CrimeFighters, City Screen, York, March 21 and 23 (From York Press)

CrimeFighters, City Screen, York, March 21 and 23

12:29pm Friday 19th March 2010 in

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York film company MilesTone Productions unveil their latest cinematic adventure, the vigilante action comedy CrimeFighters, at City Screen, York, tonight.

Made for £6,000, this 80-minute digital film uses familiar city landmarks to depict writer-director Miles Watts’s story of three bored friends being swept into vigilantism to solve a crimewave sweeping through York.

The premiere comes only days before the heavily-publicised release of fellow vigilante adventure Kick-Ass. “That’s nice timing; it seems vigilantes are in this year!” says Miles.

After his debut feature film The BandWagons in 2007 and the on-going cult zombie web series Zomblogalypse, Miles reckons CrimeFighters is a significant step up from the previous low-budget, hand-held camera output of his independent film studio.

“We wanted to make a big movie for small money, so as always we relied on the help and co-operation of the whole of York, and this time the city really came through for us,” he says. “So did the York Film Trust who kick-started the whole venture.”

Miles’s film is a love letter to York, comic-book movies, graphic novels and pop culture, replete with chases, bar brawls, karate and laughs galore.

“It’s a bit of a homage to all the things I like to watch: Batman, Buffy, Scooby Doo, or maybe it’s The Incredibles meets Clerks,” says Miles.

“The story is the unholy trinity thing of three bored friends deciding to do something else for a month, where they’re trying to avoid alcohol and their crappy jobs and end up being vigilantes, with the vigilantism and thuggery serving as a sweeping backdrop for all the relationship problems in their own lives.”

Miles considers the film to be his most biographical piece so far. “It has scares and thrills in it but in the end it’s a story about friendships, and it’s like Clerks in that it’s also about people who are disappointed with how their life has turned out in their 20s,” he says.

“That’s how I’ve dealt with it, by writing about things I care about, with a comic-book tone but with plenty to say about relationships.”

He shot CrimeFighters over a staggered three-week period last August and October, a much shorter production time than MilesTone's first feature The BandWagons, which took a year and was produced on the hoof for £2,000.

This time, Miles collaborated on the script with Anna Cathenka and employed digital cinematographer Paul Richardson as head of photography and Tony Hipwell as the film editor. “We really wanted to stretch ourselves on this one and shoot it as a professional production, with a long pre-production period, short shoot and cinematic deadline,” says Miles. “It was very stressful but it made everyone do their best work. This film looks and sounds like nothing we’ve made before.

“We owe this city an enormous debt of gratitude for letting us use their power-points and facilities. Places like the Dean Court Hotel, the Olde Starre Inne, City Screen and the Minster were instrumental in getting this film made.”

The film was shot in colour and then transferred to black and white for a vintage film-noir look. “It makes it look more filmic by de-saturating it and putting an effect on it, which is what you have to do for digital film,” explains Miles. “If you don’t put in the effects, it’ll look like a home movie!”

Cinematographer Paul Richardson made a significant impact on CrimeFighters’ depiction of York’s buildings, streets and skyline. “He was able to get some really good lighting equipment, a dolly track and a crane for a few shots, so we have some Hollywoodesque shots on there that really beef up the film,” says Miles.

Filming was anything but glamorous. “We lugged all our equipment around York and we had to do a lot of the shoot at night, like at the Old Starre Inne, where the landlord let us use it as a film set, kicking out everyone at 11pm and allowing us to use it till 8am,” says Miles.

“Generally, while we were filming, people didn’t give us any hassle and it was a very blessed production because we started filming in August after all the torrential rain of last summer, and we had only one day of rain, and then in October we had the last warm spell of the year.”

Nevertheless, Miles reckons CrimeFighters was four times as hard to make as The BandWagons. “We took at least an hour to light each shot, but then you watch the results and you think, ‘I’m glad I did that’,” he says. “We didn’t get much sleep, but we’re pretty proud of shooting a feature film of that standard in three weeks.

“None of the crew or the cast got paid; they all did if for nothing because they believed in it and wanted the prestige of it being shown in cinemas – and the results are pretty amazing.”

He believes the film is better still for the soundtrack composed by York musicians Sam Forrest and Hayley Hutchinson. “I told them a year ago I would need a whole film score and they jumped it, for no money, coming up with an orchestral score and vocal effects, recorded on a few instruments in their shed,” says Miles. “I have to say it’s made the film 50 per cent cooler, with a John Barry, Danny Elfman vibe to it.” After tonight’s premiere, plans are taking shape for screenings around the country, including at the Hyde Park in Leeds and The Cube in Bristol, plus a possible week-long return to City Screen this summer.

“We’d like to do festival screenings too,” reveals Miles. “I feel this film belongs to York, so I wanted to show it here first, but I will send it to loads of festivals and see what happens.

“We just hope this opens the door for us, so when we send the film off to the UK Film Council and say, ‘If you like what we did for £6,000, here are some other ideas we have’, hopefully they will want to support us.”

CrimeFighters will be shown at City Screen, York, tonight at 6pm. Tickets are still available on 0871 704 2054 or www.picturehouses.co.uk