Fire Moth Home

firemoth — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 05:43:04 CST

Welcome to the Fire Moth

Since 2000, Fire Moth has strived to bring you the very best in amateur UK film, while keeping everything fun. Originally started as a student project by Marc Burrage and Matt Bauer, it has grown into a full blown mini studio, which has produced and distributed over 30 original productions. Please take a while to browse the site and take it all that Fire Moth has to offer. Fire Moth is constantly looking for new productions, new talents, and new directions, so don't hesitate to talk to us via the Contact Us page and we'll take the time to hear what you have to say.

Head over to The Slate for news on forthcoming projects, or wander through The Past to watch our previous productions.

We'd love for you to join the site and add your comments.

The Fire Moth History

November 1999. A group of students in Chichester are instructed to create the opening 5 minutes of a horror movie. Marc Burrage, Andrew Croucher, Rachel Clements, Jon Cousins, and Tom Polhill form a group and create what eventually became State of Mind. Matt Bauer was asked to do something no other group had done before - edit the production on computer and add special effects. The end product got a 100% mark, and kick started WaRpEd Productions into existence.

April 2000. A few months after State of Mind had done the rounds, Marc Burrage began writing Across the Pond, a short film about an American agent who has to come to Britain and team up with a stuck up British agent in order to track down and stop a terrorist from blowing up a number of world leaders. It was already obvious that Marc Burrage and Andrew Croucher were heading in opposite directions. Burrage wanted to create purely entertaining "vehicles" for people to blow things up with little emphasis on plot. Croucher was very much concerned in framing and artistic direction, and the script had to be perfect. State of Mind was to be the only jointly created production.

August 2000. Across the Pond has since transformed in The Molotov Darkness, with the American agent replaced with a Russian, and Marc Burrage wrote himself in to play the character. Andrew Croucher agreed to be his boss on screen, and even Rachel Clements came into the production to complete a trio of State of Mind veterans. The Molotov Darkness was fraught with argument and disarray, but was finally unveiled on December 15th, 2000. Marc Burrage was unhappy with the end result, and recreated it for the 2001 Film Festival under the new title, The Darkness.

September 2000. WaRpEd Productions transforms in Fire Moth Productions when Warped.com Media start producing TV in the US. Funky, the first comedy production, is the final production under the WaRpEd banner. Death's Touch is the final nail in the coffin for any Burrage-Croucher collaborations. Written as a black comedy, Croucher agreed to work on the production only if Death's role in the film was greatly reduced, and most traces of comedy were replaced. Unsurprisingly this didn't go down too well. Burrage went on to film the ultimately doomed Death's Touch, while Croucher took the idea to create Killing Time.

March 2001. Now building itself firmly as a comedy studio, Fire Moth created Rumbo. The original Rumbo was cut to almost half it's original length for it's trilogy release due to largely pointless and unfunny sequences. But from humble beginnings, Fire Moth went on create arguably it's finest comedy in ***** Rider. Based on the 1970's classic Knight Rider, ***** Rider was basically written around one joke, but this was why it worked.

September 2001. A very transitional period for the studio. Michael Bailey, who had roles in The Darkness, Rumbo II, and ***** Rider, returned to New Zealand. Marc Burrage, Andrew Croucher, and Rachel Clements all started University in different locations around the UK, while Matthew Bauer remained in Chichester. Before the divide, Marc Burrage, Matthew Bauer, and Michael Bailey created Mate of Stind, both a homage and a spoof of the production that started it all, State of Mind. Days later, the first Film Festival was staged.

January 2002. A short Christmas reunion results in The Maytricks. Marc Burrage, Rachel Clements and Matthew Bauer come together to create a spoof of the famous action thriller The Matrix. Another example of Andrew Croucher's reluctance to be part of a production he wasn't in control of resulted in his absence from The Maytricks. Largely unfunny sequences resulted in the footage being abandoned until the formation of 3 Plastic Horses, Marc Burrage's independent branch of Fire Moth Pictures. Whereas Matthew Bauer had previously edited all Fire Moth productions, 3 Plastic Horses was basically Marc Burrage doing it all, without the bells and whistles.

April 2002. 3 Plastic Horses was well underway, with the arrival of Bad Cops and The A-Team. Simple, 5 minute comedies starring local Stafford talent were the key to it's success. At the same time, Kevin Berry and Dave Willey created Pay Day, distributed under Fire Moth but created solely by them.

August 2002. The 1st Fire Moth production for almost a year, The Legend of Zelda went back to the company's roots to create a drama that would attract decent actors. It worked. Rachel Clements took a small role as Marin, local theatre student Bradley Barlow has his film bow as Guam, and even Andrew Croucher agreed to take up the leading bad guy role as Lord Gannon. A far from perfect production, but one which brought the original group together.

September 2002. The 2nd Annual Film Festival takes place. The FUBAR awards are biggest new event for this years festival, with a total of 24 awards handed out.

October 2002. Rumbo III is completed in order to complete the Trilogy. Rumbo and Rumbo II are re-edited to keep the pace flowing. Rumours were rife that Fire Moth was to close in January as everyone was beginning to head of in different directions.

November 2002. Andrew Croucher made the Mullet of Darkness last year, so in order to get revenge 3 Plastic Horses creates Killing Thyme, a spoof of Killing Time (obviously). Becky Galpin is replaced with a bunch of grass and Lewis Merdler replaced by a plastic action figure.

