And finally! our short fashion doc on Private White V.C. is now up on Hypebeast. Alongside the Oscar-nominated duo Mark Gill and Baldwin Lee, edited by Alex Roberts, and DoPed by Fernando Ruiz, this was the first production I oversaw for The Chase Films. And it was one of the best shoots I have been on.
Post-Production on E-LIFE
2016. January is typically a dead month for freelancers in the film industry, or it has been for me for the past 2 years. Possibly something to do with mince pie hangovers and short cold days. This year though it's all a go. The Chase Films is keeping me on my toes with producing my first TV ad and E-LIFE has entered post-production. This invariably means a lot of long long days as I work for the agency during the day, and on E-LIFE by night. Finally though, the first draft of the E-LIFE script, co-written with the journalist Huw Poraj-Wilczynski, is out for comments. With 3 distributors already interested, things are looking pretty fair-weather for the doc. After 2 years of work on it, this is a bit of a relief I can tell you.
Here is an online ad I did for Artists & Engineers last year. What an awesome shoot.
The Chase Films, the new moving picture arm of The Chase creative consultancy.
And Welcome to The Chase Films!
So it is my great pleasure to announce that I have been taken onto the mothership that is The Chase, an creative consultancy based out of Manchester. The Chase has recently opened up a film arm, The Chase Films, headed by the Oscar-nominated team Mark Gill and Baldwin Lee, alongside Alex Roberts. Despite knowing Mark and Baldwin for several years, I only had the privilege of working with them for the first time in August this year for a fashion documentary on Private White V.C., a clothing brand also based in Manchester (or Salford if you want to be precise). The film is due to be released imminently. Following this shoot, I was offered to come on board as a producer for the agency, and I'm tickled pink!
Austin, the home of SXSW.
For now though, it is full steam ahead on E-LIFE. I am currently in Austin, Texas, meeting with Dell computers as SXSW Eco rages all around. This trip to the US should be the last location we visit for this production as we're planning on beginning post-production in November back in the UK. In early September, I was again in the US with E-LIFE's US producer Tom Fox-Davies to film e-Scrap in Florida. e-Scrap is the world's largest eWaste recycling conference in the world and we met many fascinating individuals and organisations there, one of which was the Goodwill Industries International, who have partnered with one of the world's biggest computer manufacturers Dell computers. Goodwill collect used electronics which Dell then repurpose, repair, or recycle into a new consumer product in the closest thing to the circular economy we have seen so far filming for E-LIFE. We plan to film with both organisations in Austin at the end of the month.
Artists & Engineers and Private White V.C.
Two major shoots over two weeks, both with incredible production companies. At the end of August I had the privilege to work as production manager for the creative wonder house that is Artists & Engineers. A&E are a pretty unique company, as a quick glance at their website will show, as they aren't a regular film production company at all. They describe themselves as a "production company offering technology and production services to artists, brands, and cultural institutions" and film is only one small cog in the great machine. The client this time around was Native Instruments, although what we were filming, or who, has to remain a secret for now.
The second shoot was the long planned shoot with Chase Films with Private White V.C. The seed for this was planted at the beginning of this year and the shoot finally went ahead last week. With oscar nominated director and producer team Mark Gill and Baldwin Lee at the helm, along with myself, it was three days of journeying around the Lancashire countryside visiting the supply chain of the Private White brand, from sheep, to mill, to factory, to shop. It was an incredible shoot focussing on the ethos behind the brand and the importance of localism and quality in the manufacturing process. Their motto is "from sheep to shop within 10 miles" and they really do live by that. The workforce is local, the wool is local, and the weaving is local. It's a model by which more should operate! No photos to be released yet but expect a completion date for end of October.
Dr Jones preparing for his interview, Sheffield Hallam University.
Dr Hywel Jones & Private White VC
With all the travelling I seem to have been doing outside the UK, it was high time I did some within the country. I have just spent the past three days in Sheffield and Manchester, for two very different projects. The first was for E-LIFE, yet again. At the University of Sheffield Hallam, situated bang in the middle of the beautiful city, resides an academic called Hywel Jones, a material scientist of some repute (he has just been awarded the Armourers and Brasiers Venture Prize for developing a new lighter weight ceramic body armour). Hywel specialises in what materials are in things and, a few years ago, did some interesting research into what is in electronics. It was on this subject we wanted to talk to him about so the E-LIFE team, reorganised yet again, headed up North. The time is was Alex Kryszkiewicz and Huw Poraj-Wilczynski (there are a few Polish names in the E-LIFE crew but none of them seem to speak Polish).
