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From 2008 onwards for 7 years, I had fun dabbling with film-making. This first one, set to ‘The Masterplan’ by Oasis was shot on a borrowed Sony camcorder. The lack of clarity convinced me from then on to use an HD camcorder which led to a considerably more impressive professional quality. The general idea was that I personally have one picture of myself when I was at school to try and glean what sort of oik I was at 16! So to produce a video record in a collaborative musical effort where all the year featured, no stars mind, would serve as a good memento of their school years.
This is my son Harry’s Year 11 leaving film. Apart from an experimentation with time lapse, I wanted the central theme to be that in school, like in life, you can’t do it on your own. Not without friends, parents, teachers, sports coaches, drama front and backstage staff etc. It’s basically a socialist idea. Do you remember socialism? Used to be big in the 70’s and 80’s!
I fancied doing a film where pupils became teachers and teachers became kids. One of the highlights of my career was getting the whole of Year 11, before they posed for their traditional school photograph and in front of the headteacher, to shout out in unison, “We don’t need no education, we don’t need no thought control” Worth the life’s entry fee itself.
Good fun playing with green screen. Very surprised to get some decent results and realise that all you need is a big green cloth, some cheap software programme and loads of wonderful HD films that, in passing, I would like to state I do not own the rights for! The black and white cards took weeks to organise and the co-ordination of 150 pupils to work as an entity, without rehearsal, was one of the most intense 40 minutes I’ve ever spent.
With a childhood working in a theatre and loving musicals, I wanted to do something all singing and dancing! Space Walk by Lemon Jelly is such an expressive piece of music that it just lends itself to some interpretation of some sort or another.
Birds fly the coop! I feel it’s the most obvious, natural inclination to have, that to record change. As a secondary teacher (and parent) you see the most fundamental physical, social and emotional change as 11 – 16 year olds move through adolescence and then disappear at the other end of the production line!
A Monkey in Manhattan 