LOGLINE

A group of super-fans break into the house of a faded 90s pop star.

SYNOPSIS

Emily and Kim spent their teenage years fantasising about RyanLaughtner, lead singer of the once-mega-famous noughties boy-band,Off-Limits. But Off-Limits broke-up and Kim and Emily lost touch. Nowat 22, Kim persuades Emily to go on one last fan-pilgrimage to Ryan'sonly remaining asset; his mansion in leafy Surrey. Once there, Kimbreaks in and the girls run joyfully through Ryan's empty halls,crammed with pop memorabilia. But, Ryan himself is now an ageing,alcoholic shadow of his former glory. He is, however, keen to party.Emily and Kim are faced with a choice: To live in the past, or move ontogether. Can their friendship survive adulthood? Or did it end at theSmash-Hits Poll Winner's Party 2007?

FAN GIRL IS DIRECTED BY AWARD-WINNING DIRECTORKATE HERRON AND WRITTEN BY SCREEN INTERNATIONALSTARS & BROADCAST HOTSHOTS JESSICA & HENRIETTAASHWORTH, STARRING STEVE ORAM (SIGHTSEERS) ASFADED POP-STAR RYAN LAUGHTNER AND HAS AN ORIGINALSCORE BY COMPOSER PATRICK JONSSON (OSCAR & BAFTA-NOMINATED VIRUNGA).

A POP-TASTIC COMING-OF-AGE COMEDYABOUT FRIENDSHIP, IDOLS AND SUPER

FANDOM.

DIRECTORS STATEMENT

It's 1999, Top of the Pops is blaring out of my television and Iam sat on a blue blow-up sofa on my Windows 98 computerattempting to get my Backstreet's Back album to load a gamewhere I can ask the Backstreet Boys what their favourite pizzaflavour is. It's the age of pop music, friendships are found andbroken over which Spice Girl you get to be in a dance routine,“Sex on the Beach” is an inappropriate dance anthem at schooldiscos and men's hairstyles are doomed for at least a decade.Sure, fans that came before us had bands like The Beatles orNirvana but this was what we got; packaged, tanned and oiled20-year-olds bouncing about on stage in baggy khaki pantssinging lyrics like “I've got a house with windows and doors, I'llshow you mine if you show me yours” (B*witched, “C'est LaVie”).

This love for late 90's pop music is what drew me into theproject of Fan Girl, along with a desire to explore the conceptof the 'super fan', a phenomenon recurring throughout historyfrom Beatlemania to One Direction. I'd been a fan of Fan Girlwriters Jess & Henrietta for some time, their writing isbrilliantly dark, very funny and features great femalecharacters. These elements are all in Fan Girl. I loved that thefilm follows the friendship of two best friends who are nowtrying to rekindle a teen friendship in their early 20's andcompletely related to this. Friendships in in your teens mean alot but when you reunite in the aftermath of university and thereality of working in the real world, you can find you aredifferent people. It becomes a fight or flight situation, youeither adapt to one another or become the kind of friends thatpromise to get a coffee again but it never happens.

Making the film with the Central School and Speech andDrama, I spent a lot of time on casting and rehearsing. It wasimportant to me that the relationships on screen felt real, eventhough the circumstances are heightened, so when the superfans meet their idol you are invested in them. It also wasimportant to me that Off-Limits and Ryan felt like a real popgroup. We achieved this by creating our own fake boybandphotoshoot, using the photos as set-dressing, as well aswriting original pop songs for the soundtrack. I researched forthe film by watching shows like The Big Reunion, and it wasfascinating to see what had become of the titans of 90's popnow. Many of them suffered from depression, or hadundergone complete lifestyle changes since being gelled up onstage in front of screaming teenage girls. This is what wasgreat about working with Steve Oram, I knew he would bringdepth to Ryan, our misunderstood idol, cooped up in hismansion, like Miss Havisham, the wedding dress swapped for aratty Calvin Klein dressing gown.

