Mix hands-on Steven Spielberg inspiration, a love of the Cornish language and a desire to a tell a gritty tale of redemption, and you start colouring around the details of Tregellick Rising, a new Cornish language short.
Director Guy Potter told D&CFilm: “Trengellick Rising is a story of redemption, self-discovery and revenge. It’s gritty, raw and rough and around the edges.”
Ready Player one
A decade of acting saw Guy appear in array of working, including Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One and on Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation. It was the influence of working with Steven Spielberg that propelled Guy behind the camera. He formed his own production company. And then took the plunge into directing with his self-penned Tregellick Rising.
Kernewek
“It’s a Cornish language film,” said Guy. “It’ll be in Kernewek – one of the first of its kind to use the language in its recent revival.
“The film takes visual inspiration from silent films of the 1920’s, though we will be using sound. To help the audience with the language, we’ll be using early cinema techniques, such as subtitles and title cards to help the audience out.”
Trengellick Rising is receiving production help from the Sundance Institute, though their Sundance Collab initiative. The story was written by Guy Potter in early 2020, though production was delayed a full year by Covid-19.
Rich heritage
“We’re hoping to not only contribute to the revival of celluloid, but also of the Cornish language,” said Guy, who is eager that the film positively effects and shines a light on Cornwall’s rich heritage.
“The coronavirus pandemic has definitely brought some challenges. It has delayed production by a year already, but luckily thanks to the help of Sundance it’s reaching the point of no return. The fuse has been lit so to speak.
Best in cinema
“Not only has there been a delay to filming of Trengellick Rising, but it will also affect it in terms of how it’s shown or displayed. Obviously with a format like this, it’s best seen in a cinema. It would be a shame to go to all this effort, shoot it on film, hand-process the negative and spend months cutting it all together to then just have it watched on someone’s phone whilst they’re doing something else.
“That’s why once we’ve got the film in the can (literally) we want to hark back to the golden age of cinema as much as possible. Until the film has had a festival release, screenings and potentially even cinema showings (as part of a double feature maybe), we will be keeping this film offline and only being shown in a physical way until all other options are exhausted.
Early birds
“Those who have backed our film at a certain level will receive a private early-bird streaming link to watch what they’ve invested in, but otherwise, it’s an in-person affair to start with. If getting together physically in a cinema or a screening room is not an option, then we’ll delay the release of the film. There’s no studio breathing down our necks, we don’t want to wait all this time and rush it at the last minute.
“We can wait – it’s a piece of Cornish history – it’ll be worth it in the end!”
To help fund Tregellick Rising, there’s a Kickstarter page and filming is due to start at the end of April.
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