Always on
This project successfully funded on 31st March 2026, you can still support them with a donation.
CHILDLOCK - short film
London, Greater London, United Kingdom
Aim
A claustrophobic real-time thriller set and shot entirely within the confines of a dodgy first boyfriend's even dodgier car.
LOGLINE:
Jude’s rose-tinted picture of her older boyfriend goes dark in the five minutes she's left alone in his car.
THE FILM:
Teenage Jude and twenty-something Ryan's night of romance is interrupted when a pitstop for date-night supplies turns surreal.
CHILDLOCK follows Jude, a sixteen-year-old on a pivotal third date with her slightly older boyfriend, Ryan. Though young love is in the air, when Jude is left behind in Ryan’s car her innocent butterflies transform into a distinct sinking feeling.
Something is off.
There’s that strange smell, growing stronger every minute the car sits idle. Then there's the small fact that Ryan seems to have locked her in…
In the mere five minutes that Jude is alone her idea of Ryan splinters as she’s forced to reconsider her decision to go all the way with someone she barely knows. But should she really be afraid of the man in the driver’s seat? After all, Ryan seems harmless, even a little dim. In this short bound to the confines of a lover’s car, set between a rash decision and its world-breaking outcome, it’s all a matter of perspective.
THE STORY SO FAR:
CHILDLOCK began as an idea bound to a strange little snippet of time, the five anxious minutes in which a passenger is left behind in a car, in pedestrian limbo. A vision of a tense, real-time short came to me clear as day.
The film, set and shot inside the reinforced walls and windows of a parked car, soon became about the extremes of our main character, Jude’s, perspective.
A teenager’s mind is powerful; their beliefs are quickly-made and strongly-held, and they dread the possibility that someone could prove them wrong. So, no matter the evidence that should convince them to change their mind about something, in the moment, they feel that they are bound.
The undercurrent of terror in CHILDLOCK is that things tend to happen to teenage girls - they rarely have the power to make things happen. This film is about what girls often resort to doing with the little power they do have. They are romantic, reckless and impulsive, and when this nature is amplified, they make thrillingly unpredictable characters.
TEAM:
MILLIE (WRITER/DIRECTOR) 
Millie Laubscher is a writer/director from Sheffield, living in North London (for her sins). In 2021, Millie graduated from the Northern Film School, where she made her first two student short films. She currently works freelance as a writer’s assistant, development coordinator, reader and script editor, and she is writing in her spare time. Millie previously held in-house positions in development teams for production companies Anton Corp in London, and Freedom Scripted in Glasgow.
SOLVEIG (PRODUCER)
Solveig Herzum is a Producer and Director of fiction and documentary films, with an MA from NFTS. She has produced and directed several short films, including for Park Circus, Warner Bros, TEFAF, Studio 22, and in Virtual Production studios . She is currently in production on her first feature documentary, with Banyak Films. Originally from Chicago, USA and Genoa, Italy, Solveig is passionate about co-creative production processes and small, nuanced stories with deep impact.
CRUSOE WESTON (CINEMATOGRAPHER)
ANASTASIIA SHIVLOVA (ART DIRECTOR)
SAM GIRLDER (GAFFER)
DANIEL KEHELLY (CAMERA DEPT)
And more to be announced....
WHERE THE MONEY WILL GO:
Here is an overview of the key areas of CHILDLOCK's budget:
1. Casting: The crew is in it for the love of the game - predominantly dedicating their time and effort to making CHILDLOCK for free, but we don’t expect our young cast to do the same. Your contribution will help us pay for our performer’s time.
2. High production value: CHILDLOCK is an ambitious film that packs its drama into a single moment, and is confined to a single location. The money we raise will be spent on quality equipment and facilities across the production and post phase. It will also contribute to the breadth of our approach, with funds giving us the flexibility to both rehearse ahead of production and experiment with a variety of filming techniques.
3. Distribution: The large hidden cost of making a short film (even one embracing the power of less is more) is the cost of distribution. This is about ensuring that our film has a far reach, that it can be shown in a variety of festivals here and around the world.
TIMELINE:
WHY DO WE NEED YOU?:
This project has been in the works for a while. In that time, we have been in the running for several funding awards including making it to the final five in the competitive Slick Film Production Fund and being shortlisted for the Day Job Film Fund. We gained a lot from this experience, including a massive ego boost - but alas, no prize this time around. Your contributions are therefore necessary to make this film possible.
By choosing to support us with your contribution, you would be investing in and championing the work of a budding director with a unique voice (if I do say so myself) and my crew, early-career filmmakers from all kinds of backgrounds, who want to go on to do this… forever. You are not only making sure we can do it this time, but also putting us on the path to doing it again, and again, and again…
Backing short films is one of the simplest ways to be involved in a creative endeavour - personally, seeing my name in the credits simply for chucking pocket money at a film I wanted to see proves for a quick dopamine hit. Give it a try.
WANT TO HELP IN ANOTHER WAY? HERE’S HOW TO SUPPORT US FURTHER:
We are in the process of building up our team and resources to shoot in the spring. As of writing there are several areas where we would welcome any further contributions you’d like to make:
- Do you have a car that we could use as a filming location? The older the better...
- Do you know of a local car-park that we could access? The more desolate and liminal the better…
- Do you work at a post production house that could host our finishing stages?
- Are you an adept stills photographer who would like to come aboard the team?
- Does your cousin sound like a Ryan type?
These are just a few of the areas in which we could use a hand, but if you have anything you’d like to approach us about, we’d love for you to get in touch. Contact our producer at [email protected]
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made