Film Name: Sheet Music
Director / Producers: Rob Humm, Davey Hal and Tom Eatherton
Actors / Composers – Liv Blackburn, Sean Blythe, Ciaran Blythe, James Mein, Lottey Yeates, Winter
Berry and Jack Tyler
Trinkets tell the tales of past tenants whilst exploring an abandoned mansion…” – Southend YMCA presents an All In Music Production in association with Soundcastle Media and Youth Music.
In a new exclusive interview on Blazing Minds, I got the chance to ask Co-Director / Producer Davey Hal a few questions about the film Sheet Music, which will have its World Premiere at The Horror-on-Sea Film Festival on Sunday 25h January at 12:30hrs.
Q. Your film has been selected to play at the Horror-on-Sea Film Festival. Can you tell us what we can expect from the film?
We are All In Music at Southend YMCA and we are a music project that delivers music sessions to disadvantaged and vulnerable young people aged between 11-25 in the Southend area.
This was a half term workshop during October 2024 as a Filming Scoring Project ‘Halloween Special’ open to young budding musicians from the Southend area.
This short film was devised, written and filmed over 8 hours during one dark and gloomy day at Porter’s Civic House in Southend with the main focus for our young people to compose music to over the remaining 4 days of the half term.
Q. How did the concept for the films come about?
Honestly, the concept came about between 9am-10am on the 28th of October sat around the wooden table that features heavily in our story! We were blessed with such a grand house which would be perfect for any Halloween themed story. We wanted to utilise this location as much as we could being there for the day so the house became one of the main characters itself!
We had a box of Halloween props to delve into, some lights and a fantastic cameraman and director in Rob Humm to guide our ideas with our young people and music tutors…what could go wrong?
Q. What were some of your influences for the look and style of the film?
A. We are all just lovers of film with a passion for music so during the writing and filming process we wanted to incorporate scenes and moments that we could highlight musically so yeah, music was the main influence!
Q. What were some of your favourite moments during filming?
A. Without giving everything away, the flash backs of our characters. We had so much fun filming and improvising those scenes together as they all included some light hearted tongue in cheek humour to carry our story along with the ideas flowing for the music to be written!
Q. Did you experience any issues during filming?
A. A couple of unexpected bumps in the afternoon, creaking floor boards and unexplained phenomenas…but apart form that, not really!
Q. What makes this stand out as something different in the horror genre?
A. We would say our soundtrack as that was the main dialogue for our film. It’s a light hearted story with plenty of humorous nods to horror as we know it!
Q. What do you hope people take away after watching the film?
A. We hope that our film showcases the musical talent and creative minds of our young people and shows what is possible when given an opportunity to thrive in an area that they hadn’t tried before!
Q. Do you have any other projects which you are currently working on?
We have another short film call ‘Sound Travels’ which was premiered at Southend-On-Sea Film Festival 2025. There are two versions of the same film as we had two groups of young people film and compose music to highlight the same story differently.
Apart from that, we are open to collaborations!
Q. If someone was looking to direct their own film what advice would you give them?
A. For us, it was a case of having a great location, a cameraman in Rob Humm (who knows what he’s doing to bring our ideas to life) and plenty of trust in our young people ideas to guide us towards a
fantastic outcome!
Sheet Music will have its World Premiere at The Horror-on-Sea Film Festival on Sunday 25h January at 12:30hrs.
You can find out more about Sheet Music and purchase tickets for the film here
Published in various websites, Philip is a reviewer who is best known for his interviews and media coverage of independent projects including; films, books, theatre and live events. Always on the lookout for something different to cover!
