If I am really really lucky then I’m going to spend the next eighteen months making a film with my friend Jacob Polley about the most amazing house I have ever been in…
A few years back I sat down with a friend of mine Clive Tonge to write a short horror film called Sunday Best for him to direct. Clive had made a number of cracking shorts (including Emily & The Baba Yaga which has almost 300,000 hits on Youtube) but had run into a brick wall with funders running shorts schemes in the UK who wanted him to ditch his darker side and make something sweet and fluffy; and because they knew best he didn’t get to make Sunday Best, or any films for that matter for a long long time. So last summer, frustrated at sitting around waiting from someone to give him permission to make a film, he transformed his house into a studio, talked some friends into crewing from him and shot the film for nothing but love. And now its finished and its bloody good and sticks a nice big finger up to everyone who told him not to go too dark. Find out more here.
Since 1989 Stuart Roy Clarke has been photographing the changing face of football across the UK and beyond and has amassed an enormous archive of photos, which from May will find a permanent home at the National Football Museum in Manchester. I’m working with Stuart and my team of young filmmakers at Northern Stars to create a new piece of work that will play in the gallery during the exhibition. It’ll be made up of archive video from the last fifteen years - my first professional commission for a broadcaster was to make a profile of him in 1996 - as well as new material. And going by the image above, he’s trying to qualify for my Looking After Elvis project…
Here’s a little film Northern Stars made to send out over the festivities.
Here’s the teaser for the Time Machine ARG I’ve been working on for the Tyneside Cinema in Newcastle. Full update on this project soon…
Photo of the actor Michael Hodgson taken between shots for a project I’m currently working on. There’s more here.
Here’s an image from an ice rink on the frozen island of Suomenlinna, a short boat ride from downtown Helsinki, where my wife and I recently took weekend break. It was strange being somewhere where the weather was worse than at home but still being so excited to be there. More images I made on the trip can be found here.
The Story Engine 2011
Having programmed this event for five years, its sometimes been hard to see where to take it next. But I’m pleased to say that this year’s edition has more or less programmed itself. Those inspired loons at the Tyneside Cinema had the terrific idea of creating a series of events to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the UK release of Get Carter and wondered if we’d be interested in building the Story Engine 2011 around it.
The idea of creating an event dedicated entirely to crime writing seemed a perfect way for us to look anew at how writers create their fictions, explore how genre influences the shape of a narrative, and examine the intimate relationship between the novel and the screenplay.
With Mike Hodges on board, others quickly followed: David Peace, whose Red Riding series (1974, 1977, 1980, 1983) lie firmly in the shadow of Carter, Tony Grisoni, who took on the seemingly impossible task of adapting Peace’s books for the screen, Paul Rutman, whose adaptation of North East novelist Ann Cleeves’ Vera books will appear on ITV in the spring, Tartan noir novelist/graphic novelist Denise Mina, and Controller of BBC Drama Production and New Talent John Yorke. Then just as we were wrapping it up in came Eva Ward and Antonia Pyk from Swedish production company YellowBird to talk about Wallander, the Millenium trilogy and the mammoth six feature film project they are about to embark on.
Keep an eye on the Story Engine website. The event takes place on March 11th and 12th and you can buy tickets here.
Here’s the first image to emerge from the Time Machine alternate reality game I’m designing for the Tyneside Cinema. The artwork is by Cora Stone over at Ideonic, who are building the online experience. This is from an online game where players have to enter the mind of the cinema’s founder Dixon Scott to restore his memory - if they fail, the cinema will never exist…
Here’s Kimmo Pohjonen playing Avanto, which was composed for my film Flickerman & The Ivory Skinned Woman.
Flickerman & The Ivory Skinned Woman
Adam Suschitzky shot this short film for me on 35mm back in 2001 in a tiny space above The Union Rooms in central Newcastle. The script was written with poet and novelist Jacob Polley. The wonderful production design was created by Sarah Beaman and costumes and make up are by Imogen Cloet, who spent days sandpapering those pajamas to get the look we wanted . Lead actor James Ramsay - brother of filmmaker Lynne Ramsay - had just done a bit part in Scorsese’s Gangs Of New York (he was hung by Daniel Day Lewis) and plays opposite Joy Sanders, who stepped into those red shoes two days before the shoot after Brid Brennan dropped out. The score was recorded in Helsinki with accordion-wrestler Kimmo Pohjonen who got me drunk for three days straight before taking me to the studio. All I could say was ‘Yes, Kimmo. That sounds great…”
I recently won a contract to deliver a REALLY exciting project for the Tyneside Cinema in Newcastle. The Tyneside Time Machine is an alternate reality game aimed at engaging 9-12 year olds in the heritage of this terrific independent cinema. The story centres on a girl who’s been transported into the past by a dicky projector at the cinema and the kids have to help get her back home. So The Wizard Of Oz meets Back To The Future. There’ll be online elements, original and archive film material, as well as a narrative journey through the building itself. It’s going to launch in early 2011, and will run for three years taking in somewhere in the region of 130 school visits. I’m currently putting together the creative team and will post more details here in the coming weeks.
Dawn and The Living Dad - the project I worked on with young filmmakers from Stockton in the summer of 2010 - has been nominated for Best Drama at the Firstlight Awards 2011. Its one of only four films chosen from dozens across the country and the winner will be announced at a sparkly ceremony at the Odeon Leicester Square on March 15th. Judges include James Bond himself, Daniel Craig, everyone’s favourite pet zombie Nick Park, and the rather scrumptious Sienna Miller. Oh and some guy called Terry Gilliam. Needless to say the filmmakers are rather excitable at this time. The film was shot with in a tiny flat over four days with a terrific cast featuring Bill Fellows (pictured) and newcomer Emily Dowson. The grisly make up was done by Laura Tallentire and mentors included Louise Rea, Richard Lawson, Sara Cooper, and Hannah McParlin.
The Long Walk Home
I directed this short animation a few years ago as part of a pilot for an artist’s project that eventually run aground. It features a 3D character in a 2D space that was made up from enormous scans of the artists original artwork that were cut up in Photoshop and animated in After Effects.
You can see more of my shorts on the Short Films page.
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