Opening Scene
Having now worked on over 40 movies in the preceding 25 years, walking onto the location based set of Guy Ritchie's, ‘Sherlock Holmes’ in 2008, was a well worn path, traversed this time in a mild state of apathetic autopilot. I knew it would probably be a relatively easy movie to work on as Guy was always calm and accessible while I was filming on, 'Rock'n'Rolla'; and I had previously worked on movies with both lead actors in this one.
Robert Downey, Jr., or RDJ as he was referred to, was playing Sherlock, and I first met him early in his Hollywood career on, 'Air America'. His Watson was Jude Law who as a 19 year old drama graduate I had met on his first feature, 'Shopping', where he also met his former wife, Sadie Frost. ‘Shopping’ is a little known British film funded by FilmFour and directed by a baby faced 28 year old, Paul W.S. Anderson from his own script about ram-raiding joy-riders. I had been hired by FilmFour to make the promotional video press kit (EPK) and remember turning to the crew when we had completed our last day on-set, saying: “Well we'll never see that Jude Law again!”. How wrong could I be. Paul Anderson also went on to be a successful director in Hollywood.
Little did I know Sherlock was to be the mysterious final chapter of my quarter century affair with an industry I had craved to join as a movie loving kid but ultimately betrayed that passionate loyalty.
BACKSTORY
From the age of six I was a movie convert, a trip to the local cinema with Mum and my older brother in 1968 introduced me to Julie Andrews as she whirled over London supported by her umbrella, carpet bag in hand. Mary Poppins was magical for a six year old and I was smitten, perhaps in much the same way Harry Potter has captured the imagination of a new generation. These cinema trips were quite frequent as we only had a black and white television and broadcasting was not the 24 hour ferris wheel it is now, the BBC only sparking up at midday for 'Watch With Mother' then closing down again until Blue Peter on BBC1 or the more trendy 'Magpie' on ITV.
A Chinon Super 8mm camera bought from the proceeds of a paper round provided some amateur movie making, including producing a teenage version of the British TV cop show 'The Sweeney'. I was also developing and printing my own B/W 35mm stills in a makeshift darkroom built at the back of our garage with the help of my older brother, Mike. I did work experience aged fifteen at Yorkshire Television in the Calendar newsroom and while I did not want to be a journalist it was nevertheless interesting seeing a daily news show put together. They were very kind allowing me to sit in on the morning editorial meeting, researching a small piece on a cricketer who had died and sitting in the gallery as the evening news went out. I took some pictures to record the experience including one of journalist and presenter Richard Whiteley who fronted the news.
Richard Whiteley in the Yorkshire TV newsroom
When the BBC sci-fi series 'Blake's 7' came to Yorkshire for some location filming, I went with my stills camera to record the day. I begged the producers to allow me to come down to London and see the studio recording of this episode and they kindly agreed. Mum drove me down from Leeds and we spent the day at television centre watching how the location shoot integrated with the now notorious low-fi interiors.
On location at Pateley Bridge, Yorkshire during the filming of location sequences for, ‘Blake’s 7’
While wandering the corridors I bumped into the film critic Barry Norman who hosted a film review show and asked if it could please be transmitted earlier as I had to go to bed by the time it was on! He said: “Well I agree with you so please write in and tell the BBC”, of course I did.
I got a small grant from the Yorkshire Arts Association which allowed me to make my first short film aged seventeen. An anti smoking spoof documentary titled, 'In View'. It helped get me to College doing a degree in Film. The course I had chosen was one of only four accredited by the film union ACTT and getting a degree from this course meant you automatically qualified for a union 'ticket' allowing you to work in the industry. This was at a time when closed shops existed so unless you were in the union you were not allowed to work. The Iron Lady, Margaret Thatcher crushed the unions in the 80's and closed shops were outlawed.
The first film I worked on having secured a union card was with the Children's Film Foundation, a unit set up to make the sort of Saturday morning cinema popular in the fifties. Made on threadbare budgets with short shooting schedules and paying union minimum rates, these films were often a way in for new directors and actors. 'Haunters of the Deep' was set in a Cornish fishing port and shot on location during the summer of 1982. One of the sequences involved a village football match and even the crew, including myself, was roped into make up the numbers on the pitch. So I would mark the head of the shot with the clapperboard then run on the field and give it my best Beckham impersonation (I was always the last to be picked for any team at school as I admit I was rubbish) The film was shot by Ronnie Maasz who had been the second unit director of photography on the great British Classic, 'The Italian Job'.
While no financial avalanche for me it did allow me to meet crew members who worked on feature films and the focus-puller David Watkins put me forward for a subsequent job on an American TV movie being shot in London. This led to second unit work on 'Highlander' and again through the diary service I was a member of (GAS) another job on a Disney film being shot at Elstree Film Studios, north of London, and that film was, 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit'. At this point, the course of total chance became the arbitrary “written in the stars” moment that catapulted my career and life immeasurably.