The many different components of a Lumix Camera.
We spent the day with Hywel filming deep within the underbelly of the university's Material & Engineering Research Institute (MERI for short). Surrounded by brand new labs and equipment, Hywel took us through just how difficult it was to get into the average electronic item (laptop, phone, camera) and what elements are actually used in their manufacture. Fascinatingly, there are as many as 40 elements from that are used, almost half of the entire periodic table. He demonstrated this using a futuristic machine called an X-Ray Flurorescent Analyser, which could list all the elements within a thin sample. Unfortunately less than half these 40 elements are actually retrieved in the recycling process as most are present in such small amounts that it is not financially worthwhile to extract them.
Cut outs on the several factory floors at Private White V.C.
Following Sheffield, Alex and Huw headed back down South while I took the beautiful train ride across the Peak District to Manchester (beautiful because of the scenery, not because of the train itself I hasten to add) for a production meeting with the clothing brand Private White V.C. In the near future I will be producing a fashion documentary on the company, whose company motto is from Sheep to Shop in 10 miles. The motto sums up the ethos behind the company well. They use local materials from local farmers and mills to make high quality and durable clothing in their Manchester factory using a local workforce. It is an old model that is not at all that common today as the vast majority of clothing brands look for cheaper manufacturing alternatives far far abroad. On board is Oscar nominated director/producer team Mark Gill and Baldwin Lee and it is shaping up to be quite a project, although hunting down the perfect sheep field in Staffordshire may prove to be quite a task.
E-LIFE in Holland
As I prepare to head up to Sheffield to interview Professor Hywel Jones of the University of Sheffield Hallam for E-LIFE, my documentary on electronic waste, I realise that we have reached quite an amazing milestone in the project. Almost a year and a half exactly since we began, we are now half way through production. The start of the UK filming means that we have now ticked off 2 of the 5 countries we plan to film in (having been to Ghana and Holland so far). Following the UK, we have a last few weeks in the USA followed by Mexico, hopefully (all being well), wrapping the production in September.
Station Central, Amsterdam.
Last week, the E-LIFE team in the form of myself, James Bulley (composer), Alex Kryszkiewicz (camera), and Julia Schoenheit (Assistant Producer) made our way over to Holland to film a little about what is being done about the eWaste problem. We had four days to film with, in chronological order, Fairphone, Closing The Loop, Sims Recycling, and Phonebloks.
The Fairphone Offices, Amsterdam.
The Fairphone offices in Amsterdam are a stunning loft conversion on the edge of the canals to the East of the city. On the verge of releasing their 2nd phone, the company are progressing in leaps and bounds, proving that an ethically manufactured cell phone is a desirable product. Fair phone operates under the banner of four main tenets: mining (only sourcing from conflict-free zones), design (changing the way people relate to their phones thereby reducing the desire to upgrade and replace at every opportunity), manufacturing (good working conditions with low environmental impact), and lifecycle (concentrating on facilitating the 3Rs: waste reduction, reuse, and recycling).
Fairphone have recently started working with an organisation called Closing the Loop, who we met on the second day of our trip. Run by Joost de Kluijver, CTL has a unique perspective on how to deal with eWaste is developing countries. In Ghana for example, where E-LIFE filmed in May 2015, CTL have collected 70,000 discarded cell phones with the help of a local organisation Recell Ghana. These cell phones are currently on route back from Ghana to a Umicore recycling facility in Belgium where they will be recycled in the safest and cleanest possible way.
The slightly daunting facade of Radio Kootwijk.
Following this we left Amsterdam and headed to Radio Kootwijk, a shortwave radio transmitter formerly the Netherlands main communications mechanism to its colonies. This detour was unrelated to E-LIFE but our composer James Bulley, a successful sound artist, is considering doing a sound installation there so watch this space on a possible film on the subject!
Myself and Cameraman Alex Kryszkiewicz filming waste monitors arriving at Sims, Eindhoven.
