A Day in the Market…

R&A Collaborations have been with us in Goole Market Hall today interviewing the market traders and recording some images to be made into a film over night and to be screened tomorrow at ‘LOVE LETTERS + BROKEN HEARTS‘!!!

Chris and I will be setting up a projector in one of the stalls in the morning and projecting the finished film onto the back wall of a market stall – it will look really cool!

Cannot wait to see the finished film!!!!

Mucho LOVE x

Tags: Chris Williams, Drunken Chorus, Film, Filmmaking, Goole, Market, Mayhem in the Market, Question your Teaspoons, R&A Collaborations, Sheena Holliday, Yorkshire

How to write a Love Letter (to a Market in Goole)

Its been a busy week for me and Chris, putting the final touches to ‘LOVE LETTERS + BROKEN HEARTS‘ the next MAYHEM IN THE MARKET project taking place in the Goole Victorian Market Hall…

Today has been a great day though! Tim Smith – one of the artists who is working on the project – has been with us all day drawing a visual love letter to Goole Market on the glass windows and doors of the Market Hall. It’s looking fab and I wanted to share some pics of his work in progress from the day : )

He started off this morning speaking to each of the stall holders and taking some photographs of each stall and then turned all of that into images and patterns to draw on a big scale all over the glass.

The finished work will be staying on the glass until the event on Saturday and then hopefully for a few days after so if you are in Goole please go and have a look! : )

Much LOVE,

x

Tags: Chris Williams, Goole, Market, Mayhem in the Market, Question your Teaspoons, Sheena Holliday, Tim Smith, Yorkshire

It’s a Question of Love…

About 6 months ago I started a brand new collaboration with my friend and fellow northerner Chris. Together we go by the name of Question your Teaspoons.

My main interest is film and Chris is from a performance background, but we cross over with a shared interest in multi-disciplinary and site specific work.

We’ve had lots of really exciting ideas for projects over the past few months.  Our first real project was commissioned by Chester Performs and took place last October as part of the Up the Wall festival on the Chester Castle walls.

 ‘The Spaces Between Us’ is a film/audio/installation all about what it really feels like to live on the border between two countries. In creating this piece Chris and I travelled to Wales where we spent a couple of days crossing back and forth across the border and meeting some really interesting people along the way…

In the very early days of QyT one of the first things that Chris and I talked about was creating a site specific event in the Market Hall of Goole, the town where we both grew up. We are both obsessed with how places are viewed, how places can hold memories and how perceptions of a place can change when new memories are created.

So we focused our ideas on how this could work within the market setting and we applied to the Arts Council for funding to run the project. We planned to do two ‘events’ – one in November and one in February. In August we found out that we had been awarded full funding! and quickly we began planning the first event…

We called the project ‘Mayhem in the Market’ and planned to name each individual event according to its theme. So the first one was Christmas themed and became ‘Mulled Wine + Snowflakes’.

The next event is taking its theme from St Valentine’s Day and is called ‘Love Letters + Broken Hearts’. It is taking place on Saturday 18^th February from 12pm-5pm.

Since August ‘Mayhem in the Market’ has become a gigantic part of the lives of me and Chris (and a big part of our friends and families lives too! – who have given up their time and energy to help us out throughout the whole process!). It is a project that we thoroughly believe in and are passionate about. We are very excited for ‘Love Letters + Broken Hearts’ – we have commissioned what we believe to be a brilliant mix of exciting artists who will be creating work especially for the event.

At the moment, we still need to raise our final chunk of match funding for Mayhem in the Market (when a project receives a grant from Arts Council England, it’s usually the case that you need to raise around 10% of the total budget from other sources!!). So, we’ve set up a crowdfunding page on sponsume.com – this is a page where our friends and supporters can pledge cash towards the project, and the best thing about it is that anyone who pledges gets a reward!

Some of the artists involved in the event have offered up some fabulous treats for those who donate… For example, Drunken Chorus are offering the chance to be part of their flash-performance, Catherine Hoffmann is offering a painting session (over skype!!!) and Melissa Bliss is offering a limited edition print of some of the audience-decorated cupcakes from her installation at the event…

‘Love Letters + Broken Hearts’ is going to be a fantastic day, and for Chris and I the culmination of 6 months of hard work. I really hope that as many of you as possible come along and enjoy it with us!!

Looking forward to seeing you there!

With LOVE xxx

Tags: Chris Williams, Drunken Chorus, Goole, Market, Mayhem in the Market, Question your Teaspoons, Sheena Holliday, Yorkshire

What’s your Persona??..

