A Hat’s Off Page

The purpose of this site is not to just blow my own trumpet but to share ideas and output with like-minded people. Yes we could use Youtube or other free sites but my media “career” has only come about due to an interesting conjunction of events, encounters and the odd suggestion by people I know.

For those I am deeply grateful and wish to share worthy work with others. So on this page you will find some links to films and sites that I’d like to publicise to help my fellow filmmakers and screenwriters.

John Warburton

John was part of the Healthy Ageing writing team and very prolifically produced five of the ten films! I love his comedic style and between John, the actors and the other scriptwriters, we developed Albert and Vera’s relationship so that the films could stand alone - but watched in a particular sequence led to the ultimate scene of Money Matters: Top That!

Keep Cool

So I have John to thank in part for my inspiration and I loved his “Keep Cool in the Sun” script so much, that while I was acting as AD on the shoot for that, I had the uncontrollable urge to volunteer to be editor.

I’m pretty slow at editing, mostly down to inexperience but also due in part to a complete and utter inability to decide the best take, because Bert and Margaret perform so well each time. Anyway, as the whole project was about developing people’s skills as well as producing useful information films, I decided I would bite the bullet and do the edit. I didn’t have any help other than to ask of both Kevin and James a couple of technical questions.

So it may not be quite as polished as some of the others in the set but I still have a feeling of pride that I did justice to both the script and the acting. Naturally, I had to include it on this site - hope you enjoy it!

Oh, and it turns out that John has written THREE feature scripts, which have been turned into films and have some famous names attached to them, such as Brian Blessed and Todd Carty. John’s another one who hides his light under a bushel so I wanted to include a mention of him here.

You can listen to John talking about his films in this interview with Sue Ellison which was recorded at the Healthy Ageing premiere, which took place at the Odeon Cinema Warrington, on 8th October 2008.

Julie Gribble

In July 2007, I had the great fortune to attend the Screenwriters’ Festival, in Cheltenham. Day 1 had barely started, when I came across a friendly American lady with whom I immediately clicked.

We spent some time together during the week and have stayed in touch by regular email. Julie very modestly told me that she’d won an award for her first short film which I didn’t get chance to see until I’d returned home.

When I watched the film and read her background on her website, I realised what an unassuming and lovely person she is. Her film is fantastic, so I wanted to include on my site. Enjoy:

Julie’s site - http://www.gribbelus.com/staygood/

The (rest of the) Orford Library Trilogy

Abid’s film: Background Noise

Abid came up with an amazing script and very polished film, considering the newness of this venture. He even edited the final thing himself. He quite rightly won the opportunity to have his film screened at the Warrington Film Festival a couple of months afterwards.

Heather’s film: The Girl in the Library

Heather came up with a fun script for a short film and hopefully will one day get back into this medium as I think she has talent.

A “global” Premiere

Our group was given the opportunity of having our 3 films broadcast as part of the Big Idea Launch Week, in October 2006 when we were interviewed in a special short programme. A global audience of millions watched in awe! (Maybe not!)

We’ll be including the interview here soon.

Later, Kevin and I designed and produced a DVD, with full artwork cover for the trilogy of films, giving them all a more professional look and feel.