Put Your Money on Filmmaker's Debut

People who buy a word in Michelle Eastwood's film script will get a mention in the closing titles The budding movie-maker is banking on the fact that film fans will want to have the last word on her debut project.

In fact Michelle Eastwood, 23, hopes 369 other fans will also want to stake a claim in a script that she is selling off word by word. Buyers can pick a word of their choice which will cost between £5 and £50. Each of the 370 words in Hesitation - a short film being produced by Michelle - will go towards the cost of making the movie in France.

Every person who makes a purchase will get to see their word alongside their name when the titles roll at the end of the film. Investors will also get a certificate and the chance to see their name in lights at a special screening.

Eastwood, from near Brighouse in Yorkshire, said the money would be added on to a 25,000 Euro grant from the Cote D'Azur regional fund. She will be joining the rest of the production team in Marseilles, France, at the end of the month to begin filming.

The Oxford University graduate hopes the finished film would see the bright lights of a film festival - with her ultimate dream that Hesitation would make it onto the screens at the Cannes Film Festival. And already she has a winning formula. As well as a script, location, film crew and funding she has also managed to bag a UK casting agent who worked on Hollywood hits Bridget Jones and Nanny McPhee.

But she said she knew there was a lot of work in store before the project made it that far.

"We have got a week filming; it's going to be quite a hectic week. But if the end product is a good enough film it will get into the festival circuit," she said.

To find out more about Hesitation

 Local newspaper story about Hesitation