My Excellent Adventures

A great night for British films in Torello

2010-11-21T08:41:00.002Z

Very quickly, because the Netbook is about to run out of power, all three British films screening at Torello won prizes last night! We won the Jury Prize, and The Asgard Project won the Grand Prize; Birdman of Karakoram also won its category. So I am now the proud possessor of a sculpted wooden mountain, which I'm hoping won't raise too many eyebrows at Customs later today!

Full report and photos when I get back tonight, or possibly tomorrow when I've recovered from the trip.

Torello Mountain Film Festival

2010-11-20T10:13:00.003Z

Torello is the size of place where people look at you as you walk past in the street because they don't recognise you, and seems like a town that has seen better days. So my first feeling about the film festival was that it had been put together as one of those "hey, this place is run down, let's bung in some cultural event or other to try to perk it up." In fact, the festival has been running for 28 years, having been started by Joan Salarich and a small group of enthusiasts, and now, although it may not have the five venues and eight strands of Kendal, or the 1,000 seater cinema of Banff, can still pack out a cinema of 500 night after night. They also provide a very warm welcome and fabulous hospitality to their guests.

My first experience of the hospitality was on Thursday, when I met Rosa and Carmen; Carmen would be my interviewer and translator, I was told over dinner. Interviewer? I thought I was here to hop up on stage and say "thanks for coming to see the film, hope you like it", and hop off again. Oh no. After a chat about the film, I was taken into the cinema, and shown to my seat - not right by the stage, but half way back, so that when Carmen announced my name and the lights went up, I had to walk down the steps through the audience to loud applause, whoops and whistles (seriously - whoops and whistles - never had that before!). Then, on stage in front of about 550 people (not only was every seat taken, so were most of the steps and aisles with people perching or standing where they could), do an interview about the film, how we made it, what were the challenges, what is a line of flight, was it a pessimistic film, what is the relationship between the landscape and industry? And all of this was delivered in a running mix of English and Catalan by Carmen. Then back to my seat to watch the film which now had a Catalan voiceover, which made watching it a new experience.

Once the film was over, I was off duty, so since then I've watched a few more films, had a day out in Vic, watched more films, been to a reception, and will shortly be taken out for lunch in the mountains with all the other festival guests. Then tonight, it's the awards, closing ceremony, and another reception! See what I mean about great hospitality?

Torello Mountain Film Festival

2010-11-17T21:53:00.003Z

I'm all packed and ready to go to Spain tomorrow morning, flying to Barcelona then being picked up to go to Torello and the Mountain Film Festival, where Lines of Flight screens tomorrow night. Hopefully I'll be able to get online and post some pictures and reports; I've been to Barceona before but not up towards the mountains.

Also kicking off tomorrow is Kendal Mountain Film Festival, where we premiered last year. Hopefully there won't be torrential rain and floods on the scale of last year. I'm looking forward to Martin's reports of what films to watch out for over the coming year.

Graz

2010-11-11T08:49:00.003Z

Just in case there's anybody out there reading this in Austria, "Lines of Flight" screens tonight at 7:30pm. Neither Martin nor I can be there to introduce the film, sadly, but hopefully I'll get some feedback from the organisers at some point. We've had big problems actually getting the film to them - first of all the discs disappeared in the post, then we had a big struggle getting a QuickTime file to their ftp server. But it all went through on Sunday so hopefully all systems are go for tonight.

Then next week it's Torello, Spain, and after that who knows? I met Alan Formanek at long last in Banff - he runs the Vancouver Mountain Film Festival, and also one in Bratislava in April, and asked us to put LoF in for that, so we might have a bit of a longer life.

Bookish couple of days

2010-11-05T22:11:00.002Z

Today is my last full day in Banff (although I'm currently failing to check in online as I'm in a cafe and my passport is at the hotel. Oh well). The focus of yesterday and today has been books rather than films, with several talks from authors about their books - Alistair Lee was very funny; Gretel Ehrlich spoke powerfully about the changing situation in Greenland, and how climate change is directly and observably changing the landscape and the lives of local people there; Joe Riis and Emilene Ostlind did a great talk and slide show about the migration of Pronghorn deer. In the evening there was a reception for film-makers which was good, great food and wine in a very beautiful setting, where I learned the names of some of the mountains (thanks, Jamie) and gained a new ambition (18km ridge walk along Mount Rundle, anyone?).

Tonight there's a gala reception (not entirely sure what that will entail but I'm looking forward to it anyway) followed by a talk by Greg Mortenson of "Three Cups of Tea" and "Stones into Schools" fame which should be good. Then tomorrow, films and a couple of talks then home. Time has gone far too quickly.

2010-11-04T01:20:00.003Z

Morning in Banff:

Fantastically beautiful blue sky day today, so had a walking and photographing day. More photos here on Flickr

Last night at the festival was "Radical Reels", a mix of films which were mainly the high octane type of stuff that's quite a contrast to ours. My favourite was a film about a freebase soloist called Dean Potter, who as well as being an astonishingly talented climber must also be a bit barking - soloing the North Face of the Eiger in order to jump off strapped to a tiny parachute? Fly or die indeed.

Monday night was really interesting, five short films by young Canadian film makers who had spent the summer based at Parks Canada field sites in order to make films about what outdoor Canada means to them. Five quite different interpretations, and plenty of talent on display.

Tonight is "The Snow Show" but I'm missing that as tomorrow, Friday and Saturday are going to be full on days and evenings on film and book fest so I need a night off!

Wow!

2010-11-01T16:56:00.002Z

So yesterday was the screening of "Lines of Flight" ... I went up on stage at the Eric Harvie Theatre to introduce the film, and when lights are shining at you on stage, you can't see the audience ... I put my hand up to shield my eyes to see who was out there and decided it was better not to look at that many people! There were about 450 people out there! That's probably more than have seen the film in total in the UK - this mountain film business is really serious in Canada.

It was great to watch the film in a big space, on a big screen, with a big audience, and lovely when people came up afterwards to say hello and that they'd enjoyed the film. Here's some of the feedback: "a really thoughtful film"; all those guys in the film are so articulate - so often people can be good at doing stuff but not at talking about it"; "it was great to see a film that was so thoughtful and didn't just lash me round the head with images"; "all 7 of us ust sat there going 'wow, this is good'"; "it's nice to see something intellectual about what we do"; "fantastic cinematography, loved the way you used the still images alongside the moving image" ... and so on!

So this is just a(nother) public thank you to everyone who contributed to the film, whether with time, or money, or other resources, to everyone who supported us in making it, and everyone who's turned up to see it - thank you!

Hello from Banff!

2010-10-31T14:31:00.002Z

Greetings from chilly Canada! I've been in Banff just over 12 hours and already it's been quite a whirlwind of activity. I got to the hotel last night to find that my welcome pack included an invitation to a reception for the Banff Mountain Photo competition which had started 15 minutes previously but was only ten minutes away. So I scooted round there, and was glad I did, as I met lots of people involved in running the film festival, and also saw some great photos. Then a couple of the festival guys and I shared a taxi up to the Banff Centre to watch some films, which were screening in the Eric Harvie Theatre where "Lines of Flight" screens later today - it's huge! I hope there's a good turn-out so the audience isn't like a few peas rattling round in a tin. The first film was "La vie de Guy Lacelle", about one of the world's leading ice climbers who died in an avalanche in 2009 - a very emotional moment for the producer who introduced the film. Secondly, "Nanga Parbat", a German drama about Gunther and Reinhold Messner's first ascent of the Rupal face of Nanga Parbat, quite gasp-inducing in places.

I'm beginning to wish I'd booked to stay for the whole of next weekend - turns out the film festival events are concentrated on next Saturday and Sunday, and I leave on Saturday afternoon. Am wondering how much it would cost to delay my flight by two days, and how much I dare push my luck at work.

And in other news, the website is a bit more up to date at long last, and don't forget that you can follow @LinesOfFlight on Twitter for festival updates.

News just in re Graz

2010-10-22T00:16:00.002+01:00

I just heard that for the Graz film festival, we will screen at Stefaniensaal on Thursday, Nov. 11 at 7.30 p.m.

I don't know yet whether either of us will make it to Graz, but I'll keep you posted here.

And there's more

2010-10-21T22:22:00.003+01:00

Got a lovely email this morning asking if we would agree to screen "Lines of Flight" at Fernie Mountain Film Festival in British Columbia, Canada. It's not a festival I'd heard of, but it sounds really interesting - click here for more information. We've done really well in Canada with "Lines of Flight", so I'm wondering, what is it exactly about our film that appeals to a Canadian audience? I mght be able to find out in just over a week, as I'm heading to Banff to present the film at the festival there - very exciting!

Twitter

2010-10-14T08:59:00.001+01:00

I have finally got a Twitter account, mainly for film-related purposes as the next month is going to be quite a busy one for Lines of Flight. It remains to be seen whether I am any better at twittering than I am at blogging! Anyway, follow me at LinesOfFlight if you'd like marginally more up to date film news than appears here.

And one more!

2010-10-11T19:16:00.002+01:00

It seems we are not going to end the year quietly at all! I heard today that we have been selected for the Torello Mountain Film Festival in Spain in November! More information here. We screen on November 18th.

In Banff we will be screening on October 31st at 12:30, and I'll be there to introduce the film. More info about the Banff festival here.

Finally more info about Graz here. I'm not sure if either of us will go to that yet, but I'll keep you posted.

And at some point this week I'll try to get the website updated as it's way out of date at the moment.

Just when we thought it was all over

2010-10-02T05:58:00.003+01:00

It's so long since I posted that probably no-one is reading, but just in case ...

I got back to my Vancouver apartment tonight to find out that Lines of Flight has been selected for Graz Adventure Film Festival in Austria, and Banff Mountain Film Festival, Canada. This is such stupendously good news!! Banff is THE festival as far as mountain film festivals are concerned. Richard our DoP went to Graz a few years ago with one of his films and said it was fantastic. So, just as I was beginning to think we were going to end our festival year with a bit of a whimper after starting with a bang, it seems we get to go out with a bang after all.

Oops

2010-05-26T22:59:00.002+01:00

Very many sorries for not posting for a while - the blog is still alive, as am I, just that work and other stuff has got in the way a bit. Also, there's not much news to report - apparently LoF went down very well in Calgary; we didn't win in New Zealand but at least we were shortlisted which was great; and the film is out there for consideration for half a dozen European festivals, so there may be news about screenings soon (fingers crossed).

Meanwhile we're getting on with outlining our next film; this will be a longer documentary about a particular group and time in climbing history. We've got some great contacts and have already done one really good interview. It's all a bit tenuous and vague at the moment, but actually that feels quite nice and exploratory.

Big in Canada!

2010-04-12T21:44:00.003+01:00

We'll be screening at the Calgary Outdoor Festival as part of Calgary International Mountain Films. Check out the film festival here and the Outdoor Festival as a whole here. It runs between 19th and 25th April, and looks really good. Wish it was possible to make a quick trip over to Calgary!

News just in

2010-03-30T09:21:00.002+01:00

Just heard that "Lines of Flight" is part of the Official Selection for the Reel Earth Environmental Film Festival taking place in Wellington, New Zealand, in May! And we're nominated for an award!

Apologies for not blogging since before Llanberis, will come back with reports from both Llanberis and Sheffield, and hopefully some more festival news by the end of this week.

Llanberis

2010-02-11T21:30:00.002Z

Just heard today that "Lines of Flight" has been selected for Llanberis Mountain Film Festival, which takes place 5-7th March, so we've got outings on two consecutive weekends - Llanberis followed by Sheffield. Further details for Llanberis once I've got the programme, but we're planning to be at both. Would be great to meet up with anyone who'll be at either festival - let us know.

Vancouver

2010-02-03T13:29:00.002Z

Some exciting news: "Lines of Flight" won the Best Film for Mountain Culture at Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival.

Here's the citation:
Best Film on Mountain Culture (B.C.M.C. Award)
Lines of Flight
(UK, 2009, directed by Sal Brown & Martin Wood)

Jury statement: Although, this film shows mostly free solo climbers, the jury decided to award this film in the mountain culture category. This beautifully made film avoids every cliché of rock climbing and offers a different view on climbing. It proposes a clear connection between people from a specific area, in this case the Peak District in the UK and its history of mining and textile manufacturing.

Obviously we're pretty thrilled!

ShAFF programme

2010-01-08T22:26:00.003Z

The programme for ShAFF is now available, and we're on at 9pm on Friday 12th, and 7pm on Saturday 13th, as part of "Mixed Bag 1". Also part of our slot is "Afghanistan: A Small Flame of Hope" which won Best Short Film at Kendal. There are also several other really good films from Kendal screening at Sheffield, so it should make for a weekend of great films.

It's all good!

2010-01-07T20:42:00.002Z

There's not been much news until recently, but it's all happening now! As of today, we've been selected for Sheffield Adventure Film Festival in March, and Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival in January.

I haven't got details of screenings yet, but I'll post them here once I know dates and times. Sadly, we won't be able to go to Vancouver to present the film, much as we'd love to, but we will be in Sheffield. Get in touch if you're planning on going to either festival - it would be great to have reports from Vancouver, and to meet people in Sheffield.

Kendal report

2009-11-23T09:13:00.003Z

Here we are at Kendal Mountain Film Festival, introducing the fifth and final screening yesterday at 9am. Remarkably, given the partying that was going on the night before, we had around 55 people in the audience. The feedback has been great, with people saying that it's a gentle, thought-provoking film, one that really gets what climbing is about, and that they have really enjoyed it.

The festival itself has been great, loads of interesting films, fascinating lectures, and great people. The record-breaking quantity of rain certainly looked like it was going to cause massive problems on Thursday (and of course, it did, all over the Lake District, with people being flooded out of their homes, and a phenomenal amount of work for the emergency and rescue services), but a dry (and even sunny) day on Friday meant that rivers had time to subside, flooded roads around Kendal cleared, and people got here and made it a sell-out festival.

A highlight for me was hearing Doug Scott's lecture on Saturday, and then meeting him yesterday. The Asgard Project premiere on Friday was also a great event, and unsurprisingly Alistair Lee won the People's Choice award for that film.

The other good thing that's happened this weekend is that we've been invited to submit LoF to Vancouver Mountain Film Festival, and Sheffield Adventure Film Festival. So there should be plenty more news to come!

Countdown to Kendal

2009-11-08T08:08:00.003Z

Less than two weeks to go to Kendal Mountain Film Festival, and we're getting quite excited!

The screening schedule for "Lines of Flight" is as follows:
Friday 20th November, 9am and 1pm
Saturday 21st November, 9am and 5pm
Sunday 22nd November, 9am.

The master has gone off to the festival, we have our tickets and passes sorted out, so we're pretty much set to go. I haven't got any guest tickets left to allocate for our screenings, but if anyone is going to Kendal and would like to say hello, come and find us - I'll be there from Thursday to Sunday and Martin will be there from Friday.

If you're on Facebook, join the "Lines of Flight" group here, and check out further details about the festival here.

News update

2009-10-08T15:49:00.002+01:00

Just a brief, but very exciting news update - "Lines of Flight" has been selected for the Kendal Mountain Film Festival, which will run from Thursday 19th - Sunday 22nd November, in Kendal in the Lake District. We're really thrilled by this news, as it's the first festival we've entered, so to get selected is a real vote of confidence in our work.

We'd still really appreciate any contributions to the Flight Fund, so please consider clicking on the button, or dropping an envelope of tenners onto my doormat (it happened!). We might even be able to add to the list of incentives for supporters, but even if we can't, we'll love you and thank you anyway.

Keep coming back for more news - hopefully this is us on a roll now.

Now it starts getting exciting ....

2009-09-18T13:08:00.003+01:00

Latest update on Lines of Flight:
We finished filming a couple of weeks ago, and have now almost completed editing. We still have some work to do on the soundtrack, and some finessing to make the final film as good as it can be - it looks good now, the cinematography is great, and test audiences so far have enjoyed it, but with a few more touches it'll look great. And then we can start sending it out to festivals, and hopefully get selected and screened.

However, in order for that to happen, we need help. As always with short films, money is tight, and we've run out, having stretched our budget as far as it will go, and now we're running on goodwill and promises. If you'd like to help us by supporting us financially, please consider donating to "The Flight Fund", via the button to the right if you want to use Paypal, or just send me some money if you don't like the techno stuff! Every little helps, and there are rewards: everyone who donates £10 or more will be invited to a contributors' party and screening, and everyone who donates £20 or more will be invited to the party and get a copy of the DVD. More rewards will be announced as we go along.

I'll be updating the website with information and photos soon, and will keep posting news, so you'll always know what's happened to your "investment".

Thanks, angels!

A picture tells ...

2009-08-23T09:19:00.003+01:00

In lieu of not posting much recently, the Lines of Flight photo album on Flickr is here

I think this is probably my favourite photo:

We got the soundtrack through from our composer, Robin Garside, this week, and it's fabulous. He's done a great job, and I'm looking forward to our editing day on Wednesday, when we can put music into the mix.

More news soon!

Almost there

2009-07-17T22:37:00.006+01:00

Just spent a week entirely on the film, which has been great - knackering, but great. We had three days out on location Monday - Wednesday, and were well favoured by the weather, particulalry as THE crucial climb of the film was scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, and we got sun.

We also got masses of really good footage for the industry/history segments, and a couple of good interviews:

Steve and his loom
Richard and our high tech approach to filming

Out on the moors.

Then the last two days, we've been in the edit suite putting all this stuff together - its been fairly intense, and hard work - we've got archive footage, stuff we've filmed ourselves, poems, interviews, sound tracks - some difficult choices to be made in terms of what stays and what goes, what works and what seemed like a good idea once but is now superfluous - in some ways they're the hard bits to handle, giving up on some segment that once we thought was really cool. But it's been completely brilliant - being a team of three, as Richard said when we were out in Saltaire on Wednesday, is a good size for a team - not unwieldy, and we click pretty well, and I think we all feel free to say what we think, which means that what goes in is thought through and agreed on. At least that how it feels to me - a really good collaborative project. Love it.

