Horror Film's Unique View On Diabetic Blindness.
22 February 2012
Shrouded in black-Clare Owen as 'Anna. Image courtesy of Matthew Jones.
Stefana Brancastle (as Rebecca) and Chris Attle (Daniel).Image courtesy of Matthew Jones
A full length 'haunted house' horror movie being filmed by a University of Derby lecturer and his students will address real life fears about Diabetic blindness.
Argon Green tells the story of an artist losing his sight due to his Diabetes, set against the horror genre background of a creepy house and ghostly visions. Diabetic retinopathy is a real condition, where high glucose levels in the bloodstream damages retina blood vessels in the eye, causing vision damage or blindness.
Tom Craig, 36, is a Lecturer and film-maker at the University, who was diagnosed with type one Diabetes when he was a child and with Diabetic retinopathy nine years ago.
Argon Green is the second in a proposed series of three films he is writing, called the Bitter Sweet Trilogy, each taking a horror or thriller genre slant on an aspect of Diabetes. His first film Sugar Drop - a 20 minute short about an hallucinating Diabetic trapped in a lift - was so well received it prompted him to make this latest film a full 90 minute feature.
The cast of Argon Green includes award-winning French actress Stefana Brancastle (previously in Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd and zombie horror 28 Weeks Later), theatre actor Chris Attle and Hannah Murphy, as the main character's nine-year-old daughter.
The film has been written and produced by Tom, the Director of Photography is his colleague Stephen Watson (who previously worked on British director Shane Meadows' 2004 hit Dead Man's Shoes), and it is directed by University of Derby graduates Sean Ford and Daniel Romero.
Location shooting has included Calke Abbey in Derbyshire, with the National Trust kindly reducing its usual location fee, and the Gielgud Academy of Performing Arts in West Sussex. The University's state-of-the-art Red Epic camera, the same equipment used on Hollywood blockbusters (including the upcoming The Amazing Spider Man and The Hobbit), is being used for the production.
Tom said: "I understand some people might question the taste of using real Diabetic conditions as fodder for horror films but there is a serious purpose to all this.
"Both I, my partner and my young son all have Diabetes; so I'm well aware of the psychological affects the condition can have on you, even though it's the management of its physical aspects that gets the most attention.
"I've worked with young adults who've been recently diagnosed as Diabetic and they can struggle to talk about their fears and feelings. It struck me that by using popular fiction genres they were interested in, such as horror and thriller films, you were more likely to get them to open up than through the use of the dry medical literature I've seen on offer to them."
He added: "I'm personally delighted to say my script has been seen and praised by Robin Hardy, director of the original cult British horror film The Wicker Man. As important was the clinical review it received from Dr Tasso Gazis, Physician in Diabetes and Endocrinology at Nottingham University Hospital's Queen's Medical Centre campus, which also allowed us access to shoot portions of the film there."
The University of Derby has invested in the film and Cooke Optics of Leicester, manufacturer of film industry high-specification lenses, has lent the project £30,000 worth of Prime Lenses. Tom would welcome further financial backers to help with Argon Green's post-production and distribution costs.
Argon Green should be ready for distribution in late autumn,2012, when Tom will be looking for film festival and even more mainstream distributors. The plan is to give a percentage of any net producer's profit from the film to the Diabetes UK charity.
"If Argon Green and the rest of the Bitter Sweet Trilogy can both entertain and spread the word to young diabetics, perhaps one day even my own son William, alerting them to the possible consequences of not looking after their Diabetes, I will be delighted as both a film-maker and a 'serving' Diabetic," said Tom.
For more information about the Argon Green film go to website www.argongreen.co.uk
For more media information please contact Press & PR Officer Sean Kirby on 01332 591891 or 07876 476103, or email s.kirby@derby.ac.uk
