INTRODUCING All the Colours: A Journey From Development to Release
Brighton does something to people. The seafront, the light, the sense that anything is possible here. I have lived in this city for years and that feeling has never really worn off. There’s a creative energy here that is genuinely unlike anywhere else, and it finds its way into everything you do.
That energy is all over All the Colours. And this is the story of how it came to exist.
“Brighton sells joy for a living, what it doesn’t advertise is the price.”
The idea started as all the best ideas do, with a question that I couldn't let go of.
It’s no secret that Brighton is one of the best cities in the country to be young in. It promises freedom, belonging, and a place where you can reinvent yourself entirely. And for most people it delivers on that promise. But I've lived here long enough to know that this city isn’t the same for everyone, and I kept asking myself: what happens to those people when that promise doesn’t work out quite the same way as expected?
That question became Catalina. Eighteen years old, full of determination, arriving in Brighton with nothing but the belief that things would be better. She’s not wrong to believe this. She’s just about to find out how complicated better can be.
As a filmmaker the stories that excite me most are always the ones that come back to something real. All the Colours came from living in this city and wanting to capture its truth.
Before we could make the feature we knew we had to make the short film as a proof-of-concept.
A proof-of-concept short is exactly what it sounds like: a short film made to show that the bigger version is worth making. You shoot it, you show people, and if it lands it opens doors.
Ours landed.
We shot over three days in Brighton in the summer of 2024, with our four main actors: Jefferson Hall, Jamie Kenna, Charles Furness, and Lorna Dale (more on the cast in later posts), and all four brought something truly exciting to the role. When people working at that level respond so positively to your script, it gives you a huge amount of confidence in what you’re making.
The crew was mainly local, the shoot was fast and full of energy, and the city delivered everything we asked of it. The alleys, the seafront, the interiors, and that quality of night light that is entirely Brighton's own.
“they were quiet in all the right places. Uncomfortable. MOVED. THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT THIS STORY IS SUPPOSED TO DO.”
We had our cast and crew screening at the Duke of York's Picturehouse in Brighton, and the response was everything we had hoped for and more. People were quiet in all the right places. Uncomfortable in exactly the right moments. They didn’t want to just congratulate us afterwards. They wanted to keep talking about what they’d seen. That’s the reaction every filmmaker is truly chasing.
It told us we had something real, and it told us the feature needed to be made.
The feature version of All the Colours is now in late development and we could not be more excited about where it is heading. It goes further in every direction: a fuller character arc, a deeper world, and more of this brilliant, complicated city laid out for the world to see. The question at the centre of it hasn’t changed. But the scale of the answer has.
Over a billion pounds a year is spent here on pleasure and vice. Brighton was voted Best Nightlife in the UK last year. This is the world Catalina walks into. I am making this film because Brighton gave me a story worth telling, and because the stories deserve to be told.
This blog is going to follow the journey from here to release. The writing, the production, and the things that surprise us along the way. If you want to follow along for the journey, you’re very welcome.
It’s going to be a good one.
All the Colours the Feature is in development as of 2026. To follow the journey, find us on our socials at @blackbullfilms.