'˜Please help fund our new movie!'

Dan Williams, from Hindley, and his cinematographer Andrew Smith need to raise around £5,000 to make their second short film Unspoken a reality.

The duo have been collaborating since meeting at Futureworks Media School in Manchester and have already worked together on Box of Things: a powerful seven-minute drama about asylum seeking.

Dan and Manchester-based film-maker Andrew are now looking to follow that by tackling another topical and hard-hitting issue.

Unspoken is slated to tell the story of a man suffering from depression who meets a woman who may be able to help him in a broken-down lift.

Dan, 26, said: “This is a more challenging film to produce as we’re constructing a set and building the interior of the lift so we need funds.

“We’ve got about £1,165 already through reaching out to family and friends.

“But we need about £5,000 in total and we’ve got about 20 days left.

“Hopefully we can do it with donations coming in.

“We always want to tackle something a bit different in our films.

“Having two people joking or waxing lyrical about Manchester has been done over and over again so we wanted to avoid that.

“I’ve also had a bit of experience with mental health issues myself so it seemed a fitting topic for a film.

“Simon’s depression in Unspoken is brought on by panic attacks.

“He makes plans to end his own life, but then he meets Emily, who is actually mute, so they communicate by writing things down. You will have to watch the film to find out what happens next!”

Interestingly, writing played a key role in Box of Things too, which told the story of an Libyan asylum seeker who falls foul of the British authorities and refugee system and pens a message to his daughter.

Having seen their debut movie do the rounds of the festival circuit in the UK and America, Dan and 23-year-old Andrew are hopeful that Unspoken can also make a significant impact on the scene.

Former Hindley High School and Wigan and Leigh College student Dan hopes to begin shooting Unspoken next month if the crowd-funding campaign on website Indiegogo is successful.

And the pair plan to edit the footage in time for it to be entered into cinema events and competitions for 2018.

Having been in the same class at Futureworks, the duo intend to keep making films together and seem to have found something of a niche with short fiction films which are nevertheless closely based on reality. And it looks likely that there will be further collaborations.

Dan said: “We work really well together.

“We’re always on the same page and we like a lot of the same directors, such as David Fincher and Danny Boyle.

“We’ve thrown a few documentary ideas around but it’s much better for us to do fiction and more enjoyable as well.”

To find out more about the crowd-funding campaign or donate, visit www.unspoken2017.com