THE “outstanding beauty” of Weymouth and Portland is to serve as a focal point for a new film.

Scavengers is an art-house short film written and directed by Australian film-maker Hugo Cavalier. The production is being supported by “wonderful local talent” and will be shooting in Weymouth and Portland between May 22 and May 26.

Hugo and, cinematographer, Fyras Slaiman said they are “keen to let the natural outstanding beauty of Portland shine through as a focal point”.

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Keelan Sumner-Hare, Scavenger’s producer, graduated from Bournemouth University in 2019 with a first-class degree in Scriptwriting for Film and Television. In 2020 he started his own production company, Myriad Films, and began the process of breaking into the world of independent film.

Speaking about the desire for filming in Weymouth and Portland, Keelan said: "We’ve chosen Weymouth and Portland because the landscape really is so beautiful: you just can’t take your eyes off it. The area is so natural and preserved: even the cafés we’re shooting in have amazing views of the beach and much of the film is centred around the landscape and that connection with nature.

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Scavengers follows the story of a bereaved husband Mark, scouring the coastline for his missing wife only to happen upon an unsettling revelation that may force him to call off the search.

The short film will be released early next year to coincide with the prestigious independent film festival season: by which point Scavengers will have been 12 months in the making.

Keelan explained more about the production process: “We’ve been working since about February to develop the materials and the script in order to get it to the point where we are ready to film. The script has been in development for a couple of months and, I think, as soon as he visited the area then it just sort of matched the script and we were able to pull everything together.”

Production starts this Sunday with filming running across five days with the local community being encouraged to put themselves forward for a number of supporting background characters. For information visit https://myriadfilms.uk