A Film student from Walton-on-the-Naze has taken her final university project from a single studio room in High Wycombe to a big-screen showcase at Pinewood Studios.
Demi Austen, 22, directed and produced Blood Runs, a post-apocalyptic zombie drama exploring the bond between an uncle and his niece as for she searches for her missing father, as part of her final-year module at Bucks New University.
The film was made using Bucks’ LED and virtual production facilities, allowing students to create the post-apocalyptic setting without building expensive physical sets or travelling to different locations.
Alongside directing, Demi also took a hands-on approach across production, sourcing props, designing costumes, and applying special effects make-up to create believable post-apocalyptic characters.
She said: “I’ve always loved seeing how a production comes together through different creative departments. With a limited budget, I wanted to create a vast, detailed world that felt believable.
“Working within our contact hours meant we had to be extremely organised and make every minute on the LED wall count. I had to think carefully about everything from lighting and camera movement to costumes, make-up and performances and how they would all work together.”
She first became interested in directing while studying at college, where she got involved in theatre and became fascinated by what happened behind the scenes.
That interest led her to study Film Production at Bucks, where she has worked on a number of personal and collaborative projects.
For Blood Runs, Demi worked with professional actors and a student crew, taking on different parts of the production alongside directing.
The module culminated in a screening at Pinewood Studios’ John Barry Theatre, where Demi watched Blood Runs alongside a live audience.
She said: “Watching the film play at Pinewood was incredibly surreal. Sitting in the audience and hearing people react to the story was completely different from watching it during the editing process.
“To screen my work at such an iconic location where major films are made felt like a massive milestone. It gave me confidence that I can take an ambitious idea and deliver a finished film to an audience.”
Following graduation, Demi is applying for roles and trainee schemes, with the aim of working as an Assistant Director on professional film and television sets.
She also intends to set up her own production company, Austen Filmworks, with plans to continue writing, developing and directing original independent projects.
