Lanterna Magicka

Bill Douglas Events - Autumn 2011

2011-09-11T16:15:00.000Z

A quick update from the last post: the Symposium, as mentioned, is taking place on 23 September at the Bill Douglas Centre.

A second event is planned at Craigmillar Community Arts Centre in Bill's home village of Newcraighall (now part of the City of Edinburgh Greater Sprawl, being a satellite of the Sheriffhall Roundabout complex). Lanterna Magicka may possibly be screened; and also, the previously mentioned restored short film by Bill will hopefully get its Scottish premiere. More details to follow.

Bill Douglas Conference

2011-08-12T13:29:00.001Z

There will be a one-day conference devoted to Bill's work at the Bill Douglas Centre at the University of Exeter on 23 September 2011.

Although Lanterna won't be shown, we are hoping to unveil some very rare footage Bill shot in London in the 1960s, before going to film school.

We'll post more info when we have more details.

Date of US Lanterna Magicka Premiere

2010-06-07T20:47:00.000Z

... has yet to be annouced, although we can now tell you that the date(s) will be posted on the Maine Film Festival's site in mid-late June. We'll post again once we know ourselves when the film is being screened. We - Sean and Louise - will be introducing the film, and also Bill Douglas's Comrades, which will be screened in its new 35mm print (which looks fantastic, btw! We saw it at the Inverness Festival, when Lanterna screened up there).

U.S. Premiere - July 2010

2010-05-04T15:26:00.000Z

Lanterna will receive its U.S. premiere in July. Louise and I hope to be in attendance to introduce the film, volanic ash clouds permitting. More details to follow.

Photos from Flatpack

2010-04-16T10:53:00.000Z

We've just been sent some photos of the Flatpack screening. L-R, are Lu, myself (looking far too rotund for my liking, but at least you can't see how creased my shirt was!) and Flatpack's director, Ian Francis in the post-screening Q&A.

International Premiere

2010-04-11T19:48:00.001Z

Lanterna screens in at the Buenos Aires Festival of Independent Cinema on Tuesday. It's already been screened twice - sorry, forgot to blog it! - and will be on tour in Argentina later in the year. More info here.

Flatpack was a huge success. A good turnout, and a good festival. We can recommend it, especially if you're into avant garde films.

Flatpack Festival Screening Details

2010-03-05T15:10:00.001Z

Lantera Magicka will receive its English premiere at the Flatpack Festival in Birmingham on 27 March. The screening will start at 4 pm, and go on until 6. (Please note the revised time - it was originally scheduled to start at 3.)

The film will play as a double bill with a magic lantern show by Mike Simkin, who not only appears in Lanterna, but also did the original magic lantern work on Comrades. This is a unique, one-off event not to be missed!

Both myself and Louise will be there to introduce the film.

More info and ticket details can be found here.

English Premiere - Screening Details

2010-02-07T14:21:00.003Z

We now have the details of Lanterna's English premiere. The film will screen as part of the Flatpack Festival in Birmingham on Saturday 27 March, 3-5pm at Ikon Eastside, 183 Fazeley street, Digbeth, Birmingham, B5 5SE. The film will be followed by a magic lantern show. Lu and I will be there to introduce the film and meet fellow lanternists. See you there!

International Premiere April 2010

2010-01-29T20:39:00.002Z

And hot on the tail of the last reel of the last message, we can also confirm Lanterna's international premiere, at the Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema, which will be held in April 2010. I'll post more details once things are confirmed.

English Premiere March 2010

2010-01-29T20:26:00.004Z

Lanterna will receive its English premiere at the Flatpack Festival in Birmingham on (we believe) 27 March. It will be an afternoon screening, screening not with another film but, would you ever believe it... a magic lantern show! Very fitting. Will post more details once we have them.

Stephen Archibald's Last Interview

2009-12-24T20:33:00.002Z

The last interview given by Stephen Archibald - Jamie in the Trilogy - is now online. It was shot a few weeks before Stephen died, and makes for pretty depressing viewing. You can watch it here.

Happy Christmas.

Inverness Film Festival Screening Details

2009-11-02T12:43:00.002Z

Lanterna screens on 14th November 2009 as part of the Inverness Film Festival's Bill Douglas retrospective. More details can be found here.

The Trilogy will screen that afternoon, and Comrades on the Sunday morning at 1130.

Louise and I should be there for all of it, so see you there!

UK Première at the Inverness Film Festival

2009-10-07T16:47:00.003Z

Lanterna Magicka will receive its first UK screening at the Inverness Film Festival next month. The festival's programme is still being finalised, but we understand that Lanterna will be screened on 14th November as part of a Bill Douglas retrospective. Lu and I will attend the screening, and will either introduce it, answer questions afterwards, or heckle intermittently during. (That last bit was a joke, btw.) Hopefully one or two of Bill's collaborators will also be in attendance. I'll post more details when we have them.

Recent Articles

2009-09-07T16:56:00.002Z

Good article on Bill - specifically The Trilogy - by Harry Eyres here, and another on Comrades here.

Criterion Review & Forum

2009-08-20T13:29:00.002Z

Those good folks at Criterion have given the Comrades DVD/Blu-Ray a very good review here. And if you click on the link Discuss the Film and Blu-Ray, you get taken to the Forum, where the general consensus is that the release of the film is one of the cinematic events of the year, and Lanterna also gets some very good reactions.

Three years' work seems to have paid off... But no time to rest on our laurels, other projects being in the works. But it's great to see so many people being blown away by Comrades. Maybe after 22 years, the film will finally start to get recognition for being the masterpiece that it is.

Good Review at High Def Digest

2009-08-16T09:25:00.003Z

Another good review for the Comrades DVD/Blu-Ray has appeared at High Def Digest. Lanterna gets earmarked as the best of the DVD extras, 'by a mile', while Comrades is hailed as 'a cinematic giant' and 'a film for the ages'. All of this is all the more pleasing, coming from a reviewer who had never heard of Bill Douglas, Comrades or the Tolpuddle Martyrs (or, of course, us!). You can read the whole review here.

Good Review in The Observer

2009-08-03T22:03:00.001Z

A good review of Comrades in yesterday's Observer, by Philip French. Read it here.

Good Review at DVD Times

2009-07-30T22:41:00.001Z

DVD Times has give the Comrades DVD/Blu-Ray an overwhelming thumbs up, calling it one of the events of the year. You can read the whole review here.

Good Review in Torygraph

2009-07-27T22:20:00.002Z

A short, but wonderful, review of Comrades by Philip Horne in the Torygraph, of all places. Gets 5/5, but I particularly like the way he ends the piece, which reminds me very much of Bill's desire to get into the film 'every kind of love,' as Peter says in Lanterna. Such a desire is a reminder that the film has many levels, and shouldn't be interpreted along entirely party political lines, as Sheila Rowbotham did in the Grauniad last week.

