A FILMMAKERS again descended on Haworth but this time the Brontës were nowhere in sight.

A BBC crew last summer transformed Main Street back in time 150 years so they could make Sally Wainwright’s Brontë biopic To Walk Invisible.

This time the moviemakers were students from the Leeds-based Northern Film School working on their ambitious graduation project Beyond Horizons.

Just like the professional crew, the Leeds students enlisted a host of people from Keighley and the surrounding area to pose as extras. The budding Wainwrights also went to work adapting shopfronts so they looked authentic for settings for their own drama.

The centrepiece was the fictional Beyond Horizons Antique Shop set in the real-life Cabinet of Curiosities on Main Street.

The crew also filmed in Main Street itself, the nearby Hawksbys shop, on the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway in Keighley, and at Antiques at the Mill in Cullingworth. They adopted the Cobbles and Clay cafe in Main Street and the West Lane Baptist Chapel for behind-the-scenes use for local extras and as make-up studios.

Beyond Horizons, which will last 15 minutes, will receive its world premiere in February next year at the Hyde Park Picture House in Leeds. Principal filming was carried out for 11 days in September and October, including scenes that Prime Studios in Leeds.

Haworth photographers Stephen Hogg and his teenage son James were given unrestricted access to the film sets to record the work of both students and local extras. James, 15, is studying photography at Parkside School in Cullingworth.

Beyond Horizons is directed by Stefan Wink, produced by Sungjun Youn and written by Chris Gennard, with Gian Piero Pottieri as the director of photography.

Child actor Ava Bounds played the protagonist, Alex, with Kelly Woods as the mother and Frank Ryan as the sinister Creator.

A spokesman for Beyond Horizons said the film explored themes of escapism through imagination, juxtaposing the tedious rigidity of reality.

He said: “In the darkened recesses of an old antique shop lies an exquisite miniature model town, a replica of the market town in which the antique shop is situated.

“A finely crafted model train runs around the track passing through villages and dioramas. Tiny plastic model people with featureless faces form scenarios of everyday life. Beneath that façade, the model town holds dark secrets and possesses sinister powers.”

Train passenger Alex, age 11, who runs away from his mother to explore the town, and once inside the antique shop he is lured into a labyrinth of antiques and curiosities. He follows a candlelit corridor and discovers the model room.

Can Alex escape the curse of the haunted miniature model town? Or will he be forever trapped amongst the featureless faces of the town’s plastic people?

The Northern Film School was named by the Hollywood Reporter as one of the most up-coming film schools in the world. It has produced many successful graduates and short films including the Oscar-nominated short film Border Patrol.

Beyond Horizons is one of the graduation projects of the 2017/2018 Master course, a prestige project that allows more than a week shooting with a significant budget and industry-standard equipment.

A spokesman said: “This ambitious project plays with visual tricks and effects, bundling the creative resources of the school’s students. We are aiming to feature in many national and international festivals as other NFS short films have done before.”

Visit facebook.com/eventphotographybyhoggy to see dozens more images by Stephen and James Hogg from the film shoot.