CREATING A FAKE 90S BOYBAND

"Would you mind taking your top off in some photos for me? I need to findsome handsome men to be in a fake boyband shoot. I swear I am not hittingon you” is a tricky email for a director to send to a male friend withoutlooking like I'm trying to do my own version of the “Casting Couch”, butluckily I know a lot of people in the improv community, where saying “Yesand” to weird requests is common place. So finding willing (and very kind)young men to pose in some photographs for me wasn't impossible.

In bringing the script and world of Fan Girl to life, it was important to me thatthe boyband Off-Limits and its history felt real. I didn't want everything thecharacters felt about Ryan Laughtner and the boyband to be represented inone photograph, I wanted it to feel immersive. To achieve this, we set aboutputting together a fake boyband for a day-long photoshoot, to really capturethe true horror (and hair gel crimes) of those late 90's and early 00'sboybands, so that we would have authentic-looking photographs in the film inthe Scrapbook and around Ryan Laughtner's house .The writers and I alsospent a scientific amount of time researching boyband names; FYI aspiringmusic producers they seem to fall into four distinct categories; Names with“boy” in the title (Boyzone), Aggressive Statements (Take That), Names withDirections/Geography (Westlife, One Direction) and lastly initials /numbers(Five, 911).

The last and most important thing to me was that the music on the film'ssoundtrack sounded like real pop music. Working with award-winningcomposer Patrick Jonsson, we took inspiration from the styles we heard inboyband music, and then came up with our own, from the creepily titled "CanYou See Me in the Dark" to the nonsensical "Flavour of Love."Then, like with our photoshoot, we found some very kind singers (includingfresh from the West End singer Matthew Wycliffe Hill [WhatsOnStageAwardsshortlisted for Best Takeover in Jersey Boys]) to come and offer their vocaltalents.

CAST

STEVE ORAM (RYAN LAUGHTNER)

Steve Oram wrote and starred in theaward-winning film Sightseers,directed by Ben Wheatley and co-written with Steve's long-timecollaborator Alice Lowe. Sightseerswas partly inspired by charactersoriginally performed live togetherwith Lowe. A comic actor/writer,who started out with character-based Edinburgh shows, Steve is aregular on the Brit comedy scene.His credits include The MightyBoosh, Tittybangbang and It's AllGone Pete Tong with Paul Kaye. In2008 Steve appeared (with AliceLowe) in Steve Coogan's live UKtour playing supporting rolesincluding amongst others, HenryVIII to Alan Partridge's Sir ThomasMoore!

Steve has starred in and directed hisown short, Connections, which wasselected for the Cannes Film Festivalin 2008 and he has continued tomake shorts under the banner ofLincoln Films. He also performs amonthly live show called Oram &Meeten's Club Fantastico with TomMeeten. Oram can be seen in EdgarWright's The World's End (2013), TVmovie Wipers Times (2013) writtenby Iain Hislop and Nick Newman,playing George Tomkins in C4's Glue(2015) and feature films The Canal(2014) and Paddington (2014).

In 2015 Oram wrote and directedhis first feature film, AAAAAAAAH!which has it's World Premiere atFrightfest in August.

@steve_oram

REBECCA GUTHERLESS (Emily)

REBECCA ROBINSON (Kim)

Originally from Hull, Rebecca isabout to graduate as an actor fromthe Royal Central School of Speechand Drama in London. There, shehas recently produced a film calledFibreglass, for her thesis, in whichshe also plays Robin. She hasrecently recorded as a voice artistfor the Neil West film Containment.Rebecca comes from a theatrebackground and has a love ofmusical theatre, having appeared inmany stage productions with theatrecompany Paper Plane Productions,including revues and singingevenings, and being on theirproduction team.

@RGutherless// SPOTLIGHT

Rebecca was born and raised inPerth, Western Australia, where shestudied for her BA in English &Creative Writing at MurdochUniversity. From the age of 7, sheappeared in dozens of plays, shortfilms ('Before The Dawn', 'CartesianTheatre'), and television ('NastyPieces of Work'), and most recentlythe feature film 'These Final Hours'.In 2014, she moved to London toattend the Royal Central School ofSpeech and Drama for an MA inActing for Screen.

