SYNOPSIS: Coming home on the train the morning after graduation, Jim Swanson meets Mary - the girl he liked from university. He invites her back to his place where they are shocked to find somebody already in the house. The intruder runs off and Jim pursues him in his dad's car. He finds him and runs him over - only then does he discover that the intruder is Jeff, his slacker best friend from university. Throughout the rest of the morning they wait for a taxi to take Jeff to the hospital and on the way they talk about university, girls and movies until they finally get to the root of the problems that have plagued their friendship for years.

BACKGROUND: I'd been trying to get my screenplays made since I started writing them back in 2004. They were well received by all who read them, but because of my age it was hard to get taken seriously as a writer. Plus, I knew I wanted to direct my own scripts, and I knew no one was ever going to allow me to do that (no matter how good they were) without at least some experience.

Ever since I first saw 'Pulp Fiction', Quentin Tarantino has been one of my heroes, and his advice to aspiring writer / directors is rather than go to film school, save your money and use it to make your own film. His friend and frequent collaborator Robert Rodriguez did just that with his first film 'El Mariachi', and he said it was the best film school anyone could take.

So, earlier this year I took their advice and made 'Take', my first feature film. The germ of the idea came indirectly from Elliot Grove, the founder of the Raindance Film Festival. In October 2007 I took his Lo-to-No Budget Film-making course, and on the last day of the course he said something along the lines of "... and if all else fails, just grab a camera and film someone walking around for 80 minutes."

Taking this simple idea as my cue, I wrote (what I thought would be) an easily filmable script about two friends who basically walk around and talk - kind of like 'Clerks' meets 'Before Sunrise'. I incorporated some more characters, threw in a few twists and turns and the final script soon took shape.

I bought a second-hand camcorder on eBay and scraped together a cast and crew from family members, friends from university and colleagues from work. They all seemed daunted at my initial intention, which was to film the whole thing in one continuous shot (or 'take', get it?). Considering that the script was basically all dialogue, their fears were well-founded, but they learnt their lines in time and I think they did a wonderful job.

Organising the shoot was hell - we originally planned to shoot in February, but it was delayed several times until June. The week before filming a cast member and a cameraman dropped out, forcing me to rethink the whole one-take idea. The final film contained only 7 shots (which isn't bad), and with a total length of 62 minutes - that means the ASL (Average Shot Length) is approximately 9 minutes (take that Alfonso Cuarón!)

Editing was a nightmarish process - many thanks to Ben Arnold for all the countless hours he spent in that edit suite tweaking the sound and whatnot - but seeing the final product is really rewarding. Looking back there are a couple of things I would have done differently, but making 'Take' really was the best film school I could have taken (and making a feature film for £1000 is quite an accomplishment too, I think).

"TAKE" had it's premiere at the Zero Film Festival in Los Angeles, California in December 2008. Check out TAKE's IMDb page - where you can watch the WHOLE film - by following the link below...

Below are some screencaps of 'Take' - just click on the image to get a bigger resolution. By the way, all screencaps are my property, and all copyrights are reserved.

Eric Bay-Andersen ... Jim

Eric Bay-Andersen ... Writer, Director, Producer, Composer, Co-editor, Sound Re-recording, Props