03rd Oct2015

Grimmfest 2015: ‘Driven’ Review (Short Film)

by Phil Wheat

Stars: Rachel Capovila, Rupert Proctor | Written by BFI Film Academy students | Directed by Matt Palmer (Directorial Mentor)

driven-screen

From January 2013 to January 2014 young filmmakers aged 16-19 from Cumbria and Lancashire have took part in courses covering all aspects of filmmaking and the film industry including programming, script writing, film production and distribution, receiving training and mentorship from industry professionals – and the end result is the brief, but remarkable Driven.

Produced within Signal Film and Media’s BFI Film Academy in Barrow-upon-Furness, Driven is a short, very short, but eerie ghost story that tells the story a man driven (pun intended) insane by his car’s sat-nav.

You would think, given that it was made as part of a training programme for film students, that Driven would be less of a film and more of an exercise in the process of filmmaking. However that’s certainly not the case. Running a mere 6 minutes, Driven is a concise, well-plotted, well-directed ghost story that reveals itself slowly, using black humour – playing up absurdity of the situation – to set up it’s sting-in-the-tale ending.

Like all good short films, Driven does not hit the audience over the head with a myriad of plot points and story beats, instead it is allowed to play out naturally, bringing the audience into the core of the story through the slightest of actions and reactions – the interplay between the driver and his out of control sat nav. A sat nav which, it turns out has sinister motives. Although the reveal of whether those motives are in the drivers favour or not – whether the sat nav was helping him commit a crime or pay for one – is left till the hauniting conclusion…

To say anymore would spoil what is a fantastic short, boding well for the careers of the students involved. But fear not, if you want to see what Driven is all about, you can watch it right now:

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