Finally we arrived in the South Eastern city of Eindhoven, a city built around the factories electronics giant Phillips. The irony of this little fact was not lost on us. Also recently ranked the 'World's Smartest Region', Eindhoven is a very different kettle of fish to Amsterdam, mostly consisting of very modern architecture and industrial estates. Our first part of call was the electronics waste recycler Sims, who have an enormous facility in the city. The contrast between their heavily mechanised complex and Agbogboshie in Ghana could not have been more striking. Very little was done by hand (although the mechanised changeover only happened 5 years or so ago) and the scale of the operation was vast. What was fascinating was the level of healthy & safety evident at the site. Air quality monitors measured levels of pollutants on an hourly basis and workers are blood-tested yearly to make sure they aren't being exposed to high levels of the toxic materials associated with electronics manufacture.
Our final day was spent in the smaller city of Helmond, home to the innovative organisation Phonebloks. Founded by Dave Hakkens, Phonebloks is the ideal Fairphone in terms of repairability and recyclability. Still very much in the concept stage, Phonebloks is a 100% modular phone that can be tailor made to a consumer's wishes. If you're a photographer for example, you can install a bigger camera by reducing the size of your games component. If you want more better sound quality, increase the size of the speakers while decreasing memory. Although still only an idea on paper, Dave has been working very closely with Google's Project Ara, which is close to releasing it's first modular phone. The creativity in Dave's picturesque workshop, shared with two close friends working on solutions for plastic waste, was truly inspiring.
On Location in Ghana
As I sit in The Perfectionist Cafe in Heathrow Terminal 2 Departures, it dawns on me that I've been at this airport a fair amount over the past 2 weeks. This is trip number 3, the first two being the toing and froing to Ghana for the second location shoot of my doc E-LIFE. Accompanied by co-producer Huw Poraj-Wilczynski, cameraman Alexis Wilski, composer James Bulley, and toxicology consultant Markella Koniordou, I was in the country for 10 days investigating the problems of electronic waste.
Drone filming at Agbogbloshie with (from left) Huw P-W, Hasel from Aeroshutter, our Ghana Production Manager Justice Anthony, Alexis Wilski, our Agbogbloshie guide Karim, and our actor for the day Abdullah (Carlos).
The first trip to Accra was back in Dec 2013 when the film received its first installment of investment from Barchester Green Investments. Although successful, we felt we missed a few things, the most pivotal of which was testing the soil at the eWaste site of Agbogbloshie for toxic heavy metals. This time around, Markella (from the London School of Hygeine and Tropical Medicine) lead the research on this front alongside Sampson Atiemo from the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission. This allowed us to use their facilities for processing the soil samples we took at Agbogbloshie, which has recently been ranked in the top 10 most toxic places on the planet by Pure Earth (formerly the Blacksmith Institute).
At the burning site at Agbogbloshie with (from left) Huw P-W, Markella Koniordou, and Sampson Atiemo.
My London stopover has lasted a grand total of three days, which has been taken up solely working on a new documentary project for one of Scandinavia's largest media houses MTG. Now onwards to LA for pre-production work (mixed with some leisure time) on E-LIFE with out US Producer Tom Fox Davies. Onwards and upwards, care of Air New Zealand.
Ghana field recording with James Bulley.
Shape History's 'Boy in a Band' Music Video
So on Friday, I was called in a little last minute to 1st AD a music video for a production company I haven't worked with before called Shape History, a social impact creative agency. The music video was with Boy in a Band to support a campaign for somewhereto_, a fantastic initiative that offers free creative space for 16-25 year olds all over the UK. The location was two derelict buildings in Peckham, previously gutted by fire and therefore perfect for creating the gothic ambience to reflect Boy in a Band's music. It was the most fun I have had on a shoot for a long time, and we ended up wrapping early, a very rare situation to be in on a film set! Film to follow.
Friska and The Weather Machine
When it rains, it pours. So is the mantra of the freelancer. January, as always in film, was a very quiet month, which was much of a relief after the chaos of latter 2014. What started as a relief though, quickly turned to worry as February loomed and the diary remained empty. Then came back to back jobs with Deckchair Productions and David Shearing. Deckchair had two shoots down in Bristol in the beginning of February, one with Ovo Energy and one with Friska, a sustainable fast food company. I produced the former and directed the latter (below), which in aid of World Climate Week's Meat Free Mondays.
