The Moment Trap - The Lennon Dream

Synopsis
As his girlfriend Gaby leaves him, skint gardener and avid John Lennon fan, Mickey Sharpe, receives bad news. His filmmaker friend, Arav Garg, has been killed in a car accident leaving an unfinished documentary about a London parking scam.
Traffic wardens are blocking cars with other cars, booking them, and then having the cars lifted for being illegally parked. This is being run by small-time crook Danny Mason.
Arav’s aging Mother asks if Mickey and his close friends, Frankie, Sherbert, and Bay, can finish her son’s film. The commission is worth over £30k.
They take Arav's filming equipment to Mickey’s house-sit where the love-sick Mickey studies Arav’s film footage and notes about the parking scam.
Sidney Vex, a high-profile drug dealer in the film and entertainment industry, has a plan of his own. His Bentley has just been driven 2,000 miles loaded with £1.5M worth of cocaine. There will be a driver-swap in London, so the cocaine cannot be traced to its final destination.
Danny Mason pays £20K for a tip-off about the location of the driver-swap and plans to block the Bentley and have it lifted away knowing that if it’s impounded no one will claim it in case the drugs are found.
Clyde Pickett, a traffic warden bullied into the parking scam, is unfortunate enough to have this land on his patch. On the morning of the driver-swap, Clyde stops to book a car outside Mickey’s house-sit. Mickey sees him and recognises him as one of the wardens from Arav’s documentary.
When Mickey’s friends arrive, they are horrified to find Clyde tied to a chair and Mickey optimistic that he can get a filmed confession from Clyde about the parking scam. Following on from Mickey’s actions, as the tension and frustration build, the four learn that Clyde’s kidnapping has ruined Danny’s plan to get the cocaine. They soon realise that they are trapped in a stand-off with armed, drug dealing, gangsters.
Danny’s henchmen catch up with the four friends and make them hand over all they own. Clyde’s filmed confession about the parking scam is on a memory stick that ends up in Danny Mason’s possession.
When Mickey turns up to get it back he finds Sidney Vex has got there first with other intentions of his own for Danny.
Film producer and drug runner Sidney Vex helps to get Arav’s documentary to a London Film Festival where our story ends with the lads winning an award - and a final twist.

  • Steven A. Johnson
    Director
  • Steven A. Johnson
    Writer
  • Greg Stewart
    Producer
  • Carmelo Viviani
    Key Cast
    "Mickey Sharpe"
    Autopsy: The Last Hours of
  • Tom Keller
    Key Cast
    "Sidney Vex"
    Doctor Who, Back To Life
  • Oliver Malam
    Key Cast
    "Frankie Winters"
    Match Not Found
  • Anthony Harwood
    Key Cast
    "Clyde Pickett"
    The Crown, IT Crowd
  • Paul McKay
    Key Cast
    "Danny Mason"
    NCS: Manhunt
  • Ben Mansbridge
    Key Cast
    "James (Sherbert) Sherborde"
    Infatuation - Island of Love
  • Barty Shepherd
    Key Cast
    "Baynton Jones"
    Sinners Haven
  • Ben Scheck
    Key Cast
    "Bill"
    Urban Legends
  • Liberty Buckland
    Key Cast
    "Gaby"
    Prime Cut
  • BÜLENT MEHMET
    Key Cast
    "Jinxy"
    Partly Rotten, Outwitting The Devil
  • Jacqueline Johnson
    Key Cast
    "Jools"
    Celebrity Murder Mystery
  • Alex Meredith
    Key Cast
    "Brian"
  • Jez Ridley
    Key Cast
    "Bobby"
  • Kathleen Roseblade
    Key Cast
    "Jeanny Bardwell"
  • Ruchika Jain
    Key Cast
    "Mrs Garg"
    This Nan's Life, Quickie, Badnaam
  • Ella Glendining
    Key Cast
    "Sally"
    Causality
  • Sunjay Garg
    Key Cast
    "Arav Garg"
  • Paul Davidson
    Key Cast
    "Max"
  • Joan Linder
    Key Cast
    Tracey Ullman's Show, Doctor Who, Not Going Out, Little Britain, Derek,
  • Cedar Rose Johnson
    Music and Score
  • Rob Clydesdale
    Music and Score
    Intelligence
  • Kain Dean
    Music and Score
  • Cameron Clydesdale
    Music and Score
  • Stringle & Johnson
    Music and Score
  • Project Type:
    Feature
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 31 minutes 59 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    September 2, 2021
  • Country of Origin:
    United Kingdom
  • Country of Filming:
    United Kingdom
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Arri raw
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
Distribution Information
  • Cedar Rose Johnson Ltd
    Distributor
    Country: United Kingdom
    Rights: All Rights
Director Biography - Steven A. Johnson

Concept & character creator, scriptwriter, professional lyricist, composer, and author: Steven's natural ability to imagine and execute each idea has led to the success of the execution of The Moment Trap - The Lennon Dream.

His keen eye and an acute understanding of behaviour and mannerisms enable him to portray the specific detail in each and every scene.

Steven has over 20 years’ experience of writing, producing and directing and has produced many commercial and dramatised promotional films. Throughout the making of The Moment Trap - The Lennon Dream, he has valued his discussions with his friend Berny Stringle.

The Moment Trap - The Lennon Dream has been crafted and delivered by writer/director Steven A. Johnson in a way that audiences haven’t seen in cinema before.

Through unique cinematic devices, Steven A. Johnson disguises a harrowing tale of success and loss with an entertaining story of corrupt traffic wardens and a parking scam in London.

The creative idea Steven has utilised in the film is the use of number plates on vehicles. There are a lot of characters that the audience needs to familiarise themselves with and Steven has chosen to do this through the number plate of the vehicle that belongs to each character. Not only does this reintroduce these characters throughout, but it also takes away the distraction of meaningless figures on a number plate. As well as this, it means that the dialogue spoken can focus on what is important to Johnson, avoiding the overuse of names in characters’ dialogue.

This creative idea has been really well received. Particularly at the ending as it brings a-whole-other level to the story and the feeling. Financially, this idea was also successful as it worked out more viable for the no-budget production, rather than renting plates from the DVLA.

Both film industry professionals and the general public have been overwhelmingly positive about this particular aspect of the film, commenting on how much of a positive impact it had on the journey that the narrative took them on.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

"I wanted to show the struggle that's in front of young people, particularly if they've gone through university and they've kind of done everything they're meant to have done. The struggle still sits there in front of young people who are going out into the world and hoping that everything they've been told will come to pass. The reality, of course, is that it is not quite as it seems. It's a lot harder to actually move your life forward now in many ways."