@msbecrobinson// SPOTLIGHT

BRENDAN LYLE (Craig Wolton)

ANDY CANTILLON (Pete)

Originally from the South Coast ofEngland, acting from an early agehas enamoured Brendan Lyle. Hismain passions lie in blurring the linebetween comedy and tragedy.Starting early at the ChichesterFestival Theatre, he went on to honehis skills and trained at The RoyalSchool of Speech and Drama andhas appeared in numerous shortfilms.

@BrendanLyle // SPOTLIGHT

Andy Cantillon was born andbrought up in North West Englandwhere, from the age of 13, spent 3years at StageCoach Macclesfield.After developing a love of theatreand acting, he completed a BA inDrama and Performance at theUniversity of Worcester andperformed at Edinburgh FringeFestival 2013. He will graduate fromthe Royal Central School of Speechand Drama with an MA Acting forScreen in 2015.

@AndycCc //SPOTLIGHT

MARIAH NONNEMACHER (Mindy)

Originally from Alma Arkansas in theUnited States. Mariah got her startin theatre in the wold tour of RedRed Shoes which was shown atEdinburgh Fringe Festival in 2007,and shortly after was cast in herfirst Equity production of Biloxi Bluesin 2010. Mariah received herbachelors in Fine Arts from theOKCU school of Theatre and iscurrently finishing up her Masters atthe University of London's RoyalCentral School of Speech andDrama.

After she graduated from herbachelors in acting she moved toShanghai, China working as anactress and director for companyLPFilms. She produced the FiveDollar Movie documentary inShanghai China, and was part of thecreative team that produced popularTV show and Play High Spirits,cooking show China Eats, and newfeminist movement documentaryLadies Night. She is soon to appearin her first feature film next yearand has recently appeared in shortfilm AB Negative directed by OliviaStarr.

SPOTLIGHT

CREW

KATE HERRON (director/producer)

Kate Herron is a writer-director of comedy and dramashort films, with a focus on female-led comedy. She ispassionate about making character-driven films thatare as cinematic as they are funny. Needless to say,she's a big Billy Wilder fan.

Her films have competed internationally at festivalsincluding Flickerfest, Palm Springs Shortsfest,Cambridge Film Festival and London Short FilmFestival. Her work has also been featured by HungerMagazine, Digital Filmmaker, Marie Claire and Film4. Ithas been described as,“Fantastic” (Directors Notes)“Moving”(The British Comedy Guide) and“Great” (AintIt Cool News).

Her short Rest Stop, is currently on the festival circuitand premiered at the Bafta & Oscar-qualifying 19thFlickers: Rhode Island International Film Festival whereit won the Grand Prize for Best Comedy Short. Katemade Rest Stop on the LOCO London Comedy FilmFestival with Sky Comedy mentor scheme - which gaveher access to major comedy figures including BAFTA-winning writer/producer Robert Popper (Look AroundYou) and mentoring from Sky Comedy's executivecommissioning team.

Kate is passionate about encouraging female-ledcomedy work and has spoken on panels at multiplefestivals about comedy filmmaking including LondonShort Film Festival and is a member of female directingcollective Film Fatales (founded by Leah Meyerhoff inNYC 2013, “A movement is forming, and it's a goodone” Filmmaker Magazine).

She is currently working on her debut feature, James isDead which won her a place on the 2015 EdinburghInternational Film Festival Talent Lab and the LondonFilm Festival Think-Shoot-Distribute featuredevelopment scheme.

@iamkateherron // kateherron.com

HENRIETTA & JESSICA ASHWORTH (writers/producers)

Named as one of Broadcast's 'Hotshots' 2013,and selected for Screen’s Stars of Tomorrow in2012, Jessica and Henrietta wrote their firstscript The Shakespeare Club – a farce about theauthorship controversy – at the age of 15.