December 2002. The Silence, a prequel sequel to The Darkness, begins filming with Marc Burrage back as Dimitri Nojovski and Greg Harding. Bradley Barlow has his first major role as Diego Monzales, the main bad guy. New recruit Antony Plain is Tyler Stewart, Greg Harding's new partner. At the same time, some old footage of Stuart Dunlevy is uncovered, and released as Diary of a Psycho. Dunlevy is not impressed...

January 2003. Fire Moth Productions and 3 Plastic Horses team up for the first time in a year to crate Three Plastic Horses of the Apocalypse, a story written by firemoth.co.uk's competition winner Paul Newton. Fire Moth's closure is avoided as more time is made available for the company by most parties involved.

February 2003. The Silence passes post production, and is released. It doesn't do as well as The Darkness, which is put down to the lack of appearances from many of the original cast, but critics are impressed with how well it explains plot holes in the first movie.

April 2003. Fire Moth moves into drama again, and The Definition of Fear becomes their first production shot purely on digital format. It is widely panned by critics and fans alike, and the short-lived spin-off company One Quarter of One barely makes it past launch.

August 2003. Deciding to get back to basics, Fire Moth releases the war drama "And Then There Were Two", giving Marc Burrage and Bradley Barlow their first chance to act opposite each other in leading roles. A reasonably successful production, it reignites the studio, and things start to move forward with a bit more speed.

January 2004. After a lot of work behind the scenes, s spate of new releases, including "Lesser of Two Evils" and "Delusions" come out within a couple of weeks of each other, and suffer very contrasting fates. "Lesser of Two Evils" marks the welcome return of Michael Bailey as a bad guy, and is widely regarded as one of the best thrillers ever to come out of the studio. It would later go on to get 2 nominations at the FUBARs. "Delusions" however is panned by people worldwide, and quickly becomes the most hated production the studio has had the misfortune to deal with. Starting out as a spoof of "2 Fast 2 Furious" studio heads made the disastrous decision to wrap it up in a drama about a man slowly going insane. It would never get a standalone DVD release.

September 2004. Bad Cops makes a return to the screen with the long awaited sequel to the 2002 smash hit. With all the original cast back, along with Matt Bauer, it is regarded as being even better than the first.

December 2004. With the final part to the Darkness saga delayed once again, the straight-to-the-web release of "Intervention" is brought out to tie over the public, setting up events of the final movie. Later in the month, an unlikely sequel to "Marines 3099" begins shooting.

April 2005. Bradley Barlow shoots his directorial debut "Breaking Point" starring Marc Burrage, Adam House and Kiri Anderson. It has a star studded premier at Chichester Uni, and goes down a storm. It would later go on to win Best Director FUBAR for Brad Barlow.

May 2005. "Earth Dark Vengeance" is released on the unsuspecting public, and despite it being awful, it becomes the best selling DVD release the studio has ever had. The largest cast since The Darkness is onboard.

August 2005: Michael Bailey returns to the UK briefly to shoot the comedy "My Friend Frankie", where he voices the titular character. Co-directed by Marc Burrage and Bradley Barlow, the comedy is well receieved and is a big hit on YouTube.

October 2005: Continuing on the comedy trail, Marc Burrage writes an unofficial sequel to the original cop comedy "Funky", entitled "Summersdale Vice". Richard Anderson comes in as the other half of the bumbling cop duo rather than have Marc Burrage on split screen duties again as in Funky. While not the strongest script, it it a big hit on DVD and ran close to beating the record set earlier in the year by Earth Dark Vengeance.

November 2005: Marc and Paul Newton head in a new direction in many ways by shooting a travel mockumentary as they backpack around the East Coast of the US, taking in New York, Washington DC, and Niagara Falls.

March 2006: Taking a break from the Bad Cops franchise, Marc Burrage & Paul Newton form the entire cast of "Two Brothers and a Mother", a split screen comedy where they play 4 characters each. Its not bad.

June 2006: Drama returns to Fire Moth for the first time since Lightbulb two years earlier in the form of Distorted. James Titcumb and Bradley Barlow head up the cast, with Marc Burrage playing his first dramatic bad guy role. Goes on to win a number of FUBAR awards. Proves to be the last production for a while as real life jobs take up even more time.

August 2006: Marc Burrage and Paul Newton manage to find time to finish off the Bad Cops trilogy, with the final part Bad Cops 3: Rumble in the Jungle, shot in the wilderness of some woods in Stafford.

October 2007: James Titcumb returns to Fire Moth again, with newcomer Lauren Marks, to film the halloween horror Strangers. Turns out horror isn't really Fire Moth's strong point, and the film isn't well liked.

June 2008: Marc Burrage and Bradley Barlow reunite for the comedy drama "Loud Angry Noise" in which they play flatmates with issues. It kickstarts a new era of writing in the studio, and a number of other projects are added to the slate.

September 2008: Fire Moth tries its hand at series television with the mad comedy Blood and Guts, starring Jay Blackwood, Nick Poffley, and guest starring Paul Newton. The series is still going strong today.

Loud Angry Noise

firemoth — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 04:42:01 CST

Dir. Marc Burrage
Release Date: 14th June 2008

The Flatmate ... Bradley Barlow
The Hitman ... Marc Burrage

What's this all about? The new black comedy from Fire Moth sees veterans Bradley Barlow and Marc Burrage reunited as a couple of flatmates in a very unordinary situation. Marc plays The Hitman, who is struggling through a dark patch in his life, only to find his next target is his very own flatmate, for no apparent reason. Cue everything that could go wrong very much happening...

State of Mind

firemoth — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 06:01:03 CDT