Fluid trailer from Burning Details on Vimeo.

My micro-budget feature, Fluid, was screened one morning at the Rich Mix cinema in Shoreditch, London to an audience of cast, crew and friends. It was the last step of an extraordinary year-long adventure, in which I’d written, produced, directed, photographed and edited a science fiction film with a crew of professionals and non-professionals: fuelled by enthusiasm, a low budget and hope, we completed this film to the best of our ability. I had never felt more fulfilled.

My wish was to see a project through to screening and, while it didn’t make it into the festivals I entered, I considered it a rewarding project that taught me a great amount about filmmaking. There’s much I wish I could have done differently, but that’s for the next film.

As part of putting the production to bed, I wanted to make a trailer for it. Friends who come with me to the cinema know how much I love trailers and I wanted to do the same for this film: as an exercise it was as eye opening as making a feature.

When I was at college, I met a musician who told me of his experience in editing down an album track to release as a single. I kept thinking of this as I ended Fluid down on iMovie; trying to distill the essence of the film, its story and themes from 75 minutes to under two minutes. Many notes were written before I edited a single image.

On completion, I shared the trailer with the cast and crew: their responses were positive and I’m pleased with the result. But I’m left with one nagging feeling: I want to do more. I want to tell another story. I want to make another film. Onto the next.