CINEMA-MAD friends have produced bite-size versions of Hollywood blockbusters in the hope of winning a coveted prize for one-minute films.
Simon Jago and Ryan Casey, both 24, of Northolt, and known as the Movie Maniacs, are hoping to attract enough public votes to see their purposely lo-fi farcical remakes of 2011 horror prequel The Thing and boxing saga The Fighter through to the UK final of the Jameson Empire Award's Done in 60 Seconds competition.
Two years ago in the same contest, their DIY take on warrior film '300' made the last five entries but they missed out on the big prize.
Simon, of Killowen Avenue, said: "Last year we did 300 because we had limited time and knew we had the costumes already but this year we decided to try to push ourselves. We've always really liked the original of The Thing, a classic horror directed by John Carpenter, but thought it was a bit old for our purposes.
"The prequel/sequel to The Thing came out before Christmas and would be a good excuse to try out all the special effects and gore. We thought it was something we could make fun of because the plot just doesn't make sense."
The budding directors shot both mini-films in front of a green screen in Simon's mum's living room and created the bloody effects using computer software.
News cameraman Simon and pub worker Ryan, of Reading Road, were helped by Simon's girlfriend Caitlin Parlee, 20, and his dad Laurie Jago, as well as friend Leigh Goudling, a 24-year-old production editor from Alperton.
Simon said: "We worked pretty solidly on both films for about four weeks and it was a good laugh. We had a lot of fun even though we gave up a lot of Christmas and it bothered my mum a little bit that we were filming on Christmas Eve when she wanted to relax and watch a film."
The online public vote to find the five finalists ends on February 29.
