our story
Since 2005 Top Hat Films have been making stuff…
Not necessarily stuff that will see the light of day, at least not at first, but stuff none-the-less.
Let’s start again.
It was 2005 and a small gang of nerds armed with nothing but a low budget and borrowed camcorders, spent their summer between years 12 and 13 of school re-creating their favourite film scenes. Everything from Die Hard, to Shaun of the Dead got the remake treatment.
We’re talking ketchup for blood effects, stick on moustaches to disguise playing multiple characters in the same scene; it was something to behold.
then came the shorts…
With our merry band all studying Film Studies at Sixth Form, we jumped at the end-of-year assignment of making our own five minute short films.
We took what we had learned over our ridiculous summer and collaborated on what would become, Detective Noir “Responsible”, Lynchian Jam “Boothroyd”, and Annie Hall inspired “Smit Happens”.
Responsible is even still on YouTube somewhere…
We would star in each other’s mini opuses and act as crew whenever needed. Looking back, it becomes clear that our summer did more than teach how to put a scene together, but how to function as a team.
With an amazing Film Studies teacher and a film of the year award at the school for “Smit Happens” our passions for filmmaking grew and grew.
Next stop, university.
University; or time to get skills…
We didn’t know where we wanted to study but we knew we wanted to study together.
For us university was a place to hone our skills and meet new filmy geeks to collaborate with; and we did just that.
Fellow students George O’Connor and William Pond have gone on to collaborate with us numerous times.
More on that later…
We learned how to light, how to record sound correctly, and even how to make better fake blood.
Our three years saw zombie films, a belated Responsible sequel, and a comedic attack on life story magazines called “Glossed Over”.
It was on Glossed Over that we met actor Daniel Lillie for the first time and immediately found ourselves on the same wavelength. When we wrapped he said, “I’d love to work with you guys again, let me know if you have anything else in future…”
After roles in our next two projects, it’s fair to say that we held him to that.
so,
Now what?…
When you graduate university; especially in a creative field, the next question on everyone’s lips is, “So what next?”.
It’s a question that strikes fear. What the fudge do you do next? There’s no set path to being in the film industry. For Robert Trott, a healthy dose of naivety and passion mixed with a day job turned into a mad adventure to create Top Hat Film’s first feature film, “4:00am”.
Through many sleepless nights over the course of twenty-three annual leave days, and seventeen nights after shifts at his day job, “4:00am” was brought to life. Not to mention the countless evenings of castings and editing etc! Suffice to say, making a feature film whilst having a day job is not advised.
The full story of it’s production could go on a bit but you can find more information with our making of video here.
The film went on to be nominated for Best Screenplay at the Open World Toronto Film Festival 2016 and was broadcast on UK Freeview channel “London Live”.
You can now find the film on Amazon Prime Video.
going episodic…
After finishing “4:00am” Robert set about writing his next project. This was to be “Dole”, a tale inspired by the Before Trilogy that takes place over the course of a year, with each episode being a snapshot in the lives of our leads, Edgar and Cleo.
It was also the project that brought old university compadre George O’Connor back into the Top Hat fold as both a co-creator of the show as a whole, and as a director on episode four.
For the first time, we collaborated with another production company in Hidden Art Films. This was such a fun experience and allowed us to pool our efforts to expand our production team and build our trusted team of crew.
The first season of the show can be found on Amazon Prime Video.
Creating
a buzz…
For our next collaboration with Hidden Art Films, we took a bizarre brain nugget of an idea from Robert’s university days and adapted it into a short film that it’s fair to say has brought with it some attention.
Winning a funding grant from Genera Film Funding and being selected as a Film Shortage Daily Pick were both huge honours for us. It’s been a mad adventure that has taken the film across the globe to over twenty-five festivals.
Shot over the course of one day, “The Insecurities of Dill” is a comedy that fully explores Top Hat Film’s ethos of taking a slice of imagination, no matter how daft it might seem, and sprinting for the metaphorical hills with it. Our thinking is, if you think no one would dare do it the way you want to, then chances are you could be creating something completely new.
Creating stories that fully showcase a creator’s voice is all we want to do. After all, your voice and the way you see the world is the best currency you own and sharing it is what makes films magic in the first place.