About

Clients

Circles SW
Jim O’Connor
Chalice Well Trust
South West Climate Change Society of Friends (Quakers) Britain

Testimonials

The Circles film is a brilliant piece of work, really powerful. Thank you so much for all your hard graft on this, and for going the extra mile. The outcome is testament to your ability to quickly create trusting relationships with those featured, really impressive. We’ve had a huge amount of positive feedback from people who saw it.

Jo Burden, CEO, Circles SW

There is no doubt that the effort which Glastonbury put together to preserve a banking presence was the best I have seen during 17 years in the role of voluntary director of the Campaign for Community Banking Services

Derek French, Chairman, Campaign for Community Banking

Beautifully inspiring and informative film-making

CC Arts

I thought the first cut of the film was extremely powerful and beautifully shot. I think the lighting is perfect. It has been a pleasure to work with you, thank you very much.

Hannah Bond - No Women No Peace

As the feedback sheets testify, your talk was a highlight of the weekend and, more than any other part of the event, it gave Friends a real sense of excitement, inspiration and real possibility.

Alistair Fuller, Head of Ministry and Outreach, Friends House, London

I love using film and multi-media to help organisations tell their stories with pixels. Sort of a CV below:

Businesses face many communication challenges in this perplexing era of social media and multi-channel possibilities. I was lucky to represent Somerset at the European Parliament’s Broadband Conference and spoke alongside representatives from Lithuania and Catalonia, on the challenges rural businesses faced in adopting new technology. I managed the business advisor team on the Connecting Somerset broadband programme and was responsible for the disbursement of £500,000 of technology support grants across Somerset over the two years of the project. During the two-year life of the project, business broadband adoption in Somerset rose from 6% to 44%.

I’ve taught video skills to journalists at The Institute of Physics and been invited to speak at Warwick University on harnessing the creative capital within communities to affect social change. In the late 70s and early 80s, I worked for BBC Bristol and filmed with the Anthropologist John Percival on his amazing Iron Age village reconstruction for ’Living in the Past’ for BBC2.

In a rush of blood to the head I worked out how to project our ‘Save Somerset’s Libraries’ campaign film onto the front wall of the British Library at the height of the February rush hour (we managed to escape before the blue lights arrived) and encouraged Michael Eavis and James Heappey MP to sing my rather tongue in cheek version of William Blake’s ‘Jerusalem’ highlighting the impending loss of all of Glastonbury’s banks in 2016. Our community campaign contributed to a Parliamentary Select Committee, exploring the impact of rural bank closures and was praised for its creativity. It even got a mention in Hansard! My proudest moment though was hearing the CEO of Nationwide, who had closely followed our bank campaign on television, calling the Mayor and offering Glastonbury its own branch. It was a grand day for our town when Nationwide finally opened its doors to serve our community (ironically in the old Lloyds Bank building).

I am a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, which gives me the opportunity to meet fellow creatives in the South West and have served as the Vice-Chair of Glastonbury’s Neighbourhood Plan committee with particular interests in urban tree planting, pollination corridors and community foraging. I produced a series of films, in collaboration with Coventry University’s Centre for Agroecology, on the resilience of local food producers and Community Supported Agriculture schemes and am a big supporter of Glastonbury’s very exciting 5 Mile Food and Farming initiative.

In my spare time I’m working on a new film based on a fantastic Requiem Mass composed by Judge Smith - co-founder of the prog rock band Van Der Graff Generator. My film records the celebrations of the wheel of the year in Glastonbury from Beltane 2022 to Beltane 2023. The libretto is in Latin (sung by Countertenor Nigel Richards) and the whole Mass is driven by some hard rock and roll (almost punk like at times) a sweeping 64 voice choir (take a bow - Crouch End Festival Chorus) and a Norweigan brass Quartet. I feel incredibly honoured that Judge generously gave me permission to use all nine tracks of his unforgettable Requiem Mass. I really want to do his music the justice it deserves. I am planning a public screening in Glastonbury this Samhain and then onto Vimeo it goes. In the meantime Judge has just released his 20th Album. Here he is singing ‘The Trick of the Lock’ with some spirited piano playing from Robert Pettigrew in the lovely setting of St Benedict’s Church in Glastonbury.

Away from dry land, I consider myself fortunate to have survived a Force 10 whilst crewing in the biannual Fastnet Yacht Race (I now prefer the company of well-rooted trees and level horizons). I turned my Fastnet adventure into a short poem(ish) soundscape. Best to hear with headphones on. I’ll add the link here as soon as I‘ve finished the audio mixing. Don’t worry - you’ll still have dry feet at the end.