Having detailed some of the history that inspired my last film of 2016 in this article on Caught By The River, I have very little else to say in regards to The Attempt. It’s a mixture of essay film and drama, combining a stark moment in the life of the poet, Edward Thomas, with the tragic hindsight that he was not afforded. I wanted to … Continue reading Short Film – The Attempt (Edward Thomas)
I have been lucky enough to have this year’s Halloween film, No Diggin’ Here – a film about M.R. James, Aldeburgh and A Warning To The Curious – premiered on the BFI’s website. It was a Halloween treat that, until I saw it happen in full, I didn’t quite believe, but I count myself incredibly lucky for such an opportunity. A few weeks back, the … Continue reading Short Film – No Diggin’ Here.
There are few writers that figure more prominently in everything I do than the teller of beautiful Edwardian ghost stories, M.R. James. Alongside W.G. Sebald, J.G. Ballard, Alan Garner and Virginia Woolf, his writing holds a great power over me with its familiar yet unfamiliar worlds. His writing preys upon my mind at regular intervals, even outside of the Christmas period from which they were … Continue reading Trailer – No Diggin’ Here.
I remember being sat on a bench on Dunwich Heath in September last year and seeing the dome of Sizewell B for the first time as an adult. I had just walked a little way down the coast, after a day of filming further down at Orford Ness, from Dunwich beach through to the heath. I simply was not expecting to be greeted by such … Continue reading Short Film – Heavy Water.
Above is the trailer for the next short film, Heavy Water. This is to be the longest film this year and the most ambitious in terms of scope in spite of future projects containing narratives and actors. Heavy Water ‘s difficulty is the connection of its two main themes represented by adjacent places on the Suffolk coast; the strange, liminal landscape surrounding Sizewell nuclear power … Continue reading Trailer – Heavy Water.
My walk around Harold Pinter’s old haunts in the east end of London has produced a number of written accounts now that, with the film that sparked of the whole venture being finally public, I’m not quite sure what else to say about it. The idea for the walk came about when I saw the, since frustratingly taken down, Harold Pinter Arena documentary which spent a … Continue reading Short Film – A Walk By Waiting (Harold Pinter, Iain Sinclair).
Above is the trailer for a very short fragment of film made in collaboration with the writer, Iain Sinclair. Though I had been thinking about doing something with the poems of Harold Pinter for the some time, I had left it to stew away rather than properly organise it as with other, simpler films. With initially failing to get in touch with Iain, I had … Continue reading Trailer – A Walk By Waiting (Pinter/Sinclair).
The Menhir Motorway is the first film of 2016 and it should set the tone for the rest of the year’s projects. Having filmed in late December, a mere few days before Christmas in the freezing edge-lands of Wallasey on The Wirral with the help of my girlfriend, Lauren (who took all of the proceeding digital photos of the shoot), the film has been gently … Continue reading Short Film – The Menhir Motorway.
Above is the trailer for the first film project of 2016, The Menhir Motorway. The film has been slightly delayed due to missing virtually all possible deadlines in regards to getting the film developed but it is now well on its way to being finished. Unlike virtually every other landscape short that I’ve made, this is one about an area that is personal to me, … Continue reading Trailer – The Menhir Motorway.
Above is a showreel built from footage I’ve shot over the last twelve months. Compared to last year’s showreel, this one feels far more defined and less haphazard with the visual ideas I want to play with. Gone are the mixtures of stop-motion, digital and film, instead replaced entirely by different stocks of super-8 footage. This year has felt like a much more defined trajectory … Continue reading Showreel 2015.
Celluloid Wicker Man 