Their feature script Olivia and Jim was placedthird on the Brit List in 2011 and is nowcurrently in development with Equation Picturesand Stray Bear Productions, with the support ofthe BFI. Following on from their recent TV workon the third series of Fresh Meat, they are nowdeveloping projects with Element Pictures,Warp, Left Bank, Baby Cow, Levantine Films,SBP, Roads Entertainment and C4.

Their third feature script Weird (produced bySarah Brocklehurst and directed by Tim Kirkby)is due to shoot in the summer of next year, as isas their adaptation of Fiona Weir's novel Tell itto the Bees (produced by Zeitgeist Films/BFIand directed by Annabel Jankel). Jessica andHenrietta are currently writing an adaptation ofQueen's Gambit, Elizabeth Fremantle's novel onthe life of Henry VIII's last wife Katherine Parr,for Magnolia Mae Films and Baby Cow. Henrietta is a graduate in English Literature andFilm from the University of Sussex, and wasawarded the prestigious Arts & HumanitiesResearch Council Award scholarship to study fora Masters in Film at University College London in2013, which she completed in early 2014 withFirst Degree Honours.

Jessica also works as an actress, appearing inJulian Jarrold’s BECOMING JANE, as well asROCK AND CHIPS and DOCTOR WHO for theBBC. Jessica is also a founding member of all-female sketch comedy group DUDE LOOKS LIKEA LADY. Their debut show (directed byHenrietta) will ran at The White Bear inKennington in September 2015.

@HenAshworth // @JezzAshworth// WEBSITE

MICHAEL BEDDOES (Producer)

JONATHAN FLINT (Director of Photography)

Michael Beddoes is a Producer who works acrossfeatures, short films and commercials. He has anMA in Producing for Film & Television from RoyalHolloway, University of London. His first short film,'The Third One This Week' received it's WorldPremiere at SXSW, and since then other shortsfilms produced by Michael have played at over 40film festivals including Palm Springs ShortsFest,Atlanta, Seattle, The Hamptons and Cinequest.

In 2015, as well as producing on 'Fan Girl', Michaelhas also produced Creative England iShort'Vanishing Trick', short film 'Cold Reader' and hassold his micro-budget feature 'Survivors' fordistribution around the world on various platforms(released 20th October in the USA/ South Americaand 27th October in Europe).

@michaelbeddoes

Jonathan Flint is a Director of Photography withexperience working on narrative fiction,commercials and music videos. He studied at theUniversity for the Creative Arts in Farnham,studying Film Production and specialising incinematography under the esteemed guidance ofDoP Noski Deville and Camera Operator ChrisPinnock.During this time, he was awarded thep r e t i g i o u s B i l l y W i l l i a m s O B E , B S CCinematography Scholarship. His graduation filmPantheon was nominated for the Best Fiction Film at the Royal Television Society Awards in 2013,nominated for Best Cinematography at SuperShorts Film Festival and Watersprite Film Festivaland screened at numerous festival worldwideincluding London Short Film Festival, NFFTY inSeattle and Plus Camerimage Film Festival inPoland.

WEBSITE

RICCARDO SERVINI (Editor)

SIMON ASTON (Colourist)

Riccardo Servini is a London based editor working infilms, commercials, and promos. Working with award-winning directors including BIFA-winning Rob Savage,the shorts Ric has cut have competed internationally atfestivals including the London Film Festival, Raindance,Palm Springs Shortsfest, Flickerfest and Frightfest. Inthe world of commercials Riccardo has cut for brandsincluding Reebok, Groupon, and had promos featured asVimeo Staff Picks, by BUG and Promo News.The musicvideo he cut for Dear Reader won Best Music Video atthe London Short Film festival.

Fan Girl is Ric's third collaboration with director KateHerron, their first Kill List - The Musical was a Film4Scene Stealers Finalist and their previous short, RestStop mentored by Sky Comedy, just won the GrandPrize for Best Comedy Short at the Oscar-qualifyingRhode Island Film Festival.