Read the Philip Horne review and find out what he says at the end here.

The fight for justice does indeed go on, but 'we only have to love one another to know what we must do'.

Good Review in The Guardian

2009-07-21T18:36:00.005Z

The Comrades DVD has had a good review in The Guardian (or, for people of my generation, The Grauniad) here.

Lanterna gets a favourable mention, so that's two good reviews in almost as many days.

We've seen the DVD, and can report that it's a jaw-dropper. Great transfer of Comrades, plus some fascinating archival stuff (a 30-odd minute redaction of Charles Rees's never-before seen 1978 interview with Bill in Archer St, Michael Alexander's charming 1974 short Home and Away, co-written by Bill) and, of course, our own humble offering. Let's hope the DVD and Blu-Ray restore Comrades to the visibility it deserves.

Comrades DVD - Huge Thumbs Up from DVD Beaver

2009-07-21T18:25:00.004Z

There is a very good review of the Comrades Blu-Ray disc at DVD Beaver here.

Lanterna is highlighted as the best of the extras - thank you Mr Tooze! - and the review concludes with a cascade of superlatives:

"BFI appears to have outdone themselves here and this Douglas film about "The Tolpuddle Martyrs" is another of his masterpieces. On Blu-ray it 's a fabulous triumph and one I can't recommend strongly enough. This package is solid in every respect from the pristine AV transfer to the film itself - a brilliant, encompassing and important work. We give our strongest encouragement for purchase."

Comrades DVD Cover

2009-07-17T22:20:00.002Z

The Comrades DVD cover is now up on Amazon and also at the Bill Douglas Centre site. I assume this is the final image - but we shall
have to wait and see. The photo was originally used in publicity materials for the film, specifically as an invite to a preview screening of the film. (It may have been used for other purposes as well, but that's the one I remember.) The DVD is out on Monday 27th July.

Comrades DVD cover

Comrades EIFF Screening

2009-06-21T19:13:00.002Z

Comrades is screening at the Edinburgh Film Festival. Details here. It will also be shown at the NFT in August, where it will be introduced by the current curator of the Bill Douglas Centre, Phil Wickham. Details of that screening will be posted here in due course.

Comrades DVD Launch

2009-06-13T10:36:00.004Z

The Comrades DVD/BluRay will be launched at the Centre on 20 July, a week before its official release date. I think that weekend (18th/19th) there may also be a screening of Comrades in Tolpuddle. I'll post more info when I same some definite times and dates.

The DVD/BluRay is available to pre-order on Amazon. Get your copy here (DVD) or here (BluRay).

Comrades DVD - Details

2009-06-09T21:27:00.005Z

According to the Bill Douglas Centre website, the DVD/BluRay of Comrades will include:

* Lanterna Magicka - Bill Douglas & the Secret History of Cinema (2009, 60 minutes), an insightful new documentary on Douglas' life and work
* Visions of Comrades (2009, 15 mins), cast-members recall making the film
* Bill Douglas interviews (1978, total 33 mins), exclusive presentation of a remarkable interview in which Douglas discusses his method and creating approach to writing and directing
* Home and Away (Michael Alexander, 1974, 31 mins), charming short film co-scripted by Douglas
* News report from the set of Comrades
* Original Comrades trailer
* Fully illustrated booklet including new essay, visual materials, archive Q&A with Bill Douglas, biography, cast and credits
* PCM stereo audio (48k/24bit on Blu-ray / 48k/16bit on DVD) (extras Dolby Digital 640kbps)

So that's well over two hours of extras, including our own contribution! Visions of Comrades is Andy Kimpton-Nye's selection of outtakes from his 2006 doc about Bill; the interviews are Charles Rees's 2009 edit of his 1978 material (which we use about 4 minutes of in Lanterna; Home and Away is a BFI-produced film that Bill co-wrote; the news report is possibly ITN (there is at least one Comrades news report in their archives - we considered using it in Lanterna); and of course the trailer, which I've never seen. Louise's essay on Bill, first published in the booklet to the Trilogy DVD, will be reprinted in the booklet of Comrades as well. All in all, a bumper package.

A Postcard from Cannes

2009-05-25T19:04:00.003Z

This is the Lanterna promotional image, designed by my most excellent co-auteur, Lu, that we were handing out in Cannes to various interested parties.

The image is meant to resemble a lantern slide: the images across the top and bottom are from Comrades, the images down each side from the Collection. And of course, the silhouette of Alex as the Lanternist in the middle.

Trailer Now Up on IMDB

2009-05-21T10:28:00.002Z

http://www.imdb.com/video/wab/vi3616866841/

Comrades DVD on Amazon

2009-05-20T10:27:00.011Z

The Comrades DVD is now listed on Amazon here and the Blu-Ray version here. It is scheduled to be released on 27 July. I'll post more info when I have some.

Speaking of July, I believe there will also be a screening of Comrades in Tolpuddle.

(NB: The links are now working!)

The Trailer

2009-05-12T10:22:00.004Z

Thanks to Peter Gerard at Accidental Media for the clip.

Lanterna Magicka will be released on DVD in June by the BFI as part of the Comrades DVD/Blu-Ray set. Check back soon for further details of that and upcoming festival screenings.

Comrades Screening in London 21 April

2009-04-19T20:18:00.004Z

Comrades is showing at the Screen on the Green on Tuesday 21 April at 1940, as part of the Tolpuddle Festival. Book tickets here.

75

2009-04-17T19:02:00.001Z

Happy Birthday Bill, born 75 years ago today in Newcraighall.

I shall raise a glass of something in your honour later.

"I want to be an artist. Maybe even a film director."

60.57

2009-04-13T09:51:00.003Z

Lu and Nick have been slaving away over a steaming hot Final Cut Pro to bring the length of the film down to 60 minutes. We'd thought originally that the film could do with some tightening, and Shona at the BFI requested a trim, so a trim it was. But it has taken a huge effort. The film is a veritable house of cards, and moving one thing could have brought the whole film crashing down.

(I am reminded of that marvellsous scene in Terry Gilliam's Jabberwocky, where the hero, played by Mr Palin, observes a workman - a blacksmith or something similiar - in a fantasically crowded workshop. Palin says that if the workman only moved a certain item a short distance, his productivity would increase by so many per cent. He then moves said item, and the resulting chain of accidents it sets off brings down the entire workshop. One of the best scenes in the film. And a salutary lesson for editors - and executives - everywhere.)

The sound on the third Peter interview was not very good either, and we are trying to find out whether it was the mixer or some other unseen force at work. In the meantime, we've found a sound wizard - who hasn't appeared in any Terry Gilliam films that I know of - to fix the sound on the original interview. It lacks a little bit of treble, but the horrible Lear-on-the-Heath storm in the background has now been eliminated. Poor Tom is no longer cold.