To finish the week, M and I went out to meet our music guy, sat in his studio while he played us a few tunes and we talked about how we thought music might fit - left there feeling very positive about the music.

Top week then.

Lines of Flight taster

2009-06-16T23:06:00.002+01:00

It isn't perfect, but it gives you an idea of what we're up to:

The finished film, obv, will be moving images, not stills, and we'll have a lot more context and history stuff in there - but this at least gives you an idea of how we see images and poetry going together. Just pretend you can't hear the bit where Sam looks at me and says "good?"

Still going

2009-06-10T23:51:00.004+01:00

Just to prove I'm still here, and still doing things, here's a photo of some recent film-related activity:
Sam came up to give a masterclass, and afterwards we managed to get half an hour in the recording studio where he recorded some poetry and readings which will form part of the narration for Lines of Flight. It was great to work with him at last, although a little unnerving to be directing him - however, most of what I know about directing I've learned from him, so we seemed to manage to communicate pretty well.

So, that was pretty exciting. Since then, we've got another chunk of filming done, including some great footage of, and an interview with Andy Popp, an interview with Graham Hoey about gritstone climbing, and tonight we recorded an interview with Allan Austin - his route "Western Front" (1958) at Almscliff is one of the climbs we'll have in our film. Pretty amazing, spending an evening listening to someone who was probably the leading gritstone climber of his generation in the 1950s.

We've still got some work to do, but Richard gave us a first rough edit yesterday which is a really good indication of how the film might look - we were pretty thrilled with what we've got and how its shaping up. Once I get the taster trailer tied up, I'll post it here.

More filmy news

2009-04-22T22:54:00.003+01:00

The first full day of Glimmer has been fab - two very different but equally interesting films at Sabrinis's at lunchtime (Sabrini's is a great Mediterranean restaurant/cafe on Princes Ave, I'm looking forward to trying the chilli chocolate fudge cake next time I go). "The Solitary Life of Cranes" was lovely, a meditation on solitude and a very different view of London directed by Eva Weber; this was followed by "It's Nick's Birthday", a funny, quirky film, quite charming and unusual, directed by Graeme Cole. Unfortunately I had work to do this afternoon so couldn't go to Country in Focus or Figuring Landscapes, but I did get to "Freedom on the Fence" at Red Gallery, a fascinating documentary about the history of Polish film posters and their significance to the social, political and cultural life of Poland. Along with the film, there's an exhibition that showcases some of the best examples of Polish poster art. Well worth going to - and the posters are for sale, many of them collectors items already.

Tomorrow at Glimmer, there's another Sabrini's lunchtime screening; there's more Figuring Landscapes, an International Competition set of screenings, and the BAFTA shorts are also being shown - a top class day!

Meanwhile for us, tomorrow we've got the second day of filming for Lines of Flight - fingers crossed the weather stays as good as it's been so far this week.

Glimmer

2009-04-20T22:03:00.002+01:00

Glimmer, the 7th Hull International Short Film Festival starts tomorrow, and I'm really looking forward to the launch party and taster screening tomorrow evening, not least because I'm now vice-chair of the Board of Directors, but also because the programme looks really exciting with lots of good films, and a great party to round it all off next Sunday.

Here's the link to the website where you can find out more, and here's what Artistic Director Laurence Boyce has to say about the Festival:

"This year we’re particularly proud to host the inaugural Anthony Minghella Award for Best International and UK Short, with prize money generously sponsored by the University of Hull. Minghella, who sadly passed away in 2008, was one of the British film industry’s most talented directors and respected champions with films such as The Talented Mr Ripley, Cold Mountain and The English Patient (which netted him an Academy Award for Directing). An alumni of the University of Hull, his love for the industry also saw him serve as the Chairman of the Board of Governors at the British Film Institute between 2003 and 2007 and, in naming two of our major awards in his memory, GLIMMER hopes that we will able to continue his work in being an advocate of the moving image and a tireless supporter of emerging filmmakers. As always, GLIMMER will also bestow awards upon filmmakers from Yorkshire and Hull with all the awards presided over by a jury of industry professionals.

We’re also delighted the John Smith will present not only a retrospective of his work but a carte blanche programme of films that have inspired him and his career. The playful yet inventive nature of films such as The Girl Chewing Gum have quite rightly made him one of the most respected practitioners in artists film and video and both his events should prove an informative experience for all cinema lovers. Local animator David Firth will also open your eyes, though perhaps more out of shock. His disturbing animations such as Salad Fingers have been massive hits on the internet and we bring you the chance to see a selection of his work. Though if you’re easily offended, you might want to bring something to hide behind.

GLIMMER will also offer events for those already in the film industry and those who want to find out more with a number of panel discussions and events designed to explore numerous important issues affecting the business. Included is Anatomy Of A Film II, which follows on for the huge success of last year’s event and Pay To Play? which examines the attitude of the film business to unpaid workers, festival entry fees and the current economic climate. We’ll also be looking to the future of the industry with the CASCADE Film Fair.

Other programmes include Figuring Landscapes, a series of programmes that have grown from the background of the political and cultural history that links the UK and Australia, our Country In Focus which will examine Israel, Coming Soon… an intriguing examination of the art of trailers and opening credit sequences, a series of medium length film screening at Sabrini’s Cafe and Freedom On The Fence, a screening and exhibition in association with the RED Gallery, Polish Cultural Institute and Dydo Poster Collection and Poster Gallery in Krakow."

So, loads of good stuff to see and do. I'll be there for as much of it as I can manage, so come and say hello.

Day 1, film 2

2009-04-05T22:23:00.004+01:00

I'm really tired, here's just a quick look at what we did today.

First we went to Arkwright's Mill (above) and did some of this:

Then we went here:

and Richard did some of this:

while Martin did some of this:

and I carried gear, ran about, stood about, and had ideas.

And now I'm going to bed because all that thinking has totally worn me out. Brilliant day. Roll on the next one.

At last

2009-04-04T21:46:00.005+01:00

... there's something to blog about.

It's been a bit stressful, this year, so far, but not in a way that's exciting or worth blogging about. One of the comforting places to go, mentally, has been "our film" - mine and M's project, which we've been talking about, thinking about, planning, working out ... circling the actual doing of it with lots of hatching of ideas. And at long last, after all this thinking, tomorrow we get to do some doing.

This is where we'll be - Black Rocks, near Cromford

Hopefully we'll get some good climbing footage, as well as some of the other material that we want. It's a bit of an experimental day, as we don't really know how our ideas will shape up, but we're viewing tomorrow as a preliminary run, a test bed to see if the rest of our plans will work.

I hope they do - I think we have a great idea, in fact lots of ideas to explore, and having had a chat with one of the Profs at work this week I think we have another couple of projects to think about after this one. But let's get this one done first, eh?

And here's something else that's been a result of "our film" that I'm both enjoying experiencing, and observing with detached curiosity. I've started climbing again. Did a Severe 2 weeks ago, shot up a V Diff this week, and fell off 2 VS's in the last 2 weeks, and have loved it, in all its gut wrenching, muscle straining, finger knackering fabulousness. Am currently reading the stories that make up "The Boardman Tasker Omnibus" and remembering Pete Boardman's talk at school, and buying my first pair of PAs and the sleeping bag I still use from Joe Tasker's shop, am looking at booking a trekking trip to Nepal, and I kind of feel 17 again. Or as if I have refound my 17 year old self. The one who wanted to go exploring. It's funny - last September I went to a conference and met up with my PhD supervisor for the first time in a few years. Her son is a couple of years older than A, and shortly after he had gone off to University, she had gone riding for the first time in nearly 30 years. A week before our conversation, I'd gone out with M to do our first recce for the film, and the next day had scrambled about in Gordale and had the bruises to prove it, and a week later I took A to University. It's as if once our children left, we turned back into the people we were before we had them. This is not a complaint, an "if only"; far from it - having A is the best thing I ever did in my life - it's just a comment on the direction life takes, and it seemed funny and interesting that both Rose and I had gone back to things we had once loved and from which we had diverted our energies.

What do you think?

General sort of update

2009-02-22T19:01:00.002Z

Well, the gym knicker post certainly did the trick in terms of boosting my hit rate (and it probably still is). However, I think it's time to return to rather more demure topics, and since I promised to post more often this year, I thought I had better actually write something.

Sadly, haven't seen any theatre recently - York is unexciting, Sheffield is shut and Othello at WYP sold out in a nanosecond (though I am on the waiting list for two matinees). There are a few things I quite fancied in London, including Three Days of Rain with James McAvoy, but I'm not paying £50 a ticket for a decent view. Even the rubbish seats are over £40. Forget it.

In other news, our film is proceeding at a great rate of knots, we now have a (well known actor as) narrator, a well known Northern poet writing two poems for us, and a very experienced cinematographer interested in filming for us. Spent Friday at the British Library in Boston Spa doing some research, and we now have a plan, kind of, a running order, kind of - we've been circling this idea for so long but now it actually feels as though it's beginning to come together which is a really nice feeling. Went to the launch event for the Sheffield Adventure Film Festival last week which was fun - som great looking films lined up for the festival itself which runs next weekend. I'll be there - anyone want to meet up? Drop me a note if so.

The film has been consuming all my creative energy - work has also been consuming quite a lot, which is pants - so I haven't done much (i.e. any) writing recently. Which I hate. What do you do when you're stuck? How do you unglue yourself? Answers on a postcard please.

Chicken/garden update

2009-02-01T22:08:00.005Z

Again, as promised.

For those who don't already know, two of my original three chickens were killed last November, I suspect by marauding dogs - the people a couple of doors away have two large dogs that have escaped before and caused enormous damage, not that they either appeared to care or offered to make recompense. But I had no evidence that the deaths were due to dead-eyed woman and her ever-barking nuisances, so I couldn't really do anything except bury Dilly and Sybil, nurse Milly back to health in the kitchen, and decided what to do next. The options were to rehome Milly with someone who kept chickens, or get new chickens, because they are sociable creatures and it isn't fair to keep them by themselves. I ended up getting two new ones - Columbian Blacktails ("posh chickens" as the man who sold them to me called them) at Point of Lay. Introducing the three of them was a bit tricky - Milly bullied them like crazy for the first couple of weeks, not letting them near the food hoppers, so I had to set up three feeding stations to give the new ones (named Ethel and Edith) chance to get at some grain. However, they all seem to get on well enough now, and Ethel and Edith started laying at New Year. Here they are, out in the snow this afternoon:

Edith is the one with a bit more black in her tail feathers.

They are incredibly inquisitive, even more so than the Amber Stars. As soon as I get the fork or spade out, they run over to see what's going on.

That also means it's really hard to take their picture, because as I crouch down with a camera, they come over to investigate. I've been pecked a few times so far - mainly they seem to like pecking my wellies or my trousers, but they've had a go at my fingers too. Doesn't hurt though.

The garden is a source of frustration at the moment - there's so much to do, I really want to get going with digging some new beds to expand the space for vegetables, but the weather has been so wet that the ground is far too boggy. Still, I managed to get the rhubarb crowns split, and also invested in some new raspberry canes and a blackcurrant bush yesterday, so with any luck we should be OK for fruit this summer, with the blackberries, blueberrries, gooseberries and strawberries that are already in situ.

Since it started snowing this afternoon, rather than dig, I dealt with some of the chilli crop, now nicely dried.

Here's an illustration of the results - sweet chilli dipping sauce, chilli oil, harissa paste and chilli jam; recipes from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Pam Corbin, and my own invention. Zingy to varying degrees, and some tender bits of me now know why washing your hands after handling chillis is really REALLY important!

Theatre update

2009-01-26T19:41:00.003Z

As promised.

Haven't seen a huge amount recently, but what I have seen has been top quality.

"In a Dark, Dark House" at the Almeida is probably my favourite of the productions I've seen recently. Directed by Michael Attenborough, Neil La Bute's latest and perhaps most personal play, is a simple three hander - two brothers and a girl, and what is gradually revealed to be a battle over memories and truth - which brother is telling the truth, which one is exploiting the truth. It was David Morrissey's play - he was simply breath-taking, the power of his performance was astonishing. Not to diminish Stephen Mackintosh or Kira Sternbach, but there was something visceral and almost painful in watching David Morrissey's character as he handles the deal that life has dished out to him, compared to his pampered, deceitful brother. It's very Neil La Bute, wordy, sometimes overly so, but I do admire his writing and his vision, and this is a seriously punchy play. I loved it. I wish I'd seen it twice.

The second play in the "Donmar in the West End" season is "Twelfth Night", directed by Michael Grandage starring Derek Jacobi as Malvolio. I saw this on opening weekend, and enjoyed it very much. I particularly liked seeing Mark Bonnar as Orsino, a role I'd previously seen him perform in Lucy Bailey's very different "Twelfth Night" at Manchester Royal Echange a few years ago; the cast also included Victoria Hamilton as Viola. She's a fabulous actress who somehow can do vulnerable and feisty at almost the same time. They made a fabulous couple and the production as a whole seemed to bring out the relationships much more than in others I've seen. The reviewers really liked Derek Jacobi, and his Malvolio was both funny and arrogantly awful, but I just had a bit of a problem seeing him in a comic role, after roles like Prospero in "The Tempest"and King Philip in "Don Carlos" at The Crucible. But that's my problem, not the play's. Ron Cook and Guy Henry were very funny, and often I don't like Shakespeare's "comic" characters, finding them dreadfully unfunny. But this is top class Shakespeare, as you'd expect from Michael Grandage.

More recently, I saw the RSC Hamlet again, at the Novello, so a very different setting to Stratford. The night we saw it, David Tennant was back, and he was fabulous, but I kind of wish I'd also seen Ed Bennett who by all accounts (i.e. Hacky told me) was fantastic. It was interesting sitting in front of the action in a proscenium arch theatre, as opposed to being down the side at the Courtyard. It made the speeches feel much more immediate, and addressed to me rather than to the ether. I still didn't like the ending, feling that cutting out Fortinbras' final speech was a big loss in terms of rounding off and understanding the story, particularly for those who were new to the play. Glad I got to see it again, though.

And finally, T S Eliot's "Family Reunion" at the Donmar, directed by Jeremy Herrin, with a stellar cast including Sam West, Gemma Jones, Anna Carteret and Penelope Wilton. Hmmm. I really don't know what to make of this play. The set was great, all dark wood and spooky corners, but what was the pile of sand in the corner about? There were some seriously "jump out of your skin" moments, but too few in a rather long and convoluted play. I liked it, but was also puzzled by it, and I'm not sure I ever really got to grips with it. But then, I bumped into one of the Drama profs from work in the interval, and he said it was a difficult play. So I think I'll leave it there.

I only have two things lined up at the moment, both Donmar West End - Judi Dench in "Madame de Sade" in May, and Jude Law as Hamlet in July. Looking forward to both, but really need to line up a few more outings.

Oh dear

2009-01-24T22:53:00.003Z

Oops. A couple of months ago, I said I'd blog more. Hmm. Now you know why there's no point in me making New Year's Resolutions, although I did actually make some this year and am sticking to them so far.

Anyway, I've had a couple of fabulous trips recently, and have put photos on flickr. First up, today I had a fabulous day walking in Swaledale with H; years ago, before the arrival of A, spent lots of time in Swaledale and it was lovely to go back and be reminded of the beauty of the Yorkshire Dales. Photos here. On Friday night, we went to a talk by Garry Brannigan at The Station in Richmond about his landscape photography, and saw the exhibition of his fabulous photographs. I think it inspired us both on our walk today, both in how we took pictures, and how we experienced the landscape.

Last weekend, I went to Reykjavik. I've wanted to go to Iceland for decades, and finally made the decision, booked with Icelandair, and flew from Manchester last Friday. It was everything I had hoped it would be. Beautiful, bleak, stunning scenery; intense cultural experience; and an overpowering desire to go back. Going over on the plane, I watched a short film where Viggo Mortensen explained why Iceland meant so much to him, and he said that you just need to be, in nature. Don't photograph, don't rush about, just be. Absorb it, and simply take in the experience of being in the landscape. And he's so right. It fits so well with last night's talk too. It's not about going out and taking 365 shots with your digital SLR because you can - it's about being there, and maybe also capturing an image that means something to you.

I could write more about Iceland, and I will. It was funny, going back to work on Tuesday and going for lunch with M; when I didn't say much about Iceland, he said "you seem distinctly underwhelmed by the trip" - and I said no, in fact I was so awe inspired that I hadn't yet managed to put it into words. There are some words attached to my flickr pics, which are here - but in truth I'm still processing it.

A theatre update will follow (at some point) and also maybe a chicken update. And I will try to blog a bit more this year, honest.

Hooked again

2008-11-30T20:24:00.002Z

Two plays in two days last week - and I'm hooked again. After a spell of seeing very little at the theatre for various reasons, I managed to combine a work-funded trip to London (yay, no train fare or hotel bill to pay, just theatre tickets to buy!) with a couple of plays.

I wanted to see Neil LaBute's new play, "In A Dark, Dark House" at the Almeida, but it was sold out (got a ticket for next Saturday, though) so I went to see "Fat Pig" instead. It's very funny, sometimes producing those laughs which afterwards make you think "Uh oh, I shouldn't really have laughed at that", and also quite sad. After "In the Company of Men" LaBute had a reputation for being a misogynist, but if anything "Fat Pig" has more sympathy for the women, and shows the men to be shallow idiots. Kevin Bishop portrayed Carter as a horribly repellent person, the sort you would dread having to work with, and Nicholas Burns showed Tom to be really quite pathetic. Katie Kerr and Kelly Brook were much more sympathetic characters, as Helen, the "fat pig" of the title, and Jeannie, spurned lover and sharp-witted office colleague. However, having built up a reat head of steam witht he comic aspects, I felt the ending rather fizzled out. The play faded, rather than going out with a bang, which after the laughs earlier on, seemed a bit of a let down.

