We Love you , John Salt

John Salt is the kind of boy we all knew at school. Shy and awkward, he was the boy that no one talked to, the one picked on by the bullies and the one that, during science lessons, invariably set fire to his shirtsleeve with the Bunsen burner. Now grown up, nothing much has changed --- he's still alone and friendless, he still gets picked on by the much larger bullies in the street and he's still as accident-prone as ever. But, surprisingly in the face of so much adversity, he carries on.



"The film is optimistic, despite the terrible things that happen to the protagonist," says Adam Bell of his micro-budget debut, set in Liverpool. "John Salt won't quit. He feels ground down, he's got nothing to live for, everything goes wrong for him even though he's always desperately trying to fit in and impress people and yet he still gets out of bed in the morning. At first, he's someone you laugh at because he's such a loser but as the film goes on, you realise the struggle he goes through and you start to feel guilty about laughing."



Bell, whose short film credits include Last Of The Windswept Kids, shot the film over two weeks, with a tiny budget donated by family and friends. "We used the Robert Bresson approach, shooting on the hop with real people off the street and friends. It's got a documentary feel, which makes it much more authentic. But it was a nightmare shoot -- we didn't have the money to eat!" he says.



Budget constraints meant the film spent almost a year in post-production but it was completed in November last year and has had a handful of screenings in Liverpool, where it was warmly received by local critics.