Holly Ross is the director of A Anderton Presenting, which was one of the winners of the My Family and Other Animals theme that aired on Channel 4 earlier this year. I asked her about herself, and this is what she sent me. [Make sure you check out her v cute pop video I Like Birds But I Like Other Animals Too.]

I am a film maker from Lancaster, which is a little historical city in the north west of England. At the moment I work as a producer/director for ITV Border in Carlisle making regional programmes for them but what I enjoy most is thinking of ideas for short films that I can film in my spare time and then making them!

I really really love making documentaries. What I love about documentaries is finding passionate and interesting people with amazing stories and putting their story and perspective on life ‘down to tape’. There are a lot of people in the world who are worth recording and in my work I hope to open up the door to these people’s lives and let viewers stand on the door mat agog! For me, it’s all about finding great people with spectacular stories, or filming the mundane in a spectacular way. Someone once said I was like the ‘Diane Arbus’ of television. I went red at that cos I really really like Diane Arbus.

read more

Permalink||(2) Comments

We got lots of very high quality entries to the FourDocs bursary scheme.  After looking through the applications I was totally impressed with the dedication of people who get out there and actually make films, instead of talking about it.

Some people had been filming a subject for years, others became so obsessed with an idea they just had to make it, and another decided to make a personal investigation about their heritage into a film.  What we were looking for, as stated in the T’s & C’s, was strong visual ideas that stand a good chance of being selected at film festivals.  We had a difficult time with the judging, because there were so many deserving projects that £1,000 would really help elevate. In the end, we actually decided to give to out eight bursaries to films that were all fairly advanced (ie most of the filming had already happened), made by filmmakers with a broad range of backgrounds, including artists and an actor, as well as seasoned doc makers. read more

Permalink||(2) Comments

Whilst hanging about in the bookshop waiting for my friend in the telephone reception unfriendly BFI last night, I spied a copy of Guy Maddin’s My Winnipeg DVD.

It was way exciting to turn it over and see that the winner of the My Home Town competition (In Case I Disappear) actually had their film on the disc, even though I knew they would. So thanks Marie at Soda Pictures for helping to put together such a great competition with us! I find it exciting that we were able to offer distribution for some of the entries on the Internet, television, DVD and at festival screenings.

The four which will air on 3 Minute Wonder as a series early next year, and each get £1,500, are:

In Case I Disappear – Simon Aeppli
Parade – Mathy Tremwan
My Amersham – Marco Williamson
Stratford Side B – Christopher Chen

So congrats to them, and everyone who entered. You can now watch all 12 shortlisted films in the new My Home Town player, or leave comments about individual films in the blog. Do you think we chose the best films? And what did you make of the way Lee discussed them? Let me know…

Permalink||(1) Comment

This was an alright little doc. It came together quite neatly at the end.

The friction of a resident’s real experiences contrasted with a corny Tour Tape could have been corny itself – but it kind of held it together. It must be a pain living under the shadow of Shakespeare’s quill.

All in all I’ve enjoyed watching the films in this competition and if I’ve seemed harsh at some points ­ grow a thick skin. This is just one man’s opinion. I’m not arguing THE way. I’m just championing what I like. You should champion your own style and your own voice. If you don’t march to the beat of your own drum your step will be all over the place. read more

Permalink||(3) Comments

I’m not sure how many times I could watch this. In particular the music became grating after about thirty seconds and then it carried on ad infinitum.

Again it had that feeling of late night filler you used to get on TV ­ where there might be a couple of minutes you need to fill in the schedule at some ungodly hour and so they stick in something that doesn’t really go anywhere or do anything. Who knows? Maybe the feeling I had of wanting to get away completely echoes what it’s like to live in Bargoed, South Wales?

Permalink||(0) Comments

This film did my head in. I hated the voiceover and couldn’t really understand a lot of what was being said.

My mind wandered a lot ­ not because I’m simple ­ but because the whole rhythm of it felt so nothingy. The only point where I started to get a bit interested was when the form completely changed at the end and we had a bit of an interview with the ventriloquist. read more

Permalink||(0) Comments

I didn’t like this. It felt like I was on a school trip to a museum and pressed a button on a display in order to listen to a recorded actor tell me what life was like “back then”.

Sorry ­ it just wasn’t for me. It had echoes of those daytime history channel programs where you have pieces of archive footage or re-enacted events which have been made to “look old” in the edit by clicking on the, “make it look old” button you get on all the editing software owned by the history channel. read more

Permalink||(2) Comments

The editing wasn’t hitting the right notes for me. A lot of the pictures to voiceover were either too literal ­ or incoherent.

There was a lot of the latter. My brain couldn’t always makes sense of the connection between the words and the pictures

Is that because I’m a rubbish viewer? Or is it cos the editor didn’t communicate successfully enough to me as a viewer what was perhaps obvious to them? The result was that as a viewer I began to increasingly lose my grip on the film’s narrative and in turn my interest waned. read more

Permalink||(1) Comment

There was a really nice tone and feeling to this film.  There was a warmth and likeability to the filmmaker and how they came across.

And that really counts for a lot, ­ especially if telly is the route you want to take. (You’re gonna have more success if you come across as likeable as opposed to coming across like a bastard.) read more

Permalink||(21) Comments