Midlands Filmmaker in Focus: Chloe Culpin
Kicking off Midlands Filmmaker in Focus, a monthly spotlight featuring talented filmmakers from the Midlands, we spoke with Chloe Culpin—a writer, director, and producer who has worked on several BFI NETWORK short films across the country.
Her work includes producing for Sandra Gets a New Fringe and her directorial debut Burn Out supported by BFI NETWORK Short Film Fund.
BFI NETWORK Short Film Fund is now open for submissions until the closing date of 25th March, 2025.
Hi Chloe, congratulations on your first directorial debut with Burn Out, which is currently edging towards the end of its festival circuit and for producing Sweetheart, soon to be debuting at The Sundance Film Festival.
As Burn Out nears the end of its festival run, what has your experience been like on the circuit? Do you have any advice for first-time filmmakers navigating festivals?
Thank you so much. Festivals are a bizarre thing. It’s quite funny that you graft and graft to make this short film, and then wait patiently to see if it is going to be shown on a screen somewhere in a part of the world you have never, and perhaps will never, go to! Short films often embark on their own journeys, traveling to different festivals for a year or so before eventually come back around to find a home online. I quite like that aspect for shorts on the festival circuit. I've had audience members reach out to me from such interesting places! It's a great feeling when your film manages to find people, even if you can't be in the same room.
Don’t get too caught up by it all, and definitely don’t be spending loads of your hard-earned cash on submissions if the budget doesn’t stretch. Be specific. What do you want from festivals? If you want to be picked up by BIFA for example, then take a look at the festivals that qualify for their selections and see where you think you and your film might stand a good chance.
Really look at where you would like to go if you were to get in, the British Council has a great list of festivals that are valid for travel grants too. I have been to some amazing places that were made possible because of these grants. When you do find yourself in those places, enjoy watching other filmmakers' work and immerse yourself in watching films for a few days. You might see a film that really inspires you and make connections with people after the screening from all over the world. Bonus points if those people want to work on their first or next project - just like you!
There will be an awful lot of rejections, but there will hopefully be some great selections amongst it all. A thing to really hold onto is that there are thousands and thousands of films competing for potentially less than 1% of selection spots. And there are so many decisions that go into the programme that may mean your film will never be right for it. Some of my best experiences have come from rejections. For example, Burn Out was rejected by Tribeca. However, I received a heartwarming letter from the VP of the shorts programming team saying how much he enjoyed and appreciated the craft of the film, but there just wasn’t a right space for it in that year's programme. But I was buzzing - I nearly got into Tribeca!!
As someone working across producing, writing and directing films do you have a preference for what you'd like to continue with as a filmmaker or do you feel more comfortable working across multiple roles?
I love being able to work across each discipline, and how each one feeds into aiding the other. It’s very gratifying to be able to put on, and take off the different hats and see which roads and projects they lead you down. I got the opportunity last year to work on my first feature as an Associate Producer on 100 Nights of Hero, written and directed by Julia Jackman and produced by Erebus Pictures with Project Infinity. It was an amazing experience, and my producing work led me to it.
I have also learnt so much about directing, from producing and vice versa. I am now building up more directing work, and am currently in post-production of my second short film, The Pigeon which was co-written with Charlotte Beaumont after we both lost people in the same week of April, 2022. I’m very proud of it and excited for it to start on its festival adventure.
You've produced a few short films with BFI NETWORK. How did this start for you, and can you share any key takeaways you learnt while working with them?
It all kickstarted when a casting director, Hannah Marie Williams, put me in touch with Katie Sinclair, who was about to start pre-production on a BFI and BBC short film called, The Last Days that Hannah was casting. Katie needed a co-producer and I was looking to move into film from theatre and it all felt incredibly serendipitous that I was free and raring to go at that moment in time. It was such a brilliant experience for me for many reasons (I learned a hell of a lot in a relatively short space of time), but it really was the platform that enabled me to go from short to short and build up my experience as a filmmaker. For me, it’s always been the marriage of material and people that make a good film, and since starting that journey I have collaborated time and time again with people I met on that set.
As a producer how do you negotiate different relationships onset and keep everyone happy?
