... Strange Tales: Schrödinger

Watchers Productions are delighted to announce the release of Strange Tale #6, and a very appropriate release for Valentine's Day:

SCHRODINGER

Written by Xander Grant and directed by Rhys Jones

Starring: Victoria George-Veale (Sarah) and Gavin Rand (Derek)


Exactly how much do you love your partner? Would you like to know? Well, thanks to the latest technology breakthrough, now you can! The real question is... can you cope with knowing the answer?

Watch here!

For more information about the project and the other films already released and those currently in production, please see the Watchers Productions website.

Watchers Productions Presents... Strange Tales: Home

Watchers Productions are delighted to announce the release of our fifth Strange Tale:

HOME

Written and directed by Terrance Marshman-Edwards

Starring: Ben Percival (Joshua Flynn), Amanda Hunt (Nina Samuels) and Isabelle Rose Burman (Emily Maitland)

A young man, dealing with a bereavement, starts to receive strange text messages. Is somebody playing a sick joke - or is there something more sinister at work ?

Watch here!

For more information about the project and the other films already released and those currently in production, please see the Watchers Productions website.

Watchers Productions Presents... Strange Tales: Epimetheus

Happy Halloween everyone!

We are delighted to announce the release of our next Strange Tale:

EPIMETHEUS

Screenplay by Xander Grant (from a story by Rhys Jones & Xander Grant) and directed by Rhys Jones

Starring: Lucas Eisele (Peter), with the voices of Bethan Leyshon, Matthew Doman, and Hannah Celyn Griffiths


Peter hosts his weekly Un-Boxing Streaming Channel. This week, he has been sent something very special - but would you open the box?

Watch here!


For more information about the project and the other films already released and those currently in production, please see the Watchers Productions website.

Cardiff On Film

Cardiff is abuzz at the moment with news that a major thoroughfare in the city has been closed off to allow filming of a feature film. Mark Wahlberg's latest film Infinite has been able to close off a portion of Newport Road for a couple of days in order to film a car-chase sequence. 

Cardiff is becoming very well known as a filming location. Several big-budget TV shows (including Doctor Who, Torchwood, Sherlock, and Merlin) have utilised the city onscreen and films are starting to follow suit. 

Here are ten films that have been shot in the Welsh capital.

Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017)

Opened in 1999, Cardiff's Millennium [now Principality] Stadium is one of Europe's finest sporting arenas (although I might be biased). It's hosted everything from international rugby fixtures and massive concerts, to speedway and monster trucks. Unsurprisingly, it's also in demand as a filming location. The second Kingsman film used the stadium as a holding ground for cages of those infected by Poppy's (Julianne Moore) deadly drugs.

28 Weeks Later (2007)

The Millennium Stadium also appeared in Juan Carlos Fresnadillo's sequel to 28 Days Later..., doubling for Wembley Stadium.

Yesterday (2019)

Danny Boyle's musical fantasy, in which aspiring musician Jack Malik (Himesh Patel) wakes up one day to find he's the only person on Earth that remembers the Beatles, also used the Principality Stadium as a venue for filming, during Ed Sheeran's record-breaking four-night residency there in June 2018 (Sheeran appears as "himself" in the film)

The Contractor (2007)

The former British Gas offices at Helmont House on Churchill Way (in Cardiff's city centre) have been used on TV a few times (in both Doctor Who and Torchwood), and are used in this Wesley Snipes action thriller. Tez used to work for British Gas and says it was an incredibly surreal day to look out of the window and see Wesley Snipes standing outside work doing fight choreography!

Sword Of The Valiant: The Legend Of Sir Gawain And The Green Knight (1984)

Cardiff has not one, but two castles, in the city: there's a large one in the centre of town (home to the Bute family) and there's a smaller one- Castell Coch [the Red Castle], known for its fairytale turrets- on the outskirts of the city at Tongwynlais. Both castles were used for this ripping tale of sword-and-sorcery starring Miles O'Keeffe as Sir Gawain and Sean Connery as the Green Knight. 

A Kiss Before Dying (1991)

Much like some of the other films on this list, you might not expect it to have a Welsh connection. The opening sequence to this crime drama, starring Matt Dillon as a murderous student and Sean Young as both his girlfriend and her twin sister, is set in a steel mill - and was filmed in Cardiff! 

