Men are pretty good at some things. Driving without asking directions. Remembering football trivia. And leaving the toilet seat up. However, as a gender, we tend to be hopeless when it comes to talking about our problems. This is the idea behind 'Scary Conversations'. PairShaped Productions are delighted to help Solihull Samaritans as it's a cause that is close to us. All of the cast members, crew and locations gave their time for free, and they're all from the local area, so this is very much a Midlands-based effort. Producer Mike Nicholas said "We wanted to focus on one of the biggest challenges faced by Samaritans, which is that of suicides amongst, well, blokes like us". Writer Phil Sawyer realised that men do, in fact, have lots of scary conversations every day, so speaking up about their problems needn't be a challenge. We wanted to created a simple, quick, punchy message that was relevant that men could instantly recognise and understand. The local Samaritans team are using this film as part of their work with local communities and employers. The main message we want to get over is this: "Fellas, there's nothing wrong in talking about your problems. There are always people willing to listen. It never has to be a scary conversation." www.samaritans.org ***CREDITS*** CAST Miles Buckeridge Tom Jurkowski Maura Judges Samantha Michaela Holden Bill Mapp VOICES OF David Edgar Dr Emma Nicholas SOUND David Buick DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY Lloyd Ernest WRITTEN BY Phillip Sawyer PRODUCED, DIRECTED & EDITED BY Mike Nicholas SPECIAL THANKS Sarah Jurkowski Karen & Andrew Standley Sweet Chillies, Birmingham Chris Hipkiss, http://www.polease.co.uk www.freesfx.co.uk John Lewis Partnership, Solihull David Schneider

• published: 16 Dec 2013
• views: 898