Loch Hands

Aim

We plan on creating Loch Hands & releasing it late 2026. This will involve a small premier with a Q&A.

Welcome to the Crowdfunded page for our short film 'Loch Hands'! 

We aim to raise £8000 to fund the making of this film, we are very excited to say Creative Scotland will match-fund this project! Read more about this at the bottom of the page!

Check out the rewards tab for a variety of rewards such graphic novels, posters, early viewing and even a day on set! All for your highly appreciated support! 

The team behind this are extremely excited to bring you what we hope is a longer running story. Loch Hands is all about relationships, abuse, mental health and various other topics all explored through a horror/dark love story intertwined in Scottish myth and legend. 

We want to make Loch Hands a visually striking film, tied together with emotional performances and blended to give you a layered story that explores experiences that sadly to many people go through. The world in which Loch Hands is based, as a muted, dark fantasy version of Scotland, with part of the film being produced in negative. 

This film sets out to blur the lines between reality and fiction, heavily focussing on mental abuse, physical abuse, addiction and different forms of harassment against women. Also developed into a feature, this initial short film lets us get a taste for this unforgiving world where the feature will go more in depth, introducing even more characters and exploring these themes further. 

For the longest time, Scotland has been home to many myths and legends, some of which are known all over the world. Yet no one has really created a franchise of projects from them. We aim to create a fan base around this project whilst also using it to explore and raise awareness about real world problems. 

We are working on creating something that people can not only watch and enjoy but take a message away with them about real issues that many people face. We have all been told the stories of myth and legend as children, and with Loch Hands we plan on using that to tell the stories of these characters and the demons they all have. 

Ross, our director / writer has a vision for the project and alongside our cast and crew we believe with some help from any generous donations that we can create something really great here. With the money we raise, it will go toward paying cast, locations, props and post production, and also the marketing of the film. 

We will ring fence some of the funds to do a small premier of the film and also give out prizes / gifts to our generous donators following our support structure. Lucy, our storyboard artist and animator is also going to be working on a graphic novel of the film that we plan to sell for a small price to also help raise funds and work towards creating that all important fan following. 

Storyboards & Inspiration:

Talk To Me (2021)

Possum (2018)

Nope (2023)

These films have given the film the inspiration not only in the way we want to tell the story but how we want it to look. The visuals in all of these are so different and we are aiming to combine them all to create something really special. 

Meet the characters:

Chloe:

Chloe is our protagonist. A young woman who has always felt like a monster, more than ever after the death of her boyfriend Matt in a car crash she feels responsible for. She's burdened by immense guilt of her actions and would do anything to reconcile with Matt. 

Matt:

Matt is a monster but Chloe never saw it that way. He was the one that caused the crash the night of his death. His heated words and abusive behaviour causing the car to spiral out of control and crash, killing him. He knows what words to say and buttons to press to command Chloe but at the end, his coercive power lessens, with Chloe finally realising what he is and hesitating to move forward.

DJ:

DJ is one of Chloe’s best-friends. He’s a womaniser who is only with his girlfriend Shannon to keep up appearances. All he wants is sex and no emotional core to any relationship. He’s a heavier set, rugby playing wanker who is incredibly self-absorbed. Of all of Chloe’s friends he’s by far the least sympathetic. Looking for an actor who can really embody this arrogance on–screen and who stands with more of an imposing, muscular figure.

Shannon:

Shannon is DJ’s girlfriend. She is only with him to keep up the face that she is in a healthy relationship when her personal life is a mess. She’s a cynical drug addict with very little care left in her heart. Need someone who can play a very irritable, downtrodden character who can get very snappy at the drop of a hat.

Saul:

Saul has always had a crush on Chloe. He’s very protective of her and might be her only true friend who feels genuine sympathy. The rest of the friend group are fairly arrogant and cynical. Saul tries to see the best in comparison. He’s a very meek individual but has a lot of hope in his heart. Looking for a shorter individual who can truly portray this sympathy on-screen and will contrast against the other casting choices.