Hmmm an interesting question… We all have many personas that we let the outside world see – different personas to deal with different situations. Some people even live their entire lives showing the world a persona of someone who they think they should be or who they want to be, rather than the real person inside. For some it’s a way to deal with what life throws at them, appear strong and that you can deal with anything and then eventually it will become true..

The internet makes it very easy for us to have an ‘online persona’ whether it is on one of the many social networking sites or on an internet dating site. We can be ‘someone else’ on the internet. We can spend hours composing witty emails that make us sound intelligent, fun and interesting when in real life we would have no idea what to say let alone be able to give a witty response!

This idea that our ‘online persona’ can be totally different to our real life persona and that we may be deceived by people we ‘meet’ online, or we might be the deceiver (intentionally or not) is the basic idea behind  ‘PERSONA’ – a project I have been involved with recently…

‘PERSONA’ is a soap created specifically to be viewed on a smartphone. It is downloaded as an app and then every day a new ‘appisode’ will be delivered directly to your phone.

‘PERSONA’ is the first production by App Media and I have worked on it as a Producer and Director. The app launched last week – it is now available from the app store and the android market – just search ‘Persona Drama’ and the first 1000 downloads are free…

Making ‘PERSONA’ was a great experience for me. I had the opportunity to work with some amazing cast and crew many of whom I will definitely be collaborating with on projects in the future – some I already am!

So far we have made seasons 1 and 2 of ‘PERSONA’ with a very small budget, and we are currently trying to raise funds to shoot season 3. Season 1 and 2 were made with a lot of love and goodwill from everyone involved. Cast, crew and writers all believed in the project wholeheartedly and wanted to see it succeed. Without this passion seasons 1 and 2 would not have been possible in the way that they were.

We shot ‘PERSONA’ on location mainly around South London – Clapham and Wandsworth. Both season 1 and 2 were 7 day shoots each. And the actual amount of footage we shot was the equivalent to half a feature film each season. That was a LOT of footage to shoot in such a short amount of time! On the sets everyone worked incredibly hard, we had a lot of locations to get around and the pace of work was relentless… However we always found time to have a laugh during the shoot days, so although they were gruelling shoots they were brilliant.

In season 1 I directed two stories. The first one was Jane’s story…

Jane has met Richard on the internet dating site i-heart-u. In real life though he is not what she expected, but somehow she ends up dating him anyway. Whilst trying to dump Richard, Jane meets the wonderful Lee who ticks all her boxes, but before she can date Lee she needs to dump Richard once and for all..

Shooting Jane’s story was great fun because the script was very funny. Jane gets herself into some real predicaments trying to ditch Richard. Jane’s story was also shot in a number of different locations so we had the opportunity to shoot some great outdoor scenes; Filming on Northcote Road near Clapham Junction as Jane and Lucy work as ‘chuggers’, some really cute bench scenes where Jane and Lee meet and fall in love and a beautiful moonlit scene where Jane tries to dump Richard… Again…  All of these scenes were actually shot on the same day, so this was easily my favourite shoot date for season 1.

The second story I directed was Jamie’s story…

Jamie is a struggling actor who lives with his two best mates Ciara and Noodle. Jamie is trying to make himself feel better about his failing career by using i-heart-u to meet and date attractive women, ignoring the advice that his good friends keep giving him.

Jamie’s story was more of a challenge to shoot because nearly the whole thing was all set in the same house.  It meant we had to get creative with how to shoot those scenes. We shot all of these house scenes in one day and luckily for me, that day I had not one but two amazing DOP’s working with me – John Livesey and Fabio Guglielmelli – a real luxury! Also the character of Noodle is an artist so there were lots of fun props and set dressing for these scenes; easels, paint brushes, willow lanterns etc.

I also had a brilliant opportunity to work with Vaughan Bailey – Mr England 2010, in Jamie’s story…

Also I make a cheeky cameo in Jamie’s story… See if you can spot me : )

‘PERSONA’ is available to download as an app NOW!!  If you have a smartphone PLEASE download it now and support all the very talented cast, crew and writers who made season 1 and 2 possible… Thank you! : )

Check us out on facebook and twitter as well.

Mucho love x

Tags: App Media, Filmmaking, I-Heart-U, Mr England 2010, Persona, Whats your persona?

To Hell and Back…

My good pal (and brand new collaborator!) Chris Williams asked me a while ago to film the last ever performance of the Drunken Chorus show ‘And Hell Followed With Them’.

This was exciting for many reasons. Firstly I LOVE horror. Fact. I love horror films, horror stories, collecting horror memorabilia, dressing up like a horror character.. I love horror!!

