Notts made zombie horror film picks up awards

A short horror film made in Nottinghamshire about a mother and daughter besieged by zombies in an abandoned house, has been picking up awards. Craig Nye spoke to co-director Raj Pathak...What is the story? A mother and daughter take shelter in an abandoned farmhouse, hiding from the zombies chasing them. Once the daughter drifts off to sleep, we discover the mother has been bitten and the other zombies are closing in.Where did the idea for the story come from? Pia Cooke wrote the script in 2011. Pia, being old friends with Crash Taylor (co-director) sent it over for him to take a look. He loved it and sent it to me. Initially, I turned it down because I didn't want to make a zombie film but he insisted that I read the script. Sure enough, after I finished it I said we have to do it purely based on that ending.The End centres around two main characters - how did you go about casting these roles and can you tell us something about the actors playing the mother and daughter? Crash and I auditioned actors from Nottingham and London in the WAHFilms office at The Corner in the Lace Market. As soon as Shelley Draper started her audition, we knew it had to be her because she completely understood the mother character. Ava Nicolson had been working as a model with Crash on his concept photography projects and suggested that she would be great for the role after we were unable to find any child actors who could play that part.Where in Nottingham was it shot? In a village in Edingley near Mansfield. The house was perfect, when we first saw it it was half-demolished. Only the front was still standing and two days after we finished filming the house was bulldozed; which made our job extra hard because there were no chances for revisiting if we forgot anything.Being a zombie film, convincing special effects are essential. Can you tell us about the people involved in that? Nik Hull and his team from N-FX are the incredible people responsible. Crash and I both met Nik on separate occasions at networking events. One chat with Nik was all it took, as it's a genre he's very fond of. The film also features a prosthetic hand and arm, which was sculpted for the film by Darren Nevin. WATCH THE END (WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT)

Can you tell us about the awards the film has been winning? At the Limelight Film Awards it won Best Horror. It was incredible. We didn't think we were going to win because there were so many great films nominated within our category. And we were nominated for 'Film of the Night' award as well. I completely forgot my speech so I just made something up on the spot. It was nominated for three awards at The British Horror Film Festival at The Empire Theatre, Leicester Square and Shelley Draper won Best Actress.What can you tell us about the plan to turn The End into a feature length film? We have already finished the script and are now taking meetings with potential investors. It's set within the city this time so you get to find out what happens to the characters outside the parameters of the short. Our goal is to keep the film Nottingham based. Most of the people who worked on the short were from Nottingham and we'd love to keep it the same.