POSITIVE DECEMBER

The last month of what was a poor 2009 wasn't too bad. Rhiannon, Sam Clift, Sam M, Carrie and Victoria all got back in touch with me. I have also finally cast a Joe that i feel satisfied with and actually feel could work out. He is 18 and based in Birmingham and i think availability is good so it should definitely get done in the start of 2010.

I mentioned in the post about the Joe photoshoot that i have acquired the costume for Joe. I just need to reassess that with regards to its suitability to Charlie. I would also like to sit down with an assistant and plan the best way to do the shoot. Is it a good idea to employ Annabel for a shoot with Charlie or just focus on doing a shoot alone with him.

I also think i need to learn if visiting the Lace Market Theatre or The Loft can bring anything to my project in terms of assistance or help with a location. I made some enquiries with Ryan/ Kat at the Loft during December and made a visit.

JOE PHOTOSHOOT

I have been searching for someone to play Joe for quite a while. At present a shot of Joe represents the missing peice in the photo stills project. Annabel and I had wanted to make a shot of Anna and Joe together, but it often proved difficult, partly due to location and problems of time. It is a good idea to keep Joe and Renaud's appearence and presence a subject of mystery. Although i enjoy the photo stills project, I should not seek to give too much away and persuade or formulate the readers opinions. I have therefore thought about making the image of Joe as a emotionless passport photograph including details of his identity.

I have sort of acquired Joe's costume from when I was considering asking Sam to play him. That's in my wardrobe. I could test to see if this works with the person who i hope to cast into the part. I don't think this should be too hard to do, but I should already have a photographer by now having courted Carly, Kelly and Craig. I think this shoot is though something I should aim to get on with.

CURRENT PROJECTS

THE MISDIRECTION
Written by Imran K
Photographer - Imran K

Anna - Annabel Bates
Joe - Benjamin Jax
Renaud's Friend - Otis
Celia - Kathryn Mason
Judith - Stephanie Fitzpatrick
Verity - Lily Lyppard

Documentary Narration: Hannah Stone, Kat Mason

Location: Rowena Hamilton (University of Derby), Liz Hoyle (Walton Court), Debbie Burke (B Bar/ Ripple), Raphael Daden (Nottingham City Artists)
Assistance: Liz (Props), Sue Whitworth (Circus Workshop), Guy Jenkins
Special Effects Make Up: Victoria Howard
Costume: Charity Shops & Nottingham Community Wardrobe

THE ACCESSOR
Valin Bregan - Not Yet Cast
Dora Bregan - Rhiannon Prytherch
Chambermaid - Anna Purver
Other Possibilities: Simon Wilson-Besgrove

Location: Nottingham City Hospital

HOPE IS ETERNAL
Lead Role: Sophia Ereminowicz or Laura Baldo
American Gymnast: Stephanie Bullard

SKIN
Melanie: Not Cast Yet
Potential Participants - Marge Galinski, Carrie Hill, Sam Clift, Liz Bishop, Heidi Smith, Simon Wilson Besgrove
Potential Location: The Loft

POSSIBLE ASSISTANCE: Joanna Richardson (London), Cate Murray (Editing)

POTENTIAL LOCATIONS - The Loft

SKIN AND OTHER IDEAS

I'm happy to wait on rest of the Misdirection and on the stories The Accessor and Hope Is Eternal. I did start planning ideas for a story called Skin. I originally got the idea for this from a film called Artemisia, but also from my work at the Radiotherapy Department. It's about people's bravery in the face of illness. I also watched Life Without Me and that was quite a good help. At the time I was meeting up with a model named Lia who was doing a lot of artistic nudity work and i thought it might be a good idea to use this in the story. I am always trying not to write the same story and this was something i hadn't used before. Like Artemisia I thought the lead character Melanie could use life drawing as a form of escapism, drawing her body as it changes under the strain of illness. Liz from Surface was willing to do a life drawing of Lia as a picture for the cover of the story. We talked about using her spare room as a location which really wasn't that as we could have found anywhere to do this. We could have use Surface or we could have asked a college or university. Basically we could have used anywhere and we had transport to shift her materials and i was prepared to buy anything else we needed. However for reasons which should not really have happened it broke down over things which had nothing to do with the project.