When not editing Ric is a prolific filmmaker in his ownright. His super hero comedy Earths Last Hope won theTOP RATED FILMINUTE Prize and he just directed amusic video for the band Them & Us that will belaunched across MTV in the USA over this summer.

@RicBebop // WEBSITE

Simon has been the Senior Colourist at UNIT for 18years. He started at UNIT in 2009 and has put it on themap with his stunning and diverse portfolio. Simon cuthis teeth in films, working on Oscar winners likeShakespeare In Love and box office smashes such asNotting Hill and Trainspotting.

During his time at UNIT, Simon has teamed up withsome of the best directors in the industry includingMario Testino, Tony Kaye and Paul WS Anderson, aselection of the campaigns he has worked on includeJaguar, Stuart Weitzman, Audi, Shell & Volkswagen.

WEBSITE

SAMANTHA SHELDRAKE (Production Design)

ALEXI KOTKOWSKA (Costume Designer)

Samantha is a London based Production Designer/ArtDirector who studied ‘Arts & Media’ at UCA in Farnham.

Sam has worked on a variety of different projectsincluding short films, interactive theatre, corporateevents, commercials, television and music videos.Artists she has worked producing sets for include;Laura Marling, Zemmy, Fabien Holland and DearReader for which the music video ‘Took them Away’received ‘Best Music Short’ at London’s Short FilmFestival in 2013. She regularly works for SecretCinema and has assisted on building sets for Brazil,Shawshank Redemption and Casablanca among manyothers.

Fan Girl is Samantha’s second collaboration withdirector Kate Herron, in their first Samantha createdan entire service station from scratch for the shortRest Stop, which has just won the Grand Prize for BestComedy Short at the Oscar-qualifying Rhode IslandFilm Festival and will be screening at the BAFTA-qualifying Cambridge Film Festival this September.

@sammi_shel

Alexi is a London born and based Costume Designer& Stylist working in film shorts, features, on fashioncampaigns, editorials and music videos. She studiedPsychology but after graduating decided to travelbefore following her heart and passions by pursuinga career in both fashion and film. Alexi has workedfor several talented and award -winning designers& directors which include Sorcha O’Raghallaigh,Bradley Porter, Riccardo Servini & Rob Savage.

Fan Girl is Alexi's first collaboration with directorKate Herron, she put together all the costumes andhand-sprayed the t-shirts. She finds inspirationeverywhere especially in art, history and oldphotographs.

@AlexiKotkowska

PATRICK JONSSON (Composer)

Patrick Jonsson is a film composer living and working inLondon, UK. He is a graduate of Berklee College ofMusic in Boston (2007) and was selected to attend theBerlinale Talent Campus in 2009.

In 2013 Patrick scored Bends, directed by Flora Lau,which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival as part of'Un Certain Regard' for which he went on to receive anomination for 'Best Original Film Score' at the TaipeiGolden Horse Awards, one of the top Chinese-languagefilm awards.

Patrick has since composed the score for AcademyAward and BAFTA nominated feature documentaryVirunga, directed by Orlando von Einsiedel andexecutive produced by Leonardo Di Caprio’s AppianWay Productions. Virunga had its world premiere atTribeca Film Festival 2014 in the World DocumentaryCompetition and was released by Netflix as part of theirgrowing 'Netflix Originals' lineup. The film’s music waspicked out as one of the '15 Best Film Scores of 2014'by HitFix.

Patrick has also composed music for numerous shortfilms and commercials, including award-winning shortfilm Skateistan: to Live and Skate Kabul which was anofficial selection at Sundance and SXSW, andBFI/Lighthouse-backed Mohammed directed byMustapha Kseibati. He has also assisted composers ona number of studio level feature films such as Thor,Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Brave.

