Shiney

Kayleigh and Ant are two impressionable kids who live on a council estate, hanging out and killing time. They trade player cards and are desperate to seem older and cooler than they are. With not much else to do, they decide one day to try to buy a pack of cigarettes, just like they’ve seen the older, cooler kids do.

Director/co-writer Paul Holbrook

Co-writer Graeme Willetts

Producer Camilla Stoppani

Production Company Shunk Films

Run time 15 Minutes

This short is currently available to watch online, at the bottom of this page. For booking enquiries please contact Shunk Films

Image Ⓒ Katie Francis & Caleb Stephens

Paul Holbrook

Born in Bristol, Paul Holbrook is a working-class writer-director and award-winning filmmaker who grew up on a rough, poverty-stricken council estate. Despite a lack of formal education, Paul started out as a screenwriter, writing feature-length scripts for the spec market and made encouraging progress, advancing in various industry-backed screenwriting competitions including Page, Shore, Screencraft and in 2018 made the final 1% of The Academy Nicholl Fellowship.

He has also made the final stages of the BBC Writersroom, the later stages of iShorts and has been selected for industry-backed mentoring and career development through Creative England and the BFI NETWORK. After years of honing his writing craft, Paul eventually moved into film-making, driven by a passion to develop and direct his own work he has worked on a plethora of successful short films across varying genres including comedy, drama, sci-fi and horror. His work has screened at festivals around the world including many Bafta and Oscar qualifiers. Paul is developing an exciting slate of scripts and ideas with the aim of directing his first feature.

Greame Willets

Graeme Willetts is an award-winning writer who draws from his colourful life experiences and the fascinating characters he grew up around as a working-class kid from Swindon. Graeme is alumni of the University College for the Creative Arts in Farnham and specialised in screenwriting where he saw several of his screenplays come alive onto 16mm and 8mm film. Since graduating in 2008, he has been working on his craft with many short and feature screenplays. 6 of those short scripts have been produced and entered into international film festivals.

Graeme writes alongside his impressive career as a sound recordist, where he has been on the front line of Oscar winning and BAFTA-qualifying short films. Along the way he has been mentored by talented writers and writer/directors including Rachel Shenton, Jamie Childs, David Watson, Tim Clague and Danny Stack.

Graeme is currently developing a couple of feature scripts and has recently forged a partnership with fellow Bristol based writer/director Paul Holbrook.

Camilla Stoppani

Camilla has forged a career in advertising and film, for the past 20 years, with a passion for the story all the way. The tale has always been the driving force behind her decisions on where or who to work with and she is always thrilled to be part of a vision. From the age of 12 she told her best friend she wanted to work in film and she has made sure that’s her constant goal. She has collaborated with Paul Holbrook on a number of his film projects.

Festival Selections

- Edmonton Int Film Festival (Oscar Qualifier)
- British Urban Film Festival (BAFTA Qualifier)
- Manchester International Film Festival (BIFA Qualifier)
- This Is England Festival
- Killer Valley Comedy Fest International Film Festival of Wales

Film Stills

Image c/o Katie Francis & Caleb Stephens

Festival Awards

Best Young Actor, Katie Francis – Oxford International Film Festival
Coup de Couer – Children’s Award
This Is England Film Festival – Best Young Male, Caleb Stevens
Birmingham Film Festival – Best Young Female, Katie Francis

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