My First Completed Project

I was born in the Grimsby / Cleethorpes area but left there when I was young, so my only exposure to the area was on visits to see family. I do remember everything looking “grim”, in Grimsby, and the Cleethorpes arcades that were exciting as a child had started to lose their sparkle. Permission was obtained from the Docks Authority for filming, the licence cost £5! This video was made in 1988 (I was 27) even in those days the Grimsby docks had vastly less trade than in the 1950’s.

I was able to get the video digitised, so I can now share the video: Dry Dock (1988) – Recollections of Grimsby and Cleethorpes

I used a Panasonic 8mm tape camcorder and edited on to VHS tape with a JVC HQ video recorder and a simple video mixer. As a result, some of the edits are a little off and may be ragged. I have resisted the temptation to make any significant changes to the editing.

The music has been remastered: The original recording of the music in the first section (Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique) was not available, so a newer recording has been used that is at a slightly different tempo, so the edits do not property match the music. The other two tracks (Erasure – The Circus, and Pet Shop Boys – It’s A Sin) match the original recordings used. Any resemblance to Erasure’s official video (which also appears to have been shot in Grimsby and Cleethorpes) and this video is entirely coincidental. I had not seen the Erasure video until recently and some of the shots in it are remarkably similar to my video!

How my Interest in Theatre and TV Developed into Creating Video Projects

I was interested in tv and theatre production from as early as I can remember. As a child if I was drawing something it would be a tv studio or theatre set with lights and cameras. At school I studied drama and often acted in school plays. Due to the lack of interest in the technical side of theatre production at school another student and myself were primarily responsible for most of the lighting and sound for school productions under the occasional supervision of a random disinterested teacher.

When the headmaster was directing a play for the local amateur dramatic society, he approached me to join as they needed a younger person for one of the roles. By the age of 18 I was running a mobile disco with the other student, and we had become responsible for all the lighting and sound for the drama society. This led us to provide technical services to several schools and drama societies in a semi-professional capacity. In addition, I was also acting in some of the productions.

I was now also a part-time reporter for a local newspaper, primarily writing local stories and reviewing amateur and professional theatre productions.

In the late 1980’s I bought an 8mm video camera and shot various events, but the affordable technology was not practical or adequate quality for making anything generally presentable. I did create a few finished videos, one of which is my tribute to the highs and lows of my home town, that I recently managed to get digitised to upload to YouTube.

We both had full-time jobs and then my colleague joined BBC TV in London as a sound technician, which meant he was not able to continue the school and drama society shows due to his work schedule. I continued as long as I could, but eventually work and home commitments meant that I also had to end the drama work.

Many years later, and still interested in anything related to art, media, and theatre I started helping with set design, lighting, and operating cameras to create videos for other people on video platforms.

My interest in the inner workings of theatre and tv production have not diminished, so I started writing a script for what I anticipated would be a short series of videos for my YouTube channel. After months of researching and writing the project has grown into many more episodes than anticipated and spawned ideas for many other similar projects.

The initial filming for this particular project should start in early 2022.