“Autumn Never Dies”
Danny is an ostrich living in Glasgow with his roommate, a monkey named Nelson. After a failed suicide attempt over the break up with his girlfriend, Danny seeks counselling to help him recover from his ordeal and get his life back on track. After meeting Lizzie during a pub quiz, friendship quickly turns into romance but when Danny’s former lover reaches out to him again, he finds his new relationship under threat. With his life at a crossroads, Danny reaches out to his psychiatrist for advice that would eventually help him decide whether to open past wounds or plan a new future with Lizzie.
Director Biography
A keen enthusiast in Drama at School, Chris Quick originally planned to study Economics at University but changed his mind whilst backpacking round Europe in 2006. Upon his return, he retrained as a video editor and together with his class mate Mark D. Ferguson formed the production company Quick Off The Mark Productions in October 2009.
The pair provided video production services across Glasgow and even provided coverage of the Katana Fighting Series held in various hotels across the city between 2010 and 2013. In the summer of 2010, Quick and Ferguson teamed up with their former class mate Andy S. McEwan. to write their first feature film called 'In Search of La Che'. The film premiered at the Glasgow Film Theatre and went on to feature at the American Online Film Awards.
In response to the difficulty finding cast and crew during the production, Quick founded the online film database, the Glasgow Filmmakers Alliance with actor Andrew O'Donnell. as a way of bringing together film professionals working in the city. In 2012 he also became a member of BAFTA Scotland and also led and won the campaign to get the organisations New Talent Awards recognised by IMDB. Later that year, he reunited with Andy S. McEwan to write the short puppet comedy 'The Greyness of Autumn' which also marked his directorial debut. Quick would later voice the character of Nelson for the film when an actor failed to show up for the ADR session. The film enjoyed a variety of success over three years on the international film festival circuit playing in multiple events in America, Britain and Ireland before ending in 2015 at the People of Passion Film Festival in Australia where it won the Best Short Comedy accolade. In 2014, he returned to the directors chair briefly to direct the short children's film 'Minion vs. Minion' which was produced with Steve Johnson as part of a collaboration project between Quick Off The Mark Productions, Futuristfilm and Vue Cinemas.
In 2015, it was announced that Quick Off The Mark Productions would close in the following year upon Ferguson's decision to move to Canada. Quick turned to freelancing full time and rebranded as Suited Caribou Media providing post production and behind the scenes photography services across Glasgow. His first major short film under his new banner was the sci-fi film 'Electric Faces' which he edited and produced for Johnny Herbin. The film went on to land Herbin a Best Writer nomination at the 2016 Bafta Scotland New Talent Awards. With the exclusion of his own films, Quick claims it is the best production he has ever worked on.
With a planned sequel to 'The Greyness of Autumn' in production prior to Quick Off The Mark Productions disbanding, it was announced in 2016 that Suited Caribou Media and Pentagram Productions UK would take over filming responsibilities of 'Autumn Never Dies'. Filming began later that year with Quick returning as director of the film and also respired his role as Nelson. In late 2017, Quick reunited with Herbin to work on the short war film 'Mountain'. The film was warmly received by critics and earned Quick his first award win in the field of editing at the 2018 Dublin Independent Film Festival. He would later receive a further 3 nominations at other festivals from around the world.
Director’s Statement
After we finished the festival run of 'The Greyness of Autumn', I was convinced that was everything done and dusted. We had been asked at various festivals if we had planned a sequel but my answer was always 'no' and that the film had been a one off.
In 2014, I was first approached by Andy S. McEwan with an idea for a possible sequel, However I wasn't impressed and rejected the script. It wouldn't be until Andy third attempt that I finally stepped back and thought, yes this could actually work. In 2015 wheels were in motion for the production of 'Autumn Never Dies' and a successful Kickstarter campaign gave us the budget to make it finally happen.
The film was however not without its problems. Our initial cinematographer had to drop out and we had to wait for Steve Johnson to become available in order to make a start. Whilst 2016 looked like a promising start with Steve on board, we were dealt the blow that Mark D. Ferguson signalled that he was emigrating to Canada and that Quick Off The Mark Productions (The original production company behind Autumn Never Dies) would have to cease trading. Production was now held up whilst a new production company was saught. In the same year it was announced that a joint collaboration between Suited Caribou Media and Pentagram Productions would bring the film to life and things got back on track.
On set we had a vast array of Scottish talent both in front of and behind the camera who brought our script to life. Steve Johnson went above and beyond the call of duty, delivering a stunning visual masterpiece in 6K footage from his Red Dragon camera.
At the end of the day, all Andy and I wish to do is make people laugh and we hope Autumn Never Dies will have audiences out of their chairs and onto the floor with laughter.