Blank Canvas

Blank Canvas is our next short film currently in development, as a further step towards our feature-length productions.

Will, a brilliant but insecure art student, is running out of money to stay at college and is so worried that he is unable to concentrate on his painting. His friend Leo, a confident and charming would-be dealer, is just as broke. When they are offered the chance to help Kate – a wealthy artist’s widow – clear out her county mansion, Leo sees this as an introduction that could reverse Will’s fortunes. But Kate, still grieving, is too distracted to listen to them.

Will is shocked when Leo comes up with another plan – why don’t they just steal a valuable statue they’ve found at Kate’s house? But can Will be tempted, despite his sympathy for Kate? And what are the consequences for them all?

MPT co-producer and writer Lucy Nordberg wrote the script to address the theme of the division between the generations – a much-discussed topic at the moment – and to explore the contrasting struggles that are felt at different times in our lives. The film experiments with form, as mixed with the everyday dialogue, the main characters speak at times in modern dramatic verse – building on the technique successfully developed for the the award-winning Time and Tide trilogy – this time on a larger scale, with more action and narrative, as a step towards future feature-length films.