Spending time with artist Julia Ogden is always inspiring, and when I was recording a voice over with her a few weeks ago, she made me dream of those big skies and winding pathways. After all this rain, the sky I imagined was pastel blue, dotted with fluffy little clouds! I was making preparations for my Life In Motion 2 - Filmmaking The Next Steps course. This day workshop is rooted in story and how to weave a narrative to make your films compelling for viewers. I know from my own experience that we need the technical skills, but not to put all the emphasis on this as story is key. When I f ..read more

I’m at the start of a new film project. There have been no clips taken yet, I’m really right at the start, the development phase. And last week, it started feeling bigger than me. And that’s where I spiralled. This is new territory for me. This project feels very precious and I’d love to get it out there. But the questioning internal voices started to really chip away at my confidence. I spoke to my filmmaking mentor Amanda Bluglass last week, and she encouraged me to write down the stuff that’s holding me back. Get it all out, put them in a box, and then get back to why I want to make this in ..read more

As some of you know, a fire raged through our studio building last week, a space we share with our friends Hannah Nunn and Julia Ogden. The Victorian mill we were situated in also housed other businesses, there are 16 of us all together. It’s a creative hub situated in the centre of our town, Hebden Bridge. Thankfully everyone is safe, and we’re all holding onto that. I want to say here that the support all of us have had in the building has been nothing short of incredible. Hebden Bridge is built on resilience. After the floods over the years, this town seems to just get stronger, it rallies ..read more

I don’t think I’ll ever not get excited when an email pops up from the lab to say my scans are ready. When I started shooting film again a few years ago, there’s sometimes that little added element of surprise with the first of the roll shot. The ones that are not shown in their entirety. The ones where I’ve taken the first test shot when the film wasn’t fully wound to its correct beginning position. What makes up the other section? Those colours that seep onto the image, the embers that burn onto the emulsion. Tiny fires that swallow a little part of the story. I thought I’d share a few from ..read more

I walked into Valérie’s studio space and marvelled at the floorboards beneath my feet. ‘They came from a boat that sailed the seas’ Valérie told me. The morning light was just peering in through the mill window onto a shiny patch on one of those floorboards, and for a moment I thought I could hear those waves. It seems so fitting that Valérie’s studio is situated in one of the old mills in Halifax, on the banks of a river, the water from which would have been used to produce the materials the mill was making. And turning full circle, water is a part of Valérie’s process too. Valérie commission ..read more

I don’t know if your family were the same when you were growing up, but mine liked routine and found comfort in familiar places especially when it came to holidays. We’d pack the car up and drive to Loch Awe in Scotland. We’d stay in the same house, we’d meet family in the same service station for lunch (the delights of Tebay). I’ve battled many of the other routines that my parents surrounded themselves with, but I’ve realised there is one that is part of our year. An annual trip to Wild Meadow! We first took a trip down there in 2016 for Suzi’s birthday. We’ve been back every year since, som ..read more

Back in December last year, I was talking to Catherine from Everyday Mama about 35mm film, and our love for shooting this way amongst our digital work. Over the last few years, we have had conversations about creativity, art, family, and how important it is for us to record, and share our everyday moments, maybe even more so now at this time in our lives. We talked about a project we could do together, so last Christmas Day, we both shot a roll of film each, me in West Yorkshire, Catherine in Auckland. You can see our shots here. At the beginning of March, we were chatting on Insta, and Cather ..read more

It can be a bit lonely sometimes can’t it being self employed? Or just being in this situation we find ourselves in. Having a good creative network around you certainly helps. Having those people to cheerlead you, to chat to about your latest ideas, to help you see the right path when you’re feeling confused, and sometimes a shoulder to cry on when times are a bit too much. So in these strange times, that feeling of isolation can really hit you, I know it has done for us. It’s been hard to think straight some days, but I know that doing something creative each day does really help me, whether ..read more

I remember the air stewardess holding my hand as we climbed the steps to the plane which was emblazoned with the British Airways flag and logo. It was the first time I was going to fly, and I was a little bit nervous as I turned round to wave to Mum and Dad in the terminal. The air stewardess looked down at me, squeezed my hand and said ‘you’re going to have the best seat in the house, you’re a V.I.P.!’ I don’t think I fully understood what that might entail (I got a colouring book, felt tips and a window seat near the front), but it really worked, and as we trundled down the runway of Leeds ..read more

As some of you know, I love a project! I think it’s good to have a slow burner that you can dip in and out of, but also, to once in a while have a time limited one too. Having limitations is so good to work to, those constraints on location, time, subject matter, number of shots, it makes things more concentrated somehow. There are a number of people on Instagram who shoot film who I’m really inspired by, one of these is Catherine, aka Everyday Mama. We’ve been chatting on Instagram for a few years. She’s a great source of inspiration, and supports so many around her. I’ve loved following her ..read more