I'm jumping forward quite a bit here. In 1997 my mother became ill with cancer. I took a step back from sculpting and making things as I wanted to spend more time at home. I couldn't focus on anything really. After she passed away, I wasn't sure on what to do. I was still in my early 20's but felt that there were no artistic or creative opportunities for me here in the North East. I didn't have the means or money to relocate elsewhere. John was still sculpting and making things, but the other artists from our group no longer had as much time to be creative as they needed regular paid work and had family responsibilities. It felt that all we'd tried to do over the years, everything that we'd made collectively and individually, had been for nothing.
So in 1999, I opted to enrol on a City & Guilds course for TV and Video Production. I wanted to learn more about film making, and have access to equipment that I couldn't afford. I was once again dreaming of making some horror films.
I started filming a short zombie film, inspired by the Resident Evil video game. I loved that game and thought it would be cool to make some sort of a fan film. I sculpted and made a bunch of things for it, as did John. Even Paul and Juliette came to lend a had on a few filming days. I'd also met a guy called Dan who was a stage technician at a local theatre. He was really into lights and pyrotechnics so he came on board to do special lighting effects, bullet hits, and other explosive effects.
This little horror project got some good coverage in the local newspaper and as a result of that I was interviewed for a piece on 'Look North News' for Tyne Tees Television.
Sadly, this short film was not completed. I'd gotten around half way through and then had to break for the summer holidays. The college wouldn't let me keep the equipment over this time. (I later found out that this was because the teachers there had a side hustle shooting wedding videos for people!). After the holidays, I assumed people would be wanting to film some more and get it finished, but most of the actors had lost interest and just wouldn't return. I didn't know what to do, so I had to abandon it. I still have all of the footage from this project. Maybe some day I'll edit some of it together.
Below is a selection of photos from the making of this. Most of these photos were taken by a guy called Jamie who came along and offered to be a 'behind the scenes' photographer. He took some really great shots. There are some things that I made for this film that didn't get photographed, including a very impressive 12ft long arm that bursts from a TV to attack someone who is sat playing a video game on a Playstation. I may try to get a screen-grab of it from the footage some day. It was a really cool effect with Dan rigging the TV to explode.
John and myself, checking out his sculpture for a Licker. Unfortunately, I'd stopped filming before we got a chance to finish and film this creature.