I’ve always been a people person, which is probably why I enjoy working as a producer, and a director. I also like making friends (!!), which is another reason why filmmaking can be so rewarding when you get to collaborate and build on those relationships with the people you strike a chord with, who understand you, and work with you to create good art. It is a very special thing. Of course, you may find yourselves on sets where that can’t always be the case. Many people are working under specific circumstances with a ticking clock, and it won’t always go according to plan - I think it would be quite boring if it did - but for me, it is about remaining respectfully steadfast, approachable and down to earth.
I often connect with people through humour, but that isn’t for everyone and a producer’s ability to create and adapt spaces for people to have the space to do their work is often the difference between a happy and unhappy set. This definitely comes with experience for me, and something I will no doubt continue to build and work on for the rest of my career. Look after yourself too! It can feel like an awful weight of responsibility on your shoulders and it’s okay to take a minute, or 5, or 20 for yourself as well. You do much better work when you are also feeling looked after.
The shorts I have made with BFI NETWORK are actually very tonally, and stylistically different. This not only aided me in gauging my own style and taste, but also presented me with new producing challenges that enabled me to keep expanding my knowledge and experience.
How do you choose which films you'd like to produce?
With shorts, you are presented with a script that is most commonly going to be under 20 pages long. If I read the whole thing in one go and begin to see how this is going to look and feel, then I’ll be excited and want to say yes.
The shorts I have made with BFI NETWORK are very tonally, and stylistically different. This not only aided me in gauging my own style and taste, but also presented me with new producing challenges that enabled me to keep expanding my knowledge and experience. This becomes a really important aspect of decision-making; you are going to be working on these films/projects for a long time, and it’s therefore got to be serving you in multiple ways, as it definitely won't be financially. I am very much a yes person, but part of my process is to be more conscious about my capacity, growing my taste, and looking at who it is I would like to work with and how this film would fit into that journey.
Believing and being excited in the story is first and foremost for me. I like to tell stories that feel a bit different, whether that is in the way they are being told or in their subject matter - I like work that isn’t trying to replicate. Uniqueness really inspires me.
Sandra Gets a New Fringe and Burn Out are both work-related films, do you feel like filmmakers should reflect the world around them?
With Burn Out, I very much wanted to take a lived experience and push the boundaries of it to then reflect back onto itself in an almost ridiculous way. What was so interesting about it was the fact it was real, but it felt absurd and funny and the balance and fine line between that was super intriguing.
Film has and will always be a powerful tool for understanding history, people, thoughts and feelings. I don’t think filmmakers should always feel the need to be reflecting the world around them though. I think increasingly we need the opposite, and film gives us that much-needed escapism that allows us to travel somewhere else for an hour or two. Perhaps that will always circle back to our lived experience, but the imagination of filmmakers and how film allows that to take form is one of the best things about it. It can literally take you anywhere.
Congratulations on getting Homework BAFTA longlisted - are there any other highlights for you producing this film?
Thank you! It’s such a special achievement, and recognition. The film I mentioned starting my journey on, The Last Days was produced by Katie Sinclair, and now down the line, we have become BAFTA longlisted together! It was also shot by cinematographer, Anna MacDonald who worked on my first short as a producer, Girl at Party - so seeing these relationships develop further down the line is a huge highlight for me.
The film was made under the inaugural BFI and Film4, ‘Future Takes’ scheme, and it was great to finally have the opportunity to work with Film4 as well. The film also stars Aisling Loftus, who is a fellow Notts girl and a brilliant, brilliant actor.
What is next for you and is there anything you're particularly looking forward to?
I’m currently working with the brilliant Erebus Pictures on their next BFI/BBC feature that will be shot later this spring. It’s a very exciting project, and the script is like nothing I’ve read before.
Writing and directing-wise, I’m hoping to spend more time developing my debut feature . The film has spent a lot of time inside my head, so I'm ready for it to have some time outside it!
About Chloe Culpin
Chloe Culpin is a freelance producer - and occasional writer/director. From working on projects at her doorstep, to 5000 miles away; her work has gone on to screen and win awards at festivals worldwide.
At the core of all the stories she helps make, she is most drawn to the ones that show humans for the messy beings we are.
Check out more of Chloe's work on her website here
Find out more about the BFI NETWORK supported Short Films Burn Out and Sandra Gets a New Fringe