Title: A Lobster Tale
AA Films took on the Manchester 48 Hour Film Project this year, and what an unforgettable experience it turned out to be.
What made this project especially unique for us was that the entire team had only really come together over the three weeks leading up to the competition. Abi and Alexander, the two A’s behind AA Films, were building something completely fresh, bringing together talented people who, for the most part, had never even met each other before shoot day. Somehow, despite that, the atmosphere from the very beginning felt like a group of friends who had worked together for years.
We went into the competition with a real drive to create something special. Earlier this year, I was lucky enough to attend Filmapalooza in Lisbon with a previous team after competing in, and winning, the Inverness 48 Hour Film Festival. That experience completely changed my perspective on what these competitions could be. Seeing filmmakers from around the world screening their work inspired us massively going into Manchester. We wanted to prove to ourselves that we could build a team from scratch and make something we were genuinely proud of.
When the genres were announced and we pulled “Misunderstanding” and “Drama,” we immediately gravitated toward misunderstanding and started building our film around that concept. From there, the team absolutely ran with it.
The level of dedication from everyone involved was incredible. Within hours, people were sourcing lobster claws, building props, and helping create one of our favourite parts of the shoot, a strange little custom camera setup we lovingly nicknamed “Lobby Cam,” used to help bring our lobster character to life. It perfectly summed up the spirit of the weekend: slightly chaotic, very inventive, and completely committed
Of course, no 48 Hour Film Project comes without challenges.
As director, I was unfortunately dealing with the fact that I had dislocated my knee just one week before the competition. But there was no way I was missing this. So the entire shoot was essentially spent flying around on crutches, icing my knee between takes, and trying not to slow the team down too much.
Then, just to make things even more dramatic, one of our lead actresses unfortunately had to drop out at midnight on Friday, only seven hours before shooting was due to begin at 7am.
Thankfully, Leon completely saved us. Without hesitation, he stepped into the role, embraced the chaos, and absolutely smashed it. We made a quick gender swap adjustment to the script, and honestly, it worked perfectly.
Despite the stress, the pressure, and the complete lack of sleep, the whole weekend reminded us exactly why we love filmmaking. Everyone brought so much enthusiasm, creativity, and willingness to throw themselves into something ridiculous and ambitious.
By the end of it, we hadn’t just made a film, we’d made genuine friendships and created something we’re truly proud of. We can’t wait to see everybody else’s submissions, celebrate the amazing work coming out of Manchester, and hopefully maybe even walk away with an award or two ourselves.