First assistant director Alex Challies is from Darlington and it is his first time working on a full feature film.
“We want this to be a film of real quality, the fact that it’s made in the North East by North East people is just a cherry on top.
“We want to be on the world stage not just a local one.”
Camera crew member Katy Jenkins, from Durham, said she was “very happy” to be at home during the shoot as she regularly has to leave the area to find work.
“This is a great project but you do have to move to find work in the industry, I’d love to stay up here forever but there aren’t enough jobs at the minute – but I hope that changes,” she said.
MacDonald will be filmed over the course of a month around various locations in Northumberland and County Durham, including Hexham and Barnard Castle, before it enters the post-production phase.
As an independent film, it has not yet been commissioned but Vaughan has high hopes for the project.
“We’ve already had interest in it from some of our partners but we want to make the best product then we’ll send it off to some film festivals and let’s see what happens,” he said.
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