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.

10 second portrait

It’s funny how you become known for a certain style, a certain signature ‘look’ to your images.
Encouraged by the industry that feeds you to define and identify that ‘style’, you find yourself exploring less and less avenues as you close down on your own visual eye and work on specialising your ‘branded’ identity.
Trouble is, the danger is, that along the way you lose yourself and it’s not until you strip everything away and start back with the basics – just you, a camera, an open mind and your own creative vision that you can start seeing again.
Recently I decided to give myself a task.
Take a photo.
Sounds simple doesn’t it? And it is!!!!!
But, sometimes, the further you get from that place you first started out in the harder it is to stop obsessing about the light, the location, the set up and just seize the moment to take the shot.
I’d been invited to a boxing match and after his fight I grabbed this 10 second portrait.
It’s not my best work but I like it because I took it.
I like it because I didn’t let the fluorescent lighting talk me out of taking it.
I just took it.