Hitchhiker (2003) - short film

Short Northern Irish-made film. A contemporary ghost story. starring Paul Weir, Irwin Murphy, Patrick Lowe and Allan Gildea. Written by Aideen Killough. Directed by Lucy McCullough. DP/Lighting cameraman: Robert JE Simpson Shot early 2003 as one of three films produced for our final year projects as part of a BA in Film Studies at QUB. We spent the first semester of 2002/3 working up scripts and storyboards based around ’genres’, and then pitched to direct the shortlisted scripts. I was a last minute replacement as director of photography/lighting cameraman, but it worked, and I think all bar one brief shot were photographed by me. We used a Canon XL1 for most of the shoot, though one or two pick-ups might have been shot with an XM1. The crews rotated jobs between productions, and my own flawed directorial effort is also on this channel. We shot this in and around the County Down countryside near Comber and off the Killinchy Road. The interiors of the inn were shot at the Old School House near Castle Espie (), exteriors were at a private residence. These films were screened in June 2003 at the QFT but haven’t had much of an airing since. Hopefully none of the crew will object to me making this available, as these were collaborative efforts and I’m sure some of the others would love to see them again.