The Comrades DVD and Us

2009-03-22T23:00:00.005Z

The 3rd interview with Peter went well, despite the fact that he was suffering from a cold and was not quite his usual ebullient self. After we'd finished shooting, Peter led us down Park Lane to see 2 Trafalgar Lawn, his birthplace and the house he was living in when Bill first visted, c. 1956. We then went on to see Bill's bench, which Peter had dedicated to him a few years ago. The inscription reads 'Barumite by adoption' (Barumite being the term for Barnstaple-dweller). And thence on to the Theatre, where there are two-Brecht related posters that Peter brought back from Berlin in the mid-50s. The first ever production of Mother Courage to tour the UK played in Barnstaple in 1955, with Joan Littlewood in the title role. It was this performance that caused Peter to suggest to Bill that he study with Joan Littlewood at Theatre Royal, Stratford, which he did in the late 50s.

We are now trying to fix all the sound problems, and reduce the film by about 10 mins in length. The reason for the cuts is that the BFI have expressed interest in putting Lanterna onto the Comrades DVD, and don't want it to run for more than an hour. This is extremely good news, and we are feeling very relieved that the film has turned out good enough to be released alongside Bill's masterpiece. Other rumoured DVD extras are an edit of Charles Rees's 1978 interview with Bill in Archer St, which we've used a few minutes of (Bill demonstrating the praxinoscope). I mentioned this to Shona, who is producing the DVD, and she and Charles just watched all 90 minutes of the interview, and decided that they could probably get 30 good minutes out of it. Michael Alexander's short, Home and Away, which Bill co-wrote, is also apparently going to be on the DVD, as it has a 'Bill-like quality', according to Charles, and Andy Kimpton-Nye has been asked to put together 15 mins of outtakes from his documentary Bill Douglas: Intent on Getting the Image. So: it seems like it will be something of a bumper package. (If all these films appear as extras, that will bring the running time of the whole set to somewhere around 5 hours!)

And at the same time as this, I am still looking for a last bit of money to finish the other main project, Folie à Deux (which has a homage to My Ain Folk in it). No rest for the chronically overdrawn, it seems....

Peter III

2009-03-11T00:30:00.005Z

On Saturday, we return to chez Jewell to conduct a third interview. This time, the reason is merely to correct some bad sound from the first interview (January last year). We've tried all we can to get rid of the hiss, and have decided that the best way is to simply re-do the necessary bits, the culprit being a faulty mixer. I shall leave the vendor of said piece of equipment to your imaginations, but he is on eBay, and still flogging his wares. (Anyone keen on blackmail and extortion, please let me know and I can give you his email address:-))

So - a bit of a fucker, if I can employ technical language, but at least it's something that's fixable.

Other news: we may have some screenings/DVD release dates to announce soon.

And, perhaps more importantly, it's also the 50th anniversary of the Chinese clampdown in Tibet. Please oppose/protest about Chinese occupation of Tibet in whatever way you can. Thanks.

The Film is Finished

2009-02-21T18:21:00.003Z

We hope. At least we got something that could recognizably be called a finished cut onto DVD at the beginning of this week. We still have sound issues with a few of the Peter Jewell clips, and also Saxon Logan. (This was due to a faulty mixer, which has since been consigned to the scrap heap.) We're currently debating whether to reshoot these clips - they're too short to be called interviews - but this should be fairly straightforward, provided we can get hold of Saxon (who was heading off to Africa to shoot the last time we spoke to him).

Other Bill-related news: the Trilogy will be available on Blu-Ray in June. It's being released at the same time as the Comrades DVD/Blu-Ray disc. More info as and when I get it. Meanwhile, if you haven't bought the Trilogy, you'd better do so now or forever be a social/artistic pariah:-)

The excellent BFI release (PAL) is on the left, the slightly less excellent US version (from Facets, NTSC) is on the right.

Carry on Cleo

2008-12-27T17:36:00.003Z

Carry on Cleo, which features Bill in a small acting role - blink and you'll miss him - is on on New Year's Eve at 1125. ITV I think.

Other than that - an acting triumph I'm sure Bill would rather not dwell on - we are nearly finished. I'll report more in the New Year once we have recovered from the traditional Hogmanay whisky session in Marchmont...

And Again...

2008-12-09T12:30:00.003Z

Just when I thought we had finished shooting, Lu dispatched me to get some shots of mines near Edinburgh a few weeks ago. The mine where Bill briefly worked is now long shut, along with most of Lothian's other pits. I ended up shooting very little and instead spent a very interesting afternoon wandering around the Scottish Mining Museum, which gave me some appreciation of just how hard mining is, and added a new strata to my understanding of some of the harshnesses depicted in Bill's Trilogy.

We're now very close to the end of the edit, and are mainly tying up loose ends and rough sound edits. The film is currently about and an hour and ten minutes, although that will probably come down a little. More anon...

Fat Lady Sings! Read All About It!

2008-10-23T11:57:00.002Z

On Monday we shot a pick-up interview with Ian Christie, bringing the film full circle in terms of the shoot (Ian was also the very first interviewee, back in March 2006). We conducted the interview in his office at Birkbeck College which, as he remarked, reminds him of the set of Dr Caligari (albeit with lots of blue and yellow, surely not Expressionist colours? Munch perhaps being the exception - but then again, he wasn't a filmmaker. And Caligari was of course in black and white...) We originally only had three questions for Ian, but he ended up saying some quite profound things, so we may end up using more of the interview than originally planned.

We are now looking at doing the final editing, mixing and grading between now and the end of the year. So we'd better start thinking about film festival submissions etc etc. There is also a possible DVD release. So: the fat lady has finally sung - we're done with shooting, and almost time to toast the film, our overdrafts, and of course Bill and Peter, the good folks at the Bill Douglas Centre and all who worked on Comrades.

Nearly Done

2008-08-30T16:37:00.003Z

Two months have gone by without a post, more by accident than design. We are now nearly finished, which is good news, and the film is working very nicely. It's running at about an hour, and features clips from most of the interviews we shot. There is also the possibility of a DVD release, but I can't broadcast too much about that at the moment, as nothing is agreed. But it seems - with the gods on our side - that all our hard work has paid off, and it'll be coming to a wider audience than we expected sometime in 09.

I've also been thinking of what other Bill-related projects to undertake, and my thoughts are turning to getting some of his unpublished writings out into the world at long last. (For instance, there is an unpublished novel from 1982 gathering dust in a drawer at Peter's house...)

Bill's Trilogy Out Now on DVD

2008-06-27T11:25:00.006Z

In a quick update to my post back in April, Bill's Trilogy - My Childhood, My Ain Folk and My Way Home - is now available on DVD from the BFI. It's a sumptuous affair, and features a brief essay by myself (on Stephen Archibald, Jamie from the Trilogy), and one from Lanterna's producer and writer Louise Milne (on Bill himself). Peter Jewell contributes an introductory essay, and also writes about Bill's little-seen student film, Come Dancing.

