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.