'How To Say I Love You'

MMU YouTube sensation

MMU film students have taken YouTube by storm with a bitter-sweet film about love.

'How to say I love you' has become an internet sensation with 1.5 million views and an astonishing 650,000 clicking in within 24 hours of posting.

Written by Hayley Stuart, 20, on the Contemporary Film & Video degree and co-directed with Francesa Sophia, 20, a first-year on Film and Media Studies, the short film stands out a mile from the usual video-sharing fare of comedy cats and R&B music.

Remarkably, the eight-minute short posted on January 8 is already closing in on the YouTube Top 100 and has been favourited 10,000 times!

Intimate

Starring Sam Smith, a second-year Acting student, and Nicola Potts, a graduate of the university's drama course in Cheshire, the film is a great advert for young talent at MMU.

In the film, a teenage girl is reading in the park when a mysterious, but intrusive young man kneels to take her picture and then proceeds to have an intimate conversation with her.

The two bond awkwardly over their mutual feelings of loneliness and isolation in a generation that would rather communicate via the internet, than in person.

'How to say I love you' is about learning to let go of insecurities and to just love. It is set in real time and was filmed one freezing October morning in Manchester.

Olivia, Explorer

Another film by the pair 'Olivia, Explorer' starring Francesa's seven-year-old niece, attracted 1.4million YouTubers, and they were contacted by the website’s editors to congratulate them on one of the site’s most popular videos yet.

"Olivia, Explorer only cost us £7 to make; a five to make our own steadycam from scratch and £2 which we spent on sweets and string" says Francesca, who has been making films she was 13."

She says the comments – more than 6,000 for 'How to say I love you' – have been overwhelming and she is trying to answer most of them by message.

"We really appreciate the constructive criticism we have had; people should feel free to have negative opinions on the film!"

Skins

The friends met at school in Chorlton, Manchester and became inseparable after Hayley protected Francesca from bullies.

They take their inspiration from French cinema and recently did work experience behind the scenes on Channel 4 drama Skins.

You can watch 'How to say I love you' by going to YouTube.

You can also visit Francesca and Hayley's website/blogsite.

16 January 2009