Still, I shall go to see "Reasons to be Pretty", part three of the trilogy which began with "The Shape of Things", if/when it gets to London.

The following night, I really fell on my feet. Thinking "I haven't been to the National for a while, what's on?" I'd booked a ticket for "August:Osage County" on the basis that it was a Steppenwolf Theatre production. Wow. What a play. Tracy Letts has written a fantastic piece about families that makes you laugh out loud and want to tear your hair out at the same time. Funny, vicious, insightful, fantastically well acted on a beautifully built set - what more could one want from a night at the theatre? The cast were all on top form, but in particular, Amy Morton as Barbara was stunning. If she isn't nominated for awards in due course, justice will not have been done. Go and see this, if you can.

There's a ton of stuff coming up that I want to see - next Saturday I'm down for the next in the Donmar West End series, Derek Jacobi in Twelfth Night. I can't imagine it will reach the sublime heights of either Ivanov or Othello, both of which deservedly won awards this week - direction for Michael Grandage and acting for Chiwetel Ejiofor - but I'm happy to give it a go. Yep, looks like I'm hooked again.

Talking about festivals

2008-10-20T21:16:00.003+01:00

You might possibly remember that I was on a panel at Glimmer in April, talking about film festivals - why go to them, what to do at them, and so on, along with Rose Chamberlain, Editor of Film and Festivals Magazine and Laurence Boyce, Artistic Director of Hull Film and Glimmer. Well, at last, the film of the panel is available here. Scroll down to "F&F TV" and click on "Glimmer" and you can listen to Rose, me and Laurence chatting about festivals and stuff.

Twinned with Mars

2008-10-17T23:25:00.003+01:00

Meant to add this earlier - we walked past this last night, on the stroll from film to dinner; it's in the Winter Gardens, theatre end. I had to point it out to M from outside because the Gardens themselves were shut by the time we were walking by - he hadn't seen it, or the Winter Gardens before. I took this photo from inside, on a previous occasion, just because it's such a lovely poem. Sheffield, twinned with Mars indeed.

On sight

2008-10-17T19:48:00.002+01:00

Celebrated my birthday last night by going to Sheffield to the premiere of On Sight, a fantastic new climbing film from Alistair Lee of Posing Productions. It's about a very pure approach to climbing - on sight means no abseiling to check the route, no pre-placing of gear, no practising - so in a way it's a very old-fashioned way of climbing, only these guys are on-sighting E7s and E8s (i.e. really hard climbs), grades that hadn't even been invented when I started climbing. It's a fabulously well made film, with lovely photography in some of the most beautiful parts of the UK (and an excursion to Iceland), great music that complemented what was on screen, and some very real, raw, scary moments along with quite a bit of humour - often black-edged humour, but so often that's the way with people who either dice with death or deal with those who do.

One of the thrills for us was when M spotted Ron Fawcett sitting across the aisle from us - he's in the film, talking mainly, and one of his iconic routes, Strawberries at Llanberis, is featured. Ah, to watch a climbing film with a climbing hero only feet away!

It was also interesting to hear climbers talk about why they do it, and much of what they said is very close to the things M and I want to say with our film, although not the same, happily - we have ideas we want to play with that are quite different to "On Sight" because we're trying to do something a bit different ... and I typed the title of our film there but then deleted it, because it rather gives it away ... I think I want to keep something up my sleeve for a little while longer, at least until we are firmly on track to make this thing.

The "On Sight" trailer is here, if you want to get an idea of the film. We agreed over dinner that it is very much a film for climbers, or at least that's the way it felt to us, as a current and an ex climber. I'd be interested to know what non-climbers thought about it.

Back at the ranch

2008-10-12T23:11:00.003+01:00

Am back home, via fabulous weekend in London. Proper reviews to follow in due course, but in short, saw "Waste" at the Almeida Theatre on Friday, then saw "Ivanov" at Wyndham's on Saturday, part of the Donmar in the West End season. A review some years ago, when Michael Grandage directed Kenneth Branagh at the Crucible in Sheffield in Richard III, said something like "if you want to see Shakespeare done properly, go to Sheffield" - well, if you want to see classic theatre done properly, go and see anything that Michael Grandage directs. He's a theatrical genius, and in combination with Kenneth Branagh, is unbeatable.

Ivanov last night was moving, funny, tragic, and totally absorbing. Wonderful, marvellous theatre and I want to go again.

And here's KB at a post-play Q+A for a small group of us. Top bloke.

Home time

2008-10-09T23:47:00.004+01:00

This was yesterday, part way along the trail to Peyto Lake and Bow Summit; this morning when I went out at 9am, the temperature according to the thermometer in the car was -7.

Today, I drove out to Lake Minnewanka which is only a few miles from Banff. It was one of those crisp, clear winter days when the sun is shining, the sky is blue, and the snowy mountains look stark and impressive. After a short walk and a few photos, I drove back into Banff, had lunch at the "other" conference (Applied Qualitative Research, as opposed to Qualitative Health Research), did some shopping and am now waiting for the bus to Calgary Airport.

It has been an excellent trip, well worth it from the conference/networking point of view, and the social/having a holiday point of view. Next year's conference is in Vancouver, and 2010 may be a bit closer to home; hopefully I'll be back next year.

More photos will be on here on flickr in due course

Time flies!

2008-10-09T00:07:00.003+01:00

I set off for home tomorrow - where did the week go?

The conference was very good; my paper went well and I talked to quite a few people afterwards who were interested in the work, and plenty of people who are interested in keeping in touch - so, a positive outcome!

The day after the conference, I hung out with Aileen, a PhD student from Dundee who knows Rose, my PhD supervisor-as-was. We went up to Sulphur Mountain and took the cable car to the top, from where there are great views over Banff and surrounding mountains. Unfortunately Blogger isn't letting me post photos, so I'll start a new album in flickr and post the link later.

The last couple of days, Aileen, Rose and I have had a hire car so we've seen quite a lot; yesterday we drove up to the Columbia Icefield and walked to the Athabasca Glacier which was fantastic. The road there, the Icefield Parkway, is supposed to be one of the top ten drives in the world, and it is amazing - so many mountains and stupendous views of stunning blue lakes. It snowed yesterday, and again last night, so the mountains have gradually been getting more of a covering, which makes them even more dramatic. Unfortunately my camera battery packed up at the start of the day, so I'll have to wait to get photos from Aileen before I can post any.

Today, Aileen and I went to Lake Louise, Moraine Lake, and Bow Summit. It had snowed overnight, noot just high in the mountains but here in Banff, so everywhere is looking very wintery and dramatic. Again, photos on Flickr in due course.

And now I have to write a research proposal, because deadlines only actually count when they're close enough to punch you on the nose.

Hello from Canada

2008-10-05T13:20:00.004+01:00

More precisely, Banff in the Rocky Mountains. I'm at a conference at the Banff Centre for the Arts, which is a great place just outside the town of Banff itself. The conference (International Qualitative Health Research) has been interesting so far; a great workshop on Friday on writing proposals, some good papers yesterday followed by a reception which was fun. On Friday after the workshop, I did the Tunnel Mountain Trail, which starts behind the Centre and climbs 1000 feet in about a mile to give great views over the Bow River and the town of Banff. The Centre has fabulous sports facilities, so I've been swimming every day before breakfast (I always wake up early in North America) and have a session on the climbing wall booked for tomorrow.

I'm giving my paper at 9:30 this morning, and after that, I can relax! Not sure what we'll do for dinner tonight; last night I went out with a couple of Australians, a Canadian and someone from Manchester - it's a very international conference which is part of the appeal.

Then from Monday onwards I'm on holiday, hoorah!

A couple of photos:

From 36,000 feet over Greenland

The view from the dining room at the Banff Centre.

More will follow!

Soundtracks for inspiration

2008-09-28T19:52:00.002+01:00

Had dinner with J on Monday, and he gave me a CD. Quite a fabulous CD, as it turns out, because it includes two of my all time favourite top songs - but apart from that, it is a CD with a purpose. J made it as a soundtrack to a rom com, with the idea that I would listen to it and then write the story to go with the songs. I've been playing it all week in the car, and have a few scenes in my mind, but no clear characters yet, and no solid story line. I'm wondering how long it will be before something becomes concrete, knowing at the same time that J not only has a story in his head, but also has a director's cut of the CD/potential movie. He has more songs than me!! Actually, I'm not sure if that's a god thing or a bad thing. The plan is, I think, that at some random point in the future, we'll compare our stories, and assuming I ever get mine written, that will be interesting, just to see how the same set of songs affect us. I suspect we'll write wildly different stories, but I'm not entirely sure ...

Anyway, the question is, what do you listen to when you're writing, and what would you play for inspiration?

To blog or not to blog?

2008-09-24T21:25:00.002+01:00

Have been considering whether or not to keep going with the blog recently, since over the last few months my bloggy activity has slipped into near catatonia. Partly this has been because I've not been seeing much theatre - full time job + local programmes being fairly unappealing + Shefield Crucible being dead + not enough time to get to London/Stratford/other interestingly theatrical places = my theatre notebook for this year is alarmingly thin. So, there haven't been many reviews. Also, writing activity seemed to have hit a slump; despite little bursts of resurgence, mainly related to when I went away for a couple of days which seemed to free up something or other and lead to pages of handwritten stuff, I just haven't been very creative this year.

And the other major thing recently has been A going to University. On the one hand, this has meant short-sightedness - does anyone else get that thing where such a big event looms on the horizon that you can't see beyond it? I've spent so much of the summer thinking only of A going away, and then getting ready, shopping, packing ... how she's there, and I'm here, missing her of course, but also trying to think less about "empty nest" than the fact that this is a new avenue in life for both of us.

And then, the whole creativity thing seems to have sprung back into life. Maybe because we've jumped the hurdle of "A going away" so I've got that energy to use elsewhere; maybe because the film which has been a floaty idea for the last couple of months has sudddenly become much more concrete; maybe because finding someone to work with, and bounce ideas off in one sphere, has a kind of ripple effect. I know as writers we're supposed to be able to do isolation and solitude, and most of the time I'm pretty OK with my own company. But having started to work with M on the film, it seems that just hanging out and talking about creative stuff with him has sparked off all sorts of other things for me. We start from very different perspectives but overlap in so many ways, and all of a sudden I'm writing again. A short story, two poems, a story-board ... isolation/solitude is all very well, but having a creative collaborator seems to make all the difference for me.

So I'm writing again - perhaps I won't be killing the blog after all.

What's shaping your summer?

2008-08-15T21:34:00.004+01:00

Due to my general hopelessness recently in keeping up with blogging, I only just realised that I got tagged by Lianne, thus:

"List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they’re not any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now, shaping your spring. Post these instructions in your blog along with your 7 songs. Then tag 7 other people to see what they’re listening to".

Well, they're not shaping my spring, because it's "summer" (yeah right - if it wasn't for the fact that the leaves are still on the trees, you'd think it was coming up to October half term).

But anyway, 7 songs "of the moment", chosen on the basis that either I play them most in my car or the kitchen, or I listen to them most on Youtube:

1. The Gael, Dougie MacLean - I listen to a lot of film soundtracks, and right now "The Last of the Mohicans" is one of my favourites - and this is the original rendition by the composer of "The Gael" - fabulous, atmospheric, and lovely.

2. About You Now, The Saw Doctors - every now and then, a daft pop song gets into my head, and that was the case with Sugababes' "About You Now" - and then, thanks to the wonder of Youtube, I discovered that The Saw Doctors had done a version. Now, some years ago, I was completely mad about the Docs, best live band I've ever seen, got to know them a bit, etc etc, then time goes on, you lose touch ... but I heard this, and "kerching!" I was back in Galway in the big blue tent ... ah, nostalgia.

3. Friday I'm in Love, The Cure - possibly one of the best songs ever, and coincidentally the working title of the novel I'm writing ...

4. House MD soundtrack - probably a bit cheaty to have a soundtrack rather than a song, but this is what's on in the car on the way to work. If I get from house to office without repeating any songs, it's been a quick trip.

5. Once soundtrack - said I liked soundtracks - this is the other one getting played a lot in the car.

6. Cosi Fan Tutte - actually I have an arias and "best bits" CD, not the whole thing, but I've loved it since Sam directed it a few years ago, especially "Soave Sia Il Vento"

7. A free opera CD that's got all sorts of stuff on it, bit random, but it's a "stick it on, pour a glass of wine, get cooking, get relaxed" CD. Cooking, opera, wine - unbeatable.

And now I have to tag 7 people - well, I am so far behind that probably most bloggers have been tagged, so I tag the most frequent readers of my blog - Stacie, Vivien, Nina, Nez, Amanda, Liz, and the secret callers-by who I know read but don't post (hello, Kate!, hello, Annabelle!) - don't worry if you don't have a blog, stick it in a reply.

Who's there?

2008-08-10T22:08:00.003+01:00

(picture credit: RSC/Ellie Kurtz)

Hamlet, that's who.

Sorry, couldn't resist fairly feeble joke. Last weekend N and I were in Stratford to see "Hamlet" at the RSC, with David Tennant as Hamlet and Patrick Stewart as Claudius. The tickets of the year, apparently, but not even the possibility of £500 on ebay was going to prise them out of our hot little hands.

[just before we proceed - spoiler alert - if you don't want to know any details about the production, stop reading now]

It's the measure of a good production, I think, that you're still thinking about it days and possibly weeks later. One reason I haven't blogged a review until now is because I've been thinking about the play all week, and am still reflecting on it. It's a fabulous production, Shakespeare just as I like it - modern dress, bare stage. There are really only two pieces of stage furniture - thrones on a pedestal and a carpet for the players' show, and some gilt furniture for Gertrude's bedroom (was the tackiness deliberate? I like to think so). The stage is almost a mirror, and the backdrop is a mirror which is both one and two way, depending on the scene, and the sense of being overlooked and overheard pervades the play. I loved the opening scene, the theatre entirely dark until the officers of the watch arrived with hand held torches pointing at the floor, which, because it was reflective, served to light their faces, and at times the audience. In this near darkness broken only by narrow shafts of light arrives the ghost of Old Hamlet, and it has to be one of the most chilling ghosts ever.

Patrick Stewart, as both Claudius and Ghost, was just awe inspiring. He makes Shakespeare sound so natural that it seems almost effortless. With his little looks and slight glances, his body language alone suggests that this is a man who is politician through and through, and he is not going to let anyone stand in his way, certainly not his capricious and moody problematic nephew. And up against him, David Tennant as Hamlet more than held his own. He seemed physically to inhabit the role, capering about the stage barefoot in jeans and T-shirt when in the grip of his madness (if, indeed, he is ever mad - this was a Hamlet where I completely believed that he put his antic disposition on), but also completely capturing the man's despair. The moment early on where he collapses to the ground, clutching his head and crying when he's alone after the rest of the court have left to celebrate his mother's o'er hasty marriage, is incredibly moving.

There were one or two things about that production that I didn't like - the placing of the interval is odd, coming half way through a speech, and I didn't like the ending. For Fortinbras to appear and not say anything seems peculiar - after all, he's mentioned several times but prior to the end is only on stage for a tiny moment when he and his captain talk, so for anyone who didn't know the play, I could imagine them thinking "who's that, then?" at the end, because he'd only been on stage for a "blink and you miss him" moment up until then. I also really like his speech which closes the play, and my feeling is that we don't really know what we've lost by Hamlet's death until we hear Fortinbras say "Let four captains bear Hamlet, like a soldier, to the stage; for he was likely, had he been put on, to have proved most royally". And this is the real measure of how an actor plays Hamlet - do we believe, at the end, that he could have been a king? And as far as David Tennant's Hamlet is concerned, yes. He would have proved most royally.

I was very happy that Greg Doran kept "How all occasions do inform against me" which is my favourite speech, but isn't always included in the play because it isn't in the First Folio. For me, this is the speech where Hamlet finally gets himself to an answer - he's been contemplating for a long time, but now he asks himself why yet he lives to say this thing's to do, when he has means and cause to do it - and he makes the decision to act. I love that speech, and I loved how David Tennant did it. His was a "talking to myself" approach to the soliloquies rather than a "quizzing the audience" approach, and for "How all occasions..." it really worked.

We saw the play in preview before press night, so things may well change as time goes on. Reviews this week seemed to be pretty good, with Michael Billington giving it four stars, an assessment I'd agree with. Often I find I like the stuff that Billington likes, and hate the stuff that Lyn Gardner likes. Not always, but it's a general indicator for me. So I was very happy that Mr Billington gave this Hamlet four stars. I'd say, out of the 9 or 10 productions of Hamlet I've seen in the last few years, this one, and David Tennant in particular, is now equal first.

And best of all, I get to see it again in October.

Sorry!

2008-08-09T23:31:00.002+01:00

For being a useless blogger and worrying at least one person by my disappearance. Hadn't realised it was over a month since my last post, actually. How time flies when work is ridiculous, courgettes are crazy, and the chickens are taking this free range business a bit too seriously for my liking (came home yesterday to find Sybil had got over two sets of fences and was two gardens away - apologies and eggs to my neighbours). In addition to too much going on elsewhere, there has been very little going on film/theatre/writing wise recently. Until last week. And suddenly, I wrote a bit of play-related stuff (need to do more research - no, this time, I really do, it's not just procrastination), I saw a play (Hamlet, RSC, Tennant, Stewart - will review properly tomorrow), and I seem to find myself in pre-production for a short.

Hmm.

That's what happens when you send an email listing the 5 million things your co-filmmaker needs to think about, and instead of coming back with "actually, I've changed my mind" he comes back with "ok but x y z" (x y z being his take on why we're going low-tech, why September is a good idea [for filming, not per se - of course September is a good idea per se, there'd be a hole in the year otherwise and some people would miss their birthdays], and oh by the way we have no money). Anyway, I sent him another email this morning with another 5 million things to think about, not that I'm setting up hurdles or anything, so with any luck the seriousness of this possible pre-production should become clearer this week.

