Glasgow actor Daniel Kerr to premiere first short after festival wins

Daniel Kerr, who won the award for his role in 2013 film The Wee Man, will premiere Norm at the Odeon Luxe on Saturday, January 28.  

Daniel wrote the film in early 2021 and filmed it himself over three months, before submitting it to film festivals across the globe last year.

The Glasgow Times previously reported he had launched a GoFundMe in order to raise the money needed to enter festivals, and says the support he received was "fantastic".

READ MORE: The Wee Man actor Daniel Kerr sets his sights on festivals for first film

Daniel, 22, said: "I wouldn’t be able to put on a premiere without that support, it was really gratifying to see quite a number of people cared about the film itself about as I did."

The film tells the story of a character called Norm who has been cut off from his only friend and decides that in order to be acceptable to those around him he needs to go on a five-week intensive diet, but it becomes clear that his methods are not the right way to go about it.

Daniel, from Bearsden, was inspired to make the film after he realised how judgemental he had become about his own weight.

After raising more than £1000 on GoFundMe, he submitted the film to several festivals and it was selected for eight.

It won awards at Phoenix Shorts and The Dark Fest, and was a semi-finalist at the Paris International Short Festival.

Daniel, who has also starred in Doctor Who and Doctors, says it feels "amazing" for the film to have done so well.

READ MORE: Actor Daniel Kerr releases short film on body image after struggling with weight

He said: "I’ve worked on a number of sets, so I really just used the knowledge I’d cobbled together from there, and to go up against other films that had a production and quite a bit of money behind them, to beat a couple of them felt really good as it was just me and a few of my friends, so it was really gratifying.

"The reception’s been really good.

"The only drawbacks have been really people saying it’s obviously the first time I’ve made a film so there’s a learning curve but people have reached out and said they could relate to the struggles in the film and their own body image and weight, so I think it definitely connected with people on a level I wasn’t expecting."

He added: "I think body image is a big issue at the moment, I think people are more obsessed about image now than ever so it’s important to have different perspectives on that."

Daniel is now planning to premier Norm at a private event this month to share it with fellow filmmakers, while an online public premier will also run on YouTube at the same time.

He said: "It’s just being able to see it on the big screen for myself and quite a few other actors and filmmakers, I thought it would be a good idea and they might like to see it.

"Because no one has actually seen it apart from the people at the film festivals so I thought it would be a good idea to share it with people that were interested and family and friends."

Daniel says creating Norm was a "learning curve" but he is already planning his next project and says this time he will be patient and "won’t take time for granted".

He said: "I’m currently in the process of organising another short film.

"It will be a lot bigger, there’ll be better equipment, a lot more actors in it and I’m thinking about doing a play as well.

"It’s given me a new lease of life for creating stuff so I’m really happy about that."

He continued: "It took a lot longer than I was expecting but that’s the learning curve, it’s such a bigger process than I thought it would be.

"But to get it done and to get Norm out there for people to see, it feels like a great amount of relief and with a bit of confidence and a few wins I can move onto other things."

Norm will premiere on YouTube on Saturday, January 28 HERE.