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Never mind Jaws - there’s something much more terrifying lurking in the murky depths of Swansea Bay.

Filmmakers James Iles, Alastair Jenkins and director Christian Bradshaw have just wrapped up CongAAARGH!, Swansea’s “first giant monster movie”, in which a menacing creature from the deep stomps out of the ocean and terrorises the locals, causing young girls to drop their ice creams and looming over Meridian Tower.

The short film will be screened at Cardiff Mini Film Festival later this month (June), before moving on to the G-Fest in Chicago in July, described as “the worlds biggest festival for Godzilla and Japanese monster movies.”

WARNING: This video contains language which some viewers might find offensive

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What's it all about?

As James Iles explains, it wasn’t intended as a film to begin with, but more of an experiment.

“Initially, we just wanted to learn the practicalities of getting a Godzilla-style monster suit made, and document that process to share with fellow fans of the genre,” he said.

“But pretty quickly, we had local crew volunteering their services, and we felt we couldn’t say no to such a great opportunity. When we became aware of Kickstarter, it seemed like a fantastic platform to raise the funds to produce something. After a few weeks we’d raised £4000 and we were in business."

Where was it filmed?

Fortunately for the team, they didn’t have to spend much of their budget on the locations, having the perfect places available to them right on their doorsteps.

"Port Talbot steelworks is an amazing industrial landscape, especially at night," he said.

"It’s like looking at a scene from Blade Runner. It’s a difficult place to get close to for filming, but from a distance it had the look we needed- that of a huge, mysterious factory.

"We filmed our monster footage in Swansea Bay because it has pretty much open water in the background, to convey the idea the the beast was emerging from deep ocean, a long way from shore. In actual fact we were standing in just three feet of water, with crew repeatedly lifting their equipment over the tiny waves rolling in.

(Image: Bay City Pictures)

"We were also able to get a nice sweeping shot of the bay from Mount Pleasant, to show the scale of the monster against The Meridian Tower, which in our film is the equivalent of The Empire State Building.

"We planned to shoot all the underwater footage in Caswell Bay, which usually has the best water clarity. As fate would have it, we had rough seas on the day, so we ended up filming in a big rock pool at Overton.

"The west pier, where we filmed the detonation team, really is a long way out to sea, so it all helped to establish the illusion that these events were happening in deep water."

(Image: Bay City Pictures)

How did they make the monster?

"We started by writing the script and storyboarding our shots. We looked at how monster filmmakers of the 1950s worked, using men in suits, miniature sets, hammy acting! Then we tried to craft a story to introduce some of our characters and establish the world in which CongAAARGH! takes place, using those same techniques.

"We hired Broken Hare, a Cardiff-based prop and creature workshop to make the beast. They took our designs and made a full size clay model. The first time I saw that towering over me was incredible, it really made the whole thing seem real. They made a mould, cast the latex skin, then stretched it over a foam suit that could be worn by a creature performer. At least, that was the plan. As it turned out, Alastair and I ended up taking turns inside the suit.

"We found some terrific actors from around Swansea and shot the whole film over weekends and evenings towards the end of summer 2015 and spring 2016. By summer, we were able to start screening at various venues around Swansea, such as Brewstone and Cinema & Co."

What were the biggest challenges?

While the locations were perfect, there was one slight drawback to filming in South Wales — “the rain!” laughed James.

“It rained for six weeks. That was the main issue, as we had to wait for dry weather to avoid destroying some of the equipment. Everyone involved was donating their services in their free time, so it was tricky to coordinate the busy crew when the rain only stopped for brief intervals.

"Another challenge involved the monster suit. It turns out that you can’t submerge that thing even with three people on top of it when you want to film it rising from underwater, and it takes 4 people to carry it after it soaks up some seawater. But it survived an absolute battering, it looks great on screen, and it makes a brilliant addition to screening events.”

(Image: Bay City Pictures)

What next?

Now that they’ve caught the monster film bug, there are many more on the way.

"Long term we’re working on a big project called Monster Ten. It’s a collection of ten short monster films, with CongAAARGH! being the first. The idea is for each short film to get bigger and better, showing (hopefully!) progression as filmmakers right up until the tenth short film. Each film will act as a pitch for a feature length version.

"We’re trying this for the first time with CongAAARGH!, which now has a feature length script, and has evolved from a 1950’s inspired project into more of an 80’s style, inspired by filmmakers like John Carpenter and Joe Dante, with a heavy rock soundtrack. We want to make something that recaptures the fun-horror feel of films like Critters, Gremlins and Tremors.

"We’re currently getting our budget in place and starting to approach potential investors. These things take time and a lot of work from everyone involved, but we hope to begin work on Swansea’s first feature length, giant monster film in 2018.

"Meanwhile, we’re writing and developing the next instalments of Monster Ten, the first of which is Hard To Kill, scheduled for filming in the frozen wilderness of Finland in February 2018."