Sunday Roast - Short Film

Aim

A bizarre dark comedy of rich characters and emotion about the war that rages in too many families on the battleground of the dining table.

STORY:

How to roast a chicken… 

First, you’ll need to set the oven to 190c/fan 170c/gas mark 5.

Next, prepare one middle-class, family home with all the extra trimmings – one flashy car, the shiniest new TV and a pristine, modern kitchen.   

Add two warring parents, MOLLY and FRANK WHELDON, placing them neatly on each side of the dinner table – make sure their contempt for each other has been simmering all week.

Then lay LAURA, their teenage daughter, between the pair. Now this is the crucial part; we really want the distress to soak right in, underneath the skin.

Place in the oven for one afternoons worth of anguish, and wait…

Check out our story synopsis video out here: 

A STATEMENT FROM OUR DIRECTOR:

With this film we want to draw a picture of the psychological prison parents can put their children in by raging their “marriage war” in front of their eyes. Nowadays divorce & patch-work families are as common as traditional family structures and young people are brought up with a distorted image of family values and relationships. Around 50 % of all marriages end in divorce, while 50 years ago that number was around 20%.

The film depicts the inescapable dilemma of children not being able to take a side in the parent’s dispute and therefore being emotionally torn apart. A war that rages in our heads, in our homes, at the place where we should feel safe, in so many kid’s minds, is one without rules and one that will stick with us for life.

CREW:

Check out our crew bio video at the top of the page to find out more about our brilliant crew! 

Watch here as David talks about the project:

CAST:

Watch here as Caitlin talks more about her character, Laura:

Our other cast members playing the roles of Molly and Frank will be announced at a later date!

HOW WE ARE GOING TO USE THE MONEY:

Sunday Roast has a truly explosive finale. So much so, that it wouldn’t be feasible to shoot on location - no one wants their dining room destroyed! Consequently, a large amount of our budget will go towards building a kitchen and dining room set. Also, a significant amount will go to the production design department to purchase and create props, costumes and prop food. 

Additionally, some of the funds will be distributed to our camera department, to allow them to rent special camera lenses, as we’ll be shooting with two cameras simultaneously. 

Like any other film production, we value the importance of our wonderful cast and crew, so a portion of the money will be used to look after our cast as well as towards transport.

Lastly, some of the funds will be used to allow us to enter the film to festivals.

One final note: the Sunday Roast crew understand how difficult the past year has been on everyone - not only financially, but personally too. To help give something back to our local community, we’ve created a special donation tier entitled, ‘£2 to the Bournemouth Food Bank’ – so for every £12 donated through this tier, £2 of it will be donated to the Bournemouth Food Bank, which is a wonderful local charity helping local people in need of support fed! 

Find out more about this charity here: https://bournemouth.foodbank.org.uk/

This project successfully funded on 9th March 2021