Jack hopes his new film will be a 'perfect 10'

Jack Levy, from Standish, has brought out short movie Nick, about a couple who go to watch a charismatic performance poet who has a formidable and sinister hold over his audience.

The 14-minute film is the 10th Jack has produced and he says it is the work he is proudest of so far.

Nick was recently shown to the cast and crew at a private preview at Manchester venue Home ahead of its premiere at a festival in the New Year and Jack says its gripping premise was actually based on a rather unusual experience in his own life.

Jack, 31, said: "It’s actually based on a real story that happened to me and my wife. We went to see a gig with some friends and it was so full and hot it was incredibly uncomfortable.

"We were squashed in like sardines so we couldn’t move and you couldn’t go to the toilet or get a drink. It was incredibly claustrophobic.

"I wouldn’t have found my favourite band in the world very enjoyable in those conditions and it must have told on my face because the woman next to me, who I didn’t know, asked if I was having a good time.

"Before I was able to form a response she had turned round and announced to everyone in the room I wasn’t enjoying it. It was very embarrassing and quite scary.

"The landlord of the venue came in because it was later than his licence and the crowd really turned on him as well. The guy playing announced he needed a break and we left. It was a very weird experience.

"It was just a conversation piece for about a year but then someone said it sounded like a film so I started writing it. I kept a lot of details from the night in the final thing but I changed it from a musician to a poet. I can’t write music so I couldn’t have put the script together with someone singing songs on stage.

"This is definitely the best thing I’ve done, in terms of ambition and technical achievement."

Jack is originally from Knutsford but moved to the borough after meeting and marrying his wife Rachael, who is a Wiganer, through their day jobs in TV. He studied for a Master’s in film-making at Goldsmith’s University in London and also studied editing on a short course at the Future Works college in Salford.

He says his favourite directors include Quentin Tarantino and also older masters such as Frank Capra, Charlie Chaplin and Alfred Hitchcock. He hopes that will be a springboard to getting Nick onto the 2018 festival circuit, with applications to cinema celebrations including the borough’s very own Leigh Short Film Festival planned. He said: "These days if you get your film into four or five festivals you are doing really well. The competition is just so fierce."

To find out more about the film, visit www.nickshortfilm.co.uk