Andi: 

Andi is the party-going friend. They’re not super involved in what the rest of the group are involved in and exist in their own little world. Looking for a performer who can embody this free spirit on-screen.

Nightcrawlers:

Every town has nightcrawlers who cause fear to the residents in the night and this one is no different. Looking for two performers to play NED type roles. The characters are aggressive and young who are more used to the cold harsh moonlight than the sunny days. Need two performers who can give off this rough energy.

So far, we are fully crewed and have the roles of Chloe and Matt cast! Locations are in place through our own self funding and now we are just looking to raise more funds to get over those final hurdles that production gives us. 

MEET THE CREW:

Rebecca - MUA 

Becca is a make-up artist and designer with experience across film, television, and theatre. Her previous work includes theatre productions such as Beauty and the Beast, Snow White, and Peter Pan, as well as short films filmed on location in Orkney, feature films in Edinburgh, and television projects including River City. She is excited to be working as the make-up designer on Loch Hands, as she strongly believe in the talented crew brought together for this project. The make-up concepts are both creatively challenging and visually ambitious, making this an exciting opportunity to collaborate and bring bold ideas to life on screen.

Euan Duncan - Camera Operator

Euan, is a former film school graduate and will be the camera operator for Loch Hands. He previously worked with our Director, Ross Milne on his last feature film “OldBurgh” as the DOP and had a short of my own shown at NorthernLights Film Festival in Aberdeen. He is excited to be involved in Loch Hands as he feel that the creativity of the script will carry through onto the screen visually, allowing for creative and dynamic storytelling for the audience.

Harris Culbertson - Script Supervisor 

Harris is the script supervisor for Loch Hands. He will be monitoring the script making sure no dialogue, actions, and other essentials to ensure they aren't overlooked during filming. He is a massive horror movie fan and so can’t wait to get started!

Lucy Keegan - Storyboard artist / animator

Lucy is a Scottish illustrator, storyboard artist and animator, primarily working on Gaelic short animated films. She has published multiple illustrated picture books and participated in various film projects.

Josh Taylor - Producer/Executive Producer

Josh is an aspiring producer who is always looking to be involved in projects to gain more experience as he grows his career! Working in locations within film and tv, Josh is extremely excited that Loch Hands is the first project produced by his company G4Films. The script, sfx, and overall story and themes are very compelling and with such a great cast and crew, he really thinks that Loch Hands will be something that can grow and develop and ultimately entertain audiences.  

We plan to use funds majorly to pay cast, crew, accommodation, catering and costumes. We aim to self fund many other parts of the project and have already such as locations, marketing, storyboarding/animation and props. 

As you can see, paying cast and crew is the largest area that the funds will be used for and that is because we aim to pay the real living wage or above if we can!

Please see the graph below that shows a visual of how and where each are of funding will be used: 

Creative Scotland's Match Funding

Our project is part of the Creative Scotland Crowd-match Fund. 

To receive match funding, the following pledge conditions apply:

1. For every donation made to your campaign, Creative Scotland will match it £1 for £1, up to a maximum of £250 per individual donation.

2. Only one donation per supporter will be matched.

3. The campaign must receive donations from at least 25 unique Supporters to qualify for match funding.

4. Match funding counts towards the overall crowdfunding target – so the combined total of public donations and Creative Scotland match funding must reach 100% of your target for you to keep the funds.

5. If your campaign does not reach 100% of its target before closing, the match funding will be withdrawn, and no funds will be paid out.

6. Creative Scotland match funding will only be available for 8 weeks from the "live" date of the project or the approval date of the application, whichever is more recent.

A final thank you

Finally, thank you so much for any contributions made, we really appreciate it! This wouldn't be able to come to life without the support of our contributors and we cannot express our gratitude enough. 

The Loch Hands team

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made