"Neighbourhood Watched" on BBC1

The new series of social housing documentary "Neighbourhood Watched" will start on Tuesday March 1st (BBC1 at 10:35pm).  I filmed and directed some of the series, Raw Television are the producers.

UPDATE: Watch the most recent episode on iplayer.

True Stories: Britain's Supreme Court (More4)

Karen Hamilton's feature length documentary about the first year of Britain's Supreme Court was recently shown on More4 in the UK.

The Telegraph's Assistant Editor for Home News, Philip Johnston, wrote an interesting review of the film.

My vested interest here is that I shot a small amount of the footage in the film.  I filmed with one of the lawyers featured, and I was there for the official opening, which meant I set eyes on the Queen for the first time in my life.

I'm not really a royalist, and I don't get particularly star-struck, but there is something special about being at an event attended by her majesty - it was a great experience.

Being around the court, and talking to the men and women whose sharp legal minds determine the law, gave me a brief but fascinating insight into the running of the court.  Karen Hamilton's film allows us all that experience, and the level of access afforded to her from the Justices is remarkable.

No more tapes?

I'm making the leap from tape to memory card... (obviously this is a techy post, so please only read on if your inner geek tells you to).

I'm just setting up the tapeless Canon XF305 (part of XF300 series).  I'm going to be filming a BBC documentary at a school over the next few weeks - it's the first time I've "gone tapeless", so if anyone has any top tips, please get in touch...

As well as switching recoring formats, I'm also (temporarily) abandoning Sony cameras.  I've just been messing around with the Canon to check settings and see what the picture is like.  So far, so good, but I've been told that it's not brilliant in low light.  It looks like I'm going to have to use gain a lot of the time, but I don't want the picture to look grainy.  I guess this can be solved by lighting, but if anyone has experience of shooting on the fly with this camera - particularly in ob-docs, where you don't always have time to control the lighting - please let me know how you got on.

Social housing documentary

For the last six months, I've been working as a Producer/Director on the second series of "Neighbourhood Watched" - a documentary series about social housing for BBC1.  It's a fly-on-the-wall style programme, following housing association officers and their tenants.

These are challenging times for those involved in the provision of social housing - demand is going up and up, but there just aren't enough homes for everyone who wants one.  When I know the broadcast dates I'll put them on the blog.

Alice & Her Six Dads

I've just finished making "Alice & Her Six Dads" - the story of a young woman searching for her real Dad. I started filming with Alice, 21, after she told me that she wanted to track down her biological Dad. She had no idea where he lived, hadn't seen him since she was a baby, and had never even seen a photo of him.

The film follows Alice's journey to find her Dad, and poses questions about what it really means to be a Dad.

UPDATE - "Alice and Her Six Dads" was first shown on BBC3 in July 2010.  It has been repeated several times, and is sometimes available on iplayer.

The wait is over... now the work begins

Further to my previous post, I am happy to report that I have been commissioned to make another documentary film for a UK broadcaster. I'm sworn to secrecy at the moment, but I'll put more details on here soon...

The Waiting Game

At the moment I'm in the stage of my job which I find hardest. I am working on projects speculatively - one of which is being considered by a major broadcaster in the UK. I'm hanging on for an answer - and I know that the film has a good chance of being commissioned. It means that I'm reticent to go for other shooting/directing jobs because I know that if and when the broadcaster commissions my film, they'll want me to start working on it straight away.

I know this difficult stage will soon be a distant memory. When I'm immersed in a project, it doesn't feel like a job. I work on observational documentaries, which means I spend a lot of time with whoever I'm filming. I like to get to know them, and to give them time to get to know me. It can be a hugely time consuming part of the process, but it's also hugely rewarding. When it works well, we learn to trust each other, and the film is better for it.

 

 

So when I think back to the people who have allowed me into their lives, sometimes for considerable lengths of time, that's when my job doesn't really feel like work at all. I feel privileged to have been allowed in to the personal lives of so many people.

I suppose most freelance film-makers find this stage of the job frustrating. I know that I need to hang on in there - but I'm itching to get started - I just need someone to fire the starting gun.