@Soundsoap // WEBSITE

FULL CAST AND CREW LIST

DIRECTOR: Kate Herron WRITERS: Henrietta & Jessica Ashworth

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Amanda BrennanPRODUCERS: Kate Herron, Michael Beddoes, Henrietta & Jessica Ashworth

CASTEMILY: Rebecca Gutherless

KIM: Rebecca RobinsonCRAIG WOLTON: Brendan LyleMINDY: Mariah Nonnemacher

PETE: Andy CantillonRYAN LAUGHTNER: Steve Oram

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Jonathan Flint EDITOR: Riccardo Servini

PRODUCTION DESIGNER: Samantha SheldrakeCOSTUME DESIGNER: Alexi Kotkowska

COMPOSER: Patrick Jonsson FIRST ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: Mark Lacey

MAKEUP ARTIST: Claire Walker MAKEUP ARTIST SKYPE SCENE: Alice Jones

GAFFER: Jed Tune, Matias Gaggiotti SPARKS: Malika Sheikh

KEY GRIP: James Fresco FIRST AC: Glen Kirby, Peter Kehoe

2nd AC: Michael Salter SOUND RECORDISTS: Ben Ring, Stefan Stefanovnic

BOOM OPERATOR: Nirav Rav Patel SOUND DESIGNER: Tom Guest

DIGITAL COLOURIST: Simon Astbury VFX: James Johnson

CO-PRODUCERS: Douglas Cox, Helen SimmonsLINE PRODUCER: Haley Bishop

CONTINUITY: Henrietta & Jessica Ashworth FILM TITLE DESIGN: Claire Pinegar

CREDIT DESIGN: James Johnson, Jack BartramSTILLS PHOTOGRAPHY: Zoe Midford

PRODUCTION ASSISTANTS: Ambika Sidhu, Danielle Alexandroni, Zoe MidfordLOCATION SCOUT: Amy Tuckwell

ART DEPARTMENT ASSISTANTS: Andy Cantillon, Besim Hajdini GRAPHICS FOR SCRAPBOOK: Rebecca Robinson, Andrew Visser

COSTUME ASSISTANTS: Rio Ramos, Tsarina Ramos T-SHIRT GRAPHICS: JC BONDAD

OFF-LIMITS PHOTOSHOOTYOUNG RYAN LAUGHTNER: Douglas Cox

BOYBAND: Mawaan Rizwan, Chris Walsh, Tom Cozens, Oliver MalamPHOTOGRAPHY: Ella Sadika

MAKE-UP ARTIST: Katie Bean

FEATURING SONGS

“FLAVOUR OF LOVE”LYRICS: Kate Herron, Jessica Ashworth, Patrick Jonsson

COMPOSER: Patrick Jonsson VOCALS: Matthew Wycliffe, Joseph Ashworth, Jamie Dispirito, James Pattison,

Dominic Brewer COPYRIGHT: Patrick Jonsson

“CAN YOU SEE ME IN THE DARK”LYRICS: Patrick Jonsson

COMPOSER: Patrick Jonsson VOCALS: Matthew Wycliffe, Joseph Ashworth, Jamie Dispirito, James Pattison,

Dominic Brewer COPYRIGHT: Patrick Jonsson

WITH SPECIAL THANKS TORob Savage, Jan & David Herron, Sheila & Richard Ashworth, Jo Bond,

Jonathan Wakeham, Rob Watson, Andrew Visser, Katie Mavroleon, RosieGaunt-Mathieson, Katharine White, Panalux, Art War Entertainment, Dave

Roberts, George Martyn, Judith Flint, North East Surrey College of Technology,Kieron Jansch, Ken Mizutani, Abigail Blackmore, Andrew Bridge, Paul Foxcroft

and Riley Madincea.

Ashley, Ben, Millie-Mai & Kate Weston.Sally Heath & Mel James at UNIT.

Filmed on location in Woking Surrey. No young men were harmed in the making of this movie.

CONTACT

EMAIL fangirlmovie@gmail.com

WEBSITEWww.fangirlmovie.com

High-resolution stills and video material available upon request.