Geoff Hall
Moderator - @ Stage 32 Screenwriter’s Lounge
Director, Screenwriter and Author
Bristol, United Kingdom
September 2015
1 day ago
8
About Geoff
Personal:
I grew up in the industrial north-east of England, in a little town called Hartlepool.
I wasn’t academically inclined in those days, just forever curious about life. My school holidays were generally spent reading books hidden away at home, or playing football with my Dad and a few mates on the local Recreation Ground. (This was a former Prisoner of War Camp for Italian soldiers in WW2).
I think this reclusive side of me is still present today, and is at its strongest when I’m writing. I tend to lock myself away, not craving the company of others. However, put me in a room full of people and you can’t stop me talking!
A great deal of my curiosity stems from my early years and being involved in three death-threatening accidents by the time I was 8. They included a dummy (soother), a Van and a Motorbike.
Aged 2, I choked one night in bed, on a soother and stopped breathing for a while, only to be discovered by my Dad, who was just checking to see that his kids were okay in our new home!
The curious incident with the van happened when I was 4 years of age. In my wisdom I stepped out onto the road, only to be hit face-on by an oncoming vehicle, resulting with teeth and blood everywhere; let’s call it a head trauma. All I can remember about this was two headlights coming towards me and whilst I was unconscious, being placed on a red sofa in a red room and there being lots of people there, who all looked like my Mum!
My last 'adventure' (aged 8) was stepping out into the path of a motorbike, which dragged me along the road, skinned my face on one side and broke my leg. These early years left me with night terrors, always being chased by death and only escaping by waking up. They also inspired me to look for something more, for some kind of deep 'rootedness'. A lifetime of spiritual searching ensued, of me wanting more than just a material life, a life of bling.
Looking back, my spiritual search led me away from religion into spirituality and contemplative practice, but there always seems to have been a passion for social justice woven in to this.
As a teenager I demonstrated in London outside the Russian Embassy (and a few others), because of the persecution of people who had opposed the spiritual and political views of the State. (Let’s not talk about having my phone tapped, there’s no space here.)
The Hartlepool area had three staple industries, Mining, Shipbuilding and Steelworking. By the time Thatcher had gone, none of those industries were left and whole communities were destroyed. Since then the town has suffered from perpetual asset stripping and hasn’t recovered economically or socially. (I moved to Bristol in 1987 to study for my first degree).
All of this informs me as a writer and filmmaker. Seeing Rachel focuses on the social issues of human trafficking and organised crime. I am passionate about filmmakers having a voice about social injustice and human rights. Let’s call it the ‘social responsibility’ of the writer, but without the moralising that may appear to come along with this.
Whereas some may pursue this through social realism, I choose the psychological and supernatural genres. I like to hybridise genres because I’m curious about seeing where that leads and what mixing them up can produce.
The ‘Owl’ series of novels will confront the issues of the Corporate State controlling the life-choices of a group of young adults (artists and coders) who are perfectly gifted to subvert State authority and disrupt the Government's management of consent. (Please check out my Loglines for more on this).
Career:
I'm a WRITER/DIRECTOR now stepping up to direct my first feature length psychological drama about human trafficking and organised crime. "Seeing Rachel" is set in the city of Bristol, identified recently as a distribution hub for trafficking in the UK.
In 2013 we created a Russian version of 'My Name Is Sorrow' (Меня Зовут Скорбь).
I’ve also written a spec Pilot Script (Imperium) for an ethnically and age diverse cast on conspiracy/supernatural noir TV series. It's about a community of resurrected people who help with the healing of the victims of violent crime. The Urban fantasy of the resurrected meets the apocalyptic terror of a demonic State.
My writing also incorporates the penning of novels, with my dystopian political horror story of “0w1:believe” (available on Apple Books).
Screenwriting:
The dark comedy/tragedy of “Prodrome”, my first male-led story with a strong female supporting character, was fun to write, as I explored the world of his psychotic break.