Am verging on manic laughter. But that may be because it's late, I'm tired, and I spent part of the afternoon talking to men dressed up as Romans, cooking sausages. And they're REALLY serious about being Romans. Bit alarming really, til you see the Kettle Chips on the table.

Round-up

2008-07-06T19:12:00.002+01:00

Got back from Edinburgh a week ago and somehow didn't quite get round to blogging the last three films I saw, on the Saturday. First up was "The New Ten Commandments", a series of short films by a number of Scottish directors about human rights, to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the UN Declaration of Human Rights. As you'd expect with ten different films by ten directors, they were a mixed bag, although all powerful in the own way. Hopefully it'll be shown on BBC in December.

Next up, "Encounters at the End of the World", a documentary by Werner Herzog about the people who live and work at Antarctica. It was funny, insightful, and moving. Well worth seeing.

Finally, "Faintheart", directed by Vito Rocco, a film made through Myspace, although the talk I went to the previous day by the Faintheart people showed that in fact there was minimal input from the Myspace community, and what input there was, was tightly controlled. The film itself was notable only for the "My Movie Mashup" thing really - it was a fairly traditional Britcom, predictable, funny in places, very funny in others, but ultimately nothing really new. Sweet, fun to watch, but no more.

So, it was an OK film day, but nothing knocked "Man on Wire" off my own personal topspot. It also won the Audience Award, and Somers Town won the Michael Powell Award. On the whole, EIFF turned out to be OK but no more than that - apparently the box office was as good, and the number of delegates registering was the same as previous years, but there just wasn't a festival feel about the place, and the selection of films was not as inspiring as it has been. The best bits, for me, were the readings and the panel at the Traverse - which wasn't actually film at all, really.

And in other news, B and I did Race for Life today - not exactly racing, but never mind, we finished and got one of these:

And it's not too late to sponsor me if you meant to and didn't quite get round to it - just click on the link in the box to the right. Thank you!!

Almost the end

2008-06-28T11:43:00.002+01:00

It's the last day of the festival proper - tomorrow is "best of the fest" and the award ceremony, but I will be heading south by then. I've got three films to see today, but I finally saw my "wow" film two nights ago - "Man on Wire".

"Man on Wire" is the story of Philippe Petit and his high wire walk between the two towers of the World Trade Centre in 1974. Currently leading the vote for the Standard Life Audience Award and deservedly so, it's a stunning film. It lasts 2 hours, but the film is so absorbing that the time just flies by. It uses archive footage and home films made by Petit and his friends and collaborators in the run up to the attempt, combined with interviews with those people now. Director James Marsh was joined on stage afterwards by Philippe Petit himself, to enthusiastic applause led by Sean Connery, who happened to be sitting directly behind me, (BTW is it a bit pervy and wrong to think a man aproaching his 78th birthday has got the sexiest voice in the world?) Definitely the best film I've seen all festival, and indeed, for some time.

Lots of EIFF news here, including a podcast with Brian Cox (another man with a rather fine voice) talking about his new film "Red", which on the basis of the clip I've seen, is another tour de force performance from him.

Last batch of reviews and photos tomorrow, all being well.

Still in Edinburgh

2008-06-26T23:49:00.004+01:00

But I've had a couple of days off the film festival, because A was here, and instead of films, we did art, food and shopping!

The last film I saw before A arrived on Monday was "Warsaw Dark" directed by Christopher Doyle, fabulous cinematographer but unfortunately not having that same glorious vision as a director. The film was a mess visually and story-wise, leaving me clueless as to what was going on most of the time.

We saw a fabulous exhibition at the Gallery of Modern Art - "Foto: Modernity in Central Europe 1919-1945" - very absorbing, well worth visiting and spending a good chunk of time there.

And just to do a quick EIFF catch up, at last I can post photos:

Linus Roache at the premiere of "Before The Rain"

The jury, headed by Danny Huston and also including producer Sigurjon Sighvatsson, actor Joely Richardson, director Iain Softley and the author Scarlett Thomas.

Back with more reviews tomorrow.

More Edinburgh

2008-06-23T10:23:00.002+01:00

Greetings from chilly, damp Scotland, and a quick update of films and stuff.

I've been to a couple of good panels, one on the relationship between writers and producers, with Jeremy Brock and Buncan Kenworthy giving some very good advice and insights, and one with Warp X talking about their model of film-making and distribution. Also been to a couple of staged readings of screenplays at the Traverse Theatre, which have been really enjoyable; they're an odd thing, though - not a play, because the actors are seated and reading a screenplay complete with directions, but not a film because it's happening on stage. They give quite a good idea of how the film might shape up, and are a useful exercise for the writer, though.

Saw two films on Saturday - "Married Life", starring Pierce Brosnan, Chris Cooper and Patricia Clarkson, and "The Wackness" starring Ben Kingsley. Sue really liked "The Wackness" but I was bored rigid and thought it was dull and overlong. I quite liked "Married Life" but it has a very old-fashioned feel to it, and not just because it was set int he 1950s. The cars and costumes were lovely, though.

The highlight of the festival so far was seeing Brian Cox "In person" yesterday, being interviewed about his life and career by Hannah McGill, and showing clips from some of his films. It was a really interesting talk, and he's a very entertaining speaker.

Last night's film was "Paris", starring Juliette Binoche, a film about intertwining lives in Paris and my favourite film so far. The stories were really engaging, the people felt real, and the city itself becomes a character in its own right. The director (will come back later when I have my catalogue with me to add details) said in the Q+A afterwards that he was inspired by Robert Altman and films like "Nashville" and "Short Cuts".

I'm still waiting for my "oh wow" film though - this year's selection is nowhere near as good as the previous two years. But I'm having a couple of days off the festival from tonight because A is coming up - hoorah!

Edinburgh

2008-06-21T12:12:00.002+01:00

Came up to Edinburgh on Thursday, lovely sunny day, tickets for films in my sticky paw, cute little flat - everything seemed lovely. By Friday, not so lovely, which is why I haven't blogged yet because I simply haven't been in the mood.

Thursday's films were both good - Terence Davies' "Of Time and The City", a beautiful lyrical poem to Liverpool, combining masses of archive footage with contemporary digital footage and a narrative voice over by Terence Davies, it told the story of the city from a very personal point of view. Then, later, "Before The Rains", a Merchant Ivory style epic romance starring Rahul Bose and Linus Roache (of whom I got a nice photo but I left my connecting cable at home so it'll have to wait, I'm afraid), directed by Santosh Sivan. Lush cinematography and an old-fashioned morality tale combined to make a beguiling couple of hours.

Then I discovered the drawbacks of having a flat in Grassmarket. Most of the drinking population of Edinburgh were underneath my window shouting until 3:30am and beyond. Then the roadworks began at 7:30. Oh joy. So, I was not a happy person to then find out that my type of badge (and my type only) means I don't have access to the stand-by list. Every other type of badge can get free tickets to films. Not mine. Complaints have been made, apparently, and not only by me - I'm due to see someone to "discuss" it later.

Still, settling down in a darkened room makes all other worries go away for a while at least, so I went to see "Somers Town", Shane Meadows' latest film, a sweet and gentle story about Polish immigrants and a runaway from Nottingham. It's very funny, and nicely optimistic. Followed that with a bit of networking at the Scottish Screen party at the delegates centre, then legged it back out to Cineworld for "The Kreutzer Sonata", directed by Bernard Rose and starring Danny Huston (sadly, I failed to get a photo). It was darker, quite violent and sexual than I'd expected - it was a good film, but there was a very rough and ready appearance to the film which I didn't think was supposed to happen with digital. Anyway, Sean Connery was in the audience, and he enjoyed it - or at least, he said he did.

This morning, I went to a UK Film Council short film-maker's networking breakfast which was very good - some nice food, some good people to talk to, did a bit of promotion for Glimmer and Hull Film. Hoping to get into a script-in-hand reading later, and I've got tickets for two films tonight, but right now I'm off to find out why I can't get internet access in the flat.

A little bit of yes

2008-06-04T00:00:00.003+01:00

Heard yesterday that one of the one-minute plays I submitted for Gone In 60 Seconds has been accepted, and will be performed in Leeds next week - June 12th, 7:30pm at Stage One, Leeds Uni to be precise. A "yes" for a little thing is still a yes, and I'm really pleased (and also kind of relieved) to get something accepted.

A one minute play is an odd thing - it seems easy enough, doesn't it, to write something that's only a minute long, a page of text? But in one page you have to get beginning, middle and end, and tell some kind of story, and give actors enough to do to make their characters come alive. It's actually a fairly tricky task. Small, but tricky. I think there was enough space in the script for the actors to have some fun with how they play it. Anyway, I'll find out soon enough as I am planning to head to Leeds to see my tiny play - anyone fancy meeting up for a night out?

I'm after your dosh

2008-06-01T11:57:00.002+01:00

I'm doing Race for Life next month with my film pal B; please sponsor me! Click on the fancy little button in my sidebar, and bingo, it's really really easy to donate money. The wonders of technology, eh? I'm not sure how much racing we'll be doing, given that "training" hasn't exactly taken place so far (on my part, at least); but we'll attempt to trot round York race course and try not to be last. And if loads of people sponsor me, and I get past my target by race day, I might even allow my photo to be taken and post it here.

There. What more incentive do you need?

Update

2008-05-24T13:01:00.003+01:00

Sorry not to have blogged recently. This is partly because everyone was in Cannes, except me - or at least that's how it felt; also, I was away for a few days for my "real" (i.e. the one that pays) job; and it's also been a bit of a thin news spell round here. I have managed to get some writing done - a few days away in Bristol seemed to unlock something or other - whether it was being in a new place, or being away from home and therefore away from chores and ordinary distraction, or whether it's that I've reached a point where my job no longer takes so much emotional energy because I've settled into it now, I don't know; whatever it is, I'm not complaining. I got two entries into "Gone in Sixty Seconds" the previous week, and several pages of novel down in Bristol. The next target is the final deadline of the BSSC at the end of June.

However, I'm having a period of enforced inactivity because I've had the worst allergic reaction yet to an insect bite - the nurse said it was the worst one she'd ever seen, which was peculiarly gratifying - always nice to alarm the medics! Like the time I got a scratch from a foxglove stem, my shin turned black, and when I rolled up my trouser leg to show the GP, her reaction was "bloody hell!" Anyway, I have a very sore leg, and am not going to be doing what I wanted to do this weekend, which was finish off putting in the sleepers for my raised bed vegetable patch. I might make it as far as the cinema this afternoon, because the alternative is staying here and listening to football through the wall - my neighbour has her radio on so loud it must be almost jumping off the table. I hate football, I double hate BBC local radio football commentary, and I treble hate the phone ins they have afterwards - the pain of my sore leg will be less than the pain of having to listen to bellowing fools all afternoon, so I will stagger out, whimpering every now and then, and may well console myself with ice cream.

Instead of digging, I finally got round to sorting out my flickr account. Pictures from LA last month are here, and the first garden pictures this year are here.

The radio blasting has begun so I'm off out in search of lunch - I should eat marmite on brown toast, real ale, and brewer's yeast. I'll be stinking like a brewery and farting like a herd of cows, but at least the sabre-toothed mosquitos won't like me any more.

Weekend interview 2 - The Producer

2008-05-10T20:41:00.002+01:00

For the second interview in my new series, I've got a great one for you - a chat with Rob Speranza, who runs South Yorkshire Filmmakers Network, and is a very experienced producer of short films, including "King Ponce" directed by Sam Donovan, and Sue Everett's recently completed film "Mother, Mine". He was really helpful when I was trying to get "Echoes" set up too, and gave me tons of invaluable advice - well worth my £25 joining fee for SYFN! He's got lots to say about short films, so enjoy the interview:

Tell me about your involvement with South Yorkshire Filmmakers Network, and how that began.
First off, I got in through academic means, which I didn’t expect. I started doing a Masters but it grew into a PhD, on film and poetry. While doing that, I ran the video library where I was surrounded by great films, films by great directors that my tutors talked about. And there was one guy who used to watch 3, 4, 5 films a week, never missed a week, and come in and talk about them, and he asked me if I wanted to join a production company he was setting up. He’d got a corporate job lined up, and I thought that sounded like a good deal, so I joined him. We started getting more people involved, got more corporate jobs, and this became Sort Of Films, with Ed Cartledge, and the Network sort of took off from there. We didn’t make too many films in the network as such, aside from my film-poems, but we would have meetings, hold training sessions around sound, camera, music, and anything else people asked for. We’d talk about our favourite films, favourite scenes, cinematography, we’d meet in people’s houses or in the pub, and when 25 or more people started showing up each week we realised it wasn’t a production company anymore, it was a network. And South Yorkshire Filmmakers Network now has 600 members.

Then, I had to go home (to the USA) for a bit, and I worked on a few films as production manager, or 1st AD, which was really cool. Prior to that professionally I’d done only done script reading in the USA, and all this was great experience leading up to being a producer when I was back in the UK again in early 2005.

I came back to this country wanting to make short films. As a producer, I began to make business links, make connections with Screen Yorkshire, learn how to complete application forms, met directors I wanted to work with, and got a meeting with a Screen Yorkshire-funded director who needed a producer, and things went from there. I got a lot of “no”s - it’s a long process, and a little bit heart-breaking sometimes, especially when it’s a project you’re really close to, but you have to be persistent and hard-nosed.

Thinking about the process of making a short film, at what point do you get involved as producer?
In almost every case a writer or a director, or the two together, will come to me with a script or an idea. If it’s an idea I like, I tell them to go away and write it. If it’s an idea I don’t think I can work with, I try to send them to someone who I know is looking for something. If I don’t think I can do it, I try to put people in touch. It’s neat when you can put people together.

If they come to me with a script for a short, then I read the script. There’s one guy who’s sent me loads of pitches, great ideas, and I’ve said yeah, go away and write the script. But he comes back with a story about why he hasn’t done it, and a load more pitches and ideas. There is a level of frustration as a producer when people don’t follow up. I feel sometimes people are afraid to succeed, afraid to make that step. Suddenly there’s a little flavour of success, it’s going to emerge into a fully fledged project, and they don’t act, they don’t follow up. I’ve felt sometimes it’s difficult to get people to do what they say they actually want to do. Strange, that it’s almost like some people are afraid to succeed.

So, yeah, I read the script; if I don’t like it, I let them know. I ask who’s on board, who’s going to direct, can I see what else they’ve done. What else can they bring to the table, do they have their own camera, their own editing equipment, sound equipment; do they have any money or am I going to have to apply for money, go looking for funding? If someone’s got a really good idea and I like it, I’ll figure out a way to get it made. But, it should be noted, I’m not looking to make many more shorts right now.

What do you think are the most common weakness in the scripts you see?
They don’t know how to end. So many short films don’t know how to end. This is a common problem. I feel that there often is a great premise but not a great follow-through. It’s hard to get people to care about characters in a short time, and also wrap up their stories in a satisfying way. It’s not an easy thing to do. But the best short films do it.

In addition, it’s often the case that a short film could use script editing to help the writer. Someone that tells the writer that the story falls a bit flat here, there’s no real character arc here, and so on. Scripts for short films also often have clichés, a lot of clichés. I met a guy recently who wanted me to produce his film and the project ended up falling through because when I met him he was really reluctant to listen to ideas and change anything, really reluctant to work on it, and there were a lot of clichés in his script, stuff we’ve seen a thousand times. If you’ve got art at the heart of your film, you need to think of it as an artwork and how it all holds together. It’s amazing how many times characters in short film scripts look at their watches - “He looks at his watch.” No! We can find more creative ways to show the passing of time.

What relationship do you have with the writer in terms of how you work on scripts?
If it’s a writer and a director, then I let the director drive things with the writer. I’d work on a team to aid the process, script editing and so on. If it’s a writer/director, then I’d try to develop the script, maybe work on specifics like character arc, dialogue. Screen Yorkshire-funded films go through a script development process, with a script editor, five or six meetings with writer/director/producer to work on it and get it right. It depends, really - you build up relationships with people over time, directors and writers, and you get to know how people work.

What advice would you give to writers, as a producer, in terms of getting work out there?
Do the networking, go to events, talk to people. Know what your story’s about. Don’t start talking to producers if you don’t know your story. If you’re talking to them and your idea’s a little flabby, you may have lost an opportunity. Try to talk to people when you’re ready - don’t rush it.

Join organisations like SYFN, join Shooting People and Talent Circle, go to networking events, get comfortable with the idea of talking to producers so that you’re not intimidated when you’re talking to them about your script. If producers are there at these events, then they’re interested, they’re looking for ideas, and if they’re not, they’ll say so.

Don’t isolate yourself. Join writers groups, go on writers programmes. There are some good free ones, some you have to pay for. SYFN will be doing a ten-module course for entry level writers with some really top speakers, in the autumn, and it’s going to be priced reasonably. Get out there, don’t just sit in your room wondering how someone’s going to read your script.

Get on the Screen Yorkshire database, or whoever the regional film agency is in the area you live in, get on their radar. Find people to team up with, make those connections, get involved and be part of a team. A lot of schemes are easier to get into if you’re part of a team, whether it’s writer/prod
ucer/director, or writer and director, than if you’re just going in as a writer.

Don’t be afraid to take criticism; if you disagree with it and it’s at odds with the ethos of your film, fair enough, say so, but be flexible enough to take advice.

If you’re stuck, call SYFN, call the regional agency, get advice. Don’t just sit there.

***

Some great advice there, and good insights - hope you enjoyed reading Rob's thoughts. If you want to contact Rob, you can find him on 0114 276 2400 or at Rob@syfn.org.

