It's a Wrap.

Saturday 19th Feb saw me shoot the film with my actors who did a brilliant job. Above are a few pics of the shoot.

Sunday 27th Feb saw me screen the film to a select audience at the Potteries museum in Hanley after editing all week.

Shooting Dates

The 19th of February has been chosen to begin filming on A Bunch of Keys. This will be an all-day job, and to alleviate the pressure on myself I may shoot some footage before then; merely cutaways and master shots that introduce the locations.

A Filmmaker's Diary.

Well I have in place all the elements for my next film. A Bunch of Keys will commence filming at some point in the next few weeks. I have my cast and today I was working on possible musical themes for it. Obviously here will be a perfect place to publish the production of this project. For now I am simply trying to arrange shooting dates.

North Staffs Anti-Cuts Demo

On the 4th December around 100 people braved the cold to attend a demonstration in Hanley city centre against the savage cuts implemented by the Con-Dems and Stoke City council. In attendance were a number of speakers from various organisations including North Staffs TUC, Unison, Unite, Youth Fight For Jobs, PCS and NASUWT. The community group ‘Save Our NHS Buttercups Nursery was also in attendance – a campaign Stoke Socialist Party has been supporting for a number of weeks.
Speakers from all the groups attending spoke to the crowd, and all had one overriding theme – that of the need for unity between groups involved our anti-cuts campaign. Andy Bentley from Stoke Socialist party reiterated this point by stating the need for us to oppose ALL cuts rather than some, as local councils would try to divide the working-class against each other otherwise.
As well as those present being inspired and vocal, the event also received support from shoppers, and drew interest from bus drivers over the road at Hanley bus station. All this despite Stoke City council’s best efforts to limit the effectiveness of the demonstration! But the message to the council and the Con-Dems was clear – the public sector and ordinary working-class of north Staffordshire will unite and fight the cuts!

MARCH AGAINST THE CUTS!

DEMONSTRATE AGAINST CUTS!
Sat.4 December
assemble 12 noon outside Hanley Town Hall, Albion Square, Hanley
Organised by NORTH STAFFS AGAINST CUTS –
supported by North Staffs TUC
No More Job Losses for North Staffs!
No more cuts in our services!
bring your banners & placards

National Union of Journalists Strike.

Okay so last blog I criticised the media in general. However let's not forget the individual struggles within the profession. A BBC Journalist strike is taking place this weekend.

http://www.nuj.org.uk/innerPagenuj.html?docid=1788

Media Propagated North/South Divide.

I was watching BBC News the other day, when there came a report about the effects of the recession on the usual - small businesses, high street etc, when they showed a report about the effects of the recession in a specific town. I could almost feel the tension as they ran VT. The name of the place is not important, (suffice it to say it was Wolverhampton) but you know that with the BBC they are always going to (unfairly) single out a northern town. Granted, as we all know, or should know, Wolverhampton is in the Midlands and not the north as such, but to people or businesses or corporations based in London, anywhere beyond say, Bristol tends to be viewed as that generic part of the country known simply as 'the north'.

Now yes, large areas of the Midlands and indeed the north are more prone to the effects of the recession, particularly in those areas of former industries. But I would argue that by constantly highlighting these areas means that the Beeb is NOT highlighting areas in the south. And in media land, not showing it is equal to saying it does not happen. Not to sound conspiritorial, but the BBC leaving areas of the home counties alone in terms of negative coverage - those areas traditionally associated with Tory dominance, smacks of complete bias. And Dagenham, Basildon etc, are we to believe these are southern utopias? No. However, another thinly-veiled stereotypical portrayal of the working-class. The media is only to happy to selectively tell us that in times of recession we simply cannot cope, whilst our bourgeois rulers go almost unscathed.