Meet our newest Akin member

‘It all started on the school bus with my friend Tom,’ Freddie Hill is talking about his company Graded Films which produces corporate videos, commercial projects and short independent films.

Those short films attract a lot of attention at film festivals such as The Lift-Off Film Festival in New York and Los Angeles. So much so that Freddie and Tom's first-ever film got picked up for distribution by Amazon Prime.

To be clear, Freddie is not a filmmaker looking back over decades of career success to that fateful moment on the school bus. Freddie is 20. 

He has achieved a lot in a few years. 

Freddie’s first film, ‘Unforgettable’, was shot over three days with his friend Tom (from the school bus) operating the camera. Both were 16.

'We crowdfunded the £1,500 we needed to make ‘Unforgettable’. It’s nothing in terms of film budgets, but it was a lot for us at that time,’ says Freddie. ‘And we kept to that budget. I entered the film for international film festivals using the Film Freeway submission platform and when it got picked up it was amazing.’ 

'I learnt a lot with ‘Unforgettable’,' explains Freddie. 'For example, it was 25 minutes long, and shorts are supposed to be 15 minutes.'

When he left school, Freddie started working as an actor, directing and making films in his spare time. In March 2020, COVID-19 called cut on that career – but didn’t slow Freddie down.

‘Since the first lockdown, I’ve studied film making, especially the technical aspects - online,’ Freddie explains. ‘YouTube is an amazing resource. There is so much content. I’ve skipped three years of film school using Youtube.’

Over the past year, Freddie has also invested time and energy in building Graded Films, working to grow a new client base locally. Having joined Akin during our ‘Zoom year’, he’s looking forward to meeting Akin members in person and collaborating on joint projects. 

In the meantime, Freddie is excited about corporate projects in the pipeline and is looking to gather new clients for his drone video work. 

As with all corporate and commercial work, Freddie works within his clients’ brief to tell their stories. When it comes to his independent films, Freddie’s style tends towards the dark. ‘I’m drawn to stories that meander and draw you in, with a relevant underlying message.’

‘In the future, I would love to direct a feature film,’ says Freddie. ‘The plan is to make more short films and get them accepted into film festivals. If I can win awards at those festivals, then I will get noticed by the people who make feature films.’ 

Freddie's no-fear attitude to filmmaking – and life in general – make it highly likely that he will succeed.

When I suggest this, Freddie laughs. ‘With everything I do, I think; “Yeah, I can make that happen!” Then if I don’t know how, I get myself onto the internet.’

To watch Freddie’s film and find out more about Graded Films work visit: Graded Films