FILM-maker Emily Blickem dreams of getting her name on the rolling credits of a major box office smash. In just two years, she has built a reputation in the film world and gained cash backing for some of her projects. Now she hopes her latest project, a m

FILM-maker Emily Blickem dreams of getting her name on the rolling credits of a major box office smash.

In just two years, she has built a reputation in the film world and gained cash backing for some of her projects.

Now she hopes her latest project, a musical, will get her noticed in film festivals around the world.

American-born Emily, 29, has longed for a career in the film world since she was a teenager studying at Ely Community College.

After leaving school, she took a degree in media studies and now works for a publishing company while waiting for her big break.

She said: "I started working with some friends on a number of projects, short films including one about artificial intelligence, a spoof James Bond and a Lord of The Rings-style film.

"At first we were just learning the techniques and bonding as a group but, as everyone progressed, we started taking our work to film festivals and a couple were screened at the Edinburgh Fringe.

"We produced a theological tale, a battle between good and evil. It was an action adventure with sword fighting, really good fun but professional at the same time."

Emily, whose family live in Columbine Road, launched her own company, mad & bad films, and with cash from Cambridge City Council produced a short film called Black Box, which tells of the adventures of a recycling box and manages to bring in romance and crime.

The film will be used by the council in schools and on its recycling bus. She has also been given a budget by Screen East, which is run by the UK Film Council and aims to team producers with writers and directors to work on projects.

Emily will produce a docu-drama called Guilty? People will be asked to go into a confessional and confess their sins, which will be told on film with the help of line drawings and animation.

"We hope to take it to the Edinburgh Festival, the Cannes Film Festival and to screenings in London," she said. "I would like to get my work recognised and my name known so that I could turn it into a career."

Emily has already taken some of her work to film-makers in Texas and hopes her new

12-minute musical, One Little Step, filmed in Great Yarmouth and telling the story of a girl who escapes from her humdrum life into a world of fantasy, will make it to the world's big film festivals.

"This is something I am really passionate about," she said. "I spend most of my evenings and weekends working on it and it is pretty much all I do."

To find out more about Emily's work, visit her website at www.madandbad.co.uk