Early Career and Film making
Andrea Arnold was born on 5th April 1961in Dartford, Kent under parents who were aged only 16 and 17 who separated when Andrea was still very young. As a young girl, Andrea started writing dark stories about human experience perhaps suggesting that she would become a director in the future. At 18 years of age she left her hometown Kent and moved to London which saw her acting in some television shows including 1980s children show 'No. 73' and 'The Kumars at No. 42'.
After retiring as a TV presenter she studied directing in Los Angeles and screenwriting in her hometown of Kent. Andrea's short films followed with 'Milk', 'Dog' and more notably, 'Wasp', where she won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film. In reply to whether Wasp was reminiscent of her early life or is in any way biographical, Andrea replies "I grew up in a working class family, so I guess you could say I write from what I know."
Andrea's style has been to direct short films reminiscent of her early life, shooting in fairly rough areas near to her hometown of Kent. The picture below shows her on the set of 'Red Road', one of her more recent longer durated films following her successful shorter films.
I hope to capture the verisimilitude that Andrea frequently does in her own productions. Following last year's task my idea of how to produce a realistic modern day film has developed and the film I produce for this year's task will have a lot of realism of the current society.
