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A Few Days

London
1 Jan 1963
Sound
15m

Superbly produced amateur short about a brief romantic encounter by Howard Blake, composer of the score for The Snowman.

A bright young woman meets a man at a London party. They are quickly infatuated with each other and, after a few days, elope to the seaside - but they soon tire of each other and part ways. A Few Days was made in 1963, while amateur filmmaker Howard Blake was a projectionist at the BFI. His well-crafted short film tells a simple story with a deft visual sensibility that only occasionally betrays its amateur roots with the odd cliché - such as a lovemaking scene which uses the type of coy iconography that would later be wonderfully sent up by Monty Python.

Howard Blake would go on to become one of the UK's leading composers of the 1970s and 1980s, writing numerous works including the score for The Snowman (1982) and Flash Gordon (1980).

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From the collection

Amateur Auteurs

Ever dreamed of shooting your own movie? These pre-digital cine-enthusiasts did - with all the passion and devotion of the true auteur.

These low- (or no-) budget creations reach beyond simple point-and-shoot, back-garden efforts towards something more ambitious and skilful, revealing their authors' passion for film and their often astonishing ingenuity with limited resources. No desktop editing software or digital special effects for these amateur auteurs. The films include fiction and documentary, competition prizewinners and private labours of love. They may be the work of cine-clubbers or individual enthusiasts. But they all show a devotion to filmmaking that far transcends hobbyism. So look out for the delightful handmade intertitles, table-top special effects and library soundtracks which decorate many of the quirky stories, ultra-local documentaries and painstakingly composed home movies featured here.