For TV, I have written some of the scripts for the urban fantasy/horror Limited Series of “Death Spirit”. The story is scoped between the spirit world of the Watcher’s captivity in Duda’el (The Cauldron of God) and what happens when some escape and head towards major cities in Europe.
Unique traits: I have a pen; I like to write. I have an eye and love to Direct. Arthouse. Stories about human rights and wrongs, thru the lens of the psychological drama. I'm looking to connect with seasoned professionals who like to bend the genre rules!
Badges
Links
Loglines
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Seeing Rachel Budget: $1M - $5M | Crime ⋄ Film-noir Two women, a Detective and a Spook, enter the world of a sinister patriarchy when they delve into the case of a missing schoolgirl. They thought it was a city-wide problem, but their investigative skills uncover an international conspiracy.
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Broken Mirror War Tommy Hall was 14 years old when his father died and he took responsibility for his family, by replacing his father in the same factory. In 1945 he was 18, when he was flown in a Glider to the east side of the Rhine. Landing in the fields south-east of Hamminkeln, as all hell let loose around him; his comrades dying through gun fire, explosions or burnt alive. 20 years later, Tommy tells his son Geoffrey a few bedtime stories about ‘what he did in the war’. They are like the fragments of a broken mirror, but they will leave an impression on his son; that there has to be a better way than violence to change the world. The broken mirror is repaired, so that others may see that war is never about glory. Shattered lives leave shattered reflections in the mirror of history.
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Pr0toco1 (Pilot) Action ⋄ Thriller With the political disintegration of Europe, the only thing holding it together is the International Intelligence Community, otherwise known as Pr0toco1. They work to maintain security on a contract-by-contract basis, dealing with threats from rogue nations and clandestine groups, which test their commitment to one another as the political will to prevent the decay wanes across Europe.
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Death Spirit Fantasy A criminal psychologist uses Jungian Imaginal crime scene analysis to determine the identity of the perpetrator, but then the darkness without becomes the darkness within. In essence, Death Spirit is a badly lit nightmare.
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Breathe: One day. One story. One breath. Experimental A young poet wrestles with her identity and purpose as a writer, until she is visited by her older self, who imparts the wisdom of years and helps her to hear the voice of Nature.
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A Little Death Action ⋄ Crime ⋄ Drama ⋄ Independent ⋄ Thriller One family. One world in crisis. One woman to hold it all together.
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"Owl: believe" Horror ⋄ Action The Resistance begins. Not with acts of violence, but through subversive non-violent protests. But the Corporate State...is watching.
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Imperium - TV Pilot Action ⋄ Horror Some people would love a second chance, but not John Cruz. One life was enough for him, but after his violent murder he resents being raised from the dead.
Credits
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Seeing Rachel (
2016 - 2019 )
Film by Seeing Rachel Ltd/Director (Drama and Film-Noir) Writer, Director A psychological drama, following two women who fight against a toxic patriarchy to seek justice for missing schoolgirl, Rachel Andersson. Arthouse style meets social conscience. -
My Name Is Sorrow (Russian Version) (
2013 )
Film (short) by Handy Cloud Productions/Director Producer, Director, Writer Меня Зовут Скорбь is the Russian version of 'My Name Is Sorrow'. A story about sex trafficking. -
My Name Is Sorrow (English Version) (
2012 )
Film (short) Producer, Director, Writer My Name Is Sorrow is a film drama about human trafficking with a difference. It looks at the effect rather than the cause. The film shuns the usual trafficking fare, by resisting the urge to sensationalise or politicise the issue. My Name Is Sorrow offers an intimate and intense reflection of one woman's experience of sex trafficking. -
One (
2009 )
Film (short) by Handy Cloud Productions Producer, Director, Writer "One" is a period comedy set in a UK mental institution after the First World War. It showed to critical acclaim at the famous Alex Theatre in Glendale, LA. The story is about two brothers who have been institutionalised due to the psychological scars of battle. Neither of them have a grip on reality.
Awards
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Cooperative Bank - Social Development Fund
(2013)
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