A MARLING School sixth form student could be the next big film producer.

Dan Guthrie’s short film, Seven Stages, will premiere in London this week.

The film was inspired through his A-Level coursework including the study masculinity in Hamlet and A Clockwork Orange.

It examines the theatrics of contemporary masculinity, bringing together a drag king, a working men’s club and a Shakespearean monologue.

Dan shot the film during February half-term at the Brunel Goods Shed in Stroud and production was completed at the start of March.

It will premiere at the Playback Festival over the next five days where all short films made as part of the Random Acts Scheme will be shown in an exhibition.

Dan has ambitions to become a filmmaker and believes this is a big step forward for him.

“Making the film has helped me to get a foot in the door of the creative industries, something that is notoriously hard to do as a young person who lives in the middle of the countryside,” said Dan.

“My film will premiere at the Playback Festival at the Institute for Contemporary Arts in London, alongside the other recently produced films from across England, and after that it's a matter of waiting before I get it back in my hands, depending on whether Channel 4 want to use it.”

Dan is now working on a short spoken show, premiering at Bristol's Tobacco Factory Theatre at the end of March, a one-off radio show about filmmaking for London station Resonance FM and blog posts for Bristol-based websites Mandemhood and SYNC.SW.

Stephen Farr, Head of sixth form at Marling School is pleased for his pupil.

“Dan has shown a real talent for filmmaking and I’m delighted that he has taken this opportunity to explore this interesting subject matter and share it with a wider audience.

“It’s really exciting that his film may eventually be shown on national TV and would be a terrific platform for his future career.”