Thursday, 19 April 2012

N30 Strike on pensions in Bournemouth

This was filmed during the protests against the proposed cuts to public services in November 2011. We wanted to ensure that we captured the voice of the demonstrators, whilst channelling the overall Zeitgeist of change and unity that was felt that day. 

The Forest

This is the first documentary that I have directed. The focus is on the crazy amount of suicides that occur in the New Forest, England. I wanted the images to really do the talking here, as the subject was quite grim, but it nonetheless it enabled me to have a rich amount of beautiful tree shots. The music is by a French band called Kim Novak.

Sunday, 4 March 2012

Premiere night of Europe`s Last Dictator


http://vimeo.com/37900349


Premiere night of Europe`s Last Dictator at The Old Vic Tunnels in London 1 March 2012. Interviews with Dr. Irina Bogdanova, Julian Assange of Wikileaks and filmmaker Mathew Charles. Europe`s Last Dictator is a production by Mathew Charles and Juan-Luis Passarelli of Daffodil Media. Created by Owen L. Evans and Kjetil Lier Svendsen at Bournemouth University.

Monday, 6 February 2012

Official Press Release for the French Band The Lanskies (written by ahem, moi)

With a singer straight out of the darkest depths of Liverpool and the rest from la Belle France, The Lanskies have spun their own concept with “Le Hot-Wave”. Often compared to post-punk apostles, Franz Ferdinand, Foals, and Bloc Party, they have had more than 200 concerts under their belts in four years. This is due to their concrete reputation as one of the most exciting, industrious, and untiring live acts around. And because of this they have supported such acts as The Gossip, Pete Doherty, Foals and the Rapture. The band have at their possession a highly eclectic taste in music, from Tom Jones to Robert Smith, which translates into a wide-ranging, yet achingly catchy sound. From bass heavy riffs a la Peter Hook ( Joy Division, New Order), to Stone Roses “freaky dancing” drums, The Lanskies aim to get the party going and the girls dancing along with it, along with a finely and acute distinctive sound that aims to cross the Atlantic (Interpol, The Strokes).
After the release of their first album Bank Holiday (on Indelible Records/ Discograph) The Lanskies went on to embark on an exhaustive world tour that saw them going to China, as well as being invited to play prestigious festivals such as the Reeperbahn Festival in Germany, and the Eurosonic in Holland. The Lanskies are also gaining critical success in the United States after playing the Filter's Collide Festival in California, and the CMJ's Marathon in New York. The Lanskies are attracting are wide, international fanbase due to their everlasting commitment to music, which results in a live show that has to be seen to be believed, original AND wild. They are now touring to promote their new acclaimed single “Romeo”, which will take the band into 2012 with a bang.

