My films travel on a tightrope between darkness and light, drama and comedy. My biggest ambition as a storyteller is to make you laugh, and make you cry. I’m inspired by an unlikely premise for a story that gives you that ‘never’ seen before feeling, while touching on universal themes that I believe across the world will identity with. My mental health drama Benchmarks, which asks the question - what would you say to your younger self - won best short short at the London Independent Film Festival in 2021, and was also nominated for best screenplay at the Papaya Rocks Festival. While my short documentary about a formerly homeless singer songwriter, Madhero, which mixes live action and animation, and has been on the festival run this year at the Tennessee International Indie Festival, Love and Hope Festival in Barcelona, and the London Independent Film festival. Next year, In My Day, a Scifi black and white drama which challenges what we might become conservative about in the future, will be released on the festival circuit.
What also draws me to film-making is experimentation. That feeling of ‘how the hell do we pull that off’. My most recent film, The Last Jackolantern, presented that challenge constantly.
How do we tell a story from the perspective of a homeless pumpkin on the street? How do we do a POV when it’s rolling through the streets of London? Well, for that I had to invent something completely from scratch: a spoke attached to two wheels with a mount with a go pro attached to create a truly world spinning around effect that I had put together with a mechanic. When it worked in his garage, it was such a Eureka moment. Another scene that demanded the impossible, was to create an abyss sequence with our camera travelling past different pumpkins as we go back in time to Halloween. I collaborated with Film.London and using their robotic BOLT arm, we shot each pumpkin for real and floated them using a metal wire, and programming the camera’s movement. We then stitched the whole sequence to together in post- which is brought to life in this teaser film: https://vimeo.com/762935385
Every shoot is my film school. And I’m looking forward to what’s next.
Festival award wins: ‘Best Director of a short’ at the Love and Hope film festival Barcelona (The Last Jackolantern 2023), ‘Best International Short Film’ at the Tennessee International Independent Film festival (The Last Jackolantern 2023), ‘Best long form short’ at the Skiptown International Film Film Festival- LA (The Last Jackolantern 2022), ‘Best foreign Documentary’ at the Tennessee International Film Festival (Madhero 2022), ‘Best short short’ at London Independent Film Festival (Benchmarks 2021)
Contact me on willgrave@gmail.com
insta: william_gravefilms
07807623324
UK Agent/Rep: Corin West: corin@lemonadereps.com