Mixtape

Before we get into this week’s short I feel it’s only right that I explain something to those of you who were born on the other side of the 80s to me. Back in the mists of time when digital was but a distant dream, we used to get all our music on these things called ‘tapes’. Whilst it was possible to buy albums in this stretch-prone, flip it over mid-way, linear format, they really came into their own when you had access to a recordable tape deck and put together a compilation of tracks. As Nick Hornby points out in High Fidelity it took skill, planning and lots and lots of time to hit the perfect flow. A great mixtape was a work of art; but the mixtape you made for a girl was a matter of life and death.

This all to say that when we see Ben, in Luke Snellin’s BAFTA nominated short Mixtape, hand over his creation to the mother of the girl next door, he’s got a whole lot riding on Lily getting it or not. Snellin appears to have tapped directly into the mainline of nervousness and anticipation bubbling around his young protagonist’s gut—expertly portrayed here by Bill Milner, who you may be more familiar with from his starring role in Son of Rambow or this year’s equally excellent Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll. The production design is also bang on, with subtle touches such as Ben’s copy of the now sadly defunct Melody Maker magazine or the Bowie poster, combining with the soundtrack to set the period without hitting you over the head with their ‘of then’ timeliness.

Shot in a single day, Mixtape was created for the Virgin Media Shorts competition, which it ultimately won ahead of 2,000+ competitors. Snelling describes the film as, “a kind of melting pot of all my influences both musically and as a director”, with the concept springing from, “all these little tapes I made for family and friends when I was young”.

It seems that the draw of depicting children’s lives on screen (his first short Patrick was about a bullied boy who learns to fly) remains strong, as aside from his commercial directorial duties at 2am Films, Snelling’s supposedly in development for a feature based on kids with special powers, due to be shot and completed by the end of this year. Personally, I’m hoping for a good New Mutants adaptation, but regardless, if he maintains his eye for detail I’m sure it’ll be worth a watch.