#ThrowbackThursday: Cursed crew make movie in Harrogate

On November 3 2006, the Harrogate Advertiser met a crew who had overcome the odds to create a movie filmed at various locations in Harrogate and Knaresborough.

The 72-minute production by movie-makers David Hare, Rob Hudson, Andrew Forbes and Nick Lonsdale, took a dark and gritty journey into the mind of a troubled man.

But the four became troubled themselves when their year of filming was tormented by explosions, accidents, illness, and other

mishaps.

On their first night of filming, the petrol generator they were using to film in the dark exploded, a disaster only to be followed by two car crashes and the theft of 45 minutes worth of footage.

Some time later the crew were filming, with permission, at a graveyard. But the bad luck continued and out of nowhere the crew were swarmed by police cars.

Andrew said: “We’d got permission to film but out of nowhere four or five police cars came rushing down the road and officers started to question us, asking what we were doing.

“We found out later there’d recently been a case of body snatching in a Doncaster graveyard.”

The film had a budget of just £3,000 to £4,000 and throughout filming the four were still working at their day jobs.

But despite the challenges and disasters the film was entered into the 2007 Sundance film festival in America and had a showing at the Harrogate Odeon in December that year.