That project as it stood was therefore in limbo since then. I talked with performers from Casting Call Pro and from Star Now to get the shoot restarted and am grateful for the interest of Caroline Waite and Claira Watson Parr. With Claira I discussed what art she did so we could perhaps moderate the story. I was quite intrigued by her sculpting as i felt that could work just as well as life modelling. The lead character could really use any medium for escapism and i could afford to supply the materials for her to do the sculpting. That line of enquiry is up in the air, but still possible.

During the course of the year the two people i mainly met that it appears i could work with, with ease is Carrie Hill and Katie Challis. My meetings with Carrie have been more regular than most people i've worked with so i'd consider her quite accessible. Also i feel i can make her into the lead character or a subplot character, but she'd need to be a different to how i planned to shoot with either Lia or Claira if she was the lead. I think she'd take on the role of an art student rather than a life model. I also thought Sam Clift would be really good to appear in this story as the boyfriend of the lead character. I was trying to get Sam and Carrie to come together to have a go at the shoot whilst Sam was in Nottingham, but i was struggling to find a day. That should really have happened to be honest and been completed.

Regards costume i planned to draw up what Carrie or Sam might possess as the story is set in the modern time period and doesn't need anything special.

SHOOTING IN A BUSY VENUE

Admittedly nearly all of my shoots have been done is very quiet spots with only me and the subject of the photo still present. However I endeavoured to try a different type of shot to see how i coped with it so i set up the Verity Scene shoot.

I think this shot should have been done in the night to be honest and it'd have been much better or at least late evening in the winter. It is supposed to belong to a Part 2 of the Misdirection. Verity is played by a Hertfordshire based actress named Lynsey Williams. She is much different in appearence from anyone i worked with before. It is meant to relate to one of Renaud's dreams he has as a consequence of witnessing his mothers death. It is shot in a scrapyard with the fragments of broken glass and twisted metal having symbollic meaning. Verity lies in dirty muddy puddles which also relates to Anna and Renaud's thoughts about her existence under ground. Verity has a major gash to the side of her head and looks to the camera (to Renaud) as if for help after an attack.

I have quite a bit of filming of this shoot and its good to look back on it as from someone else who was there at the time. Its good to see my own communication or sometimes lack of it and see how I can learn. As i say this shot could have been more atmospheric, but it was productive as i had to engage with four different people in order to make it happen. I am very grateful to Spring Lane Motor Repairs for this shoot and especially their administrative worker Sally Groutage who recieved my letter and called me up and said i could use their venue. It was also the first time i was really properly able to employ Victoria Howard abilities. I'd never seen prospethic make up done before or used it in any of my past work, but needed to create special effects for Verity's cut so enlisted Victoria's help. The costume was mainly clothing that Lynsey had brought along which we agreed upon our very short meeting in Birmingham. Lynsey was extremely easy to work with and had to suffer lying on top of glass and metal and in the mud, but didn't complain once about it. I'd definitely work again with her if i could.

DOCUMENTARY AND THE ACCESSOR

Following my successful work with Annabel in 2007, i've mainly focused on creating documentary work for the project in the last two years. Again i wasn't totally sure on what this form this would take, but have lately decided they should be similarly to extra's on DVD's. I've done self intro's with actresses I used in my stories before like with Annabel, Rhiannon Prytherch, Anna Purver and Kat, but i kinda used to spring it upon them at the end and they didn't really get to prepare much. Maybe there not so bad done that way as are very natural. I've put some of those video's on my Facebook page.

I also spent a day with Hannah Stone describing every scene that Annabel and I did a photo still for. Rhiannon and Kat also both did explanations of the photo stills they were involved in, in the roles of Dora Bregan and Celia respectively. I thought these film peices would act as good references i could use with new performances and participants to fill them in on my projects. It also shows them some of the people i worked with and how they felt about working with me .. well i kinda think it does anyway.

