MORE THESPIAN INTERLUDES

That student film “Old Age Pillagers” has now been finished and a week ago I went to a screening of all the graduate films of International Film School Wales. It was pretty scary seeing oneself on the big screen (in HD too) at Cineworld in Newport, but I thought that the team had put together a rather professional production.

Since then I’ve done another student film for a UWE project. Tomorrow I’ll be having my first viewing of the finished product “Warm fuzzies, cold pricklies”, which is being shown as an installation; also “One More Kiss Darling”, which we shot in March: both as part of graduate week of the film studies department, at the Bower Ashton campus of UWE.

THESPIAN INTERLUDE

Having taken part in the world-famous – well, Bristol-famous – Hotwells Panto in March last year has reawakened an interest in acting. Thanks to that entirely positive experience, I was inspired to audition for, and was lucky to get a part in, Theatre Raconteurs’ production of Richard III just before Xmas. Directed by the visionary Tristan Darby – watch out for the name, folks – that was the most professional production I’ve ever been involved in, by a country mile. Meeting and working with so many really talented and in most cases very experienced actors could not fail to be a learning experience, so I decided to audition for a couple of short (10-minute) student films. I’ve been lucky enough to be cast in both of them, moreover. “One More Kiss, Darling” is being shot in Bristol in mid-March; the title comes from a Van Halen record in the 70s, used in the soundtrack of a famous film whose identity I have forgotten. And “Old Age Pillagers” is being shot just afterwards, in Porthcawl on the Welsh coast.