Starring Role for Perse Pupil
The school is very proud to hear about the acting success of Peter Silver, Year 9, who has recently been involved in an exciting film project. Peter has written an account of his fantastic experience here:
"We started filming on March 11th for the short film 'Lou and Henry', in which I played Henry. I first heard about it through 'The Young Actors Company', of which I am a member in Cambridge. I was invited for an audition in London and was thrilled to hear within the same week that I had been given the part, and that they wanted me to come and meet the girl playing Lou.
The film was being made as a graduation project for final year students at The Arts University in Bournemouth and would be assessed for their final degree. Once editing is finished and the film is completed it will be premiered in London at The British Film Institute in July and hopefully screened at national and international festivals. The whole experience was a great opportunity to meet new people who share my love of drama and film, as well as learn a little bit more about life on a film set.
All the students on the Film Production degree course are invited to pitch their ideas and the best ones are chosen to be filmed. The script ‘Lou and Henry’ had been written by the Director, Ellie Rogers, and in addition to the actual filming the crew were required to raise the money, find locations and everything else you would need to do for a full length movie. To raise money they set up a website which gave the following synopsis of the story:
A coming of age drama set in 1997 in a remote coastal cottage during the winter holidays. Two families reunite for a weekend after three years of being apart. For the parents it seems as if no time has passed, but for the children a rift has appeared and they struggle to relate to each other after such a long time apart. Both Lou and Henry struggle to connect with family around them and gradually migrate towards each other, resulting in an intimate moment between them both on their final night. Although ultimately innocent, it is an experience that will remain with them for the rest of their lives.
I was sent the script to learn and the next weekend we drove down to Bournemouth to start filming. I was filming for a total of seven days, driving down on the Friday night after school and working through till the end of Wednesday. I then returned to school on Thursday and Friday and went back to Bournemouth to spend the whole weekend filming on a very cold Chesil beach. Though very hectic and, as I'm sure my classmates will tell you, incredibly exhausting, it was an enjoyable and exciting experience, and I cannot wait for another opportunity to do something like it.
This is the second opportunity I have had – about 18 months ago I played the part of the titular character in a German psychological thriller called "The Other Child" in flashbacks to his troubled childhood. I have also acted with one of the University of Cambridge Drama Societies in a play called "The Pillowman" last November. So far at the Perse I enjoyed playing Reverend Lupin in the Year 9 and 10 murder mystery.
I hope to continue to enhance my acting experiences having been successful in auditioning for the National Youth Theatre, and will spend two weeks with them this summer. I feel very proud to have got through the competitive process and can’t wait to get started!"
Peter during filming of 'Lou & Henry'
