TWO former Basingstoke students are hoping their film about homelessness will receive national attention.

Elliot James Burns and Joe Goodall have spent four months working on Tunnel, giving young actors in the Overton and Whitchurch area the chance to be involved in the production.

The former Basingstoke College of Technology students, from Overton, began making films five years ago and saved up to buy equipment to direct and edit their projects.

They set up Division Pictures after being approached by the NHS to make a video to raise awareness of chlamydia, which was shown on Meridian.

Elliot said: “We love the thrill and the adventure of creating something from our heads but being able to show it to people.”

Tunnel tells the story of three people who strike up an unlikely friendship, and stars Elliot alongside various other local actors, including Charlotte Culley, who is involved in the Whitchurch Amateur Dramatic Society, and Sheldon Sinamon, who is a published poet from Basingstoke.

It follows the perspective of a stressed businessman who is travelling to work one day when he nearly hits a young girl pushing her bike towards a tunnel by the side of the road.

As the story develops the three main characters become friends and help each other.

Elliot, 22, said: “We wanted to do an emotional story about the awareness of homelessness, but also about abuse.”

“Our short film Tunnel brings this message across secretly which is a story about us, put into the film.

We also wanted to make a film with feeling as well as giving young actors in the local area a chance to be involved in a production so that we can help them with their future CVs.

Elliot said the inspiration behind the film comes from a time when he was bullied, adding: “The bullying got so bad at one point because we made films that my motorbike got stolen and trashed.

We kept on going and now we are trying to help other people the way we wished we had been helped.

“It’s something productive to take their minds off it. It doesn’t matter if they are young or old. We like working with people who are creative, but don’t know what to do with it.”

Elliot and Joe, 21, plan to release the film at festivals across the UK.