As these things happen, I couldn't be there for the former shoot with Ovo as I was also producing a fantastic installation for the sound artist David Shearing in Leeds called The Weather Machine. Backed by the progressive Sky Arts Bursary programme, The Weather Machine was one of the most wonderfully surreal pieces I have ever seen, with artificially created weather (from mist to rain, sun to wind) flowing around a post-apocalyptic storyline. The film is to be released soon so hold your breath. It was visually quite incredible.
David Shearing in the middle of his piece The Weather Machine.
Oceana Sustainable Fashion
I got into the film world in a very roundabout way. My last job before jumping into making my first documentary Plastic Shores was as a researcher for a foreign policy think tank. I was their environmental specialist which meant I researched subjects relating to the environment that could have an effect on UK foreign policy (resource scarcity, energy supply, climate change, etc). It was my frustration in having my research largely ignored that made me decide to go into a medium that could engage a wider audience on these important issues.
Although my career is now firmly rooted in the film industry I still hold a deep passion for environment issues. The ocean is a subject very close to my heart and I currently sit on the Junior Committee of the world's largest marine conservation charity Oceana. This charity is one of the most effective I have ever come across and works on a "limited number of strategic, directed campaigns to achieve measurable outcomes that will help return our oceans to former levels of abundance." Their main office in Europe is based in Spain but a Junior Committee, founded by Stephanie Bilet, operates in London.
The main project on the Junior Committee's schedule is a sustainable fashion show showcasing brands who abide by a strong ethical and environmental code. The show is planned for mid-March and will be formally announced in the near future. I won't go into too much detail of the event but one of the partners we are hoping to have on board is Rapanui, a sustainable brand based out of the Isle of Wight. These guys have been doing amazing things for a few years now with everything they make being made from recycled or organic materials, by renewable-power, and with minimal waste. They also like to give something back, as can be seen in their new campaign with Crisis.
MasterCard Priceless Cities
Recently I was approached by an old colleague Sean Pollock, a script supervisor who I worked with in September 2013 on the feature film Beyond the Border, directed by Tom Fox-Davies. A cousin of his was producing the new MasterCard Priceless Cities web commercials and was heading to London to film a series of video vignettes with the production company Zero Point Zero Productions. They were looking for a London Fixer and Sean kindly put me forward.
From the 13-18th December, I worked with the incredibly mobile ZPZ crew to film various iconic tourist attractions around London. The city was the fourth on their tour after LA, NY, and Miami and they were heading onto Paris straight after. It ZPZ's background was documentary work and their style reflected that. The crew was small and mobile with a minimal amount of kit, which allowed for a very fluid production that covered large amounts of ground every day. It was exhausting but incredibly satisfying at the same time.
The films will be released online early 2015.
Plastic Shores Animations Chosen to Celebrate 50 Years of IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
To celebrate 50 years since the founding of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species, an exhibition has been curated by Artwise in The Old Sorting Office in London. Called Here Today, the exhibition showcases 50 artists and emerging thinkers through their work on the current state of our environment. Alongside the likes of Andy Warhol and Tracey Emin, Alice Dunseath was chosen for her work on my first documentary Plastic Shores.
Back in 2011, I arrived back from filming marine debris in Hawaii with an enormous tub of freshly sieved plastic from the beaches of Big Island. I had in my mind an idea of turning the brightly coloured pieces into an animation on how plastic pollution affects the world's oceans. I took the tub to Alice at Voodoodog who, after months of pain-staking work, created three incredible animations which became the centre point of the film. The animations can be seem in a short film we made from Hawaii above.
Here Today is open until the 17th November and is free entry. Please take a look around if you get the chance.
ATIWF Comes to a Close
After over a month filming for Dog Eared Productions' feature film 'And Then I Was French', the project is finally coming to a close. As with all independent productions, it has been an experience and I am now looking forward to 2 weeks relaxing and writing before I begin work with the New York production company Zero Point Zero Productions for the first time.
Over Christmas I'm heading to Normandy to spend Christmas with my family. My parents live in a beautiful 18th century building in a village called Port Bail and I'm desperate to use it as a film location. If anyone has any ideas on scripts that could be set there (see picture below), email me!
And It's a Wrap on Grind!