Do yourself a huge, poetic favour and buy a copy here.
(Or you can click on the DVD cover image above.) Films really don't get any better than these. (Well, not forgetting Comrades!)

It Ain't Over Till...

2008-05-06T13:04:00.003Z

... it's over, the fat lady sings...

Contrary to popular belief, or at least my own beliefs, we have not finished interviewing. On Friday, we interviewed Saxon Logan, who was Lindsay Anderson's assistant and directed Bill as an actor in his two films Working Surface (1979) and Sleepwalker (1984). Saxon gave us an insightful and heartfelt tribute to Bill, and Andersonesque criticism of both the state of the British film industry (in seeming permanent crisis since about 1935) and the woeful state of knowledge of today's film and media graduates. He secured a job as a runner for one such callow youth, only to find that said graduate had never heard of Bunuel (one of Bill's favourite directors, to boot. Mind you, if they hadn't heard of Bunuel, they certainly wouldn't have heard of Bill).

On Sunday we popped back down to Barnstaple to see Peter and select which photos from his personal collection we're going to use, and are thrilled and touched that he is giving us his blessing to use one of the last photos taken of Bill, beneath Fox Talbot's window at Lacock Abbey, in May 1991, only three weeks before Bill died. We also did a second interview, this time in the garden, and made sure that Peter was reined in and gave concise anwers instead of his usual mellifluous answers. This second interview ended up being only about a quarter of the length of the first, but we got some very good stuff, so all is well.

We now think we may have one more interview to do, so the fat lady won't be singing just yet, but I can hear her gargling in the wings as I write...

The Secret Files of Peter Jewell

2008-04-18T00:01:00.002Z

Today, on what would have been Bill's 74th birthday, I went down to Barnstaple to pick up a tape of Lindsay Anderson talking about Bill in 1991, a few months after Bill died. It's a very good piece, which I hope we'll be able to use somewhere in Lanterna.

Interestingly, Peter also unearthed two other interviews - one from the 1970s, the other from the late 80s - in addition to transcripts of BBC radio programmes about the Trilogy from the 70s. I don't think we'll be able to use any of the latter, as we're trying to stay focussed on Comrades and the Collection, but I will listen to the other two interviews and hopefully we can extract something from them.

I'm going back down to the Centre next week to film a magic lantern show, and also to experience a another new discovery - a filmed interview with Bill conducted in 1989. I don't think it's very long, but any extra material we can get of the man himself - without paying extortionate BBC-style license fees - is more than welcome.

Prior to arriving at Peter's, I paid a visit to Bill's last resting place in Bishop's Tawton to wish him a happy birthday, and shot a few close-ups of the headstone. Because the sun was behind the stone, the only way I could make the inscription visible was to open up the F stop quite a bit, resulting in the background whiting out. It was a nice effect - heavenly, you could almost say. In fact, quite fitting. I hope Bill has spent the day, wherever he is, having a whisky with Lindsay Anderson...

The Trilogy: DVD Release (and another Interview)

2008-04-13T23:30:00.005Z

A mild deviation from the usual, but one that is not exactly off topic: the BFI are releasing The Bill Douglas Trilogy on DVD in June. It will be a two-disc set, featuring, in addition to the three films that make up the Trilogy, Bill's brilliant graduation film from the London Film School, Come Dancing (1970), and Andy Kimpton-Nye's documentary about Bill, Intent on Getting the Image. The two BBC Scotland films, Bill Douglas: On Stony Ground ( a documentary from 1992) and Ring of Truth (a short drama Bill wrote in 1990, eventually made in 1996), apparently proved prohibitously expensive, and won't be included. The DVD booklet will feature contributions from both myself and Lanterna's co-writer and producer, Louise Milne. In fact, we are just putting the finishing touches to the buggers as I write. So, all in all a cause for a great rubbing of parts - if I may quote the Lacivious Prophet from Life of Brian - come (if you'll pardon the pun) summer.

Oh yes, one final interview is being scheduled for early May: a trip up to Bristol to have a chat with Saxon Logan, who was Lindsay Anderson's assistant for many years, and coaxed Bill back into acting (Bill starred in Saxon's 1984 film Sleepwalker). We are also trying to locate radio recordings of Lindsay Anderson talking about Bill, and a very elusive tape of Bill talking about Comrades in Dorset shortly after the film was released. OK: bed.

Editing, the Joys of

2008-04-10T12:57:00.002Z

We've now begun the mammoth task of editing down the 41 or so hours of footage that we've shot into something vaguely resembling a film. This is being done a short drive away from Bill's birthplace in Newcraighall, more by accident than design. When I say 'a short distance from' I mean of course the holy city of Edinburgh. (I think the nearest Trilogy location to where we're cutting is Candlemaker Row, which appears in My Way Home.) I don't know whether this will help on the inspiration front, but it's certainly the most convenient place to cut the film, as it's where co-producer and co-writer Louise Milne lives.

The film will no doubt metamorphose as cutting progresses. My original outline has given way to Louise's probably more sensible outline, which will give us room I think for some wonderful anecdotes and more humour than originally intended. (I don't know why I'm so averse to humour, as writing it comes easily to me. Maybe it's time to come out of the closet as a humourist...) Anyway, some of the footage we rewatched yesterday had us in stitches, mainly courtesy of the great interviews we've done with Alex Norton and Robin Soans, the two brilliant lynchpins in Comrades. I hope some of these things can make the cut; they can only serve to make the film richer, and hopefully one that will stay with the viewer long after they've seen it.

Helen Douglas Interviewed

2008-03-13T23:48:00.003Z

On Wednesday, we shot a surprise interview with Bill's half-sister, Helen. It turns out she was over from Australia - where she has lived for a number of years - visiting family in the Edinburgh area. Obviously this was too good an opportunity to pass up, so an interview was hastily arranged and conducted at co-producer Louise Milne's flat in Marchmont. And it would seem that this will not be the last thing we shoot for the film, either, as Peter has told me that there will be a magic lantern show down at the Centre next month. It would be perfect to shoot a lantern in action... at the Centre! So fingers crossed, that will be our last shooting day.

And Finally... Peter

2008-01-28T20:10:00.001Z

On Friday we shot an extensive interview with Peter Jewell, which will probably be the last interview we shoot (a well-known film critic excepting). Peter was in fine form, and held forth on the Collection, Comrades, Bill's reputation as a supposedly 'difficult' director to work with, the state of modern cinema and numerous other things besides. I don't know how we're going to cut all this down - we have nearly 4 hours of material, the longest interview I've ever shot. Perhaps when Lanterna is finished, we can make a second film about Peter!

On the subject of finishing, we are aiming at June, if not before. I'm now faced with the task of logging all 41 hours or so of rushes, and finding an editor. We're hoping to edit the film in Edinburgh, where co-writer and producer Louise Milne is based.

