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Film talent is home grown

ROBERT BULLARD discovers how a pioneering film-making project has helped one local director to gain priceless exposure at the Cannes Film Festival

It may not be Star Wars: Episode III, or the latest Wallace & Grommitt, but the work of a Shrewsbury filmmaker is also on view at Cannes! Sam Moore, from Shrewsbury, is the town’s little-known but clearly talented rising star of a film director. On the back of other work commissioned and shown by Channel 4, her latest piece, ‘Doubled Up’, is currently on show in the British Council’s tent at the Cannes Film Festival. (Shropshire Star – May, 2005)

“Everyone is living in a really privileged time”, explains another of Shropshire’s homegrown talent of new movie makers, Arron Fowler. “Never before have there been the opportunities that now exist in Shrewsbury – even in cities!”

Things took off in Shrewsbury for Arron and others a couple of years ago, when a project called ‘NewMakers’, based at the Belmont Arts Centre, gave seven local media graduates access to film-making equipment and recording facilities, along with advice and support for getting themselves started. And now all bar one are working as artists of some kind or another.

Not that getting started in the media world is easy. Firstly, getting paid work or funding to make films is hard, and can require years of just working around the edges. Second, even a short two-minute piece can take months to produce. And third, the precarious income means that additional, part-time work is required to pay the bills.

But thanks to a follow-on lottery-funded project called MediaMaker, the Arts Centre has been able to keep the film making going by offering artists commissions for new work, as well as training and exhibiting opportunities.

“It has gone well,” says Martin Sumner, the project’s co-ordinator. “I am really pleased with the artists that have emerged.”

Eight artists screened work in 2003, there were nearly double that the following year, and in 2005 so far numbers have already reached 30.

These days there is also more diversity in what is being produced – but you need to keep up with the terminology! There is three-dimensional, interactive work; moving image, single-screen film; sculptural pieces, that go round-and-round on a loop; and lastly, animation. And next month sees a showing of dance on film.

The project has helped create a network of new talent, with a nucleus of people working together and learning off one another. And over the last 18 months the once controversial Old Market Hall – one of whose justifications was that it would provide an output for digital media work - has provided a valued venue for emerging artists to show and received feedback for their work.

“Belmont has been incredibly important, and is now a hub of activity”, says Sam Moore.

With a background in fine art, Sam has developed an interest in using animation to make documentaries – extending it beyond its traditional role as something for children and as a creator of fantasy. And her latest work - through a mix of reflections, graphics and music – engaging explores some of the issues in having twins, which Sam experiences in real life on a daily basis.

Also interested in animation is Harriett Gillian, from Meole Brace. Her interest stemmed from studying media at Shrewsbury’s Sixth Form College, and she is now finishing her degree in Time Based Media, in Bristol.

“I am not a skilled illustrator”, she says, openly. But her two-minute work, ‘Scissorbill’ - produced on her computer at home, with musical input from a fellow student at the Royal Academy of Music - won popular acclaim for its originality and whimsical nature at a recent showing at OMH.

Martin hopes that the MediaMaker project will be enough to deter the talents of people like Sam and Harriett from heading off to the big cities.

“To at least think about stopping here”, he prays. Or at the very worst coming back to do a ‘residency’ – which means using the facilities and providing training to inspire and assist new talent to come forward.

Next year Martin plans to make a DVD, featuring the best work to come out of Belmont, and to take an exhibition of the NewMakers work, ‘Agenda’, on tour around the West Midlands. Before that, he hopes to have heard the outcome of an important application for a further two years funding from the Arts Council.

“Across the region there is now a growing awareness of the work produced out of the MediaMaker project”, says Martin. “It is now a small but thriving community – the beginnings of a pretty vibrant scene, here in Shrewsbury.”
 

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