Unsupervised Fleeing Oldtimers was the graduate film I made during my final year at university. I'd set out wanting to make a film that I could have fun with, a film that both tapped on the skills I'd learnt from the year before with Monster (2018), while also not taking myself too seriously. In the early stages, I had intended for this film to be about nostalgia and the idea of memories and dementia. Although I'd always intended for one of my main two characters to be an alien, the focus was always on the alien at the beginning. However, as the story developed, I started to notice my curiosity both as a writer and "audience" in the human character, and started exploring him as the protagonist instead. That was when UFO truly took shape.

​

Exploring unlikely friendships forged through mutual loneliness, as well as the idea of feeling out of place, or quite literally "alienated", was central to UFO. 2019 was also the year where both my last living grandparents - my maternal and paternal grandmothers - became quite a larger part of my life. In that time, I'd started to notice the pains of growing old a lot more, and the social alienation that came with a lot of elderly. What I also started to notice, however, was the unbidden energy still present within them - the playfulness, desire and stubbornness just thrumming within them, that often seeped into the rare chance of conversation in their daily lives. With that, was a sort of contradiction that I'd sought to bring out in UFO. 

​

Tapping on my experience with Special Effects Makeup in Monster (2018), as well as my knowledge of animated effects and animation as in Revontulet (2017) and DisQuieted (2016), I set out to make a mixed-media short film encompassing the ridiculousness of the story as well as the heartwarming truth to it all. In the words of my actress, Suzanne Magowan, it was a "truly bonkers film, with a familiar truth to it". However, it was definitely no easy feat. "Highly ambitious", especially for a student film, barely encapsulates the stressful weeks, and amount of effort put in by a fairly large student crew. Furthermore, my idea to convert an old fire station into a nursing home to prevent disrupting the residents at an actual care home, was a daunting task that my production designer, Molly Firmin, bravely stepped up to, with some clever camera angles and life-changing thrifting skills.

​

At the end of the day, what I still find lacking in UFO from the standpoint of the writer and director, is the overall pacing of the film. I think I'd tried to cram too many things into a short film, that perhaps would've done better in a 30min film. Some character relationships were compromised in the process, and things did feel quite a bit rushed towards the end. What I really did enjoy, however, was the dynamic between Howie and Marty, and working with two experienced actors, who were absolute sweethearts. Once again, I'd learnt so much from yet another ambitious film idea, and I'm always very thankful for the experience.