STILL GOT IT
Starring Ronald Pickup & Jackie Howe
Written & Directed by Miles Dickinson
Produced by Sam Simmons-Betts & Matt Ashworth
A cheeky Grandpa seizes a moment of freedom while the nurse is out.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKER
Miles Dickinson is a Leeds based filmmaker with a background in commercial production across branded content, TV commercials, radio and social campaigns. He currently works for the University of Leeds as a Production Lead in their Digital Education team.
READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH MILES
Welcome to our Short of the Week series. Tell us a bit about yourself and your filmmaking background.
Thank you for having me. My name is Miles Dickinson and I’m a UK-based filmmaker. It feels strange to describe myself like this because it’s been so long since I last made a film, and so much of my life has changed since I shot this back at the start of 2019. I started out making short films and music videos after graduating from university in 2015. Over time, I slowly moved away from narrative filmmaking and into agency life, working in commercial production across branded content, TV commercials, radio and social campaigns. During the pandemic, my wife and I relocated from London to Leeds, and sadly the filmmaking side of my life gradually faded away.
Short films have always been a really important part of my development, though, and I’ve often said that one day I’d return and make another short. Some of my best memories are scraping money together and working with friends to create something we felt was worth sharing with the world. That’s exactly what this film is. A passion project made between friends, and at the time it was an opportunity for me to continue honing my writing and directing skills. I made Still Got It over seven years ago, but it genuinely feels like yesterday. Making short films gave me the freedom to experiment with tone and storytelling, while also focusing on performance, pacing and visual language, all without the pressure of scale or commercial clients.
Tell us about the genesis of Still Got It. Where did the idea come from and how did you develop that idea into the short that's now made its way out into the world?
The idea came from spending time with my grandparents and noticing how much of their identity had quietly faded from view as they got older. You meet someone late in their life and you rarely get any sense of who they were before age, illness or routine took over. I kept thinking about how many elderly people are walking around with entire histories, passions, talents and stories that never get acknowledged. With Still Got It, I wanted to tell a story that reveals that hidden inner life in a playful way, rather than something overly sentimental or bleak.
Once I landed on the idea of an older man secretly dancing, the rest of the film grew quite naturally around that. The relationship with Karen, his daughter and carer, became the emotional framework. She isn’t a villain; she loves him. But her care has become controlling. This dynamic gave the film both its humour and its heart. The film I made before Still Got It was called Orchid, which also featured an elderly character. That film was much more serious in tone, exploring grief. After making these two films, it became clear to me that I’m drawn to hidden stories and the emotional depth that comes with ageing and having most of your life behind you. I’m drawn to themes of nostalgia, memory and past experience. You learn things about yourself when you make films!
What were some of the main obstacles you experienced when making Still Got it and how did you overcome them?
One of the biggest challenges was working with an elderly lead and building a physically demanding dance sequence around him. Ron Pickup was extraordinary, and it was an absolute privilege to work with such an established actor, especially at that early stage of my career. Ron did'nt have to say yes to this film. He chose to do it purely to support me as a young filmmaker, and he did so with immense generosity and kindness. He worked without any ego, without expectation, and with total commitment to the story. Over the course of the shoot, Ron and I became genuine friends, and that trust was fundamental to how the film came together.
Because of his age and the physicality required, his safety was always the priority for us. We approached the dance sequence with careful planning, rehearsal and flexibility, adapting the choreography and coverage to suit Ron rather than forcing the performance to meet a preconceived idea. That allowed the scene to feel joyful and liberated while remaining safe and respectful.
Still Got It became one of Ron’s final screen performances before his tragic passing, which makes the film incredibly special to me. He was a kind, gentle soul, and I feel truly honoured that I had the opportunity to work with him and to capture such a beautiful, playful performance so late in his life.
Another major challenge for me was working with a Director of Photography whom I’d not worked with before, whose creative approach was different to mine. Due to scheduling, I hadn’t been able to spend much time with him prior to the shoot, as I normally would with DoPs I’d previously worked with. On set, we had different ideas around framing, blocking and action, which threw off my process. I’m not taking anything away from his clear talent and all of his ideas were strong, but in my inexperience I didn’t know how or when to push back on those differing opinions. It was a valuable learning experience because, ultimately, I do wish that I’d held firm and stuck to my storyboard. You live and learn!
There were also the usual short-film realities: an extremely tight budget, limited shoot days and a small crew. But we were lucky to have an incredibly committed team who genuinely believed in the project. That belief made a huge difference, and everyone went the extra mile to make sure the film felt polished and emotionally honest.
Tell us about the journey of getting your film to audiences and some of the festival circuit highlights?
We didn't screen the film at any festivals. Mainly due to financial restrictions! It's amazing that the film is now starting to be seen all these years later.
We understand that you've sat on this project for quite a while before releasing it online. Would you mind telling us why?
Yes, it's been in a metaphorical dusty box for many years! In all honesty, for a long time I really wasn't proud of this film. I must stress that my disappointment is not a result of any lack of talent or ability in my crew. Far from it. I was blown away by the quality of work they brought to this. I was just disappointed in the decisions I made during the creation of the film and the direction I took it. I felt for a long time that it didn't represent my original vision, and I was frustrated that I'd decided to take a departure from a style of filmmaking I'd worked so hard to hone in my other works.
Letting it breathe allowed me to gain some distance from it and start to appreciate it for what it is, rather than constantly thinking about what I would have changed. All these years later, I now smile when I watch it because these are great memories for me, and I really am now proud of what we achieved with it. Yes, it's not exactly how I'd imagined it, but it has plenty of charm, it looks beautiful, and it's an entertaining short film – in my humble opinion, of course!
What advice or hacks would you give to other short filmmakers?
Great question! My advice would be to work with people more talented than you. When you find them, reach out, be genuine, meet with them, become friends, and make sure that you're creatively aligned. Don't be afraid to send scripts to agents, ask for favours, and wheel and deal. So many of my opportunities came from this way of thinking. I learned so much by surrounding myself with people who were better than me, who had more of an education in the arts than I did. I desperately wanted to study Film Directing at the prestigious National Film and Television School. I applied every year for about five years and heard nothing back. So instead, I decided to work with alumni from the school on many of my short films – what's the difference?
What are you working on now?
Nothing at the moment! Who knows, being selected for KINO's Weekly Pick might bring my inner filmmaker back to the surface. Maybe it's time to dig out some of my old scripts and go again...
Any film recommendations that we should add to our watchlist?
I've been out of the game for a long time now so nothing hot off the press to recommend. But, doing some digging back through my old liked shorts on vimeo I've found a couple worth mentioning here. Hala (2016) by Minhal Baig is fantastic. I absolutely love Mixtape Marauders (2018) by Peter Edlund. Milton (2019) by Tim Wilkime is great fun too. My good friend Mark Van Heusden makes great films too.