I haven't completed my photo stills project for the Misdirection yet, but I was becoming interested in writing a new story called The Accessor and wanted to work with a actress named Rhiannon Prytherch from Derby so I tried out some ideas for some stills with her in the role of Dora Bregan. The Accessor is a political story about ambition and about how far a person can stay loyal to their country and identity when faced with huge moral questions. I've not casted the lead character Valin Bregan yet. Dora is his sister. They both achieve very high results academically and move quickly into civil service jobs within government. Valin is enlisted to carry out work reporting back on revoluionarary groups within neighbouring country East Zhorta which exists under occupation. Valin as a complete unknown is seen as the perfect person to arrive in East Zhorta and to work unnoticed as a spy and to provide intelligence. His previous life as also revealed no signs of unpatriot tendancies and he goes with all his family hugely proud of him in the role he is about to undertake. He arrives in East Zhorta and rents a room in a guesthouse and takes up a job in the area where it is neccessary to spy. He immediately befriends revolutionaries, but over time starts to become disillusioned with his task and begins to sympathise with East Zhortans. During the story he tries to keep sending reports whilst in fact participating in revolutionary activity. He is constantly concerned at being found out by either his new revolutionary friends or the government who is employing him. He is also conflicted by disappointing his proud West Zhortan family and is trying to uncover the identity of another spy either sent by government or working for the revolutionaries.

One of his prime suspects is a Chambermaid played by Anna Purver who he regularly here's moving around in the hallway outside the door of the room where he stays. He also suspects someone to have searched his room during severals occasions when he has vacated it. Anna was on the same BSC Occupational Therapy course as me as Derby University and had extremely intriging dress sense which seemed like it could fit perfectly within this story. She also had a really extremely appearence, being small in height and thought would portray the role as being someone who look fragile and innocent, but potential very harmful if she was a spy leaving Valin with difficult decisions upon how to unmask her and remove her threat without raising alarm as to his own identity amongst East Zhortians.

We worked in an Old Chapel at Nottingham City Hospital which was quite easy to use thanks to my mum and Glen Price. I got the props from Liz. I guess the cups could have been better and more old fashioned, but i'll put up with them. My shoot with Rhiannon was at Markeaton Park. To be honest we were walking and walking trying to find the right spot to make the right picture, but eventually we reached a bridge and i think that worked. We could have made some better adaptations to the costumes, but generally it was okay. Rhiannon play the prim and proper expression of Dora fine. It aims to be a picture which Valin keeps on the table of his room whilst in East Zhorta, but later in the story it is actually stolen.

INTRODUCTION

I started this blog keep people updated about my latest projects and their progress. So far I have made photo stills relating to my stories The Misdirection and The Accessor. The Misdirection is the story which has progressed the most as i've already written it from start to finish in draft and made a series of pictures with it.

I wrote The Misdirection not long after studying A Level English literature at Arnold and Carlton College whilst studying under the tuition of Sue Clayton and Rob Woodfield. I wrote during a six month period whilst at South Notts College and was inspired by reading books by Franz Kafka and watching World Cinema Films on Channel Four late in the night. Some notable films were Jacqot De Nantes, The Cement Garden, The Naked Lunch, Merci La Vie and 400 Coups.

After i wrote it, i left it in a wardrobe for a couple of years and only showed it to someone for first time in 2004 when i sent it to Rachel Taylor in Bedford. She gave me some positive feedback and when i saw a film by my friend in Grantham called The Letter i got ideas of making a film of it. But that was far too much work, so i decided on a smaller idea which was making stills of some of the scenes in the book. I thought nobody else is really doing this (probably for a reason) and i thought it'd help illustrate the stories and help me portray the images that ran through my head line a film or dream when i wrote the story in 1999.

My first move was to try out a shoot and so searched for a actress. I didn't really know where to look at the time, but finally came across a French born Performing Arts Student named Cecile Caminade on a Casting Website called UK Screen in late 2003. We had a quick try out in the January of the following year, but i didn't really have any kind of location or props or decent costume. We worked in her uni flat in Brammall Court in Salford, but it was just for a try out. It helped me to get some confidence, but i worked solidly for most of the rest in the Radiotherapy Department and didn't organise a second shoot. We eventually parted and i tried again with Robyn Cooper at the start of 2005. We worked mainly on improving the lighting in the shots, but the location was still only the bedroom in my house and apart from the Opening Scene of the story, nothing else was really planned. I made one or two decent shots that could qualify as cover pictures for the novel. However we failed to expand on that.