And in Drunken Chorus’s own words ‘And Hell Followed With Them’…

“is a haunting piece of theatre, exploring the tension and suspense of the horror genre…”

Excellent.

Secondly Drunken Chorus are a brilliant company. I’ve worked with/for them a couple of times in the past and it has always been a great experience. We first met back in 2005 on a theatre exchange trip to Goole’s twin town Zlotow in Poland, I was there as Electric Youth theatre leader and Drunken Chorus (then known as Zero.6) were there to perform.

After Poland I created a video installation called ‘I can’t talk about death because it hurts too much (so here is a piece of life)’ to be part of a performance Drunken Chorus were working on called ‘Your Guide to Death (is Beautiful)’.

Since then I have worked as ‘techie’ for them a few times, doing their sound and lights while on tour in places like London, Lancaster, Preston, Nottingham, Edinburgh…

So it was great to be back ‘behind the scenes’ with them again : )

Thirdly.. It was the LAST ever performance! Pretty exciting! A great night to capture on film..

 So Saturday 28^th May saw me and Crestfallen Adam back up north in my old stomping ground of Junction, Goole’s wonderful theatre/cinema/general arts hub. This is the place I used to work as the ‘Electric Youth Theatre’ leader before I left for London. The venue only opened in autumn 2009 and I had the great pleasure of working with my group of young people to create a piece of theatre that was performed on the opening night of Junction. I have many amazing memories from leading Electric for 3 years, but it would be hard to beat the honour of working with the groups to create the final performance at Goole’s old theatre ‘The Gate’ (now closed) or creating a performance to open Goole’s new theatre ‘Junction’.

And it was great to see a couple of the young people who used to be members of Electric come along to support Drunken Chorus and watch their performance!

‘And Hell Followed With Them’ totally exceeded my expectations. I knew it would be great based on previous work I had seen, but it was seriously good. It was intense and dark and harrowing and yet ended on a dance routine!! No lie! Marvellous.

I would definitely recommend that everyone go and watch the show… but unfortunately you can’t because I filmed the LAST ever performance of it.. It exists now only as the stuff of legend.. and of course in my documentation of the performance.. : )

Mucho love x

p.s. ‘We all go a little mad sometimes..’

Tags: And Hell Followed With Them, Crestfallen Productions, Drunken Chorus, Film, Filmmaking, Goole, Hell, Hell is coming, Horror, Junction, Yorkshire

It’s all about Tooting baby!!

When I went round to view my new house in Tooting, my then potential-new-housemate Katie Bonna (a spoken word artist) told me all about a new project that she was involved with that was happening in Tooting market later in April. She told me about it briefly and we had a very animated conversation, getting all excited about the possibilities of incorporating some film work into the project. I said to her that with all these exciting possibilities happening on my potential-new-doorstep now seemed like a very good time to move to Tooting!!

And then I did!

The project Katie told me about was called ‘The Brick Box Tooting Spring Festival’. Brick Box have taken over the Tooting market café and have turned it into an arts ‘hub’. They also run a similar project in Brixton Village market. The festival was a way of launching the Brick Box café and it ran from 11am to 4pm and then from 10pm to 4am on 23/24/30 April and 1^st May and included poetry, live art, film, art, dance, workshops, and general merriment!

Katie and her poetry collective ‘Dirty Hands’ were busy throughout the festival, they organised treasure hunts, a lemonade (or serenade) stand, created a ‘Poetry Den’, held a ‘Poetry Picnic’ and performed ‘Master Poet’…

Katie and I worked together and planned the film part of the day.  We wanted to film people from the Tooting community performing poetry. We really wanted the poetry film to be about the city and the community, we toyed with the idea of writing something specifically for the film but then decided to use an existing poem. Katie chose ‘Preludes’ a beautiful poem by TS Eliot, which worked brilliantly because that poem really tastes and smells of the city and evokes beautiful imagery.

I was lucky enough to have the help of Chris Williams from Drunken Chorus to help me with the making of the film, he came down for the weekend to experience the festival. Katie and I also roped in Verity, another of our housemates to help out as well!

We filmed for two sessions – 2–4pm and then 12–2am. I was a bit worried that people attending the festival might not want to be part of the poetry film, but we had an amazing response and got about 30 people to be in the film, including some of the market traders!

I’m currently editing the film and once it’s finished we want to arrange a screening for all involved at the Brick Box café in Tooting market and then put the film online.

