Blinkink director Will Wightman channels his real-world roommate nightmares into a fun and frantic short film called This Place is a Sh*thole, a fabulous blend of lo-fi absurdity and technical adventures with a 360 camera.

Will Wightman: “Having spent my entire adult life in mind-bogglingly expensive, soul-destroyingly disgusting shared flats, this film was part creative experiment, part therapy.

“Creatively, I wanted a creature that embodied the horrible shit we find in our plugholes with a design that left enough to the imagination so its origin felt ambiguous.

“This was a passion project that we made on a shoestring budget, so I did the designs in Photoshop, then Lani Hernandez, our stupidly talented costume designer, bought a gorilla costume and sculpted a new face and hands for it. Then, we covered all of the fur with disgusting things you might find in your sink.
 

“We shot something like 70 shots a day, usually with over six takes per shot. It was intense, but honestly, the most fun I’ve ever had on set.”

 
“I’ve been playing with the capabilities of 360 cameras for the last couple of years as a way to shoot visceral and dynamic action sequences quickly and on the cheap. The distorted and lo-fi aesthetic that comes out of this amazing little camera when you really push it was perfect for a gross and claustrophobic story.

“I used a 360 camera on a commercial shoot a few years ago and immediately got excited about its untapped potential. Blinkink had one lying around in the studio, so me and my DoP, Will Marchant, started experimenting with it in our spare time.

“We refined the aesthetic shot by shot and made a full pre-vis of the film, editing as we went to nail the timing and choreography. By the time we got to the shoot, we had a fully edited version of the film, so we knew the exact timing and choreography of every shot.

“We shot something like 70 shots a day, usually with over six takes per shot. It was intense, but honestly, the most fun I’ve ever had on set.”
 
 

 
Production: Blinkink
Writer/Director: Will Wightman
EP: Bart Yates, Josef Byrne, Alexander Stojanovic
Producer: Ella Kean
Cinematographer: Will Marchant
Production Designer: Sophie Mockridge
Costume Designer: Lani Hernandez-David
1st AD: Jack Taylor
1st AC: Noah Chulu Chinn
Prosthetics: Ruth Pease
Prosthetics Assistant: Sarah Jane Pucci
Sound Recordist: Nick Soundis
Post Supervisor: Charlie Herbert
Editor: Will Wightman
Compositor: Alasdair Brotherston
Colorist: Alex Gregory
Color Producer: Sarah Banks

Music: Jono Hook, Charlie Pelling, Will Wightman
Sound Design: Michael Griggs