It's summer therefore it must be festival time

2008-05-08T21:45:00.002+01:00

The sun has come out, English people are taking off their clothes no matter how ill-advised that might be, and the Edinburgh Film Festival programme was launched yesterday - this has kind of skewed my body clock as far as summer is concerned because Edinburgh is August - film, fringe, books all in one go. But this year, the film festival has made a leap for separateness into June. There have already been comments about whether or not this will work; I have mixed feelings myself. On the one hand, I like the buzz of being able to go to see a favourite author at the book festival in the afternoon, a film at tea time and a comedian late at night; on the other hand, I didn't do that very often, when I went up for the film festival I tended to do several days of very intense film stuff, and if I'm not competing with thousands of fringe folk it will be a hell of a lot easier to find somewhere nice and not extortionate to stay. So, I'll hang on til June 29th to make my judgement about whether its worked or not.

I'll definitely be going up to Edinburgh for as much of the festival as I can manage - the programme at first glance didn't seem as eye catching as last year but actually there are a good few films that on reflection have made me think "yeah, I'll give you a go". And hopefully the industry events will be as good as the last couple of years. Anyway, if you're going and would like to meet up, let me know.

The weekend interview

2008-05-03T20:24:00.002+01:00

Here's a new strand to the blog - following on from Glimmer, the 6th Hull International Short Film Festival (HISFF from now on), I thought it would be interesting to interview people from across the whole spectrum of film, from writing scripts and producing films through to exhibiting and writing about film. So, here's the first "weekend interview" (think of it as your Saturday Review or Sunday Supplement), with Rose Chamberlain of "Film and Festivals" magazine. Rose is a Brazilian filmmaker and journalist who started the Brazilian Film Festival "Something from Brasil" in 2005, and she and I did the "Films, Filmmakers and Film Festivals" panel together at HISFF a couple of weeks ago. Here's what she had to say when I caught up with her last week:

As someone who has run a film festival and now runs a magazine about them, what would you say is the role of film festivals for writers and film makers?
Festivals work like a window, as a platform to support young and beginning filmmakers, right through to those for the super-professionals. Each festival has a particular feel, and defines its own audience. You may go for the market side of it if you’re a professional, for the networking side if you’re newer to it. It’s important for anyone in the industry to be in contact with festivals, to make contacts with people, build networks.

For short filmmakers in particular, do you think the internet is becoming more significant, or will traditional festivals continue to be important?
The internet needs to be used as part of the festival network. Events themselves won’t finish – it’s the same conversation as the one about digital distribution – the internet won’t end the idea of an event, the opportunity to go and socialise; the internet can support film festivals and support short film directors. I think the opportunity of new platforms, whether that’s the internet, video on demand, and so on, might be a chance for short film directors to make some money – it’s very difficult to make revenue from shorts but with Joost and Babelgum, for example, that use advertising revenue models, instead of a buyer model, and share revenues with directors and producers it might be possible. But I don’t think that will end festivals, festivals are an opportunity for showing a film and getting an audience. Directors should combine both models.

No-one knows exactly what model to follow right now. The distribution industry is going through a shift; the old model of distributing films has been broken, where you would get the posters, the opening night, the stars; the internet engages directly with the audience and independent producers can now do their own distribution, utilising free social networking sites for example.

You can achieve much greater access now, with almost no budget at all, plus the way people consume is changing. However , it’s important to take in consideration that not everyone has access to broadband yet. We are in the middle of big changes but no-one knows what’s going to happen and no-one has figured out how to create a stable economic model for the internet. Films still make money on DVD but for how long?

What strategy would you advise writers to take when thinking about festivals?
Figure out which festivals have workshops, or look at specific festivals for writers. Select festivals on the basis of who it’s for. Apply for as many labs as possible, that’s really important because it’s a good opportunity for access to some very good professionals in your field, plus you can meet others in the same position as you, and there’s an opportunity to engage with producers. You can write the best film ever but if you’re not making contacts, no-one will know.

What strategy should short film makers have?
Try to push the film as much as possible. With short films, directors need to think about their film as a distributor would think. Create a strategy, use the internet, create posters and flyers, and select festivals that are compatible with your film. If you get accepted by one, and you do well, you’re more likely to get accepted by others. Programmers talk to each other, ask what they’ve seen. Festivals are an opportunity to build your own audience. Put the film out as much as possible – often, no-one included promotion in the budget so there’s no money left after post-production. Filmmakers can easily spend up to $1000 on submitting to festivals, and you don’t even know if you’re going to get accepted.

Create a webpage, create a blog, make a trailer to go on Myspace, use all available platforms. Look at submitting to European festivals as they often charge less than American ones. If you’re in the UK, it’s worth looking at your regional film agency – they might have a budget to help you. Also the British Council select a number of films and support certain festivals, and they may help you go to the festival. It can be a full time job – you think you’ve finished your film, no you’ve just started! After all, if you make a film and no-one sees it, what’s the point?

Film makers should watch more films. If you want to make short films, you need to think of short film as a genre, it’s not just a squashed feature film. It might be worth doing short films as training, or as an opportunity to show your skills, but you need to be making the best short film you can. If you understand what short film is about, you have a better chance of creating a really good piece of work and then going forward with your career.

What are the most common mistakes writers and short film makers make?
Trying to squeeze too big an idea into a short time. You don’t have the time to do everything you would do in a feature, the epic idea isn’t going to work and it looks like the director just wants to show off.

Also, I don’t understand why so many people make short films that are so dark and down. Is this a British thing? I enjoy seeing films where there’s some joy, a snap of life. I hate short films that are 40 minutes long – that isn’t a short film. If it’s more than 15 minutes it isn’t really a short.

Before you even begin to make your film, look at festivals and figure out where you’d like your film to go, see what type of films different festivals accept, what is the time limit they work with, look at last year’s programme for a festival, get a better understanding of what different places show. It gives you a better chance of getting accepted.

The other important thing is that with digital technology, more people have access to cameras, so more films get made; it doesn’t mean everyone is going to be successful at making films. Of course when you make your film you think it is the best, but you may go to festivals and in fact see that it’s not. Try not to get disillusioned.

Also, it’s worth doing short films so that you can experience different roles, learn about as many different departments as possible. As a filmmaker it’s always good to be open-minded, not everyone can be a director, and there may be a different department that you love and find that working there makes you happy. Be open minded. There’s loads you can do and it’s very exciting!

***

Interestingly, on the day Rose and I spoke, there was a blog post at the Guardian from a film maker questioning whether film festivals were worth bothering with at all. And although Shane Danielson's first comment might come over as a little sharp, I have to say I agree with the gist of it. Not getting accepted doesn't mean film festivals are worthless. Maybe the film's just not up to scratch. Been there, done that. Learn from it, move on.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the interview. Check back next week for an interview with a producer, and after that, hopefully there'll be writers, artistic directors, and whoever else I can get my hands on! Let me know if you have burning questions, or people you'd like to see interviewed.

And another campaign

2008-04-27T22:50:00.004+01:00

While we're on the campaigning trail, here's something else to go after.

Two weeks ago, I hiked in Topanga Canyon and absolutely loved it - my only regret is that I only had one day, because I would love to do more hikes out there - it's more than beautiful, it's space for air and tranquility.

That day I also would've loved to have hit Topanga State Beach for a dive into the sea after my hot and sweaty striding out to Eagle Rock

This might not exactly be Topanga Beach, but its a really cool photo Nez took on our drive along the PCH.

And there are huge numbers of other beautiful places I would love to visit, to hike or just to hang out. People think of LA and this celebrity-soaked urban busy space, and often aren't aware that close by are the most amazing beaches and wilderness areas, within easy reach - great for visitors like me, but more importantly, essential outdoor spaces for LA people.

But if the Governator has his way, there won't be State Parks and State Beaches for much longer. Budget cuts mean there are proposals to shut down access to many outdoor spaces in California. As someone who benefitted immeasurably from the Kinder Trespasses of the 1930s in terms of opening up access to wilderness areas, I find it alarming that budget cuts might result in padlocks on car parks and citations for people going for walks - we need our open spaces, we need fresh air and tranquility, we need to get out and look at beautiful things and hear nothing but the sound of our breathing in our ears and our feet hitting the ground. Defend access, act to protect our right to just go out in the country for a walk.

Here's the link for Topanga and Will Rogers parks;

Here's the link for the campaign to save all the California state parks.

Stopping short-sighted stupidity?

2008-04-27T21:37:00.002+01:00

Regular readers will know that I am a graduate of the Writer Development Programme run by Yorkshire Art Circus, a fabulous organisation based in Castleford, which began life to help regenerate the coalfields decimated by job losses in the late 70s and early 80s; since then, they have supported all kinds of creative developments within their immediate community and beyond - WDP covered the whole of Yorkshire, and included me from East Yorkshire, plus people who have become friends from North, West and South Yorkshire. They are not only an organisation who support the creative endeavours of their immediate population and preserve the stories of their locality via oral history, poetry and short stories, they also reach out across the county to bring writers together and build up supportive networks.

It's really simple: I would not be where I am now without the help and support of YAC, and in particular, Lesley, Angela, Beccy and Lucy.

And now they need my help, and by extension, I'm hoping any ex WDPers reading this, or anyone who really cares about community arts, or oral history, or anyone who thinks that people's stories should be heard, will act.

This is the letter I got from them this week:

Dear friends of YAC,
YAC had hoped to celebrate our 30th anniversary next year, but unfortunately Wakefield Council has decided to cease supporting those organisations that are not regularly funded by the Arts Council. This affects a number of grass root organisations, and for YAC the consequences are serious. Angela, Beccy and myself are officially on redundancy notice, and unless there is a complete turn around from WMDC we will be winding the charity down and we will be made redundant at the end of this month (next Weds 30th April). we were informed of this decision at 4.30pm on 31st March, so the cuts were immediate from the following day (start of the financial year). Upon hearing of the consequences of their decision Wakefield Council has expressed some real concern and desire to help us. They have asked us to supply them with information about the affect we have had on the groups we have worked with, so we are trying to contact all of the writers who have gone through our Writer Development Programme. Any words of support from you would certainly be listened to!

To me it seems insane - the Arts Council has taken away your money, so we'll take it away too. Where's the logic in that?

Please, if you have had any contact with YAC and they've helped you at all, write and support them. Send your letters to Lesley Wilkinson at YAC, School Lane, Glashoughton, Castleford. If you'd like to see the press release, or would like any more info, please get in touch.

Glimmer!

2008-04-17T22:48:00.003+01:00

Am now home (and freezing cold) and have walked straight into a busy week as it's "Glimmer!", the Hull International Short Film Festival right now. I just got back from tonight's screenings of UK shorts, an eclectic mix of drama, comedy, film installation, and quirky vignettes. Tomorrow's looking good - "Anatomy of a Film" at 2pm with Sue Everett and Rob Speranza discussing the making of "Mother Mine", their recent short, followed at 5pm by a panel discussion on "Films, Filmmakers and Film Festivals", which I will be taking part in as a panellist, so if you've ever wondered what I get up to at the film festivals I go to, come and listen (and ask questions, so long as they're not rude!). Then at 8pm we have one of the sessions I'm most looking forward to, the screening of all the BAFTA nominated shorts for 2008, including Simon Ellis' "Soft", and BAFTA winner, "Dog Altogether" directed by Paddy Considine.

On Saturday there are more UK shorts, and a BAFTA Screentalk with Simon Ellis at 7pm, amongst other things.

On Sunday, there's the Hull competition and the Yorkshire competition, and I'm a jury member for both which is pretty exciting because I've never been a film competition jury member before. We have the award winners showcase at 7pm at Reel, and the closing night party and screening run by Slack Video at Lamp at 9. This features a DVD free-for-all, so if you have a film but missed the deadline, or just happen to have a DVD of your short about your person on the day, come to the party and if there's time, they'll screen it.

There's more information about the festival here at ITV Local, including interviews and clips, and the full programme is here so check it out and come along. And whether or not you can make it, tell everyone you know who is interested in short films and film making to come too, because it's going to be a fab weekend.

See you there!

Cute gal, hiking

2008-04-13T05:28:00.011+01:00

We hired a car the other day, a cute little Chevy we nicknamed Hamster. The rental guy offered us a really good deal on a huge tank-like vehicle, and looked at us a bit oddly when we said actually, we'd rather have that little white hatchback in the corner. Nerys has been doing all the driving, because though Tiny, she is also Brave. I, on the other hand, have had the demeanour of Alarmed Chicken at the very thought of taking the wheel in LA. However, Nerys set off home at dark o'clock this morning, so finally, I did it. I drove in LA. And actually, it was pretty OK. The oddest thing was driving an automatic. I couldn't help my left foot twitching every now and then, and my hand going for the gearstick, but it wasn't anywhere near as scary as I thought it might be. So, sorry Nerys, for being a wimp while you were here!

So, having mastered going forwards and stopping, I drove all the way down Santa Monica Boulevard to the Pacific Coast Highway and thence to Topanga Canyon Boulevard and eventually to the Trippet Ranch parking lot on the Topanga State Park. I set out on the Musch Meadow Trail, which was fairly low level and gentle, and as you'd guess from the name, made up of meadows:

and also some nice leafy glades, vital for shady moments as LA is having a heatwave at the moment:

I got to Eagle Junction and still felt like walking, so decided to carry on going, and was walking past a group of women resting at the camping ground while their leader was giving them a bit of a talk about the trails. "If you carry on walking like this cute gal here," she said, as they all turned to look at me and waved, "you'll get to Eagle Rock". So, I thought I'd go to Eagle Rock. "There are a few steep bits," she continued, "but it's a great walk."

Did I mention it's a heatwave here? Or that there are steep bits? And the steep bits happen to be above the shady bits, and climbing a steep trail is the very hot heat is absolutely bloody knackering. However, it was worth it:

There are views towards the ocean and also panoramic views inland and over Topanga Canyon:

It took about an hour and 20 minutes up, and an hour and ten down, so I ended up hiking for about three hours which was about three times longer than I'd originally thought I'd do, but it was a really great hike and well worth the effort. And I love Topanga.

Then I drove back to West Hollywood, via Sunset Boulevard, and got here with only one "oops I'm stuck in a 'right lane must turn right' lane" - so, driving wasn't too bad at all, and I didn't even once utter the never-to-be-forgotten phrase "Oh my God, I'm bloody driving on the ****ing left hand side!"

Actually, that OMG occurence, which happened shortly before we went to see The Tonight Show on Thursday, just made Keanu's story about biking in Australia ("not that side, this side") that bit funnier.

So, I got back here sweaty, dusty and hot, but pleased not to have damaged anyone or myself or the car. Phew.

Later, met Chris from Million Dollar Screenwriting at Barney's Beanery and had a bite to eat and a really good chat.

And tomorrow's my last day here. Have checked in online, so I basically have all day to do something or other. Wander about, eat salad, and shop, probably. Might go back to Book Soup, which is a fab bookshop on Sunset. And if I can find the place, go to Billy's booksigning.

PS Did I mention that the cute gal was me?

And now for something completely different

2008-04-11T17:01:00.002+01:00

Just a quick reminder - it's Hull Short Film Festival next week, and all the details are here. It's a packed programme with lots of great films from around the world, including all the BAFTA shorts, film maker panels, a Screentalk session with well known short film maker Simon Ellis, parties, and loads of networking opportunities. Check out the programme, and come to Hull! Get in touch if you're coming over, and feel free to ask if you've got any questions about getting to Hull, where to stay, where to eat, etc etc.

Hope to see lots of people there.

Want to see what we saw?

2008-04-11T07:30:00.004+01:00

Then watch Tonight with Jay Leno tonight!

We were in the studio audience, and guests were Keanu Reeves, an indie band from Chicago (I think) called Redwall, and a comedian called Chelsea Handler.

Oops, it's taken me so long to sort this post out that the show's about to start on NBC! Back later with details!

The story so far

2008-04-10T18:28:00.009+01:00

We're online in Starbucks having our breakfasts, blogging and watching the world go by on Santa Monica Boulevard, and I have a bit of time to do a trip update.

We went to the Farmers' Market and The Grove on Sunday; had lunch with Peggy and her mate which was fun. The Farmers' Market wasn't what we expected - I thought it would be lots of produce stalls, but in fact there were a few produce stalls and lots of food stalls selling pretty much any kind of food you could want to eat. We got lunch from a Mexican place; I had tacos and cactus salad, which I've never had before - and having tried it once, don't really feel the need to have it again. Then Nez and I went up to Hollywood Boulevard and did a good chunk of the Walk of Fame, including this time finding Keanu's star, which was hidden under the preparations for the Oscars last time I was here.

Then we met some of Nez's friends, Annabelle, Alicia and Audrey, for dinner at La Clafoutis on Sunset which was good - nice food and an excellent people-watching spot.

Monday, Annabelle and Alicia picked us up and we went to the Getty Villa at Malibu which was interesting - a reconstruction of a villa of the sort that would have been built at Herculaneum, with beautiful gardens and water features (which I just wanted to get in - it's pretty hot here for a Northern girl). We had a guided tour from an ex teacher who made us all feel a bit like we were on a primary school trip - but it was worth getting the tour just to get the history of the place.

Then we drove up the PCH (which has to be one of the best roads in the world) for shrimp and fries (of course) at Neptune's Net.

Tuesday we all went to downtown LA so Nez could take photos for her project; saw the Disney Hall, and then had a bit of afternoon tea in the Biltmore Hotel where the Oscars were held in the 1930s.

Yesterday Nez and I went up to the Griffith Observatory which is ace - fantastic views over LA, high up so you get a lovely breeze. We both took loads of photos because I bought myself a fab little Nikon.

And later today we're due to do something pretty exciting but I'm not going to jinx the possibilities by saying anything. I'll tell you later!

Guess where I am...

2008-04-08T18:33:00.003+01:00

Back with a proper update later - we're off out for the day so Nez can take lots more photos! And then we're going to the Chateau Marmont for a drink. Ooh, my life's tough.

Want to meet?

2008-03-31T22:46:00.002+01:00

The good thing about this post is that typing no longer makes my hands hurt, after last week's attenpt to find out whether I can still climb rocks (which did make my hands hurt).

