BBC Music Video Festival 2011

Kerse da Verse - Voodoo Browne (ft Cosha Don) was chosen for the Launch Party and Not Safe For Work category =)

Well chuffed with this as its now 2 years on the trot that one of my videos has been chosen =)

2012 for the hattrick!



http://bbcmusicvideofestival.tumblr.com/bigscreens (scroll down to the bottom)

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2010's entry - Blanket of Night - Beeba (ft Jameson)

Still Life Trailer - 4 Stories, Many Drugs

Here's a trailer for a drugs documentary that I filmed at HMP Wayland.

To this day, Still Life still remains one of my projects that I'm most proud of.

The full length documentary and background information on the project can be found here:
http://m-yfilms.blogspot.com/2010/03/still-life.html

Kerse Da Verse - Voodoo Browne (feat. Cosha Don) (2011)

I was approached by rapper (and all round trainer/sneaker fiend) Voodoo Browne, who pitched me his idea for a typical hip hop video (rapping in his 'hood, with all his crew etc).

However I wasn't really feeling this concept as i felt it might be a little cliched and visually uninteresting, so I pitched him a few other ideas instead and this is the one he went for.

The project was scripted, planned, shot, edited and directed by me.

My nostrils still have the faint lingering smell of petrol and diesel every now and again =)

Massive thanks to Mr Lee for getting roped in to doing the make up. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mr-Lee-Creative-Services/160175240667460

And massive thanks also go to Tim and Charlie Clarkson for letting us burn their place down to the ground =p

Music/Beats by NJC.

The tune is available from itunes and other places where they sell mp3s from 19.9.11

Playing for Success at Ipswich Town FC (2001)

This was one of my first paid commissioned jobs.

It's a short promo film (made in 2001) for Playing for Success - a national scheme (set up by the Department for Children, Schools and Families and supported by the Department for Education and Skills) which aims to help raise childrens literacy, numeracy and ICT skills through football clubs and other sports clubs/grounds.

Music - Chemical Brothers - Where Do I Begin



Ipswich Town FC badge ident animation for "Playing 4 Success @ Ipswich Town FC".

ITFC's press department gave me an Adobe Illustrator file of their badge and I came up with the rest.

Illustrator, Photoshop, Flash and Final Cut Pro were used.

HMP Wayland - aka - Wayland Sports and Social Center (2004)

This short advert was featured in the middle of a Hepatitis C awareness video that I made at HMP Wayland in 2004 (and updated in 2010).

It was the second of two projects that I had filmed there.

It was scripted by HMP Wayland's Hep C Support Group - Mark Ransom, Richie Hamilton, Daniel Malinowski, Dave Checkley, Nick Willis and Lee Evans - and received 2 Koestler Trust awards.

Logo Ident for Ross Dean Photography (2011)

Here's an ident/logo animation that I created for Ross Dean Photography.

Ross gave me the logo and I added the animation, sound effects and the rest.

Still Life (4 Stories, Many Drugs) (2004)

DVD Cover



4 Stories - Many Drugs - 2004(c) M.Y FIlms

Run Time Approx 40 mins

Article from The Guardian on Still Life -
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2002/aug/07/guardiansocietysupplement5/print

Still Life Trailer - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxNQrvoWz-M

See below for more background information about this project.









This was 1 of 2 projects that I made at HMP Wayland and was the first video project in British prison history to be totally left in the hands of inmates.

I was always curious about seeing what a prison was like on the inside, but I had no intention of visiting one through the normal route, so this project gave me the perfect opportunity, and more importantly, let me leave at the end of the day.

A group of inmates (who went under the name of Rags 2 Riches) wanted to make a drugs awareness video aimed at young people to inform them about the dangers of drug and substance abuse.

Initially Rags 2 Riches wanted to include a fictional story about a drug dealer who was living the high life and then got caught and also show some cartoons of dragons being chased.

However I wasn't really feeling this approach and I felt that laying out their life stories would be far more effective.

I interviewed 4 members of Rags 2 Riches and gathered together about 10+ hours of footage and this was whittled down to just under 40 minutes.

A lot of the cutaways used were taken from my own personal archives, including old holiday footage or random stuff that I'd filmed over the years or footage from other old projects - all recycled to fit the project at hand.

Filming at a prison threw up loads of different obstacles that you'd never think of until you were actually in the situation.

E.g: Security wouldn't even let me take my camera in until 2-3 weeks into the project.

Somedays, after travelling for about an hour, we'd turn up only to be told that we couldn't go in as there was a prison-wide lockdown (i.e - all inmates weren't allowed out of their cells) and we simply had to turn around and go back home.

Having to edit out really interesting footage that could potentially compromise prison security or portray the prison in a bad light or simply because it was unsuitable for the intended audience.

In the end, the only thing that I wasn't happy with was the almost "cheesy" happy ending.

I haven't spoken to any of the 4 lads in the film since but I've got a strong feeling that most of them have started to use again.

I originally wanted the happy ending to play out and then tag on some text or voiceover that explained their fate, providing the audience with a gut punch/kick in the balls at the end - just to show that things don't always end up nice and happy.

However the facilitator, John Row, felt that this ending was a bit too pessimistic and wouldn't offer any hope to the young audience. Whereas I felt it was simply being honest with them.

Inspite of this, Still Life still remains one of my projects that I'm most proud of.