In 'Pround To Be British' I tried to shed some limelight on the up and coming directing talent being nurtured in our very own back yard, while also trying highlight the major differences in attitude between us and our American cousins when it comes to making a film.

It has come to my attention that it may have come across as a tad derogatory to our obese stricken relatives from across the pond, but let me assure you, that I am in fact a huge fan of American independent films, writers and directors. (I just cant stand the "I WANNA BLOW SHIT UP" brigade of mindless fuckwits),

'Brick' and 'Clerks' being particular personal favourites of mine, the latter possessing a production story that should serve as great inspiration to any amateur would-be film makers.

Generally speaking there does seem to be a huge divide between what media/film students are taught over here and whatever Mickey Mouse courses they try to pass off as educational, in the great U.S of A.

HOWEVER!! This man seems to be bridging the grand chasm of styles all on his own. Gareth Edwards made his debut in pointless American astronaut documentary 'In the shadow of the moon' as a special effects artist, but lost his directive virginity with 'factory farmed', a doco about the treatment of live stock in this country, commissioned by channel 4.

He is solely responsible for 'MONSTERS' in every possible way, he's the creator, writer, director and most impressively the cameraman and special effects artist.

It manages to make a sci-fi story believable, with relatable, likable characters and as the extras were non-actors, who just happened to be there on the day of filming and persuaded to be in the film, their action had to be improvised. As a result of all this random behaviour, the idea of scripting the film went out of the window. Instead they had a loose paragraph describing the scene with just the main points that had to be hit; how the actors carried this out was left up to them.

All of this add to a realness to the movie that I've never seen in any of it's predecessors. Edwards got them to say what he wanted by talking to them about swine flu, and other natural disasters. said as they they were revealing they're terrible experiences of the disasters they sounded like they were talking about an alien invasion.

MONSTERS is fast becoming a modern classic, filmed in Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Texas in just THREE WEEKS!, on a equipment budget of just $15,000 and a production crew of just seven people including a driver, the two lead roles, Scoot McNairy and Whitney Able now McNairy after the couple were married. a Mexican 'translator and fixer', Edwards and two of his close friends Ian Maclagan and Jim Spencer who acted as sound engineer and producer.

With Edwards designing the monsters on his home laptop, using off the shelf Adobe software and Autodesk 3ds Max. to save money,This film was made on less than shoe string, but still delivers in ways that some of the big budget movies have failed quite spectacularly. (2012, Day After Tomorrow, Cloverfield, The Knowing the list is endless)

At a time when "disaster movies" have been made with almost every conceivable scenario exhausted, Gareth has created a film that will redifine a genre, reportedly receiving his inspiration whilst watching fishermen struggling to haul in their catch and imagining that they had snared a monster. He had the idea to make a monster movie set "years after most other monster movies end, when people aren't running and screaming, life is going on, where a giant, dead sea monster is considered completely normal."

Monsters is made with all the flair and glamour of Hollywood, but also has that sense of understatement and beauty that is quintessentially British. If you've suffered the disappointment of any the other movies in this genre I implore you to see this movie it might, just might make it all worth it.