Today we’d like to introduce you to Liam Hooper.
Hi Liam, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Hey, I’m Liam. I direct films and recently moved to LA from the UK, a seaside city called Brighton, just outside of London. After a brief stint starring in school plays where I wanted to be an actor, I first picked up a camera aged nine to make movies on the streets with neighbours’ kids and realized directing was more my cup of tea. I would direct as often as I could throughout school and college, attending London’s prestigious The BRIT School to study film and media production, often for assignments and in my own time.
I made my first feature film aged 16 which, while I’ve worked on shoots that I’ve been more proud of since, was still an achievement and won an award at the British Horror Film Festival. I managed to get Oscar-nominated producer, writer, and actor Steve Coogan to make a brief voice cameo that helped the film and its red-carpet premiere be featured in the UK press. Since then, I’ve directed another small horror film and many music videos for various artists, including one that first brought me to LA, aged 18, when I fell in love with the city and realized I wanted to live here.
My most recent directing work is a short film called The Passion Protocol that I’ve been working on for about five years. It’s a short that acts as a tease for a TV drama and I’m so happy we’ve managed to shoot something for it. Finally seeing the characters we’d (along with co-writer Vicky Wheeler) been writing for so long speaking the lines that had been sitting there on the script was incredibly creatively fulfilling.
While directing is my career focus, I also work as both a script supervisor and an editor to help get me a front-row seat to a director at work whilst using skills that are also part of a director’s arsenal. As a script supervisor, the biggest project I’ve worked on is the Masterpiece on PBS period drama Sanditon, based on Jane Austen’s final unfinished work. Last year, I got a call to return to the UK to shoot season two, just after my filming wrapped on The Passion Protocol.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I Definitely wouldn’t say it’s been easy. It’s an industry fraught with nepotism and coming from a background without a single industry connection has meant all my work and contacts have been created purely on my own merit. While this occasionally feels like it’s slowing my progress, I know that it will be worth the struggle in the long run.
Where many others can rely on family for help getting a foot in the door or funding expensive shoots, I was trying for years to find the money to shoot The Passion Protocol and eventually just bit the bullet and saved to fund the teaser myself. Now that I have the teaser in the can, I plan to use that to help elevate the project further.
When I first started directing music videos, the goal was to continue to make films but on someone else’s dime, usually a label or band, to keep flourishing in my chosen field. However, somewhere along the way, I got a little lost, and my focus switched to just directing impressive music videos and working with more prominent artists instead of what I set out to do; tell stories. Thankfully, all my music video ideas have changed back to narrative-based cinematic work since this realization.
To quote Author Henry Van Dyke: “Some succeed because they are destined to, but most succeed because they are determined to.” Having worked hard to achieve an ‘Alien of extraordinary ability’ US work visa (the actual wording used) and fulfilling my dream of moving to Los Angeles, at the very least, I’m undeniably determined to reach my goal.
Los Angeles is a city of talented filmmakers, but what makes a film ‘a Liam Hooper film’?
I’d say because directing’s always been my passion, I’ve been able to dip my toe into most formats including feature films, short films, music videos, and a TV pilot, many of which have won various awards. Music videos are what I have done most of but directing feature films is where my heart lies. By refusing to acquiesce to smaller budgets restricting my storytelling, I just need to continue my upward trajectory and work on bigger and better projects.
My work has always attempted to take audiences on an adventure, be it fantastical or scary, whilst providing enough heart in the characters for them to keep engaged with their story and to care about them. My latest film, The Passion Protocol, which is probably the one I’m most proud of, is set in a post-biological attack world but focuses on two people having never encountered someone else before. This film acts as a Black Mirror-style warning about where we could end up as a society.
Understanding the importance of a strong team has been an integral part of my work from day one. The Passion Protocol wouldn’t have been possible without incredible talent behind the scenes too. Co-writer Vicky Wheeler came on board after I reached out through Twitter. Director Of Photography Megan Stacey, who recently shot Emmy-nominated Tina, subsequently loved the script. Composer Iain Mahanty was a successful UK rock band member and went into composing after stealing the show with my last film. Finally, Sound Mixer Jon Gray’s partner was a teacher at my school when I made my first feature film aged 16 and nominated Jon to help me out. There hasn’t been a project of mine he hasn’t been a part of since. Emily Hall, who plays Hannah, has been on my actor wishlist for this project since early doors and I was lucky to have her involved. Our other lead character, Coral, was one I’d never been sure about with casting but, when I saw Elle Chapman in another film my friend shot, I knew I’d found someone who was a perfect fit and she came highly recommended by my friends who worked with her.
Another project that I’m superbly proud of is a music video that follows a little girl on an adventure with her big imagination and her fantastical imaginary friend. Inspired by my favourite childhood film, Drop Dead Fred, this project stays grounded by the character’s inherent sadness hidden beneath the fantasy-tinted world inside her mind. It’s called ‘Home’ by Scouting For Girls. Whether it’s burning down the mansion the film is set in or a couple on a speed date having literal sparks flying, I’ll always find a way to achieve anything if the story calls for it.
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
To keep a career in the film industry, you’ve got to be somewhat malleable in that everything goes in and out of fashion; genre tropes, technology and techniques used behind the scenes, audience expectations. It’s essential to adapt but in a way where your identity as an artist remains intact. Whatever the industry throws at us can’t be as much of a curveball as the last two years so, as a filmmaker, I’ve just got to keep up with these.
At the moment, most film and TV seems to be, rightly so, avoiding the fact that we’ve had a pandemic happening for the last two years and providing audiences with a world in which this nightmare hasn’t happened. But unfortunately, it has, so there will eventually be a time where this will be reflected in fiction, be it as a vaguely similar nod or a direct reference as a couple of shows have tried and largely failed to do.
Taking place years after a biological crisis and showing how humanity has attempted to deal with it in the long term, The Passion Protocol is a fresh take on the subject that doesn’t preach to its audience or sound like a broken record.
Contact Info:
- Website: liamhoops.com
- Instagram: liamhoops
- Twitter: liamh00ps