Anyway, this time next week I will be in LA - anyone out there in Lala land want to meet for a coffee/cocktail/lunch/whatever? Drop me an email if so.

Meanwhile:
Last Friday V+B+I went to see "The 39 Steps" at York Theatre Royal - can honestly say, have not had such a good laugh in a long time. It's a parody of, yet also a homage to, the original 1930s film (complete with Hitchcock cameo) but its very sweetly done, so you're laughing at the take off of the style, which is great, whilst also enjoying the story. A cast of four act out the whole "film" - and I have to admit that the Robert Donat version of this tale is for me the original and best, so to pull off such a clever and knowing parody while also remaining true in some way to the spirit is a remarkable feat. Well worth going to see, if it tours near you.

Until LA .....

Ouch, and other things

2008-03-22T22:08:00.002Z

Had lunch with J today, and he asked how the chickens were doing since they haven't appeared on here much recently - they're doing very well, producing three eggs a day; if I have a surplus, I've been selling them at work and in fact now they're so popular amongst my regular customers that I don't have to advertise any more - last week, I had more eggs requested than my three chooks could supply! So, they're pretty much paying for themselves right now - I sell just enough to cover their food costs, which aren't high to start with (there's a reason the phrase "chicken feed" exists) while still keeping enough for us to eat. And I picked up a load of seeds today too, so the planning of the veggie garden continues apace. I've already got a request for spare tomato plants, so I'm hoping to set up some kind of mini-LET scheme at work, and/or amongst friends. If anyone wants to get into a plant-swapping thing, let me know, and I'll post a list of what I'm growing.

I have been reflecting on last weekend, and just how fabulous it was to spend so much time intensively experiencing Shakespeare, in such great company of both a hugely talented cast and crew, and a hugely appreciative audience. One of the really good things about last weekend was the fact that the audience were pretty serious theatre goers, (599 passholders doing all 8 plays out of an audience for each play of approx 1000, plus 400 doing each play individually, or queueing devotedly for returns) and so therefore there was no texting, no crinkling of sweetie wrappers, no chattering, no muttering, no generally behaving like a bit of an unsociable thoughtless git, only one mobile phone going off during the whole 8 plays (you moron); we used to like the Members Nights the RSC once did for exactly that reason, that you were in an audience of people who knew how to behave, but sadly they seem to have ended.

There was also a bit of cabin fever, I'm sure, as Jenny at Whatsonstage noticed - by Saturday, the introductions for each play, given by a different actor each time, were getting huge cheers before anyone had even said anything. It was also lovely to begin to recognise people, and see each other between plays, and chat about them - one of the things I miss most as a solo theatre-goer is the chance to sound off afterwards, so Sunday in particular was lovely because I found someone to hang out with.

As for my high points - I will mention a few actors whose performances I particularly enjoyed, but I have to say I don't want this to seem disparaging to anyone in the whole Histories cast, because they were all amazing - that anyone could pull off multiple roles over 7 plays (they all got one play off, apparently, apart from David Warner who only did Falstaff, and threw himself into that role with enormous joie de vivre) is a stunning feat of theatre.

So, high spots:
Lex Shrapnel - I'd never seen Henry IV before, but it really is a fabulously exciting pair of plays, loads of intrigue and plenty of action, but the high point of Friday was Lex Shrapnel and his speech as Harry Percy, "Oh would the quarrel lay upon our heads" - that he could deliver such a speech so passionately and so beautifully, and then launch into some phenomenally physical battle scenes - he took my breath away. Fabulous actor, one to watch.

Geoffrey Streatfield - I really liked the way he was such a fun, frivolous Hal, who then really did assume the role of kingship for Henry V. And he really pulled off the classic Harry speeches, once more unto the breach, and St Crispin's day. I'll remember, with advantages, what feats we did that day alright.

Chuk Iwuji - he made such a sweet, delicate Henry VI -bewildered, tender, and devout - a heart-rending performance. I remember him from Hamlet in 2001, his first RSC role - again, he is one to watch.

Jonathan Slinger - what to say? From deluded but oddly innocent Richard II to power crazed deluded Richard III via one of the best Fluellens I've seen, he was remarkable. A stunningly good actor.

Ropework - one of the things I loved about the whole set of 8 plays was the use of space - it was truly 3D, with some fantasic use of rappeling and ropework in the various battle scenes, some great use of trapeze, ladders, and lowering and raising platforms - it was incredibly dynamic, especially in Richard III just as maybe people were getting a bit tired - suddenly we have the SAS (or equivalent) flinging themselves from the ceiling - fabulous stuff. And I particularly liked the use of space in HV with the English forces largely earthbound and tunnelling while the French floated airily on trapezes. To have one set work for all 8 plays is a tremendous feat of the imagination, and I'm really glad that the crew came out on Sunday to be applauded because they deserved it so, so much.

Language - maybe because the cast have been doing these plays for so long, the language has become second nature to them - certainly it felt incredibly natural in the way they spoke the lines. But what struck me part way through Friday was that having spent 9 or so hours listening to spoken Shakespeare, it becomes natural to the ear, so that I stopped having to think about it. It just became the way that people speak. That mechanism that is sometimes in your brain at a Shakespeare play, that logs the words, then converts them, then decides whether to laugh to cry - not needed. They were good at speaking - more than good, I've never heard better verse speaking - and we were good at listening. And all week, I've been thinking in Shakespeare on my drive to work.

Politics - one of the elements I most appreciated from seeing the plays in their chronological order was the sense of relationships - I see where Hotspur gets his fire in H IVi because he feels his family is spurned after R II; I know why Richard Duke of Gloucester hates Margaret in RIII because in H VIiii he saw her kill his father and brother - and much more - the relationships through the generations, the switching of sides, who is loyal to who; who chooses the red rose and who the white*, and the consequences for England - it all plays out so clearly when you see the plays one after the other, in a way that's missing when you see them in isolation.

The other thing that I found particularly moving was the way that Michael Boyd seemed to pick out family and relationships as a major theme throught the 8 plays. Sure, this is about kings and kingdoms and power; but it's also about families, and love, and loyalty. I think my favourite aspect of the whole series, seen as a whole, was the way that characters reoccur - Clive Wood as Bolingbroke and Henry IV, obv, but also that he reappeared to crown Richard III - so, whose family have a rightful claim to the throne? Which branch, descending from Edward III and his many sons, has rightful claim? Margaret, and her passion, misguided as it might be, but her family loyalty was unsurpassed? But best of all, a genius piece of casting, Keith Bartlett and Lex Shrapnel, first as the Earl of Northumberland and Hotspur, then as Talbot and John Talbot, then as their ghosts, then as Stanley and Richmond ( fair enough the last two aren't father and son, but they do have a paternal relationship on the battlefield at Bosworth). It worked fantastically well, not least because the two actors inhabited their roles with such passion you could not help but believe in them. . And for anyone who says Shakespeare has no relevance to modern life - go and watch "In the Valley of Elah" and see Susan Sarandon's scene where she says to Tommy Lee Jones "couldn't you leave me just one?" and tell me you don't see parallels with Talbot saying to his son "shall all thy mother's hopes lie in one tomb?"

Shakespeare is everything - love, hate, loyalty, treachery, passion, power, fun, bawdiness, war, dirt, humour - and more. It was one amazing and unique experience, and one I will not forget in a long, long time.

*Apparently I'm descended from John of Gaunt (red rose), but I was born in Yorkshire (white rose) - its probably a good job I claim Derbyshire as my county since I grew up there, otherwise I'd be schizophrenic!

That's it, then

2008-03-17T19:32:00.004Z

Am back home, still reeling in awe at the brilliance of the Histories cast, and revelling in the sheer joy of spending a chunk of time with a bunch of people who love the same stuff as me. Hello Kathy in D49 and E10, Paul in D46, Jenny occasionally in D47, Steve in M62, and also hello B28 who left me a comment. By Sunday, it really did feel like being amongst a band of brothers, we few, we happy few who were lucky enough or privileged enough to have shared this wondrous experience. As Michael Boyd said on Sunday, "gentlemen in England now abed shall think themselves accursed they were not here." Absolutely.

I will write considered and fully thought through reviews soon, possibly tomorrow, but meanwhile check out Jenny at whatsonstage, and courtesy of the fantastic resource that is the RSC website, gaze upon the very lovely Lex Shrapnel aka Harry Percy, John Talbot, and Richmond/HenryVII:

Am currently severely tempted to go for a trilogy day at the Roundhouse in London, to see H IV pt 1 and 2 and HV again. Oh, what to do! (You just know I'm going to be on the phone in the morning, don't you?)

Almost done

2008-03-16T10:38:00.003Z

Sunday morning, and there's only one play left to see, plus a talk from Michael Boyd, which I'm looking forward to. It's funny, there was a point on Saturday when I felt rather overwhelmed at the thought of another 5 plays to see, but now, it seems to have flown by.

I sat next to someone on Friday who was blogging after each play for Whatsonstage.com, so it'll be interesting to check her reports out in due course. I didn't have computer access to blog after each one, so here's my notes, briefly:

Just over half way (Saturday morning)
Five plays in, 9 hours in a theatre yesterday and 3 so far today with 6 to go - still magical and engrossing. Everyone doing the full cycle has a Histories bag, so other "Gloriosi" are easily identifiable. Henry V was fab, Geoffrey Streatfield really nicely shifting from feckless Hal to
regal Henry. Ace battle scenes, really liked the foppish French and earthy English characterisations. Henry VI pt 1, v good, loved the French court as a fashion parade.

Beginning to flag (Saturday afternoon)
Just finished Henry VI pt 2 and am beginning to flag a little - definite post lunch slump. Nothing to do with the acting, which is superb, more feeling tired in a warm dark room. Had a fabulous seat on row J (have been shifting about a bit as I complained about my original seat - K64, its obstructed view, don't buy it!) sitting next to John Shrapnel, father of Lex (with whom I am still smitten, but I didn't tell his Dad that).

One puzzle - the last two nights, some women have thrown daffodils onto the stage at the end of the play - why? And will Daffodil Women be back again tonight?

Nearly the end (Saturday night)
Can't quite believe 7 plays have gone by so fast. Henry VI, which I've only ever seen as the two part Rose Rage by Propeller a couple of years ago, as a whole makes a very detailed and compelling picture of England's fall into the Wars of the Roses - and you can't doze off for a moment otherwise you lose track of which lords are which and who's on which side. Brilliant stuff. Sustained and enthusastic applause for ther actors at the end, which is so well deserved.

Daffodil Women were tonight transformed into Carnation Women - what's that all about?

And now I'm heading back to SuA, brunch, talk, play (Richard III) and reception. Proper and more thoughtful reviews tomorrow, probably.

Two down, six to go

2008-03-14T14:38:00.000Z

Am in Stratford for the Glorious Moment weekend, 8 Shakespeare history plays in 4 days, and typing very fast in SuA library because play #3 begins at 3!

Proper reviews later, when I have time for contemplation- Richard II last night was very good - Jonathan Slinger a wonderful verse speaker if a little on the foppish side as Richard. The staging is wonderfully bare, with a few idiosyncracies - rope-born saddles for the Bolingbroke/Mowbray duel, for example. Period costume, and some of the costumes are amazingly lush and detailed.

Henry IV part 1 this morning was fabulous - I am completely smitten by Lex Shrapnel as Harry Percy, Hotspur - his verse speaking is completely wonderful, he is so physically present in his role, he is fabulous to watch. The play itself feels very much like "part 1" - it ends quite abruptly, and I can't wait to get back in and see part 2 - and on that note, must dash!

More later ...

I tag everyone

2008-03-01T22:39:00.002Z

I read this set of questions and answers on Far Away's blog, and tag everyone who reads this to answer.

• Why did you start blogging and why do you continue?
I started just before going to Cannes in 2006, because I thought it would be fun to chart the experience, and also because I thought a blog would be an easy way for family and friends to follow the process, rather than lots of bitty emails. I continue because I like writing reviews, and I like feeling part of something, and the scribosphere is something.

• How do you decide what to blog about?
I usually try to blog reviews of everything I see, theatre and film wise, and things I do that are writing related, plus a sprinkling of posts about the garden, the chickens, and cooking, mainly because my blog is a personal blog rather than a screenwriting blog. I wouldn't presume, in my position, to tell people how to do it - I'm happy charting what I do, and whether or not I'm sending stuff off and whether it gets accepted, and I think that one of the good things about blogging is the sharing of experiences.

• Do you write straight out or pre-plan what you’re going to write?
Bit of both. Sometimes when I'm at a play or a film I'm already forming the sentences that will make up the review. That tends to lean to it not being a great review. Sometimes I just sit down and start to type.

• Do you censor yourself?
Yes. (a) some of my family read it (b) some of my family don't want to be in it (c) I try not to be really rude about stuff that in other circumstances I might be rude about.

So, what about you?

Short stuff

2008-03-01T14:30:00.002Z

Lucy Vee has news of a short script comp: full details here; as she says, it's cheaper to enter than the BSSC, and both have early deadlines which make it even cheaper.

The call has also gone out for one minute plays for GI60 (Gone in 60 seconds). Details here, along with the videos of last year's plays in both New York and Harrogate, so you can have a look at the potential competition. Mine's in the Harrogate section, and is the sixth play, beginning at about 7:36, if you want to skip forwards. I didn't go to see it, so I'm pleased to see what they've done with it - a minor change in the script which works well - and also that the audience laughed. Phew.

Need your help again

2008-02-26T18:44:00.005Z

In November last year, I posted about a company who wanted to quarry in a sensitive and beautiful part of the Peak District of Derbyshire. We suspected Glebe Mines would put in another application, and indeed they have. Here's the original post.

If you objected last time, please write in again; if you meant to object last time but didn't quite get around to it, please object now. Write to:

Ms S Smith, Senior Minerals Planner, Peak District National Park Authority, Aldern House, Baslow Road, Bakewell, Derbyshire, DE45 1AE

quoting Tearsall Quarry – Fluorspar Extraction Application NP/DDD/0208/0104

or email planning.service@peakdistrict.gov.uk

The original objections still stand, and if you'd like a letter template to send to the Peak Park, or if you'd like more information, please contact me via comments or email.

The Planning Committee meets in 9 days, so please, get those objections in if you don't want this:

to turn into something like this:

Arg!

2008-02-22T09:38:00.002Z

Haven't blogged for ages, sorry! Have been rather preoccupied with getting A sorted for her trip to New Zealand (she's there now, and sends me texts at 5am saying things like "we've had a lovely day on the beach " - envious, me? What do you think?). Also had a bunch of new stuff coming up at work - a big project on occupational cancers, the possibility (but it fell through) of some more sexual health work, and a couple of other things too.

Thanks to anyone who voted for Sam's film via here - he was the regional winner, but didn't win overall - still, he got to go to the BAFTAs, lucky boy.

Seen a couple of plays at York Theatre Royal, and a couple of films, mostly enjoyable but nothing stunningly good, but since I should be setting off somewhere in about - ooh, ten minutes! - I'll come back and do a proper post with real reviews soon(ish).

Meanwhile keep an eye on the Hull Films website - the programme for the Short Film Festival will launch soon, and its going to be a cracker! Seriously, there's some good stuff planned - can't say more, but at the last Board meeting we discussed some v cool visitors and speakers.

Watch and vote!

2008-01-30T19:45:00.000Z

A film-making mate, Sam Donovan, made a one minute film for the BAFTA "60 seconds of fame" competition - the film has made it to the regional finals where it's competing for a chance to be screened at the BAFTAs this year.

It's a funny film, and worth a look and a vote - go here to watch it and vote for Sam!

Having a tetris moment

2008-01-28T19:48:00.000Z

Currently listening to: "The Legendary Johnny Cash"
Currently eating: homemade felafel and guacamole - oops, there goes this week's lunches

One of the things that writers get asked is "where do you get your ideas?" Although I'm always tempted to say that the good ones come from Waitrose but the rest come from the pound shop, my real answer is that I don't "get" them at all - they just arrive. Usually, they're kind of half formed, an "ooh that might be something" type of thought that isn't quite enough for a story. And then it floats about for a while, and if I'm being organised I write it down, and forget about it. Then something else pops up, or I read something, and suddenly, kerching! Now, THAT + THIS would make a story! At the Royal Court workshop, Lindsey called it a "tetris moment" when all the pieces slot together, and Jane explained it as having one idea that wasn't quite complete, that suddenly meets another thing you're interested in, and it all just clicks.

And joy of joys, I'm having a week of tetris moments. After a spell of feeling like I'd never have another idea ever ever again, the delayed effect of going to the workshop seems to be that every single brain cell is firing on all cylinders at the moment. A very old idea sprang back into life when I read an article in the paper and found a way into the story (this will hopefully be a BIG play); a new idea popped up (this will probably be a little play); and I got an insight into how I can make a character I've been playing around with for a while actually work out.

On top of this, KAOS put out their call for entries for this year's BSSC - early deadline 28th March, final deadline 27th June for live action scripts; animation is going to be a separate category this year. Unfortunately I haven't written a short script since "A Tree for Emily" last year, so I'm hoping this week's tetris moments will result in a little film as well as a little play. Gone In 60 Seconds will be calling for one minute scripts soonish too, their deadline is usually April, so I need a tiny play too.

I also need a new digital camera since my trusty Fuji Finepix packed in last week. I've been browsing various websites, including the blogs of a couple of good photographers in my blogroll, but I can't decide what to get, so any advice would be helpful. I don't want to spend silly amounts of money, because I'm a snapper rather than a photographer, I just like having pictures as souvenirs rather than being someone who aims to take classy photos, so if anyone knows of a good, reliable, basic and not too dear camera, please let me have your suggestions.

And finally, I think I managed to get my blogroll back to the way it was before I managed to lose everyone. But if I'm not linking you and you think I should, let me know.

