The World’s First “Selfie” Movie #STARVECROW A twisted love story coming to St. Leonards-on Sea

Considered to be the world’s first “Selfie” movie, #STARVECROW appears as an assembly of “stolen” smartphone and “hacked” CCTV footage - 69 hours of rushes cut to an 84 minute feature film.

Improvised throughout, the actors play their own names, contribute to their storylines and character development, filming themselves and each other using smartphones. This “Cast-Sourced” approach means there’s no director of photography or film crew, no production designer, no set builder, no special effects and no elaborate post-production. What you see is what you get .The focus is on “real life” acting and story-telling.

#STARVECROW is the story of Ben and Jess. Ben is a control-freak, charmer, abuser and warped product of the digital age. He films everything. Jess is fresh out of rehab. Their worlds are dominated by each other but Jess needs some space and time apart and is invited by her friends to their house in the woods for the weekend. People arrive and the party kicks off, but not everyone attending has been invited.

#STARVECROW is a disturbing story of obsession, narcissism and complex relationships, where friendships and families are irreversibly broken.

Filmed across 2 years at various locations including London, Venice Beach, Geneva, Rome and Norway (as well as some very dark woods near Hastings) #STARVECROW features a mix of established actors and talented newcomers, including an appearance by Downton Abbey’s Jeremy Swift, who stars alongside RocknRolla’s David Bark-Jones and The Pillars of the Earth’s Skye Lourie.

#STARVECROW coins the term for a new disruptive genre of film-making known as HYPEREAL. They are improvised, low budget, Indie feature films that use smartphones to rapidly film and edit life like first person stories. Please visit for more about the process as well as the forthcoming Hypereal Film Festival.

Pre-release screenings will run at the Kino-Teatr in St Leonards-on Sea on Friday 22 January 2016 at 4.30pm & 7.30pm. The 7.30pm screening will be followed by a set from #STARVECROW’s Soundscape Designer, the legendary DJ Noel Watson.

The screenings’ location pays homage to the collaboration between Director John Carver and Dr. Sarah Atkinson (former Principal Lecturer in Film and Media at the University of Brighton) and her 3rd year students.

Based in nearby Hastings, a group of her Broadcast Media students worked on the edit of #STARVECROW.

#STARVECROW is scheduled for release on Valentine’s Day, 14 February 2016.