The making of CHARLIE by Luke Snellin

I was asked by the guys over at Virgin Media Shorts to shoot a film to coincide with the launch of VMS 2011. They approached me about making something connected with probably the most famous pioneer of the short film medium and arguably one of the most iconic film actors of all time; Charlie Chaplin. I had about a week and complete creative control. I wrote the script over a course of a few days. I knew I wanted to do something that nodded to the heritage of silent film and the legacy of Chaplin himself whilst also maintaining a contemporary edge.

With this in mind we cast young, up and coming actor Michael Peluso, it was a pleasure to work with him and I think he has a very bright future indeed. I also wanted the cinematography to nod to silent film and so we used available light and Ollie, as always, did a magnificent job of shooting it. The shoot was mental, we were a small unit trying to carve out the setups at hugely famous London locations with a tonne of ‘inconspicuous’ extras and so the general public were willing spectators. We had to move quickly and efficiently but in the end it was a really fun and slightly bizarre day. The image of 20 identical Charlies atop a double decker bus will haunt my dreams…