Workshop update

2008-01-26T20:01:00.000Z

Promised a report from last weekend's workshop at the Royal Court. Famous for being one of the places for new writing, they run groups for young writers, but also a 26+ group which until recently has been a ten week evening course (so, obviously, impossible to attend for those who don't live in London). This year, the 26+ workshop has been converted into a weekend workshop, and thanks to Lianne and a cheeky email, I got a last minute cancellation slot. (As it turned out, there were 15 places available but only 9 of us turned up, so if you fancy it, it might be worth a cheeky email re the February and March weekends).

The weekend began with pre-play drinks and introductions on the Friday evening followed by a play (we saw Vertical Hour, as reported earlier). On Saturday, we began at 9:30 with more detailed introductions (why are you here, what do you write, etc) and then lots of group discussions about what playwrights do, what plays are for, the qualities writers need - oh, the workshop was run by Jane Bodie, who was very funny, insightful and inspirational, a really good workshop leader; after a really nice lunch in the Royal Court bar we had a session with associate director Lindsey Turner which was really useful in terms of insights into how directors work with writers and actors in order to turn the writer's vision into something the actors can perform on stage - she's a really good session leader. In the afternoon, lots of working on scenes, writing and reading with the other workshop participants. We finished around 7, and headed to the bar to carry on talking. Oh, we also had homework. Sunday, began at 9:30, ran til at least 7:15 which is when I had to leave to get my train - in between, lots more working on scenes, workshopping ideas about the stuff that had come up from our homework (which was to read a play and find some stuff from newspapers), and a career Q+A to round things off.

It was a completely brilliant and inspirational weekend, which did exactly what I had hoped it would do - ie, give me a kick up the backside as far as writing for theatre is concerned; and although it might seem expensive, I got a play, three play texts, drinks, coffees, lunches, about 18 hours of workshop time, and some great networking and chat time. Which, when you break it down, is pretty good VFM. The other people in the group were great, a good mix of actors, writers, and people working in theatre, and hopefully we'll be meeting up to go and see some plays together in the future.

Sad times

2008-01-22T23:55:00.000Z

I was planning on posting a jolly, happy post about the workshop, then I heard from N that Heath Ledger has been found dead in his apartment in New York. A fine, fine actor, and a great loss.

And it was the funeral of one of my first ever heroes, Sir Edmund Hillary, in Auckland NZ today.

Jolly happy goes out the window, really.

Masterclass and workshop weekend

2008-01-21T16:36:00.000Z

Went to London for a masterclass, theatre, and writing workshop - got a last minute cancellation place on a Royal Court writing weekend, then found out Sam West was doing a masterclass on Friday, so managed to get down in time for that - all a bit of a mad rush, and too tired to blog when I got home last night, but here's the first part.

The Theatre Royal Haymarket run some great masterclasses, aimed at 17-30 year old but not limited to that group. If you're over 30, you pay a tenner, which is absolutely bargainous. Friday was supposed to be Imelda Staunton at the Theatre Royal, but ended up being Sam at the Almeida. It was an acting masterclass, where Sam worked on scenes from three plays (Dealer's Choice by Patrick Marber, Betrayal by Harold Pinter, and Top Girls by Caryl Churchill) with three pairs of young actors (sadly I didn't get their names, but they were fab). I can't comment from an actor's point of view, but from a writer's viewpoint, it was a fascinating insight into the directing process as much as anything. The actors first performed the chosen scene, then Sam would direct them to change things, either about the way they moved and used space, they way they delivered lines, or the way they reacted to the other actor's speech.

He asked the actors to think about what they wanted, both overall (their "super-objective") and in that particular scene, or even with that line - worth thinking about from a writing viewpoint, in that if you don't have the character want something in each line, the actor will have less to work with. Also, to think about what each person knows at the beginning of each scene.

Other, more actor-y stuff - play the action, not the mood; know the character's back story; do the play that's there - don't add punctuation etc that isn't there; find a character in the rhythm of their speech. And my favourite: "It's not up to you to feel, it's up to you to do - that's why it's called acting".

A ton of thought-provoking stuff to take away and reflect upon - I can't remember who it was who told me to do acting classes and workshops to become a better writer, but it's certainly true that an acting and directing masterclass like this really made me think about how what you put on the page is dealt with in getting the words up on their feet.

And not only do you get a 2+hour masterclass for your tenner (or for free if you're under 30), you also get to go in the bar for free career advice afterwards, if you wish! Like I said, total bargain: click here to find out about future masters and their classes.

And after a quick drink and a chat, it was off to the Royal Court, Sam to Rough Cuts and me to meet up with the other weekend workshop participants and to see "The Vertical Hour", David Hare's play which premiered on Broadway last year.

It was only the second preview of the play, so they were still working it in, and changing things in tech over the weekend; it was well acted, but on the whole disappointing, I felt. Anton Lesser was fab as Oliver, and Indira Varma very sharp as Nadia, but the role of the son felt very underwritten. Although there were some very funny bits, and some thought provoking material in there, it felt as though too many ideas were thrown into the air and inadequately developed. It would've been a lot tighter and punchier at half an hour shorter. But, as I say, its still in preview and hasn't had the press night yet, so things may change and tighten up.

Apparently on Saturday I managed to walk past David Hare himself without even noticing, but I did spot Sir Peter Hall in the bar so I'm not totally losing my grip.

More about the Royal Court writing workshop later; but their co-production of Caryl Churchill's play "Drunk Enough to Say I Love You" will be on at the Public Theater of New York in March, with Sam playing one role in the two-hander - but I don't know if he's playing Sam or Jack. Not sure which would be most confusing!

Joaquin Phoenix People's Choice Awards 2008

2008-01-13T22:34:00.001Z

As promised

Mixed bag

2008-01-13T21:01:00.000Z

An all sorts of bits and pieces random catch up.

First, the important stuff:

I missed this link from Thursday; Sam seems to be the main man for Equity at the moment - go here for a debate on Radio 4's PM on 10th Jan about the Arts Council cuts - ffwd to 40mins to hear the crucial bit.

Am a touch cheesed off that writers and theatre-makers have been blogging about this since before Christmas but its not until the actors get involved that the BBC takes notice; on the other hand, at least they're taking notice.

Can't help but link the Arts Council's disregard for new writing and regional theatre with the WGA strike in America - am I alone in feeling that its "let's stomp on writers" season? I particularly enjoyed Joaquin Phoenix's response to the strike as part of the People's Choice awards, and not just because I'm in the "got to see everything he's done" phase of having a bit of a crushette on him (it's his eyes - man with green eyes = me going *thud*) - and I would've posted his response as part of this post, if it wasn't for the fact that I can't work out how to embed a clip - suffice to say, Joaquin follows shortly.

*cough* OK, attempt to get back to being serious and banish all thoughts of Joaquin ...

Said a while ago I'd update re Caught Shorter, Screen Yorkshire's scheme for funding short films. I put in a bid with me as producer alongside Director Dan and Writer Mark; we got shortlisted, which in itself is an achievement, I think - they shortlist 8 in order to pick 4, from around 100 applicants. We didn't get selected for funding, and one of the reasons was "inexperienced director" - given that the scheme is for 1st or 2nd time directors, we were a little confused about this - how can you apply for a scheme for 1st or 2nd time directors unless you're inexperienced? Isn't that the point? Anyway, we haven't given up, and I'm still looking out for sources of funding for what I think is a really interesting script. And if anyone is up for an interview with their regional board and wants a quick chat about our experiences, get in touch - am happy to help wherever possible.

And I know I'm way behind with film reviews, but as a quick summary - Golden Compass, liked it; Enchanted, made me queasy; Charlie Wilson's War, also made me queasy; St Trinians, fun but not a patch on the original. N and I were going to see PS I love You last week but decided we'd rather stay in the bar for another drink, however we are going to attempt to see We Own The Night this week, and not just because N is indulging my Joaquin thing. No, not at all.

Action needed

2008-01-12T15:00:00.000Z

Click here to protest against the proposed cuts to the Bush Theatre if you care about new writing; go to David Eldridge's blog to see the arguments set out much more thoroughly and eloquently than I can do it; go here to sign a petition to the Government if you have no confidence in the Arts Council right now. Here's Lyn Gardner's views, and here's Sam West on the BBC's Daily Politics show last week. following the Equity meeting at the Young Vic (the clip is only available for the next 4 days - fast forward to 25 minutes into the programme - although there's a nice bit of RSC Hamlet from 2001 at the beginning of the programme too.)

Will be back later with a more substantial post, but this couldn't wait.

Happy New Year

2007-12-31T16:29:00.000Z

Arg!! Was going to do a proper post with film reviews, and news of Caught Shorter (not exciting, I'm afraid) and other stuff, but I'm supposed to be setting off for a party in an hour and I haven't had a bath or ironed my posh frock yet (so it goes without saying that I haven't started packing either - not that I need much). Anyway everyone's probably doing much more exciting things than reading blogs ... but just in case, you're not,

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Merry Christmas

2007-12-24T23:09:00.000Z

Merry Christmas to everyone who drops in to read this stuff; hope you have a good one, and that at least one wish of yours comes true in 2008.

Thanks for reading, thanks even more for commenting, and wherever you are in the world, peace and hugs.

An ambition never to be realised

2007-12-22T23:19:00.000Z

Although some people hated him, and despite the fact that in the later years his guests became less starry and more "am I supposed to have heard of them?" Parkinson on a Saturday night was one of those fixtures that though I might not watch it, I'd at least check to see who was on. In ye olden days, Parkinson was part of the Saturday night routine - make a pot of tea, have tea and biscuits while watching Parky interview some Hollywood superstar (and this was in the days before Hello, Trash, Crap, and all those other intrusive magazines for stupid people). In this way, I got to have a tiny glimpse of my early heros such as James Stewart and David Niven (yes, I really am that old). When Parky did the famous interview in 1971 with Muhammad Ali, it was a time when our village didn't get telly very well, but my sister's friend's house had reception - so we all went round there to watch the show.

Anyway it used to be a sign that "I've made it" - the thought of being on the Parkinson show was something to aim for. And now he's retired, so I'll never get to walk down those stairs to a theme tune chosen just for me, and have a flirty interview with a cricket and film obsessed Yorkshireman. Tonight's programme was a reminder of the spectacular guests he used to get on the show, and I so wanted to be one of them.

Oh well. Need to think of a new ambition.

Something old, something new

2007-12-22T19:24:00.000Z

Got distracted and forgot to post up reviews from my last London weekend - God In Ruins at Soho Theatre followed by Othello at the Donmar Warehouse.

God in Ruins, by Anthony Neilson, was commissioned by the RSC and is described as an alternative Christmas play, asking us to have sympathy for the single man alone on Christmas Eve. Although the play is very very funny, and really well put together, it's not so much sympathy that it produces but rather a feeling that men are really quite pathetic, but it's all either their father's fault, or women's fault. The play opens with Bob Cratchit and Scrooge, only it's Scrooge a couple of years later, and he's so jolly that he's quite a pain in the bum. Then we scoot forward to spend the rest of the play with Brian, played wonderfully by Brian Doherty, an over-working divorcee trying to make contact with his daughter. He flip flops from being quite a sympathetic character to being quite repellent in some of his actions, but ultimately despite his rudeness and selfishness, the denouement of the play is satisfying. It's very witty, laugh out loud funny, rude and thought provoking - well worth seeing.

Interesting Guardian blog here about the hazards of mainstream companies like the RSC commissioning work from innovative people like Anthony Neilson.

Then to Othello at the Donmar, sold out within half an hour of public booking opening, and tickets apparently going for silly prices on ebay, so I was half expecting to be bopped over the head by huddled folk in big overcoats lurking down dark alleyways, but in fact there was a very short and sedate queue for returns and no lurkers or boppers in sight. Phew. Overheard from the box office - there are usually six to eight returns a show, so if you don't want to queue first thing for day tickets, getting there early in the evening (before 6:45) might mean you get lucky.

Anyway, in we (me and L) go, and we're on the front row. Fabulous. The set was bare, with dark dripping walls and a stream at the back, becoming shot with beams of light when the action moves from Venice to Cyprus, Christopher Oram's design quite reminiscent of his Don Carlos at the Crucible. And the play itself was splendid, Michael Grandage at his absolute best. Much has been written about the power of Chiwetel Ejiofor's performance, and it's all true. He is wonderful, mesmerising, a truly great stage actor. Ewan McGregor was a very cold, calculating Iago, a perfectly measured performance that captured the sheer nastiness of the character. Desdemona, sometimes a bit of a drippy part, was played very sweetly by Kelly Reilly, and Tom Hiddleston and Michelle Fairley were also really good as Cassio and Emilia, especially Emilia's last scene where she becomes aware of Iago's treachery and argues about Desdemona's loyalty.

Perhaps because the Donmar is small and intimate, and we were on the front row, I found this Othello to be utterly engrossing and completely emotionally draining. I confess to a tear sliding down my cheek at the end, and I also confess to giving only the second ever standing ovation I've ever done. It really was that powerful. Chiwetel Ejiorfor alone is worth queuing in the dark before dawn to see.

Othello reviews round up here.

Recent film reviews to follow shortly.

Really bad decision

2007-12-16T23:04:00.000Z

Taken from Andrew's blog:

"The Arts Council Yorkshire yesterday announced its intention to completely withdraw funding from the National Student Drama Festival. This is a catastrophically short-sighted, wrong-headed blunder."

Absolutely.

Check out the link to Andrew's blog above for more information, but basically this is an act of crazy vandalism. There's a Guardian blog about the impact NSDF can have here, and there's a petition to sign here if you think that the Harold Pinters, Simon Russell Beales, Stephen Frys, Meera Syals, Tim Wests, Roger Michels, Pete Postlethwaites and many, many more actors, directors, writers, and the crucial, usually invisible technical and design people of the future deserve some support. And if you couldn't give a stuff about theatre but are only interested in money and the whole "why should we support these people" type of arguments, a report commissioned by the Arts Council in 2004 found that theatre contributed at least £2.6billion to the UK economy every year (and the report itself says that's a conservative figure). And how is theatre going to carry on contributing billions if the up and coming generations aren't supported?

What's going on at the moment? Regional theatre seems to be disappearing at the rate of knots, and now student thetare is being attacked too. How are we supposed to have a thriving theatrical culture in the future if the roots and branches are pulverised now?

The end of an era

2007-12-09T23:44:00.000Z

I couldn't resist - I went to Sheffield on Thursday. Not for Amadeus, in particular, but because I knew that if I didn't go to say goodbye to the Crucible, I'd regret it later. As it happened, I had one of the best nights I've had there, seeing the play, stopping for one last drink in the Long Bar and ending up chatting to actors til almost midnight. The play itself as directed by Nikolai Foster was really entertaining, a tour de force performance from Gerard Murphy as Salieri complimented by a sweet and funny performance by Bryan Dick as Mozart. The set was beautifully lit, bringing to mind some of the great designs by Christopher Oram that I've seen there. The sad thing was that the theatre was less than half full, but talking to the actors after the play, it seems that they'd had poor houses all the way through, partly because everyone thought the theatre had already shut. There has been so much talk of refurbishment that no-one realised that the show still goes on - or did, until last night.

And that's now it for theatre in the Crucible until autumn 2009. It'll open again for the snooker - after all, that's what's really important, bringing the money in for a couple of weeks. Meanwhile theatre shrivels in Sheffield. Sure, the Lyceum will keep going, bringing in touring shows, and some stuff might be happening in the Studio. But although Angela Galvin says “By the time the building work is complete, the people of Sheffield will have something to be really proud of”, I fear that by the time the building work is complete, the people of Sheffield will have found other things to do and other places to go. Since Sam West's departure, there is no Artistic Director because there is no art to direct. I know some people will think I'm biased because Sam's a friend, but I don't know why his ideas were rejected and why Sheffield Theatres are not out there in the community taking theatre to new and interesting spaces and building up an audience that will pour back into the main building when it finally reopens. Sheffield has a rich and vibrant history which should be captured, stories could and should be told in all sorts of settings, communities can and should be engaged in theatre. Why aren't they doing something like the Young Vic's Walkabout season? Why aren't they out there? I'm not the only one who thinks that the Board were crazy to let Sam go and shut down production, not the only one who thinks that a swathe of the population are in danger of missing the opportunity to catch the theatre habit.

Why does it matter? Because this is the place that turned theatre on for me. And why I wanted to go back for one last time, to see the posters and huge pictures of previous productions ("you've seen pretty much all of these, haven't you?" "yeah, pretty much"); to see the hallucinogenic carpet (which apparently is going to be auctioned off); to sit in the Long Bar and reminisce about shaking hands with Harold Pinter, meeting Kenneth Branagh, discussing favourite theatre spaces with Tim West, asking Daniel Evans where he got his shoes - where else could you do that? Rarely in London if ever is theatre so democratic and the personnel so approachable.

I first went there with school, so long ago that some of Thursday's cast weren't yet born. I saw Romeo and Juliet, I saw them flood the stage for Twelfth Night and was stunned that you could do that in a theatre, I saw Plough and the Stars, I saw Amid the Standing Corn and realised that you could do theatre about people who lived in your street, I lost my house keys in Caucasian Chalk Circle and had to sleep on a friend's floor, I saw my first ever musical, Carmen Jones, I took A to the theatre for the first time there when she was 3, I saw my neice appear on the main stage as a Red Ant in the Children's Festival. That place matters to me. They better not muck this refurbishment up.

Work in progress

2007-12-03T21:36:00.000Z

Somehow, when changing my profile picture to be the WGA strike banner, I managed to lose all my carefully gathered bloglinks. Oops. I'm in the middle of the rather slow process of rebuilding the list.

Meanwhile, here's something nice to distract from the messy page:

We had a splendid baking day yesterday, and A is rather proud of her chocolate biscuits and almond macaroons, and rightly so because they're delicious. I made our Christmas cake (bit late, but it will be fed with brandy and it'll still mature nicely) and half a dozen little fruit cakes. These will be marzipanned in a week or so, then iced a week later - if I remember, I'll do "before and after" pictures.

