Happy Holidays!!! See you again in 2012

Happy Holidays to all my family, friends, colleagues, readers of the blog, blog supporters, and everyone I know and have had the chance to meet and work with in the past year.
Have a great 2012 and enjoy the festive fun and celebrations in what’s left of this year.
Looking forward to what the future will bring and all the new and exciting opportunities, acquaintances, friendships, travel, work and meetings ahead of all of us.
It’s been an incredible year so thanks to everyone!!!
Until then I’m signing out till 2012 – have fun and see you then.
Enjoy
cheers John

Morris

I love animals. I grew up with a ragbag collection that so exasperated my dad he once tried to rehome them all.
My sister and I just went and got them all back and, to the delight of my mum, added some more waifs and strays along the way.
As a freelance photographer, traveling the world, I couldn’t really have pets and the animals that made my house a home were reduced to some cold water fish in a tank.
Such is life on the road.
When my mum died I inherited her 10 year old beautiful, black cat Morris. He’d been a badly treated, rescue cat who tunneled a secret hideaway amongst the pile of clothes in her room and bit you whenever you tried to stroke him.
Over time he grew more friendly and became a real character in our family.
In the 10 years that I managed to take care of him he somehow survived a shooting by a 2.2 rifle and a savage dog attack. He was one helluva cat.
Last week as a 20 year old veteran he used up the last of his 9 lives and was in my arms as we said our final farewells.
It seems silly to be so sentimental over a cat but Morris was one of a kind and a feline friend that I shall miss forever.

London Short Film Festival 2012

Huge Thanks to London Short Film Festival for selecting to screen
The Hardest Fight at what The Guardian describes as
‘The Best Short Film Festival in the World’ during Festival Week 6-15th January. 2012 – it really means a lot!!!!
Showing as part of the New Shorts #12 Night of the Living Docs the ever-popular documentary marathon returns to the Roxy Bar & Screen at 18.30 on January 10th, 2012 with a double bill of the very best in short documentary.
The Hardest Fight was the first short film I ever made and I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that, at the time, I didn’t really have a clue what I was doing – just a desire to do it.
I feel truly honoured to be included in the selection and look forward to being there on the night.

Dark Days

Dark Days is an inspiring documentary by Marc Singer about a group of homeless people living in abandoned subway tunnels under the beating heart of New York City.
Apart from the vagabond vagrants whose stories are told in shocking detail throughout I’m inspired by the fact that, before he made this film, Singer had never even picked up a camera – much less knew how to use one.
Driven simply by the desire to highlight their plight and move them up the housing ladder, Singer originally intended to shoot on Super 8 but was persuaded to rent a 16mm camera instead.
He planned to shoot for a week but two and a half years later he still had free use of the camera and when he ran out of film Kodak supplied damaged stock, at no cost, for the continuation of the project.
The film’s crew consisted of the subjects themselves, who rigged up makeshift lighting by tapping into the mains supply and improvised steadicam dollies for tracking shots from supermarket shopping trollies.
Dark Days is an amazing collaboration which proves that the most important aspect of film making is integrity, a genuine belief and passion for what you’re doing. and, as Singer himself says, ‘not to be afraid to fail’.
In today’s crazy celebrity driven world where endorsement of equipment is often more important than the actual content of the movie, I found this this film both thought provoking and enlightening.

LZB InSight Interview with John Hicks

Thanks to the guys at LookZoomBook for taking the time to talk to me in this LZB InSight Interview with John Hicks