My project profited mainly from a badly placed ad in a Arts Website called You are Here from which i met Debbie Burke and after i left the Radiotherapy Department to volunteer at Surface Gallery. Surface was very inspirational for me especially meeting people like Mandy Bray, Helen De Main, Sabrina Cuccu and Zoe Kavanagh in 2005. My early time at Surface involved flyer distributing, ovidulating exhibitions, updating databases and address books and answering enquiries. I also had a couple of inspiring meet ups with Debbie in which she leant me interesting films L'Homme Du Train, Waking Life and Winged Migration. We also went to see The Educators. I was watching so many films at that point - far too many to mention that i was becoming very inspired. I also started hunting for workspace to improve the standard of the pictures and about 2006 the manager at Surface Liz Hoyle said i could get use of a property belonging to a friend of hers. That flat on Walton Court seemed to fit my story a lot more than the modern surroundings of Brammall Court or my own home, so i went with it.

However I was still having issues with the lighting, so i got back in touch with Debbie who was in the midst of offloading B Bar and kindly gave me access to it for two whole months whilst it was empty which was great. In the end i decided to use B Bar and Brammall Court in different scenes. Robyn however wasn't available and I was kinda hunting for a new Anna anyway. After not being able to get commitment from a fellow Derby uni student named Zoe Wilgar, i turned to another casting site called Casting Call Pro and after a monster spell of searching through applications I eventually settled on working with a 23 year old actress from London called Annabel Bates to play Anna.

To be honest she fitted the character a lot better in terms of appearence as well as personality although there were also a lot of clear differences - she was also down to earth and willing to give anything a go. Having found a suitable location i hadn't wanted to be the photographer myself as I'm not even the slightest bit trained. However since Victoria Howard had gone to America and Carly Seller was unavailable in Newport, I just went with it. I thought that if i took lots of pictures I would ultimately find what i was looking for. I got decent props from Liz and acquired some good costume from Ebay and one very awkward purchase of a old looking low cut dress in West End Arcade. We used that besides some really good plimsolls to create the character.

We shot most of it in one day during 2007. Thankfully Annabel gave me the entire the day and a bit of the next morning and stopped over so that i could get a go at all the scenes i wanted to do. Some of them i hadn't practiced before, but most of them i had thanks for Robyn, Alex Rainford and Hannah Binns. I improved with the photography thanks to a bit of tuition from Carly and Victoria and produced pictures which were a lot better than i had done before with Cecile and Robyn.

I spent the next few months attempting to produce pictures featuring other characters. The best work i made was with a child from Derby named Otis. That all came about thanks to a letter i sent to Central Line Agency opposite Nottingham Playhouse who at the time had Sally Siner on their books. I gave Sally a call and recruited Otis to play the role of a child sitting on the steps of block of flats. It was in fact the stairway of Derby Universities Britannia Mill campus. During 2007 i was also still connected to Surface Gallery and had been discussing acquiring the assistance of a fellow volunteer Kathryn Mason for quite a while. I saw her as perfect for the role of Anna's cousin Celia. The idea i had for her picture was that she'd be in a room studying or in some garden area outside her university campus or in the corner of a room which Anna's mother and aunt present. At the time i didn't see how i could get anything that was remotely to how it should be in the story set up, so i went with this very vague idea of her appearing in a big empty park reading from a book. It was quite a funny day as we didn't take it all that seriously. However some of the shots worked out and i think Kat's costume that she put together for the character was excellant. Her top looked to fit the time period and was a little bit short but rather than looking like it didn't fit her succeeding in making the character look skinny which fitted in with some of the facets of her being slightly self destructive and a worrier. We shot it at Colwick Park, where there was quite a lot of duck crap, but fortunately it didn't show up too much in the picture.

I also did a shoot with Emma Hall who applied to be Anna, but didn't fit her character. I decided to use her as the waitress Nikki. I don't exactly know whether i like that picture or not though or whether i'll use it. There no chairs around that table for one. I like the background and i like partly her costume, but i don't know.. still undecided to be honest. Regards male characters it has been a bit of a nightmare trying to find someone to play Joe. I've not come across a single person at Surface Gallery or anywhere else that fits his character. Also at the Radiotherapy Department, Surface Gallery and my O.T course most of the people working or studying there were female. Producing the picture depicting the character Joe is in the future i think.