Wild Rose blends the hazy, nostalgic aesthetic of films like Inherent Vice, with the hypnotic neon dreaminess of Eyes Wide Shut and the surrealist tone of Mulholland Drive. Featuring a rich colour palette of warm ambers and dreamlike blues, the film employs soft, diffused lighting to elevate its reality and evoke a sense of haze that mirrors the emotional and psychological journeys of its protagonists. As Earl and Rose navigate the night in search of The Stranger and reflect on their fragmented relationship, the visual style immerses the audience in a world of mystery, memory and longing.

Who are we?

18:33 Films is a production company dedicated to the brave and the bold. We strive to reinvigorate the film industry through creating and supporting innovative and independent cinema across a variety of genres, creative backgrounds and artistic sensibilities. With events like the Cine-Club and Cine-Soiree, we aim and hope we have succeeded thus far in establishing a carefully-curated exhibition of local art, and providing a networking opportunity and platform for young artists to re-energise the film community. As a group of creatives ourselves, we aspire with our own filmmaking to develop our craft and use our passion to establish 18:33 Films as the standard for indecent filmmaking and community-based growth within the local film industry and beyond. 

Our previous work

As a crew, we have made a variety of genre-spanning short films. From our first festival-celebrated romance, Unlikely Valentine, directed by Harry J. Wormald, to the cryptic sci-fi horror of Isabel Nola's A Forest, a film which we at 18:33 Films made in collaboration with Basketti Films, we strive to evolve our craft with each project we work on. After showcasing my first micro-short film, I'll Be Your Mirror, at 18:33's previous Cine-Soiree event, I, as a director, with my trusted team behind me, aim to deliver Wild Rose as our biggest and most ambitious film to date. 

Wild Rose will take place within a fictional American City, but will be filmed in the iconic city of Liverpool this June. With Liverpool's recent resurgence as a flexible and notable film city, home to many productions ranging from Peaky Blinders to The Batman; we looked no further than the city of Liverpool as the shooting location for Wild Rose.

With Liverpool's prime beginning in the Georgian era and surging through to the period of Art Deco in the 1930's - the unique and uniformed architecture found in the city fits the aesthetic of Wild Rose like a glove.

We intend to use every nook and cranny of Liverpool to aid in the principal photography of Wild Rose - using secret underground bars, the ancient and baroque hidden alleyways and the gorgeous intimacy found at Liverpool's finest attractions when no one bar our characters are around.

Our Characters 

Filmmaking, to us, is a sheer labour of passion, but no doubt- filmmaking is expensive. Whilst the team behind Wild Rose are excitedly working for free, using, for the most part, equipment we already own, Wild Rose will still need crowdfunded financial support to be brought to life at the quality it deserves. With a carefully considered production budget of £5000, we believe that Wild Rose can be delivered with the quality it deserves. Here's how we plan to allocate this budget:

With your support, we can secure the additional equipment needed to bring Wild Rose's unique aesthetic to life- such as another key light and a generator for our many exterior scenes- to fully realise the film’s fictionalised city. This will also allow us to bring in professional-standard sound equipment.

Your help will also enable us to truly envision our locations by allowing us to afford our desired settings and giving our production designer the freedom to go wild!

Additionally, your support will help us bring together the rest of our already incredible cast, keep our team well-fed and happy, and set aside a small emergency fund! 

Hey! I'm Matthew Cooke (friends call me Matt), writer, producer and director of Wild Rose. I conceived this project about a year ago and have spent that time developing the story and refining the script. Along the way, I directed my first micro-short, I'll Be Your Mirror, and worked as a cinematographer on multiple passion projects to sharpen my ability to tell stories through unique sequences of images, light and composition. 

With Wild Rose, I'm excited to explore its core themes- fate and the paradox of star-crossed lovers- while crafting an atmosphere inspired by 1960s hippie counterculture, reimagined in a modern-day fictional American city. The potential for wild experimentation is vast, and I plan to embrace it fully, pushing our limitations and boundaries in lighting, environment, character work & sound as much as we can to bring this unique vision to life.

This is the most ambitious project I've ever undertaken, and I can't wait to make it happen- with your help.