I'm also mulling over various other Bill-related projects: possibly getting some of his unpublished writings published - not Justified Sinner or Flying Horse, both of which are still owned by Mamoun Hassan and Simon Relph respectively - but possibly Bill's sole surviving novel, and also possibly shooting one of his short scripts next year.

Simon Relph Interviewed

2007-12-16T23:55:00.001Z

Just back from London, where I was attending the Tarkovsky Festival. A bit of a hectic week all in all, especially as I was filming the Q & A sessions that took place every night after each film. (For the record, the guests were Layla Alexander-Garrett, (who also organised the whole thing); Vadim Yusov, Tarkovsky's DOP until Solaris; Tarkovsky's sister Marina; her husband Alexander Gordon (who is also a director, co-directed some student films with Tarkovsky and also cast him as an actor in one of his own feature films); and actors Natalya Bondarchuk and Oleg Yankovsky.)

We also shot a great interview with Comrades producer and all-round nice chap Simon Relph, who had some great anecdotes about working with Bill. And he is also liaising with Channel 4 on our behalf for the clip rights, as we feel that Lanterna will be the lesser film if we can't get clips from Comrades into the edit. And he also told us that Daniel Day-Lewis is a big fan of Comrades, so we may be sending him a DVD of the film when it's finished.

This now means that all the shooting is in the can, bar an interview with Peter himself, which we had agreed to do last. Hopefully we can get that in the can next month, and have the film finished by Easter. Here's hoping...

Mike Simkin Interviewed

2007-11-17T19:52:00.000Z

Yesterday we went up to Solihull to interview Mike Simkin, who did the magic lantern work on Comrades. Mike had lots of great stories to tell about working with Bill, and a few insightful comments about what Bill was like as a person. He also has a great collection of magic lanterns, including the one used by Alex Norton in the film (pictured). Bill's comments about shooting Mike's sequences can be found here. Mike also has something not even in the Collection: a musical praxinoscope! Just when you thought you'd seen every pre-cinema device there was, along comes a surprise... Next month we are finally catching up with Simon Relph, producer of Comrades and that will only leave - famous last words - Peter himself to be interviewed.

The End of the Exeter Book

2007-08-11T17:40:00.000Z

On Thursday, we finally completed shooting at the Centre. Felt a little sad, and indeed it is the end of an era that began properly at the beginning of the year, although our very first day of shooting there was as far back as March of last year, when we did a very quick interview with Ian Christie. We saved possibly my favourite cabinet until last, the one containing the praxinoscopes. They're fascinating things to look at generally, and look very good on camera (especially when we're focussing in on parts of the devices; some very pleasing abstract compositions are possible).

So: all - perhaps that word should be in inverted commas! - we now have to do are interviews with Peter, Simon Relph (Comrades producer) and Mike Simkin (magic lanternist on Comrades). Other possible shoots are the list of people who've not yet got back in touch with me about appearing in the film, and if another lantern show is scheduled at Exeter, we'll shoot that too. (Mervyn Heard did a show there earlier in the summer, but we couldn't go.) The bulk of the film is now in the can - 30 plus hours of footage - and Nick and I had a most welcome brace of beers at The Queens afterwards.

Bill Douglas Centre Push for Funding

2007-08-02T00:56:00.000Z

The Bill Douglas Centre in Exeter - where Bill and Peter's remarkable collection is housed - is looking for further reognition/support to take it up the funding ladder. To this end, Michelle, the outgoing curator, has sent out the following questionnaire to interested parties. I have pasted my own responses below. If you would like to get actively involved in the campaign to help the Centre, please email them via the website, www.billdouglas.org.

To Whom it May Concern:

In answer to the following questions sent out by the Bill Douglas Centre in July 2007, I can offer the following responses.

1) What makes the Bill Douglas Centre collection a unique resource amongst (dedicated) cinema or visual culture history collections in the UK?

The Bill Douglas Centre collection, perhaps more properly known as the Bill Douglas and Peter Jewell Collection, is unique in that it is the work of just two people (Bill Douglas and Peter Jewell), lifelong lovers of cinema, who assembled this remarkable collection intially as a labour of love between the 1960s and 1980s, but latterly with a view that it should one day be of benefit to all who are interested in movies and their history. It is, if you will, a hugely generous and loving gesture towards future generations of film-lovers and film researchers. This alone, I think, makes it utterly unique.

2) What are the specific characteristics of the Bill Douglas Centre Collection that make it a valuable research and/or teaching resource in your field of study?

My own field of study - for a documentary about the Collection - has necessarily focussed on the actual items on display to the public (and a few pieces not currently on display). Given that the film I am producing will focus on the early and pre-cinema aspects of the Collection (Magic Lanterns, Praxinoscopes, Mutascopes, etc), the Collection has proved an absolute gold mine of material and artefacts. Not only that, but we have been able to actually handle these devices, and get them working for the camera. This, to me, suggests the extent to which the curators of the Collection have not only cared for the items since receiving them from Peter Jewell, but also their willingness to let researchers and investigators experience the magic of these items at first hand. No computer simulation could ever hope to capture the beauty of an actual magic lantern or praxinoscope in working order, and these the Collection have. The Collection therefore is a primary resource for those students and researchers (not forgetting members of the public, to whom the Collection is open free of charge) who want or need to acquaint themselves at first hand with the simple magic and mystery of these ingenious devices.

3) What do you think students and researchers gain from their interactions with the collection? If relevant, how has the Centre figured in your own research projects?

All I can hope in terms of students and other researchers is that they are both moved to marvel at the tenacity of Bill Douglas and Peter Jewell in assembling this truly remarkable collection, and also stimulated by the sheer scope of materials and artefacts on offer to both re-assess and also celebrate cinema within their respective fields.

In terms of my own interactions with the Collection, I would refer the reader to my answer to 2). As I have also been making a film about Bill Douglas and the Collection, I have had many opportunities to explore and interact with the items in the Collection, and without the participartion of the Centre under its (then) curator Michelle Allen and her staff, we would not have been able to proceed with our project. To Michelle and her team we extend our sincere thanks, and we appreciate their work in trying to bring the Collection to a wider public.

4) What value or importance do you believe the collection brings to the University and to the South West region as a whole?

Given that the Museum of the Moving Image in London has - scandalously - closed, we are left with a country that has precious few places in which to celebrate the moving image. This is all the more important when one recalls that the first films ever made (by Le Prince in 1888) were shot in the UK. This, to me, gives our country - and respective funding bodies - the pararmount responsibility to preserve such cinematic memorablilia, devices and ephemera as represented by the Bill Douglas Centre. Given that the only other dedicated museum/collection of note is at Bradford (The National Media Museum), it is to the great credit of Exeter University that they house such an important collection as this, which is, I believe, only second to Bradford in its importance. Given that one of the acknowledged fathers of cinema, William Friese-Greene, was a West Countryman, it is altogether fitting that such an important collection as that at the Bill Douglas Centre be continued to be housed in the South-West. Perhaps not only that, but also in a dedicated building to afford greater accessibility.

