One of Bermuda?s budding filmmakers is looking for people to participate in movie auditions for a silent film being held today.

Owain Johnston-Barnes, 23, is making a movie about milk and he needs actors.

?This is my first film,? said Mr. Johnston-Barnes who currently works at Crystal Caves. ?The basic premise came as a friend and I were discussing our mutual interest in film, and decided that we could make a film in a single evening, just him and I. ?I wanted to be a writer, and he a director, but it?s difficult to get recognised in either career without having produced some body of work. We came up with a simple story, based on my belief that personal stories and character flaws provide the best short films.

?We came up with the basic premise, and shot the film that day. It was awful. No lighting, no sets, and the worst pair of actors the world has seen.?

Mr. Johnston-Barnes decided to keep working on the film and spent several weeks rewriting and editing.

?On the third draft, I came to the realisation that the entire script only had about three sentences of spoken dialogue,? said Mr. Johnston-Barnes.

He was inspired to go silent after seeing an interview with actor Mel Gibson about the movie, ?The Passion of the Christ?.

?He didn?t want to use subtitles, and the idea had blown me away,? said Mr. Johnston-Barnes. ?That he would release a major motion picture where 99.9 percent of the audience would have to rely solely on the physical performances and directing. Obviously, Mel changed his mind, but the idea was still an interesting one.?

Mr. Johnston-Barnes decided to delete the three lines of dialogue he had written and polished up the script so the story could be told without dialogue.?The story I felt is of the best type,? he said. ?On the surface, it?s silly fun, but a harder look should reveal the message that if we simply sit around and hope someone else fixes all our problems, things get worse, not better. My friend, the original director, is now living in Canada, so I took the role of directing myself.?

In the end, what Mr. Johnston-Barnes came up with was a film, called ?Fresh Milk?, the story of three roommates, a carton of milk, and a disturbing lack of hygiene.?To be more accurate it is a story about the human tendency to avoid work in hopes that someone else will come along and fix all our problems,? said Mr. Johnston-Barnes.

After the auditions, he hopes to shoot the film in August and edit it by mid-autumn. He is hoping that silence really is golden and that his film will get the attention of the Bermuda International Film Festival, or be shown at other film festivals.

In September, he will be attending Flagler College.

Fresh Milk needs actors and actresses between the ages of 18 and 30 years old. No experience is necessary. Auditions will be held at the Saltus Senior hall on June 24 from 5.30 p.m. until 7.30 p.m., and on June 25 and 26 from 1 p.m. until 5 p.m.. For more information, contact owainjb1hotmail.com or by phoning 747-1031.