A SHORT film shot using a mobile phone has been selected to appear at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Award-winning writer and director Jane Hamer and her company Mepic Productions, impressed festival shortlisters with the quality of The Rabbit Trail, which was filmed in Barrow Bridge last July using a HTC One smartphone with a macro lens.

Mrs Hamer, aged 49, said: “We are all really excited about being picked for the festival because at events like the Fringe you never know who might be there watching it.

“We are just really proud that our hard work has been noticed.”

The 10-minute film, which was originally made for a mobile phone film competition, follows two men, connected by family, who have gone through a similar traumatic experience.

Mepic Productions — a contraction of "mini epic" — is made up of Mrs Hamer, her husband Mark, aged 47, her brother-in-law Steven, aged 50, her stepson Antony and his friend Jamie Justice, both aged 24, and Stephanie Randall, aged 22.

Mrs Hamer, from Horwich, has also been selected to work alongside the likes of Shameless writer Paul Abbott for The Writers’ Lab at the University of Bolton, where writers develop an original script as well as learn about team writing and producing, and in 2007 she won the British Short Screenplay award.

She said: “We used the HTC One with a macro lens so we could get close ups, and then added the sound later.

"It’s amazing what you can do with smartphones — it allows small companies like us to compete in a very niche market.

"It’s a small family company which started as an experiment really. We do a lot of filming around Bolton.”

Mrs Hamer moved into directing after winning the British Short Screenplay award.

She said: “I was promised that my winning script would be made into a film, but, unfortunately, due to technical issues, it is still yet to be finished.

“I saw a film made using a mobile phone and that made me realise I should just do it myself. So I did.”

The Rabbit Trail is being showcased at TheSpace, Symposium Hall (Venue 43) Hill Square, off Nicolson Street, Edinburgh, from 12.40pm between August 19 and 23.