Wednesday, 17 August 2011

Top 10 Best Cult Actors


We salute the lesser known heroes of cinema

You know them when you see them but can’t quite remember their names; they are the cool cat scene-stealers, villains, psychos, heroes and killer clowns in probably all of your favourite films. Here are just a few of the best cult actors.
Top 10 Best Cult Actors Michael Biehn
Before playing everyone’s favourite marine, Corporal Dwayne Hicks in Aliens, underrated Biehn first found cult fame as Kyle Reese in Terminator. It was reported that he was supposed to play Stephen Lang’s Colonel in Avatar but James Cameron thought that with Sigourney Weaver already involved it would be too much like an Aliens reunion (like that was a bad thing!).
Watch this! Aliens, Terminator, Planet Terror
Trivia: Biehn was the first choice to play Peter Parker in the abandoned Spiderman by James Cameron.
Top 10 Best Cult Actors Micheal Ironside
No one can quite play a tough, steel-fisted evil villain like Michael Ironside can. Much more than a Jack Nicholson-lookalike, his unnerving edge and black leather vest/tight trousers combo could quite literally blow your brains up.
Watch this! Starship Troopers, Scanners, Total Recall
Trivia: The exploding finale to David Cronenberg’s Scanners was made by filling a prosthetic head with bought livers and shooting the head from behind with a shotgun.
Top 10 Best Cult Actors Michael Parks
Gruff-voiced Parks is something of a muse to cult directors Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino. He plays the recurring character of  Texas ranger Sheriff McGraw, who appears in six of their films, though he is worth a look alone for his second role as the terrifyingly charismatic, Esteban Viaho, in Kill Bill 2.
Watch this! From Dusk till Dawn, Twin Peaks, Kill Bill, Red State
Trivia: Parks is a successful singer songwriter who wrote the soundtrack to the 1960’s hit series “Then Came Bronson”.
Top 10 Best Cult Actors
Top 10 Best Cult Actors Sid Haig
With a career spanning more than four decades, Sid Haig started his career with exploitation directors, Roger Corman and Jack Hill, before becoming a symbol of the trash cinema scene and has played bad guys ever since. Championed by horror director, Rob Zombie, he has more recently scared the pants off fans as the deranged hillbilly psychopath clown, Captain Spaulding in the House of a 1000 Corpses.
Watch this! House of a 1000 Corpses, the Devils Rejects, Jacky Brown
Trivia: Haig turned down the role of Marcellus Wallace in Pulp Fiction.
Top 10 Best Cult Actors Brad Dourif
Being spotted and hand-picked by director, Milos Forman, for his first film role on One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (which got him an Oscar academy nomination) was just the start to Dourif’s hugely genre- crossing career.  Nearly always playing the tortured and creepy characters, Dourif maintains an intensity that is unmatched. Chucky in Child’s Play still haunts us today.
Watch this! One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, Child’s Play, Lord of the Rings;The Two Towers
Trivia: Lord of the Rings director, Peter Jackson, never heard Dourif speak without an English accent until filming was complete on The Two Towers.
Top 10 Best Cult Actors Pam Grier
Synonymous with the blaxpoitation genre of the seventies, Pam Grier played some of the most badass women in cinema. Be it whooping some vampire butt, or exacting cold revenge on drug dealers, her roles created a new cinematic archetype that was strong and sexy, paving the way for actresses today.
Watch this! Jackie Brown, Coffy, Scream Blacula Scream
Trivia: Grier was a back-up singer for Bobby Womack and Sly and the Family Stone


Top 10 Best Cult Actors Dick Miller
With his tough Bronx accent, Dick Miller is best known for playing-fish-out-of-water characters in some of the most famous films around. Despite never having a huge role in any film, he remains an unsung hero and genre stalwart deserving of our respect. How else would Arnie have been able to buy any of his guns in Terminator?
Watch this! The Howling, Gremlins, Terminator, Everything else
Trivia: Miller has appeared in every Joe Dante film to date and is considered his “good luck charm”, awww.

Top 10 Best Cult Actors Ken Foree
Towering at 6ft 4inches, Ken Foree gave a tough performance as swat team officer, Peter Washington, in George Romero’s 1978 Dawn of the Dead. Since breaking into the horror scene he has kept close ties with the genre by fighting off zombies, Leatherface and erm …Kenan and Kel.
Watch this: Dawn of the Dead, From Beyond, The Devils Rejects, Halloween (2006)
Trivia: The fake blood in Dawn of the Dead was made with a mixture of food colouring, peanut butter and cane sugar syrup, yum!
Top 10 Best Cult Actors
Top 10 Best Cult Actors Rutger Hauer
“Do you know what happens to an eyeball when it is punctured?” asks Rutger Hauer in The Hitcher to a terrified victim, just one of the many (improvised) roles that has cemented him as Hollywood’s favourite psychopath. A true method actor, Dutchman Hauer has the power to aghast as well as inspire, bringing character and depth to every role, villainous or otherwise, which borders on the goddamned poetic.
Watch this! Bladerunner, The Hitcher, Nighthawks, Sin City, Hobo with a Shotgun, Dracula 3D
Trivia: The line that Hauer’s replicant character, Roy Batty, recites at the end of Bladerunner is a line from 1793 poem America: A Prophecy by William Blake.
Top 10 Best Cult Actors Bruce Campbell
Chiselled-chin Bruce Campbell has lead a successful B movie career since starring in Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead trilogy as protagonist, Ash Williams, managing to be funny, heroic and iconic at the same time. Known for his total embrace of the fanboy scene (follow him on Twitter!), Campbell has truly scaled the mountain of cult movie stardom. Groovy!
Watch this! Evil Dead trilogy, Bubba Ho-Tep, Maniac Cop
Trivia: On Campbell’s ad for Old Spice, the Necronomicon book from the Evil Dead can clearly be seen in the background. Nice.
Top 10 Best Cult Actors