ANDOVER College students were bowled over by the response to the premiere of their first-ever feature-length film Scrawl shown to a packed Lights Theatre.

The film, created by Andover College media students, has been two years in the making and its debut left the audience surprised for all the right reasons.

The production saw student actors performing alongside seasoned professionals.

Prior to Scrawl, students honed their skills on the short film Motto and the two projects are already proving beneficial in preparing all involved for a successful career in the industry.

Peter Hearn, lecturer, writer and director of Scrawl, said: “The benefits of working on this project have been countless.

“Whether picking up tips from the professionals, to being given the heads up on work opportunities, our students have grown both personally and professionally.

“Scrawl was always about giving students a step up the ladder by getting the allimportant professional IMDb (Internet Movie Database) credit, which we have achieved, but the opportunity and experience has been immeasurable.”

Annie LeGresley worked on Motto as an assistant before stepping up to double duties as a producer and also as one of the leads of Scrawl.

Gaining invaluable credits on IMDb, Annie, along with her production company Half Day Wednesday, has helped co-produce Firehouse Film’s I Only Have Eyes for You, as well as working as a runner on various BBC productions.

She is due to work on a feature executive produced by Martin Scorsese, as well as other independent film projects she is involved in.

Motto camera assistant and Scrawl cinematographer Matty Crawford has complemented his IMDb credits for Motto and Scrawl by working as an assistant editor on a project for actor/producer David Gyasi’s (Cloud Atlas) Indictus Films.

Matty, who completed the Media BTEC last year, has recently been accepted to do film production at Gloucestershire University.

An interesting twist to the Scrawl tale came when one of the professional actors, Daisy Ridley who played Hannah in the film, hit the headlines this summer when she was cast as a relative ‘unknown’ in the new Star Wars movie.