Sour Milk - Short Film
These are the rewards available to our wonderful contributors as a thank you for helping us to realise this film.
*Any donation of £5 and over will receive a special thanks in the credits.
*Any donation of £10 or over will receive an online streaming link to the film when it is finished!*
*Any donation of £25 or over will receive all of the above plus a PDF of the full shooting script!*
*Any donation of over £50 will receive a link to watch the film as well as a login to a private member page of the Jackson Films website to access exclusive member only content about the film and it's production. Once the film is finished this will include extracts from the script, loads of behind the scenes photos and stills as well as picture and video updates!*
*Any donation of £100 or more will receive all of the above PLUS an Executive Producer credit in the film!*
Miss Walker and Josie enter a power battle for control of the class at the teachers new school.
"A dark intriguing story that is an exploration of control and obsession. "
Sour Milk follows Nicky as she moves out of the city to the suburbs to start fresh, and take a job at a school quieter than her past inner city one.
There's one group of girls in her year 10 English class that she must keep an eye on as their grades become inconsistent. But it's the girls friend Josie, who's grades are consistently strong that Nicky is drawn to. She becomes suspicious of her motives as they begin to battle for control of the class.
Sour Milk is being produced by Jackson Films , an independent film production company founded by our producer and recent graduate of Westminster Film School, Ashley Jackson.
Sour Milk will use a familiar crew of fellow Westminster graduates to build on the success of previous film Lily and the Revolution . In an effort to forge a career in the notoriously difficult industry we turn to Kickstarter in the hope to fund this first project and help propel the company and ourselves forward. This could lead to a future which allows us to provide even more exciting content for all our amazing backers to enjoy and share with us.
What will we do for you?
We would love to use this page as a way to document the process we go through make our films in the hope to educate others on the filmmaking process and to enlighten all about what we actually do behind the scenes and what happens to the money we raise. So please follow both this page and our facebook page for video updates from each department talking about what they do and how they do it. This is our way of giving back to all our fantastic supporters and contributors.
Our brilliant crew worked tirelessly on the previously mentioned Lily and the Revolution during 6 months of production in 2014, and still continue to do so as the film is sent worldwide to festivals and continues to grow in presence. It has already achieved a lot on home turf, being highly commended by the Royal Television Society and then were screened in the official selection and nominated for Best Performance at the recent Screentest; National Student Film Festival. Film Producer and Exec Paul Trijbits (Fish Tank, Saving Mr Banks) praised the film during a private screening of it among other graduating students work at a Baftas Piccadilly cinema. 
Watch the Lily and the Revolution trailer!
After the team worked so well on their first film we couldn't wait to get back together to create another short after working apart on separate graduation films, but this time of a very different nature. After Lily and the Revolutions laughs and energy we now explore the unusual and unreal in the realm of Jonathan Glazer (Under the Skin) and David Fincher (Gone Girl, Se7en). In a move to conquer the thriller we are again working with the inspiring writer Molly Kitson as we give life to her beautifully constructed and intriguingly distorted story world and follow young Miss Walker's struggle to hold back the past as it seems to be somehow unnaturally repeating itself as she starts work at a new school. 
Reminiscent of Notes on a Scandal (Richard Eyre) the film will explore how peoples actions effect people differently, and through Miss Walker and Josie's power battle, we explore levels of power in unusual places, using you school years as a catalyst.
So how do we actually use the money that we are asking for?
Well as i'm sure we all know films are expensive. One of the biggest expenses often being the crew. With Sour Milk, every crew member is working on the film voluntarily, not only to keep down costs but because this film will be such an experience regardless, and will drive all of us forwards with it.
Here is a brief breakdown of the costs, so that you can get an idea of where the money goes. The things people often forget about are for example; catering for each day on set, petrol for the equipment vans, travel expenses for all cast, even right down to the small things like buying toilet rolls for each location we shoot at!
Why do we spend so much on art department?
Shooting in a school we will have to costume between 30 and 50 extras in uniform at any one time. We also have to dress every set with a lot more than you'd expect. Everything you see in a location has most likely been put there by the art department for a paticular reason or meaning, so we have to source a lot of props.
Why spend so much on equipment when you can make a film on an iPhone ?! Unfortunatley to make a festival winning film on an iPhone you still need years and years of experience behind you on the crew. And although we are still going to use as little equipment as possible you still need a lot of lighting to make the shots look cinematic. However we are keeping close ties with our old University who are going to supply as much of the equipment as they can!
Our productions are full scale shoots and so we will have many many cast and crew to start work with and update you about over the coming weeks, and have a great bunch of the old team and a few new faces to announce for now. As we want to help teach and encourage new filmmakers below is a little description of some of our HoDs and crew, with a link to the skillset description of their role. 
The crew so far!
Ashley Jackson - Producer
Rania Iraki - Director
Molly Kitson - Writer
Ashley Hughes - DoP
Emma Harrison - Location Manager
Ed Gaunt - 1st AD
Lorna Jayne - Script Supervisor
Rhianna Rizvi - Production Coordinator
Ellie Gocher - Production Assistant and Casting Assistant
Chris Upson - Production Assistant and Casting Assistant
Jimmy Dean - Casting Assistant
April Ibinceanu - Art Director
Raquel Mejías - Concept and Storyboard Artist
Vania Flaccomio - Editor
The director of Lily and the Revolution Rania Iraki who is the driving force behind every project and champions the teams rewarding collaborative attitude joins us again to direct Sour Milk. After gaining experience over documentary, drama and commercial whilst at Westminster Rania joined producer Ashley to work closely with established independent director Danny Hiller (Love me still, Silent Witness, The Bill) on his latest film.
Back to 1st AD (with the essential responsibility of scheduling the shoot days to ensure everything is filmed on time and no shots are missed, running the set on shoot days to keep everything managed and running smooth, and to asses the risks of every location) is the marvellous Edward Gaunt, a true team spirit and a motivator to all.
We have Lorna Jayne with us again as script supervisor (Ensuring that film the scenes which are shot out of script sequence, end up making sense when we edit them together. They also keep a trained eye on continuity to ensure each scene when pieced together appears seamless) who we couldn't be without.
Editing for for us again (taking all of the footage to pick and piece the shots together digitally into the final film) is the extremely dedicated and passionate Vania Flaccomio.
The team is joined by Raquel Mejías, who has worked with both Ashley and Rania on separate occasions and is a beautiful illustrator. She will create storyboards (hand drawn visualisations of each planned shot, to help build an idea of the finished film before it's shot) and concept art (artists visualisations of character and location to help determine and set the tone and mood of the film) many of which you'll get to see if you follow the project.
Another new face is Emma Harrison coming on board as location manager (responsible for find acquiring and managing each location for the film). After doing an amazing job with a post apocalyptic story about the last two people on earth for her graduation film we can't wait to see what magic she'll do on Sour Milk!
Risk and Challenges?
When it comes to making films, there are a lot of challenges and obstacles which stand in the way of making it successful. However after acquiring innumerable skills in so many disciplines across the crew whilst at film school, and each of us having our own professional industry experience which has given us all some priceless opportunities to learn and evolve we are more than ready to make another, even better film.
We have also had time to find a group and to find a crew who work well together, and produce good content together. At the end of the day the key to a good film is great crew who are all creative and open to collaborate and work together (oh and a darn good script helps!). We've put together the best talents to hopefully bring you, our supporters and audience, the best entertainment and a project that you really want to be a part of because we will involve you and immerse you in every stage.
