ORDINARY members of the public were able to go from the street to the screen in minutes on Saturday.

The Central Library was transformed into a film set and Swindonians were encouraged to come along, get involved, and bag themselves a place in the movie as an extra.

As well as being able to see themselves on screen, the extras got the chance to watch how a film is made - with makeup artists, a sound man, camera operators and a director all on hand to put the project together.

The movie, a thriller called Death Follows, is the work of filmmaker and director Tony Manders.

It is the 65-year-old from Royal Wootton Bassett’s 98th film having begun as an actor.

Since turning to directing he has made a short film and a web series, but Death Follows is his first feature-length project.

Tony said: “It’s a stalker film, the main character has acquired a stalker.

“She doesn’t know whether he loves her or hates her, in other words she doesn’t know why she’s being stalked.

“She doesn’t know what he looks like - he’s a make up artist and can make himself look like anybody.

“The question is when will he make his move and how - could he already be here?”

The main character, Amy Trent, is an author and has written a book - as it happens the book is also about a stalker.

The scene being filmed on Saturday was set at a book signing, making the library an ideal location for the shoot.

“There are two things we wanted to do with the film,” said Tony.

“Firstly we wanted to use local locations - we’ve got some fantastic locations, we’re using Barbury Castle tomorrow for example.

“We’re using pubs and cafes too - we want to showcase the area.

“By and large the cast and crew are from around here so we’ve deliberately chosen local places.”

The extras taking part on the day made up the queue of fans waiting to have their books signed by the author in the film.

By putting the call out inviting the public to take part, Tony was putting his trust in ordinary people to show an interest and want to take part - if they hadn’t then his book signing queue would have been pretty small.

“We decided to make this a public event so people could come and watch if they were interested in how a film is made.

“It’s good for the library because it encourages people through the door and it’s good for us because we’ve ended up with a host of good extras.”

Feature length thriller Death Follows stars Vicki Price, John Fisher, Helen Ackrill and Lloyd Sandall.

It is being presented by Silverback Movies which was founded by director Tony Manders and producer partner John Pasternak.

The film is set to be completed later this year and released in Autumn 2017.

To keep up to date with all the news on the filming and release, follow @DeathFollowsMovie on Twitter.