After a fantastic two days shooting last weekend we are now all wrapped on my new short film Grind. These last two days focussed on the more macabre elements of the story, where our protagonist Henry flirts dangerously close with his psychosis, dropping in and out of surrealist dream sequences shot on our last day at the fantastic Pixeled Studios. We had a few hours to kill on the last day so we decided to shoot a music video for Henry, played by Alex Ellis (aka Our Man In The Fields). "I'll Kill You Last" will be the credit song for Grind too.
Camera work on 5 Greedy Bankers
Over the weekend I popped down to visit my parents in the quiet Wiltshire village of Tisbury. As it turned out my mum was working as production designer on a locally made feature film called 5 Greedy Bankers. Starring Pippa Haywood (Green Wing, Mr Selfridge) and Ramon Tikaram (Game of Thrones, EastEnders), 5 Greedy Bankers is a slapstick comedy directed by Simon DaVison, who asked if I could come on board to take over the third camera on the shoot. Expecting a highly non-constructive weekend, I jumped at the opportunity. The film is due to have the first edit completed by the end of the year.
Pippa Haywood and Ramon Tikaram in 5 Greedy Bankers
To Work on Dog Eared Production's New Film
I received fantastic news yesterday morning: I have just been taken on as 2nd AD for the new feature film by Dog Eared Films 'And Then I Was French'. Directed by Claire Leona Apps, ATIWF will be in production through to December and I will unavailable for any other work during this time.
And Then I was French is a psychological thriller set in London and Dorset
Lord Snowdon David Bailey film released
Last year I had the pleasure of producing what is probably one of the last documented conversations between the two British photographer giants Lord Snowdon and David Bailey. Directed by Charlotte Rey from the eminent creative consultancy Campbell-Rey, the meeting was held at Le Caprice restaurant in London's Mayfair. Our DOP for the day was Sam Mitchell and the whole production was realised by the Snowdon Review in partnership with British Vogue. it was a fascinating project to be involved in and to hear their personal stories of the world's most prominent politicians, fashion and literature stars, and stage and film personalities was a once in a lifetime opportunity!
Grind Shoot 1
It's fascinating how quickly a shoot passes after you've been preparing for it for months. On the 8-9th September I shot the first half of my second short film Grind, the story of a depressed and unemployed writer wrestling with his grip on reality. The team was fantastic with Alex Kryszkiewicz and Heather Mort as our production designer. Grind is being backed by Synced Films and stars Alex Ellis and Margot Mount.
Alex Ellis as Henry Chambers in Grind, copyright Alex Kryszkiewicz
Greta Bellamacina's Voguette released
In July I had the pleasure of producing Greta Bellamacina's short film for Vogue Italia. Greta is a talented poet who was shortlisted as the Young Poet Laureate of London in 2013. Vogue Italia have done a series of their Voguette short films now showcasing creative talents with an inherent interest in fashion. Directing Greta's piece was the fashion photographer Alex Franco, who is also putting together a fascinating photography project called Eastern Ways showcasing style in Ethiopia's Omo Valley. Kristina Golightly was styling alongside her assistant Sabine Hutchinson. MUA was Kristina Ralph and hair was Louis Ghewy.
The Voguette has just been released on Vogue Italia's website.
Deux Ex Machina
One last drive on the fundraising for #deusexmachina. We reached our target and cannot thank everyone enough!
Deus ex Machina has been with me for over two years now in one form or another; from it's dark, dank roots inside of my brain, to the penning of the original short play (entitled The Writer & The OAP), two successful performances at short play festivals, and with the prompting of a plethora of people (four or five, I can't quite remember) urging me to turn the short play into a short film...here we are. It has been a labour of love and, now, myself & my merry band of beautiful idiots are asking you to fund our short film. Why should you? Allow me to expound.
The Writer & The OAP was the first play I wrote. In fact, it was the first thing I have ever seen through from inception to denouement, in both my personal and professional life. It led me to Jonathan Holby, a fantastic director and more importantly cracking friend, who found more than what I wrote on the page and who has a vision for the aesthetic of the short film that I am in awe of (more of that later), Julia Faulkner, our leading lady who has attacked every day on this project with a grace & gusto cocktail that I could never dream of concocting within myself, Kristina Epenetos, our actress and co-producer lioness whose infectious energy effects you and propels you but one way- forwards; finally, with a guiding hand, a mountain of knowledge, and a calming influence we have our producer Edward Scott-Clarke. The final piece in this glorious jigsaw.