In short, the Bill Douglas and Peter Jewell Collection is a truly remarkable collection whose breadth and beauty continues to impress and astound me every time I visit it, and it is certainly a national treasure that should be protected, promoted and nourished for future generations. This will be of benefit, I believe, also to the City and University of Exeter, and also to the South-West of the UK as well.

Sean Martin

Filmmaker, Writer

Highbridge, Somerset 31/07/07

In the Magic Toyshop

2007-07-21T01:03:00.000Z

Yesterday we spent all day at the Centre with Steve Herbert, the magic lanternist and early cinema researcher who was responsible for setting up the displays in the Centre when it opened to the public in 1997. Steve kindly came down to Exeter from his base in Hastings, en route to a Magic Lantern Society meeting in Bath. Our plan of action was to get some of the best moving items out of the cabinets and film them in action, including such delights as the chromatrope, praxinoscope theatre (not to be confused with the ordinary praxinoscope, as demonstrated by Bill in the archive footage which will probably open the film), moving panorama, flick book, phenakistascope, zograscope and also the very magic lantern that Alex Norton uses in Comrades.

There were a number of other devices that we could have shot had we had the time, such as the panorama from Comrades (when the Martyrs get transported), the stereoscope, several ancient amelias and something involving a cylindrical mirror. These will hopefully be filmed in all their glory over the next three weeks, as I'm hoping that we can get all the stuff at the Centre in the can before the curator, Michelle, leaves for greener pastures.

Anyway, to return to Steve, he's enormously knowledgeable about all things early and pre-cinema, and also knew Bill fairly well, having first met him in 1972 at the NFT, when My Childhood was first shown in London (Steve being an NFT projectionist at the time). He told us that before the screening, he noticed a man pacing up and down smoking heavily in the lobby. 'That's the filmmaker,' thought Steve, and he was right. It was Bill dealing with pre-screening nerves! Steve also ruminated on the fallacy of the persistence of vision, and we got some quite philosophical interview footage, such philosophising continuing in the pub that evening.

All in all, a very tiring day and a bit, but we've got some good footage in the can. And we all now want to join the Magic Lantern Society! It certainly sounds interesting, to say nothing of shades of quasi-Masonry. To quote the Scriptures, 'I've got a second-hand apron.... I nearly got in at Hendon.'

Mad Photographers et al

2007-07-13T14:14:00.000Z

It's been too long since I posted a photo, so here is one that Alex gave us. He took it in Australia, and shows Bill with the mad photographer's (played by Alex) camera.

Last night I was rereading Patrick Harpur's Daimonic Reality and came across a passage where he related a dream that Jung had in 1958. At first he was dreaming of UFOs, but then the saucers changed into lenses, and then a magic lantern! I particularly liked this quote: 'I am projected by the magic lantern.... But who manipulates the apparatus?' And a little further down the page (93), PH quotes Yeats: 'Mirror on mirror mirrored is all the show.' These could almost form epigraphs - or intertitles - to our film.

Before I forget, Bill's Trilogy is being screened tomorrow at Collage Arts in Wood Green, London N22, as part of the Unheard Voices Film Festival. More info here. (You'll need to scroll down to 14 July, Bill Douglas Retrospective.)

Robin Soans Interviewed

2007-07-09T11:22:00.000Z

On Saturday we shot a great interview with Robin Soans, who was on fine form. (Just as well really, as we weren't, due to hangovers.) Originally not on our hitlist, it was suggested to us by several previous interviewees (Alex Norton and Imelda Staunton, I think) that we talk to Robin, as he was quite close to Bill, both as a friend and in terms of vision.

Robin spoke passionately about Bill's cinema being poetic, about his uncompromising approach to shooting, and his anti-establishment position. (He remembers Bill referring to producers and money men as 'The Enemy'.) He also remembers Bill trying to get as many pre- and early cinema optical devices into the film as possible, a task he remembers Bill enjoying.

Robin also had some great anecdotes, one involving Comrades DOP Gale Tattersall destroying a sofa, while another saw producer Simon Relph chasing Bill down the road with a shovel threatening to kill him.

After the interview was over and we were relaxing in Robin's garden with a cup of tea, more anecdotes came forth, this time about the play he has going up at Hampstead in September, Life After Scandal, which is based on interviews with such 'lovable' Tory types as the Hamiltons, Edwina Currie, Jonathan Aitken and Lord Montague of Beaulieu. If you can catch the play, do so: it sounds like a blast. Opens at the Hampstead Theatre on 23 September.

Music

2007-06-26T11:26:00.000Z

On Friday we recorded Chris, a folk-singer from the old kingdom of Fife for possible use in the film. A few months ago, I think it was around March, we were in one of our favourite Edinburgh hostelries when we heard Chris singing a wonderful old lament. I had the gut feeling that it would be the sort of thing that would work well in Lanterna. So after a few scheduling false alarms, we finally got together with Chris in one of the dubbing suites at Napier University to record four songs, Dumbarton's Drums, Time Wears Awa', The Recruited Collier and Willie's Drooned in Yarrow. None have anything directly to do with Bill or Newcraighall, although The Recruited Collier does mention mines, stubbled fields and dreams, which I suppose are thematically related to Bill's work, and Bill was, towards the end of his life, contemplating writing a script called Oor Willie, about an early cinema pioneer whose name currently escapes me (and who did not drown in the Yarrow, or any other river for that matter). Anyway, hopefully one or more of the songs will work in the film, as the mood of loss in each is reminiscent of the Trilogy.

Alex Norton & Ian Sellar Interviewed

2007-06-13T10:02:00.000Z

Just back from Ye Smoke, where we shot great interviews with Alex Norton and Ian Sellar. Alex played the Lanternist in Comrades - and 12 other parts as well - and would have played Gilmartin in Justified Sinner had Bill lived long enough to make it; Ian worked on My Childhood and My Ain Folk, and then ended up being taught by Bill at the National Film School. He is now a teacher there himself, as well as being a filmmaker also (director of the marvellous Venus Peter, and has just completed a new feature, The Englishman, after too long away from the director's chair).

Alex spoke about how he felt that working with Bill was a once in a lifetime opportunity, and told us a very funny story about involving Bill, Simon Relph and a shed. This won't end up in the film, as he told it to us after we'd finished the interview and were heading downstairs to have a glass of wine. Anyway, the stuff we did actually manage to get on camera was great.

Ian was very good on Bill's unique working methods - echoing things that Alex said - and said some great things about what Bill taught him, both in working on the Trilogy, and also later at thge NFTS. One thing he said was that Bill taught him how to see what was in front of him, which has a nice, Zen-like wisdom in it, as most films - and most people, come to that - don't see what is in front of them.

