Friday, July 30, 2010

See Goole Silent Movie on Yorkshire Film Archeive!

It's great to see the "The Lost Princess" and Doctor A.D Holmes up for prosperity at the new Yorkshire Film Achieve.

To this day it remains one of my most special projects I've had the pleasure been part of, which seems to be born out by the demand for the film at Yorkshire Film Achieve. The project started in October 2006, with local young people between the ages of 13 and 20, co-ordinated by  Goole Town Council. With the help of outside professionals, all the writing, acting, directing, filming, animation, editing, and research for the films, was undertaken by this committed group of young people.

The origin of the project began when Goole Arts Officer, Nicola Dixon, took a group of young people from Goole to an International Youth Theatre festival in Poland. One of the items in the festival was a showing of Charlie Chaplin's 'The Kid'. The young people enjoyed the film so much they began thinking about creating our own silent film based on the history of our local area.

I am a huge fan of silent film and as soon as I head about this project I got in touch with Peter M Kershaw (producer and film-maker) and Madeleine Frost (dramatist) both of whom came on board, and the rest as they say, is history!

One of the first things I did was to get in touch with the Yorkshire Film Archive to find some local film history on from the period. who found a 1920s Pathé newsreel. This inspired one of the styles of film that they decided to make. The idea for this story of Dr A. D. Holmes came about from reading old newspaper clippings on display at one of Goole’s Museums. The project got going in October 2006 and the two films premiered at the National Media Museum the following October.


Whilst Dr A.D Holmes is based on a real person from Goole, Dr Home, "The Lost Princess" is a fictional story that nevertheless has its roots in Goole’s heritage as an international port – one where many refugees have arrived. The film is based on the life of a real person, Anastasia Nicholaevna Romanov, the youngest daughter of the Tsar Nicholas II and Russian Royal Romanov family.

Fascinating backgrounds on both films can be found on the their websites accompanying the films.

Monday, July 26, 2010

What? A raod trip to Europe

My long time producing colleague and friend, Peter Kershaw has a new short film in development from his new base in New Mexico, And in an new innovative indie funding scheme, you have the opportunity to fund the film and get a credit for doing so from just $5. There are some great film perks and it is easy to click on the green button to become a supporter for very little.

The film concept was born out of Peter, who has just relocated to New Mexico, reading a description of 20 things to look for in Arizona when looking for illegal immigrants. As an immigrant from Europe who has recently moved legally to America, he was a little shocked to think, if but for my official papers, he could fail all 20! He says, "The more I’ve seen and read the more their answer reminded me of a road Europe went down in the 1930’s. Every journey starts with the first step, the destination is all a matter of the direction you’re facing".

Check out Peter's 2 minute pitch to find out more.

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Anim8ed website online

The new Anim8ed website is finally online! I've been working hard on creating content for this website and helping on the new design. A one stop place for teachers, parents, museum educators and group leaders get started animating, it features films made as part of the National Media Museums animation programme which I'm been privileged to lead delivery for over the last three years. The website will continue to be developed over the coming months and I'd love to hear comments.