Human Traffic (1999)

OK, so the film is actually set in Cardiff and isn't pretending to be anywhere else - but I couldn't leave it off the list. Justin Kerrigan's cult flick about five friends on a massive weekend features many of Cardiff's pubs and clubs (including the Philharmonic, Club X, Emporium, and what used to be the Firedrake and Firkin [and is now Gassy Jacks]) as their backdrops. 

Solomon & Gaenor (1999)

One of two Welsh-language films to date to be nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film (the other being Hedd Wyn, the 1992 biopic of the eponymous Welsh poet), this romantic drama set in 1911, about a young Jewish man (Ioan Gruffudd) and a young Welsh girl (Nia Roberts) who fall in love, was shot throughout Cardiff. 

Flick (2008)

A one-armed detective is on the track of a 1950s Teddy Boy who was murdered and has been brought back from the dead in the modern day and is out for revenge. Now I've got your attention... this is (believe it or not) the basic premise of David Howard's comedy-horror Flick. And as if this wasn't surreal enough, the one-armed detective is played by Faye Dunaway. Yes, that Faye Dunaway. The film was shot throughout South Wales, including Cardiff. 

Killer Elite (2011)

Dubai, Marrakech, Melbourne... Cardiff? The globetrotting cast of Killer Elite certainly got around! They filmed in the Welsh capital in July 2010, with stars Robert De Niro and Jason Statham seen filming on Windsor Place in the city centre. Filming also took place in the Pontcanna area of the city.

Watchers Productions Presents... Strange Tales

Today sees the launch of a new project from Watchers Productions. Introducing... Strange Tales!

Strange Tales is a series of short, stand-alone films which have a twist in the tale. The
idea is to provide local emerging talent- actors, writers, and filmmakers- with a showcase for what they can do, and promote low-budget filmmaking in South Wales. Strange Tales has no boundaries on genre of story and every film will be individual in style.

​The channel launches today (Saturday 15th June) with three short films. The channel will then continue to grow, with new content added periodically.

The first three films are:

BRAND NEW BEGINNINGS

Written by Matthew Ford and directed by Matthew Fisher

Starring: Christopher Maxwell (Seth), Harold T. Spencer (Tristan), Sarah Bennington (Kate), Rachel Dunston (Advert Voice Over), Matthew Ford (Advert Voice Over)

In an alternate, present day Wales, people have become dependent on social media. Online dating is commonplace, and half of all UK marriages end in divorce. Seth and Tristan, a couple in their twenties, have signed up for treatment at Brand New Beginnings, a company with a procedure that wipes all the bad memories from your relationship, replacing them with false, happy memories developed in a laboratory. As the procedure is explained, the couple begin to have second thoughts.

Watch here!

HUMAN RESOURCES

Written and directed by Richard Williams (Big Rich Productions)

Starring: Ellen Jane Thomas (Sam Francis), James Morgan (Noah),Tim Bennet (Martin), Rebecca Donovan Bailey (Melanie), Craig Jenkins (Security Guard), and Justine Jones (Marcy)

Sam is a hardworking, popular, and confident business executive. One day, a meeting with the mysterious Noah from Human Resources will bring everything she knows about the world around her into doubt.

Watch here!

SECOND CHANCES

Written by Matthew Fisher and directed by Teddy Smith (No. 37 Media)

Starring: Ben Wilson (John), John Hutch (Patrick), and Lisa Grace (Anna)

John doesn't like to stand out. "Out of sight, out of mind" is his philosophy. But his way of thinking is challenged when he's forced to reevaluate his life.

Watch here!


Other tales we have in the pipeline are as diverse as the three above. One imagines a future where machines dole out justice- but what happens if you're accused of something you didn't do? Another sees a couple torn over a device that can measure love, whilst a third sees a young couple on a first date where things aren't quite what they seem. Throw in a couple of girls being hunted for the crime of speaking a different language, and a bereaved young man receiving strange text messages, and you've got the makings of our first wave of Strange Tales.

The other films will be in production for the rest of 2019 and will be released periodically thereafter.

For more information about the project and the films, please see the Watchers Productions website.