Chris and I were very inspired by this festival… Tooting market is a brilliant space, and it was great to see it being used essentially as an arts venue, while all of the market stalls were still trading. In the evening section of the festival though the market space was totally transformed; all of the stalls were closed and market hall was lit by fairy lights. It was beautiful. And all over the market space different performances, installations and activities were happening. It was such a great and unusual event, and brilliant to be happening in my new home of Tooting Broadway!…

Exciting times x

Tags: Brick Box, Crestfallen Productions, Drunken Chorus, Film, Market, Poetry, Tooting

From Goole to Tooting…

Hi,

 

My name is Sheena. I like drinking real ale, walking on beaches, the colour pink and making films.

 

One year ago today I made the monumental move from my Northern home town of Goole (Europe’s largest inland port..) to the gold-paved streets of ‘that’ London to follow my filmmaking dreams…

It has been one heck of a year!!  And I thought that a good way to mark the occasion would be to start a blog about my filmmaking and Yorkshire-girl-in-London tales…

So here goes..

 

Back in Yorkshire I started a small film production company ‘Crestfallen Productions’ with one of my best friends from university; Adam Greenwood. As ‘Crestfallen..’ we have made four short films; ‘Like a Charm’ which brought us together as part of a university project, ‘A Plaster, a Paper and a Cheese & Pickle Sandwich’ which was our first ‘proper’ film (and screened at film festivals worldwide) ‘0800-FINALGIRL’ which was made specifically for a Fright Fest competition (and has screened at film festivals nationwide) and ‘Roseberry Road’ which is in the final stages of pre-production and will be released this year. We are currently writing and planning a number of other projects and working on four feature film scripts.

As ‘Crestfallen..’ we have been fortunate enough to have the love, support and mentoring of the wonderful Steve Piper and ‘Coffee Films’. They executively produced ‘A Plaster..’ and helped us through the whole process of making the film, giving constructive feedback and ideas throughout. Steve has continued to support us through all of our filmmaking projects, and this support has been invaluable.

Adam and I also formed another production company ‘Special Day Films’ with another partner Frank Grosvenor. As ‘Special Day..’ we make films of peoples weddings and other events and also shoot corporate videos. Our claim to fame so far is that we shot both of Camilla Parker Bowles’ children’s weddings. We didn’t get the upcoming Royal Wedding gig though..

In Yorkshire I worked mainly as a community drama and film artist. Basically facilitating drama and film workshops for young people in many different community settings. Many of these projects were short, one off workshops but I did work on a few that were long running. I was the youth theatre leader of my hometown Goole’s ‘Electric Youth Theatre’ for 3 years (plus the volunteer for the 3 years before that). Each term we worked towards a performance that was devised by the young people. ‘Electric’ also performed in a theatre festival in Poland twice and a youth arts festival in Northallerton.

As a community film artist I also had an amazing opportunity to deliver monthly filmmaking sessions at a young offenders institute. I worked with about 10 young people and over the course of 4 ½ days we would set up a production company, assign production roles, develop a short film idea, rehearse, shoot and edit the film. It was always a really intense few days!  I worked on this project for about four years and every month was different and posed a brand new challenge and I learnt so much from it.

All of the work I was doing in Yorkshire was eventful, inspiring, unpredictable, amazing..  But I felt that I had gone as far as I could and needed to try something different…

London was always ‘The Dream’ for me. Any of my friends back home will testify that I was always talking about ‘When I move to London..’ Admittedly it took me a bit longer to actually make the move than I ever thought it would. But I finally got here – better late than never!

During this year in London my aim has been to work on lots of different film projects, get to see how other people work and make as many contacts as possible. I have attended film festivals, networking events, worked on short films, feature films and most recently ‘Persona’ a daily soap created specifically for the Smartphone.

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It has been a great year but a hard year. Going from living in a small town where I knew a lot of people and had a support system around me to essentially living alone, and not really knowing anyone and trying to find work and make contacts was really, really tough. People have told me over and over that London is a lonely place and they are right – sometimes it is.

But on the other side of the coin, London is full of so many opportunities and interesting places and wonderful people. I have experienced so much this year that I didn’t really even think was possible. In terms of my filmmaking I have worked on some amazing projects and met some really talented people who I want to continue working with in the future. And most importantly I have been inspired by London and all the places I have been, and the people I have met and the experiences that I have had (and the drinks I have drank..)

My ultimate, ultimate goal is to write and direct my own feature film. This is what I am really working towards. (A horror film ideally, but that’s another story..)

I intend to use this blog as a space to talk about some of the projects that I am working on and the experiences that I have. And I am massively looking forward to what this 2nd year in London holds for me!

Thank you for reading,

Much love,

Sheena x

Tags: Coffee Films, Crestfallen Productions, Filmmaking, Goole, Special Day Films, Tooting, Yorkshire