The Road from Exeter to London (and back)

2007-04-03T23:01:00.000Z

Over the last two weeks, we've spent three days at the Centre in Exeter shooting in the upstairs room. I particularly liked the Chaplin dolls, and we also noticed that the Collection also contains the autographs of Rudolph Valentino and Orson Welles!

Last Friday we popped up to London to shoot an interview with Imelda Staunton, Heather Page and Joanna David. I had initially approached Joanna, as she gave a speech at the opening of the Centre in 1995, and she then suggested doing a three-way interview - more of a conversation, really - with Imelda and Heather. Anyway, it turned out really well, and the three of them recounted fascinating anecdotes of what it was like to work with Bill. I also found out that Bill actually starred in a film with Heather and Joanna. I had always thought that Bill have up acting in the early 1960s, but apparently not so.

More about Sleepwalker, can be found here.

Today we've been back down in Exeter again, shooting the Mutascope and some of Muybridge's photographs, including the famous 'Flying Horse' sequence. We have about another week's worth of shooting down there before we're done. It's fiddly work, but fascinating to see all these amazing things. How and where Bill and Peter managed to find all this stuff, heaven only knows.

Other interviews lined up for the coming months are Alex Norton, Ian Sellar and magic lantern expert Steve Herbert. I'll try and schedule these in between working on my feature, Folie à Deux, and starting my next book, New Waves in Cinema, due out next year from Kamera Books.

A New Interview

2007-03-15T12:34:00.000Z

I've just returned from Edinburgh, where we shot a very interesting interview with academic and critic Jane Sillars. We discussed The Trilogy, mainly, and Jane pointed out that there are even hints of sexual abuse in the film, which I had completely missed on all my previous viewings of the film. (I watched a bit of the film the day following the interview, and sure enough, found the sexual abuse scene straight away.) She is also evidently after my own heart in that she mentioned alchemy, quite without Herr Direktor prompting her! Next up, hopefully, will be Alex Norton, who played the Lanternist and sundry other roles (all of whom associated with optical devices) in Comrades. We are also returning to Exeter before the end of the month to have another crack at filming the exhibits, this time without the glass cabinets getting in the way.

Bill on Praxinoscopes

2007-01-15T23:02:00.000Z

Today I picked up a roll of film shot in 1978 by Charles Rees of Bill demonstrating how to use a Praxinoscope. (This sequence is actually part of a rumoured 90 minute unreleased film, entirely of Bill being interviewed. Apparently Charles thinks he asked the wrong questions, and doesn't want to show it to anyone, which is a bit of a shame.) Picking up said footage entailed a trip to Charles's flat in Ladbroke Grove, and we had a very agreeable lunch. Charles is working on a book about cameras, arguing that cameras were used by the likes not only of Vermeer, but also earlier artists like Masaccio. He admitted that the reason the book has taken so long to write is his working method: all he uses are the paintings themselves, and lets each one speak to him over time. Possibly the most fascinating lunch I've had in years!

From Charles's, I popped into Soho to get the footage telecined. I'd only seen the material once before - an old VHS copy at Peter's - and it was great to see it on a bigger screen and in better quality. Bill is in fine form, and says that early and pre-cinema is his real interest, so the scene would make an ideal beginning. So: the beginning is taken care of. Now all I have to do is most of the rest of it.

Which leads me on to something else which Charles and I discussed over lunch: the structure of the film. I've been puzzling about this for the last n months, so much so that I found myself in the Slough of Despond, mulling the subject over with a pint of Bath Gem in one of my spiritual homes, The Queens Arms in Bleadon. While looking rather vacantly at Peter's chronology of cinema and pre-cinema optical devices, it suddenly struck me that the chronology would serve as an ideal backbone of the film if told backwards. In other words, we start with Charlie Chaplin, the coming of sound and colour etc, and then work backwards, ending up with magic lanterns and Plato's cave. These latter two are ideas that really excite me, as they are inextricably linked with ideas of new vision and changing your way of seeing, ideas inimical to both Charles and Bill. So I now know what I'm doing at last!

Interviewing Charles Rees

2006-12-08T19:54:00.000Z

Today we shot an extremely interesting interview with Charles Rees, who was a friend of Bill and Peter's, and who co-produced My Ain Folk. Charles was quite unequivocal about his regard for Bill, describing him as a master, and also said some highly stimulating things about the nature of the cinematic image and time itself. This is the sort of thing that gets a philosophically inclined old soak like myself highly animated, and is exactly the direction I want to take Lanterna Magicka. It needs to be a meditation on time as much as cinema.

An Afternoon chez Peter

2006-11-18T18:31:00.000Z

Spent yesterday afternoon with Peter, typing up a chronology of cinema, Comrades and the Collection. What this comprises essentially is three columns, detailing on the left the history of moving images, from the earliest - shadowography - through camera obscuras, magic lanterns and so on until the invention of cinema. The middle column lists when each of these devices appears in Comrades, while the third column details what the Collection holds for each device. This is something Peter thought would be helpful in trying to structure the film, and I think he's spot on. Our other idea was to shoot Peter's interview last, so that he can help tie all the various strands together (as I'm sure there will be strands and loose ends of narrative that will need bringing together at the end).

Peter also said he could lend me some 8mm footage that he and Bill shot of various Chaplin-related locations in Kennington (not Bill's LFS film Charlie Chaplin's London, which is lost), and that he'll dig out various comments Bill made about films which would work well as a voice-over.

We aim to start shooting again in a couple of weeks, once I'm back from the Mannheim-Heidelberg Film Festival. More anon.

Once More Unto the Breach

2006-11-14T00:51:00.000Z

Now that we've finished principal photography on Folie à Deux, it's time to crack on with Lanterna Magicka. To that end, I hope to be meeting Peter later this week to discuss the film's structure, and hopefully angle for a few more nuggets of wisdom. Our next interviewee may well be Simon Relph, producer of Comrades, as he lives fairly close (i.e. Bath). At the moment, it looks like we need to do an interview a week for the next 12 weks to get it done. A bit of a tall order, methinks. And I still have to get back in touch with the NFT to make sure they're going to show it next year, provided of course that their rumoured Bill season does actually happen (which I'm sure will relate to whether or not they can get the Trilogy properly mastered to DVD on time).

Shooting Resumes/Director Holds Forth on Cinematic Iniquity etc

2006-11-05T12:08:00.000Z

We finished shooting Folie à Deux on Wednesday. Now it's shoulder to the wheel time for Lanterna Magicka. I'm hoping we can get a couple of interviews in the can between now and Christmas, with shooting hopefully wrapping in February or March.

The list of questions has at last been chiselled in granite, with questions centring on Bill, Comrades and film in general.

