Private Project

The Only Way Is Up

Madame Zoephel seems a different character to different people. When visiting her husband in prison she is the concerned, caring wife. But to Jake, her husband's supplier of drugs, she is a fraudulent public performer, using up his ill-gotten gains in pampering her own ego. But when Jake and partner Nora try to tap into the loot for themselves, they experience a side to Madame Zoephel beyond there imagining.

  • Andrew Pennycook
    Director
  • Paul Welton
    Writer
  • Paul Welton
    Producer
  • Susan Seelig
    Key Cast
  • Melita Leavens
    Key Cast
  • Tommie Gabiec
    Key Cast
  • Patrick Knox
    Key Cast
  • Mitch Birne
    Key Cast
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Runtime:
    10 minutes 56 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    November 8, 2016
  • Production Budget:
    300 GBP
  • Country of Origin:
    United Kingdom
  • Country of Filming:
    United Kingdom
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Video, 1920*1080, 25p, 50 Mbps
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • HACCA (Hertfordshire Amateur Cinematography Clubs Association)
    Hertfordshire
    United Kingdom
    November 19, 2016
    World Premiere
    First Place
  • Finchley Film Makers Annual Competition 2016-2017
    Finchley
    United Kingdom
    May 19, 2017
    2nd Place Overall, Best Lighting, Best Editing, Best Acting
Director Biography - Andrew Pennycook

Paul Welton has had a varied career, initially making documentaries on a broad range of subjects including solar power and canal restoration and then moving on to short narrative films, beginning in 2009 with "He's Got His Own Reactor" and continuing in 2012 with "The Innocence of Play".

With each of these fiction films he concentrates on plot structure. He strives to avoid a film where the thrust and meaning of the film is all too evident from the opening credits, and incorporates major plot points that spin the action around and keep the viewer watching.

Paul is actually credited as the Producer of "The Only Way Is Up" because he prefers that the direction of the actors is undertaken by another more people-oriented director, leaving him free to concentrate on the structure of the film and the mechanics of its realisation. To this end, he is responsible for such diverse tasks as the writing, shooting, editing and special effects.

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Director Statement

Have you ever been lost in a modern building, a shopping centre with lots of floors where the exit to the multi-storey car-park seems so elusive, being on some specific floor so that just heading down will not get you out? Well this film was designed to take that feeling to the next level.

The story brings together the occult, drug dealing and the cynical use of charities for exploitation to create a narrative which is original and gripping.