Quick trip to London last week for a conference at Lord's cricket ground; the bonus of staying all day and not skipping off at the tea break was a tour of the ground to the first 20 people to sign up. My strategy of sitting near the back of the room paid off! We went in the media centre, and then round the museum, where the original Ashes trophy is kept; then into the Pavilion, through the Long Room, and into the England dressing room, and took turns to stand on the balcony - very cool bonus indeed. We weren't allowed to take pictures though. Our tour guide was very entertaining and very knowledgeable - well worth going on the full tour if you like cricket.

The night before, I saw "Some Kind of Bliss" by Samuel Adamson at the Trafalgar Studios, a solo performance of a piece written especially for her by Lucy Briers. It's very funny in places, and shocking in others, although at times the play feels a bit too forced, as if the writer is trying to cram in as many odd events and coincidences into 80 or so minutes as he can. However, it's worth seeing for Lucy Briers, who has great comic timing, and manages to be both hopelesly naive and smartly insightful as her character Rachel and the other characters in her world - husband, ex boyfriend, Dad, uncle, and Lulu. And the bonus was that afterwards I got to speak to Claire Price, a very fine actress I've admired many times at the Crucible.

This week's dilemma is whether to zip over to Sheffield for one last night at the Crucible before it closes for the main stage to be redeveloped. It'll have to be Thursday - and I'm off to London on Friday again. The joys of a job which requires travel - interview with top Department of Health bloke in the afternoon, "God in Ruins" at Soho Theatre in the evening, Donmar on Saturday, and someone else is paying for my fare.

And now back to fixing broken links.

Some good news

2007-12-01T16:57:00.000Z

The good news is that Glebe Mines have withdrawn their application for planning permission.

The bad news is that they will probably reapply, in which case the whole process begins again, and anyone who objects to the development has to object again - objections aren't carried forward.

So, please keep in touch, either by email or via the blog, if you objected this time or meant to but didn't quite get round to it - if they reapply, I'll be posting about it. And thanks to everyone who submitted an objection this time.

Need your help, urgently

2007-11-28T22:16:00.000Z

Isn't this beautiful? It's Wensley, near Darley Bridge, in the Peak District National Park.

However, it could end up like this:

This is open cast mining at Birchover, and a company called Glebe Mining want to extend an old quarry in order to do open cast mining in Wensley, in other words, turning the top view into something like the bottom one.

For those of you who don't know, National Parks were set up to protect areas of outstanding natural beauty, and the Peak District was the first one, established in 1951. Unlike in America, where National Parks are pretty remote and unpopulated, National Parks in the UK have people living and working in them, and in North Derbyshire, there has always been quarrying around the edges of the Park. However, this development would dig a massive hole in a totally unspoilt, beautiful valley between Matlock and Bakewell, just down the road from Chatsworth Park. The quarry would be a visible eyesore to the many visitors who come to that part of the world for walking, or just to enjoy the beauty and tranquility, and having massive lorries on narrow, unsuitable rural roads would pose dangers for local residents. In addition, Glebe Mines have mining permissions in other less sensitive areas which they could exploit, instead of ruining currently unquarried land.

This development goes against the ethos of National Parks, and I'm asking for your help to stop it. If you've ever been to Derbyshire, if you love walking there, or love going to Chatsworth, or any of the beautiful towns and villages in the Peak District, if you just love the countryside and think it shouldn't be endlessly mined, dug up, or built over, then please protest.

The full postal address to send objections to the development is:

Ms S Smith,
Senior Minerals Planner,
Peak District National Park Authority,
Aldern House,
Baslow Road,
Bakewell,
Derbyshire,
DE45 1AE

quoting Fluorspar Extraction Application Reference NP/DDD/0807/0822

However, since the planning committee meet next week, urgent action is required and you may wish to email planning.service@peakdistrict.gov.uk

Please feel free to use any or all of the reasons I set out above in your communication, but please, if you love the Peak District, ACT.

Thanks

Catching up

2007-11-25T19:11:00.000Z

All sorts of bits and pieces to catch up on, as blogging seems to have rather fallen by the wayside recently. Blame not very much happening, combined with when it does, there are always other pressures e.g. having to go to work and earn a living.

Anyway, cultural stuff - V and I went to a fabulous recital at York Uni a couple of weeks ago, given by Peter Donohoe, the most amazing pianist I've ever seen. His hands were a blur at times, an incredible virtuoso performance. It was the kind of concert where you come out afterwards inspired to start practising piano again, even though you know you will never come within one zillionth of the man's talent. Wonderful, breath-taking, fantastic stuff.

Then, faced with a yawning gap of a Saturday with nothing in the diary, my theatrical mind says "I haven't seen a play for ages", ages in this context meaning "about two weeks", so I shot off to Sheffield to see "Pinter and a Pair of Chekhov's Shorts" by Compass Theatre Company, in the Studio Theatre. Compass are very good at classics, particularly Chekhov - I enjoyed their "Seagull" a couple of years ago in the Lyceum - but this night was very much a mixed bag. The Chekhov (2 plays) was good, although it rather over-emphasised the prissiness, but the Pinter (Dumb Waiter) was way off - the actor who had been over-acting in the previous Chekhov short was all tics and over-egged East London accent in the Pinter. There was no subtlety at all , so the menace was completely lost. With the play being a two-hander, it ended up feeling terribly unbalanced - one got it, one didn't. Perhaps I'm being unfair but as Compass are on tour with this production, you can go and see for yourself.

Other stuff - quick film round-up - Nina and I have seen "Death at a Funeral" (N thought it was v funny, I thought it was a load of absolute *insert extremely insulting word here* - it was one of those films where one ends up thinking "how the hell did they get as good a cast as this (Matthew McFadyen, Rupert Graves, Keely Hawes etc etc) for a script this bad?"); we also saw "The Last Legion", or was it the Lost Legion? I don't know, so many brain cells were killed off while I was watching it that I can't remember. It was tosh of the highest order, the sort of super-tosh that while watching it you're thinking "bloody hell, Colin Firth's agent really hates him". A load of absolute nonsense, but one of those toshy films where if you're in the mood for mindless nonsense, its actually quite entertaining mindless nonsense, if you see what I mean. And then we saw "Eastern Promises" - hmm, mixed feelings about this one. Very violent, but very well done, if you can ignore the complete non sequiteur that is the ending. As for the "naked Viggo" fight scenes in the bath house, its not so much "ooh naked Viggo" as "ooh that must really hurt". Of the three, this would be the one to see (but not on your own, if you're called Vivien).

V and I saw "Ten Canoes" at York Uni (hoorah for imaginative University film committees, or whoever it is who decides) - I first saw this and loved it at Cannes 2006, and it was great to see it again, just as good, just as evocative - a fabulous film, the first Australian film to be entirely cast from the indigenous population. It tells the story in an entirely uncompromising way, you either accept it or you don't, and several people at York didn't and walked out - but if you get a chance to see it, go, give it time, let it weave its magic, because it is a wonderful film.

Don't think there's anything else - am in London this week for a conference so will hopefully catch a play as well, then next week its Othello at the Donmar - for which the giddiness is already building.

Cultural top-up, part 2

2007-11-01T22:03:00.000Z

Slightly delayed by a stinking cold and general feelings of grimness, now much improved.

The second half of the cultural weekend began with meeting Lianne for dinner at the Menier Chocolate Factory in Southwark, a converted factory which is now a gallery, theatre and restaurant. Their Saturday meal deal, a 2 course dinner and a theatre ticket for £28, seems absolutely bargainous compared to usual London theatre prices, and the food was good too.

We were there to see "Dealer's Choice", written by Patrick Marber and directed by Sam West. In the first half, the set was the kitchen and dining room of a restaurant run by Stephen (Malcolm Sinclair), and staffed by Mugsy (Stephen Wight), Sweeney (Ross Boatman) and Frankie (Jay Simpson); in the second half it was the bleak downstairs room where their regular Sunday night poker game take place, where Stephen's son Carl (Samuel Barnett) has invited hardened poker player Ash (Roger Lloyd Pack) to join their game in an attempt to pay off his gambling debts. It's a well-written play, and as much about fathers and sons as it is about compulsive gamblers (because each of them is addicted, no matter how they try to deny it). The cast are all very good, a true ensemble piece. However, I can't say I actually liked the play that much. It reeks of testosterone, and there is too much shouting and yelling for me; I prefer things to be a little more subtle. It's very well done, no doubt about that. But I don't think it's a twoey.

On Sunday night I met up with friends to go to "Music from the Movies" at the Royal Albert Hall, a celebration of the work of Patrick Doyle in aid of Leukaemia Research. Directed by Kenneth Branagh, it was an assembly of the great and the good of British theatre, including Dame Judi Dench, Sir Derek Jacobi, Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, Robbie Coltrane, Imelda Staunton, Richard E Grant, Adrian Lester and Greg Wise, all of whom have at some point appeared in a film scored by Patrick Doyle. They introduced music from Much Ado About Nothing (Emma Thompson performing Sigh No More), Sense and Sensibility, Hamlet, Gosford Park, Calendar Girls, Harry Potter, and as a finale, the St Crispin's Day Speech (performed by Kenneth Branagh) and Non Nobis from Henry V, all played by the London Symphony Orchestra and London Symphony Chorus. It was fabulous, great music and great speeches, with rousing applause for Patrick Doyle himself, who is obviously held in great affection by everyone taking part. He spoke movingly about surviving leukaemia, and the need for more funds for research into blood cancers. Hopefully Sunday night will have raised tons of money for the charity, as well as being a fabulous evening's entertainment.

After that, this week has been pretty quiet, although today was quite exciting in its own way. I've been asked to join the Board of Directors of Hull Film, which oversees Hull Short Film Festival as well as other local film-related things. First board meeting is next Tuesday, and I'm looking forward to it - a new and different venture for me.

Cultural top-up, part 1

2007-10-26T23:00:00.000+01:00

Am in London, partly for work and partly for fun, and this is just a quick update because I've got limited internet time.

Last night saw "The Country Wife" at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket; a restoration comedy, it's very well done, with Toby Stephens and David Haig in particular being fabulous. The role of Master Horner, famous wit and seducer of women, suited Toby Stephens perfectly (not that I'm suggesting he's a serial seducer) - he's always struck me as quite an old-fashioned swashbuckling sort of actor, too big and flamboyant for some roles (e.g. I didn't like his Hamlet very much at all). But in "The Country Wife", he's cheeky, funny, has great comic timing and the role just fits him so well. David Haig has the rather thankless and dislikeable role of Pinchwife, but does it well. Jo Stone-Fewings also stood out as being very funny, and also completely different to the things I've seen him in before. So, well worth seeing, especially as the half price ticket booth in Leicester Square is doing good stalls seats for half price.

Today, saw "Grace is Gone" starring John Cusack, a very moving film about the effect of America's involvement in Iraq on one family. It manages to tread the political path very evenly, and as John Cusack said in the Q&A afterwards, the aim wasn't to be one-sidedly political, it was to show something that the American public aren't allowed to see - images of fallen soldiers being brought back home. The two little girls were fabulous, and John Cusack was great as the father struggling to cope with the news he has to tell his children - they were utterly believable as a little family.

And tonight, Liz and I saw "The Hothouse" at the National, an early Pinter which left us both rather confused. The first half was much more coherent than the second, and although it's clear what's essentially going on, the nuances passed me by a bit, I feel.

More theatre and music to come - hoorah!

Need Theatre, urgently

2007-10-21T21:01:00.000+01:00

Well, that was obviously what was going on in the subconscious yesterday. Had been thinking, on and off for several weeks, that I must ring Amanda about going to Henry V at the Exchange. Had a quick check yesterday morning to see how long it runs for - eep! ends now! Luckily, Amanda was free to meet up for my impromptu transpennine dash to get a Shakespeare fix.

So, last night found us at the Royal Exchange, Manchester, which is one of my favourite spaces ever, for a modern dress production of Henry V, directed by Jonathan Munby, with Elliot Cowan as Henry. The set was a bare metallic grid, raised a foot or so from the floor (good decision not to go for banquette seats), with two main entrances facing each other across the space, which is totally in the round. I really like bare staging and plain dress for Shakespeare, because it means the focus is on the words, not the surrounding fripperies. But what I loved about last night's production is the way they used a plain metal grid to be everything from a royal court to a battleground - it rose at one end to make a ramp for "Once more unto the breach" and the seige of Harfleur, was pulled up fully to make a rain-sodden camp, and had a fire in the centre for the "little touch of Harry in the night" scenes. Brilliant design by Mike Britton, who made something so simple add enormously to the production. Elliot Cowan was excellent as Henry V, a King who grows into his role as the play progresses despite his initial doubts; he does the stirring stuff fantastically well, the St Crispin's Day speech in particular, but also is sweetly funny and endearing in the wooing scene, where soldier Harry attempts to convince French princess Katherine that he is worthy of her love.

There are really only two big roles in Henry V, Henry himself and Chorus; the rest are a bit of a muddle of Lords, Dukes, peasants and French royalty, so it stands or falls on those two. I didn't particularly like Chorus last night, he didn't have much subtlety, but Elliot Cowan more than made up for him. It really was a fabulous performance - hopefully the MEN awards will recognise him in due course. Well worth the dash for a Shakespeare fix.

And the next twelve months is shaping up to be wonderfully Shakespearean - I have tickets for Othello at the Donmar with Chiwetel Ejiofor and Ewan McGregor, directed by Michael Grandage (if you want to go (and if not, why not?) you'll have to queue for day tickets, its sold out), plus tickets for Dr Who vs Star Trek, oops, I mean the David Tennant/Patrick Stewart Hamlet at the RSC, plus Mr Tennant in Love's Labours Lost; plus tickets for the Glorious Moment - 8 history plays in the right order, over 4 days (A's view - "it may be heaven for you, but for most people that would be torture" - I confess, I'm a little unusual, 8 plays in 4 days is heaven for me). Am also looking forward to a "Donmar in the West End" Hamlet with Jude Law as Hamlet directed by Kenneth Branagh. 2008 is going to be a spectacularly Shakespearean year. Hoorah!

And in totally different mode, Nina and I saw "Ratatouille" this week, and both loved it (ooh hang on while the earth does a small wobble). The story is daft but is so lovely that really you don't care. The animation is up to Pixar's best, and the characters transcend the nonsense of the story. It's charming, and endearing, and funny. And best of all, it says that we should care about food, about how it tastes, how it's cooked, that loving food is a good thing, and that junk food is called junk food for a reason - because it's garbage. If you're going to eat, eat something good, and savour it, with good company. Go Pixar, and go Ratatouille (even with the idiot's guide to pronunciation)

Sucked into the abyss

2007-10-15T22:59:00.000+01:00

I have given in to temptation, and invitation, and joined Facebook.

Oh dear. There goes all my spare time.

I have resisted Facebook and Myspace so far, partly because A uses them, and I feel that its an intrusion if I'm in the same social spaces as her - there should be a generation gap, and we each need our private lives, and besides, if we want to communicate we can do it over the dinner table; and partly because real life, email and a blog is quite enough as it is. But anyway. If you wonder where I am, I've been sucked into the black hole that is Facebook. I blame Lianne. And Stacie for sending me fish.

Back in real life, the panel at Hull Short Film Fest went well; I made contact with a couple of directors, because at that point I was looking for a director who might be interested in "A Tree for Emily" for "Caught Short" - now it looks like I might be going in as director, if I have a producer on board; and at the same time, I'm applying with another team as their producer. Hmm. Chances of all round success are slender, but life could be about to get very interesting.

And as far as the novel is concerned, it's taking up a lot of headspace at the moment and I'm wondering if Nanowrimo is the right way to deal with it - at least that way I'd get it all out of my head and onto the page.

Ah, what's life without a challenge or five.

Ups and Downs

2007-10-04T23:21:00.000+01:00

A mixed couple of days - first of all, got rejected by an agent, in the very nicest way. He's someone I know, and gave me a page of comments along with the "no thanks". Still, a bit disheartening no matter how nicely the letter is written.

Then Laurence from Hull Short Film Festival rang to invite me to the opening night reception and screenings tomorrow, and also asked whether I'd be on a panel on Sunday - I'd been planning on going, to hear about film funding, and now I'm actually going to be one of the speakers. So, that brightened things up a bit, whilst also being a somewhat alarming prospect. Also on the panel will be Tony Dixon from Screen Yorkshire, well known film-maker Simon Ellis, and Clare Perry, writer of "King Ponce", so if you want to know about funding short films, come to Hull Screen on Sunday afternoon.

This afternoon, I went to the AGM of Yorkshire Art Circus, who are doing fabulous work as a grass roots community arts organisation, working with local communities around Castleford and Wakefield, as well as supporting writers and literary work of all kinds across the whole of Yorkshire. And they do all this despite having had their Arts Council grant taken away, and their funding being reduced by 50% in the last year. Which is utterly, utterly stupid. An organisation set up to regenerate an area decimated by the virtual ending of the coal industry, they are successful in every respect - their writers (including me) are being published, performing poetry, working in schools, teaching, making films; art work produced by their groups can be found as way-marking posts in local woods and on the walls of local hospitals; people from coalfield communities have been engaged in oral history projects and have produced stories, poems and art work. And yet their grants are taken away from them.

Meanwhile, Lee Hall's latest play, "The Pitman Painters", about a group of north-east miners in the 1930s who decided to take art appreciation lessons and began painting themselves, is getting rave reviews. So, we can enjoy a story about the value of art in working communities in the past, while watching it wither away in the present.

Coincidentally, I (and many others) got a response from the government this week to the petition to stop Lottery money being stolen from arts, heritage, community and voluntary projects to support the increasingly bloated Olympics 2012 development. Pretty inadequate, IMO. I'm not anti-sport - I am anti money being taken away from community development to promote something that will benefit a tiny proportion of the population and also probably end up in no small way boosting the bank balances of people who are quite rich enough already.