The NFTS Graduate Showcase 2026, supported by BBC Studios, celebrates the culmination of over 500 students’ work towards over 80 inspiring and original short films, TV shows, commercials and games.
The showcase is an opportunity for members of the screen industries to see firsthand the work of NFTS’ graduating students and to meet the next generation of film, television and games makers that will be shaping the industry for years to come.
British Cinematographer takes you behind the scenes to explore the 10 films screened at the Fiction Graduate Showcase, including interviews with the cinematographers, stills and shots taken during filming for each incredible production.
Here, Adenike Oke discusses What Could You Buy With Your Body Count?, which explores teenage loneliness across a single night.
Please can you share an overview of your film?
Set over one night at a post-GCSE party, everyone is trying to prove themselves; everyone is getting what they want, except for Logan. Under pressure, he goes after the girl of his dreams, only to find himself more alone than ever before.
What were your initial discussions about the visual approach for the film? What look and mood were you trying to achieve?
Our aim was to create a contained chaos. A small opening into the confused minds and emotions of teenagers navigating their way through a reality heavily influenced by social media and the judgements of others.
Our look and mood focused on the imperfect and making the audience feel uncomfortable. Environments feeling very dark when emotions need to be hidden, very contrasty when emotions are not understood or very bright in moments of clarity – with moments of saturated blue and cyan adding a levity and a youthful nature to the film.
What were your creative references and inspirations? Which films, still photography or paintings were you influenced by?
In pre-production, Spring Breakers was our main reference – we agreed on an active and reactive camera.
We also looked at Klip to inspire us on how to portray the phone footage elements of the film.
I was inspired by the cinematography of Malik Hassan Sayeed in Belly. I wanted to utilise colour to exaggerate the overarching emotional feeling of our main character, Logan, in each environment.
What filming locations were used?
We shot in one location, a detached suburban house in West London, over seven nights.
We decided on this house for its dated décor, textured surfaces and the way each room was connected. It gave us the ability to follow our characters seamlessly from one room to another.
Can you explain your choice of camera and lenses and what made them suitable for this production and the look you were trying to achieve?
I ended up choosing the Sony Venice in Rialto, and thanks to Kate Priestman at Panavision, we were able to use a mixture of Panavision Normal and Super Speed lenses. After testing, I decided they would be the perfect fit for our film. With their small and compact footprint, they worked well with our often run-and-gun handheld camera moves, and pairing them with the Venice in base ISO 2500 created a beautiful and textured image.
Another consideration that made the Venice the clear choice was our conversations about using available light and having the least number of fixtures on the floor inside the house, to enable us to move around anywhere we needed to. In 2500, the Venice made this viable – the Rialto also meant I could tuck into really small spaces and be present with our cast and their performances without being intrusive.
What role did camera movement, composition and framing, and colour play in the visual storytelling?
The entire film is handheld. We have moments of control and moments of chaos.
The energy of the camera is determined by how our main character, Logan, is feeling. In his moments of clarity the camera is more controlled, and when his emotions are heightened the camera moves are chaotic and unpredictable.
I appreciated being present and reactive to the cast and working with director Štefánia Lovasová. We often intentionally made the camera off kilter, our intention to make the audience feel uncomfortable and ungrounded.
We decided to keep the film in one aspect ratio, including our phone footage. We utilised a 4:3 aspect ratio to close in on and constrict the characters, making no difference between the way our characters are experiencing their present in tandem with the way they experience the world of social media and its influence on their perceived reality through the phone footage.
We also played a lot with colour. As the film is happening over one night, we wanted to make each room feel different, as if the host had prepared the house with different-coloured lighting, making the party feel like a big end-of-year event.
What was your approach to lighting the film? Which was the most difficult scene to light?
As I mentioned previously, we wanted to work with available light inside the house.
Greenkit supplied us with NYX bulbs, which we used to replace all the practical bulbs, as well as PavoSlims and Asteras, which we often used in the hand, walking them in and out as fill during our external handheld takes. We also opted for fixtures with RGB capabilities so we could experiment with colours in each space.
The exterior shots were the most difficult to light – the space was huge with no practical lighting, and we had very few SAs. Using AX5s to uplight the foliage in the backgrounds created needed depth and we walked a Dyno 1200 with diffusion frames around depending on the blocking for our key.
What were you trying to achieve in the grade?
Our scenes in the shed needed the most moulding in the grade. I protected our shadow areas on the day, and we worked a lot on bringing them down. Our colourist, Diyar Akar, did a great job of creating a cavernous and enveloping darkness.
Generally, across the film we extenuated and balanced what we got on the day.
Which elements of the film were most challenging to shoot and how did you overcome those obstacles?
The film is set over one night out – with many scenes being external, our main challenge was making our day before the sun started to rise. We shot at the end of July, so we only had around seven hours of darkness to work with.
A few night scenes were shot dusk for night, where we could black out and tent windows effectively to create the darkness we needed in a space.
What was your proudest moment throughout the production process or which scene/shot are you most proud of?
I really like the last scene in the film. We shot it as the sun was going down and into night. With Tupac, my gaffer, we created a believable soft late morning light. It’s a beautiful and considered way to end the film.
What lessons did you learn from this production that you will take with you onto future productions?
When things change from what you planned in pre-production, be present enough to respond to what’s in front of you. If it feels right, shoot it.
Thank you to Rachel Clark and Craig Dean Devine for the support.