Sample Questions:

About Bill:

When and where did you first meet Bill Douglas?
What were your first impressions of him?
Were these impressions confirmed through working with him? Or did working with him make you see him in a different light?
Did you know anything of his childhood when you knew him?
Had you seen any of the Trilogy?

About Comrades:

Tell us a little of what you understand of Bill’s working methods.
At the time, was Bill’s conception of the film clear to you? Did he articulate himself? Or were you unclear as to what exactly he wanted?
Had you heard of Bill’s ‘difficult’ reputation before working on Comrades?
If so, why did you want to work with him?

General Questions:

What is a good film?
What is good about Bill’s films?
Bill left narrative gaps in his films, wanting the audience to ‘meet him half way’. Can you comment on this idea? Should more films being doing this?
How does the role of the visual storyteller (e.g. film director, photographer, painter – all people who ‘see’) differ from other people? Does the act of ‘seeing’ or ‘visualising’ a film or a story somehow mark people like Bill out as different in some way?
Is it possible to argue that cinema is a direct descendant of the magic lantern and camera obscura pioneers? If so, could we equate great filmmakers like Bill with that same visionary spirit?
Following on from that, magic lanternists – e.g. Giambattista della Porta – were seen in their own time as heretics and outsiders. Is there a case to be made that poetic filmmakers like Bill are also heretics and outsiders (at least in the eyes of mainstream cinema)?
If so, what is there of value in the ‘heretical’ and ‘outsider’ positions?

I hope that widening the scope out to include alchemists like della Porta will make the audience see films in a slightly different light. Films - good ones like Bill's especially - are magical. At least that's how the mediaeval mind would have seen them. And the church would - and did - disapprove (della Porta was arrested on suspicion of making moving images via 'black' magic the first time he demonstrated his camera obscura). I can't help but think that makers of poetic cinema - people like Bill - are effectively the modern equivalent. Instead of the Inquisition, you get sidelined and railroaded into obscurity, while the soul-destroying pap of mainstream cinema does its dastardly work...

A Sighting of Joanna David

2006-10-15T11:24:00.000Z

Just back from London where I've been rehearsing Folie a Deux to find a message on my answerphone from Peter (Jewell). Apparently Joanna David, whom we've been trying to track down for an interview in Lanterna Magicka, is currently appearing A Voyage Round My Father at Wyndham's in London. Apparently she's got good reviews, too. Must drop her a line via the theatre. She and Bill were very fond of one another, and I'm sure she'd be interested in appearing, or maybe even doing the voice-over. Fingers crossed!

Shooting in Edinburgh

2006-08-22T13:25:00.000Z

I'm just back from an intensive week in Edinburgh, where I managed to shoot a number of things for the film: general views of Newcraighall, the Old Town (in particular Mound Place/Ramsay Lane, the Camera Obscura and Calton Hill. I don't know if we'll be able to use any of this, but it's good to have if need be.

There are more Trilogy-related locations that I might be able to find out from Peter Jewell (if he can remember where they were!). For instance, the bridge at the end of My Childhood, and the street that Jamie's stepfather drives the lorry down in My Way Home (I've always thought it was somewhere around Cowgate, but that's just a hunch.)

On another note, the best film I saw in Edinburgh this year was Into Great Silence, a near-three hour documentary about a Carthusian monastery in the French Alps. Fantastic stuff. Made me feel rather monastic, which, given my intemperate habits, was quite an achievement!

Filming in Newcraighall & Edinburgh

2006-08-03T18:59:00.000Z

Just booked my tickets for the Edinburgh Festival. Will be seeing some of my writing gurus, namely Adam Thorpe and John Burnside, and checking out some comedy (The Goodies!).

I've decided to take the A1 with me. It's small enough, so why not? I'll be getting some footage of Newcraighall, mainly where the miners' cottages used to stand (there's a new estate there now), the blue plaque in memory of Bill, the school and the miner's wellfare institute. I will also get some shots of Edinburgh - perhaps Ramsay Lane in the Old Town (location of the last shot of My Ain Folk), and possibly the camera obscura, which will fit in nicely with the theme of the film.

If I can get more locations from Peter Jewell, I may shoot those too, Book/Comedy/Film Festival permitting.

On Location at the NFT

2006-06-24T11:40:00.000Z

Last Sunday, 18 June, was the 15th anniversary of Bill's death. The National Film Theatre screened Comrades as a tribute to him, preceeded by Andy Kimpton-Nye's Bill Douglas: Intent on Getting the Image. Andy introduced his film, and Peter Jewell introduced Comrades. I filmed both introductions for possible use in Lanterna Magicka, although I'm not sure at the moment how I'm going to fit them in to the structure of the film. Peter even mentioned LM in his introduction, which was nice, saying that he likes the film's subtitle ('Bill Douglas and the Secret History of Film'). But it also puts me under more pressure to get on with the film and try and get it finished by early 2007!

The Man with the Movie Camera

2006-04-24T10:08:00.000Z

Not a post about Dziga Vertov, I'm afraid, but simply the only heading I could think of at 1100 on a Monday morning while on my third black coffee.

This is, in fact, a brief announcement to say that, on Friday, I finally bought a camera. Rather than go for a Sony Z1, I have opted for its little sister, the A1, and with the money I've saved (it's half the price of the Z1, and half the size as well), I've bought some extra bits of kit, such as a wide angle adapter (which seems to be wider than the equivalent for the Z1), a mixer, a fluid head tripod and some long-life batteries. I'm also planning to get a camera stabilising system, either Hague's HCS3 or a Fig Rig (which might actually be better for documentaries).

Anyway, I'm now self-sufficient on the shooting front - which feels fantastic - and mean to get a few days of shooting in on Lanterna Magicka before I go to Cannes. The next stage will probably be another day at the Bill Douglas Centre, shooting the items on display in the museum part of the Centre.

2006-03-05T19:11:00.000Z

Filming film critic Ian Christie in the Bill Douglas centre. L to R: Ian Christie, Sean Martin, Nick Harding.

Lanterna Magicka Starts Shooting

2006-03-05T12:55:00.000Z

On Friday we finally started shooting Lanterna Magicka, with and interview with the film critic Ian Christie at the Bill Douglas Centre in Exeter. It was a little rushed, but I think we got some interesting stuff (including an inspired observation by Ian that zoetropes look like cake tins: - I can just imagine a Victorian equivalent of Blue Peter getting kids to make their own... 'Here's one I made earlier'.)

We used a Sony Z1, which is the camera we'll shoot Folie à Deux with, so Friday's shoot was also a test shoot of sorts for the feature. The hire company we got it from in Bristol also sell Z1s and have quoted me a very reasonable price for one. This will work out cheaper than hiring one in the long run, as we could be shooting Lanterna for months on and off.

Our next shooting day will either be another day at the BDC shooting cutaways of the display cases, or an interview with Alex Norton, who played the Lanternist (and around 14 other roles) in Comrades.