Northampton-based social enterprise Macbeth feature film launches campaign for completion funding

Macbeth, a film produced by Northampton based Screen Northants, is a stunning adaptation of Shakespeare’s tale of ambition and madness, set on feuding estates, where magic meets realism. The story is brought to life by a young, diverse and award-winning cast and crew through a social enterprise production with initial proof of concept funding provided by Children in Need.

Screen Northants focused on using film production as a tool to raise pride and aspirations among disengaged and disaffected young people of Northamptonshire. The not-fot-profit social enterprise has a core objective to providing opportunities to underrepresented demographics in the film industry, at an age where socio-economic and geographical barriers are most severe. They strive to ensure talented young people from less privileged backgrounds are not missing out on a career in film/tv or the wider creative sector. This has been achieved effectively by engaging young people on real life projects, rather than those just used as a tool for development.

The project has attracted a diverse a mix of incredible new talent and seasoned professionals. It’s cast include Shaq B. Grant as Macbeth (The Flatshare, Gangs of London), Aoife Smyth as Lady Macbeth (Paintball Massacre), Joe Sims as Duncan (Broadchurch) and Alessandro Babalola (Olivier Award winning). The crew included cinematographer Emily Almond Barr (BAFTA Cymru nominated) and composer Rob Lewis (part of the BAFTA talent program) among a host of amazing people.

Attracted by the exemplary writing of Shakespeare, Macbeth was chosen because it is studied in school, deepening the connection to education and young people. Shot on what would be classed as ‘no-budget', everyone has dedicated their time and talent to making a high-end feature film that has ambitions to compete with larger funded productions.

The team behind the project were involved in hands-on workshops throughout the production, working with young people of varying ages. An ongoing focus for the project and Screen Northants, who plan to continue engagement beyond the films release, including school workshops featuring cast and crew presence.

With an edit of the film now in final tweaks, the production are looking for additional support to push the film through the crucial last stages of post-production. This includes creating a unique and exciting sound landscape, doing justice to the amazing cinematography, adding further magic with subtle visual effects, and finally quality control and delivery.

Completion of the film will not only give everyone’s hard work the justice it deserves through festival and cinema screenings, but it will also allow for future sessions and workshops with schools and young people.

With distributors and sales agents already showing interest the film has set up a Greenlit campaign to fund completion, as well as being open to other collaborations, ideas or investment discussions.

You can find out more about the project, view work-in-progress extracts, and get in touch here: https://www.instagram.com/macbethmovie/

The Greenlit campaign is here: https://greenlit.com/project/macbeth

For more information please don’t hesitate to get in touch - [email protected]