As Birmingham writer Geoff Thompson bounded up to the BAFTA stage in Leicester Square, he could hardly contain his excitement. He danced around and grabbed the trophy, nearly knocking over the podium occupied all night by the starlets and egos of Hollywood. For Thompson and producers Natasha Carlish and Mark Leveson, the long road to the BAFTA for their short film, Brown Paper Bag, has been fraught with sacrifices. It involved Natasha remortgaging her house and scrounging and begging to squeeze every ounce of the Birmingham film community's generosity. The BBC at Pebble Mill allowed her to use the set of its soap Doctors for free, while the landlord of the Cricketers, on Pershore Road, allowed the crew to use his pub for half a day - even permitting a severed ear to be tossed across his bar. And all of the 250-strong crew worked for nothing. The result meant that Dreamfinder productions, based in Poplar Road, Bearwood, were able to make the project for just £3,850, compared to an average for a 15-minute film of £30,000. "It has been an absolutely huge sacrifice," said Natasha, aged 39, who had received almost 100 messages of congratulation when she turned her phone on after Sunday's ceremony. "I work up to 70 hours a week. I earn less now than I did when I left university and I have not had a holiday for two years. "It takes a huge amount of time to get anywhere in this business, but it is my lifelong dream to get this company working." Brown Paper Bag is about alcoholism, where Ronnie Fox shines as the lead character waking up to see how his life has been destroyed by drink. It was written by Coventry-based writer Geoff Thompson and it was made by the same team who made BAFTA-nominated film, Bouncer. Bouncer starred Ray Winstone who acts as an executive producer for Brown Paper Bag. Natasha added: "We are trying to get it screened at Birmingham Screen Festival next month as people are now desperate to see it. "We are also trying to get a DVD made of the two projects and extra commentary from Ray Winstone." | 
