Things That Keep My Motor Running
Outside of writing and developing film and television projects I’m also involved in a range of creative ventures large and small. Here’s a few I’m working on just now…
______________________________________________________________________
The Story Engine is a two-day conference for screenwriters comprising of cases studies, master classes, panel discussions, and workshops by leading practitioners from the film, television and online industries.
Now in its fifth year, the event has built a reputation for attracting some of the UK’s top screenwriting talent to the North East to discuss their work and working methods with fellow writers.
Previous speakers have included: Simon Beaufoy (hot off the plane with his Oscar for Slumdog Millionaire), Jimmy McGovern (The Street), Tony Grisoni (Red Riding), Peter Straughan (The Men Who Stare At Goats), Lisa Holdsworth (Robin Hood), Danny Brocklehurst (Shameless), Paul Fraser (Dead Man’s Shoes), Tanya Seghatchian (co-producer Harry Potter I,II, III).
Find out more by visiting www.thestoryengine.com
______________________________________________________________________
For the past couple of years I’ve been working as the supervising filmmaker for the Tyneside Cinema’s Northern Stars Academy, an annual project that sees sixteen 15-18 year olds take part in a series of intensive workshops over four months leading up to a week-long residential where they make their first fiction films. It’s a fantastic project that brings together a bunch of young people with some terrific mentors like Daniel Elliott, Richard Lawson, and Magnus Dennison. Applications for the 2011 edition are now open, so if you know any young folk into film send them our way.
______________________________________________________________________
In 1993, inspired by Greil Marcus’ great book Dead Elvis, I embarked on a photographic project to document what Elvis Presley had been up to since his death in 1977. I started where he left off, in Memphis, and spent three weeks photographing his movements around the city in September 1994. Until now the work has existed only in the analogue world but here, for the first time, it moves into the digital realm of the splinternet…
______________________________________________________________________
