How Bait took 18 months to become an ‘overnight success’

Bait is proving to be a huge success for plucky Totterdown-based independent production comedy Early Day Films. In the wake of universal acclaim on the international film festival circuit, the film comes to the Watershed for a preview with director Mark Jenkin on August 22, and returns for a full week-long run from August 30. Co-producer Linn Waite reveals Bait’s extraordinary journey:

Someone greeted me at a Totterdown greengrocery the other day with “Has Steven Spielberg rung yet?”

He hasn’t, of course, but suddenly, Kate Byers, my partner in Early Day Films and I are in touch with many more film industry names than ever before – and grinning at exactly how long it’s taken us to become an ‘overnight sensation’.

The bait for the interest is Bait – our ‘clockwork’ production with writer/director Mark Jenkin – shot entirely on 16mm black and white film with a vintage wind-up Bolex camera and hand-processed by Mark in an old Bakelite tank.

Bait co-producers Linn Waite (left) and Kate Byers (right) of Totterdown’s Early Day Films

This artisan approach, and the scratches and the dust marks on the frames, all serve to add authenticity to a story about locals versus incomers; traditional communities v gentrification; wealth v getting-by which, although told in Bait as unfolding in a pretty Cornish fishing village, is a chord-striker for many, including across Bristol and internationally.

But it wasn’t until February – more than a year after the film was completed – that we began to realise how well the drama and the comedy would play out with others.

Bait director Mark Jenkin

Then, Bait had its world premiere as the only British film in the Forum section of the Berlin International Film Festival. Reviewers were ecstatic, with The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw awarding it four stars; Screen International describing it as “ravishing cinema” and The Hollywood Reporter hailing it as “one of the most original and stylistically bold films” in the festival’s programme.

And so it began.

Since then, Bait has been winning high praise and applause at film festivals in places as varied as New York, Istanbul, Lisbon, Croatia, Singapore, Ukraine, Finland and Edinburgh. Along the way, our small Bristol production company has picked up a BFI distribution deal; deals in other countries are in discussion; there’s been a London preview hosted by Mark Kermode; the rave reviews keep flowing; Creative England has named Early Day Films as one of the country’s top 50 most exciting, innovative and disruptive creative companies, and I’m about to get on a plane to accompany the film to Melbourne in Australia.

Edward Rowe and Chloe Endean in Bait

Throughout it all, the contributions and support from Bristol have been magnificent – from Watershed film programmer Mark Cosgrove and Encounters festival director Rich Warren being the first to buy us nerve-steadying drinks in Berlin when out of thousands of films, Bait was one of only 13 chosen for an extra screening, to music video guru John Minton introducing us to local band The Malarkey, who now feature on the soundtrack and trailer.

And despite all the international praise, awards and accolades, this is the reason Kate and I are so excited that Bait is previewing at Watershed on August 22 before showing there again after the BFI releases it nationwide from August 30.

Imagine that! Our film, our logo, on the screen at the amazing independent home-town cinema we visit most often.

Read more: Bristol production is the only UK film selected for the Berlinale Forum