LOCAL director Geoff Harmer and his team have taken over a school to film a teaser for their proposed new project.

Angel of Saigon is a feature film currently being developed by Indochina Films and Geoff’s company Fraught Productions.

The film is set during the last years of the Vietnam war when a young English nurse struggles to bring hope and relief to the conflict’s countless orphans in the depths of the Saigon underworld.

Geoff explained: “Myself and producer Mark Dawson have a wonderful script written by a talented writer David Marantz about a real life woman, Liz Thomas.

“Liz went to Vietnam at the age of 20 to work in an orphanage during the conflict. We really want to shoot the script that we have, but it’s a pretty big project that will require some serious funding.

“To assist with our search for the finance to create this film, we are shooting a ‘sizzle reel’, which is like a trailer for a film that doesn’t quite exist yet. We’re taking some key scenes from the script, and shooting them as though we were shooting the real film.”

The team have been out and about in Basingstoke hard at work on the reel including shooting street scenes in the car park of Basingstoke Town FC’s ground and US army hospital scenes in The Costello School.

Geoff added: “We had a brilliant time and the school and staff at Costello were amazing. We even had a number of students from the school come along to see what it’s like to work on a film set.

“We’ve got some fantastic talent involved in the project, including Aine Smith taking on the title role of Liz. Aine has done a remarkable job bringing Liz to the screen.”

Liz in the Saigon hospital (Costello's beauty therapy room)

Basingstoke Gazette:

The team are nearly finished shooting the trailer and will soon be entering post production. Once complete, they will be able to use it, alongside the script and other of promotional art, to help sell the film to potential financiers.

Find out more online at facebook.com/AngelOfSaigon.