Looking at life through a lens, Teesdale Mercury

Looking at life through a lens

Jun 3, 2008

IT'S not every day you have an appointment to meet an up-and-coming film director. Many of Teesdale's bright young things have already flown the rural nest looking for opportunities on streets that are paved with gold rather than historic cobbles. 

However, one young man has turned his back on the big city and returned home to make his first feature film. And if his talents match his passion, remember this is where you first heard the name Oliver Smith. 

The 19-year-old ex-Teesdale Comprehensive School student has already won an award for a previous short film, has met Guy Ritchie at an industry ‘do' and has co-directed music videos for new indie band, Look See Proof. 

After leaving Teesdale Comprehensive, Oliver went off to university in Leeds to study film, but after only a few months he said he felt constrained by the boundaries of the course and decided to leave and move back home. 

He said: "I want to be a director and film making traditionally is a hugely collaborative process. When I was at university, it wasn't like that and I wasn't getting much chance to direct because there were so many other things going on.

"I suppose it's because I'd already made my own films. I wasn't used to working like that. so I decided to leave so I could concentrate on directing."

Fledgling film maker Oliver Smith is embarking on his first full length feature

Since Oliver's move back to Barnard Castle. He said that, thanks to his very accommodating parents, letting him live rent-free, he has had the opportunity and freedom to work on his new film. 

He said: "A lot of people encouraged me to go to Leeds because there's obviously a lot more going on there but that inevitably means there's also a lot more competition. Since I've been back home it hasn't been a struggle really and I've had the freedom to do what I want."

Oliver now has what he refers to as a ‘decent' semi-pro camera, but at the beginning of his film making days things were a lot more basic. He said his first foray into film making began at 14, after being inspired by Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation. 

He said: "In some ways, for my generation, I didn't really start that young because I was 14 when I first picked up a camera."

He went on to make several short films with friends from Teesdale cast as the main players, but it was his film, Fiesta, with which Oliver first found real success. 

The six-minute film, which he produced, shot and edited, starred his best mate and long-time conspirator, Ed Cole and Ed's Ford Fiesta car. 

Oliver said: "We were really lucky because on the night we filmed it, there was a theft at the Yorkshire Bank, in Barnard Castle, so in some of the scenes, we had a real police helicopter. It made us look like we had a big budget drama!"

The film went on to win an award at the Belfast Urban Arts Festival and Oliver and Ed were whisked off to sashay down red carpets and meet the likes of Ken Russell and Guy Ritchie. 

Since then, Oliver has made other shorts, including the music video he co-directed, but after leaving university behind he felt it was time to take his directing skills up a notch and go feature length. 

Oliver said his time at Teesdale comp has undoubtedly helped his chosen path as he said he always had plenty of opportunities while he was there. That, coupled with his time in local drama group, The Turrets, which he obviously loved, have helped him get to where he is today. 

While he was with the ambitious theatre group, Oliver got to star in two major productions at the Edinburgh Fringe including Othello and last year's hit, 45 Minutes - which was devised by the group. 

He said: "I was in the Turrets for years and it gave me great opportunities. I've left now but I'll always be a Turret."

His time with the group helped him make valuable friends who, as well as being supportive, will also be invaluable as cast members in his new film. 

He said he's also had great help from local film maker, Sam Forsythe, who runs Teeny Tiny Films.  

The new film, which has been in the making since last May, is called Verve and is about a group of teenagers and their lives during the eight weeks after they finish college before going on to university. 

Oliver said: "I don't really like describing it because it always sounds like a corny teen movie.

"It's about the black hole between college and university that most people go through. 

"When you're at college you can't see past your exams but then, all of a sudden, there's this eight-week gap before you go on to university.

"The film is about how things change during that time. It's a coming of age story - a bit like Stand By Me."   

Oliver said the storyline was born out of necessity because he needed actors of a certain age. 

He said: "Because I'm just starting out and this is my first feature length project, I wasn't able to get older actors. I needed a cast my age, people who were looking to get into acting, so this seemed like a perfect storyline. 

"A lot of friends from Teesdale will be taking part in the film and friends who I met at university are helping me too."

Ed Cole, whose car and acting abilities helped Oliver win an award for Fiesta, will be playing a lead, along with Sofia Wilmot-Josife, another Teesdale local, who takes another major role. 

Although a lot of characters are cast, Oliver said there are still opportunities for people from the area, of that certain age, to get in touch with a view to becoming part of the project.

Oliver will be filming Verve mainly in York but he'll also be doing interior scenes at other venues across the North East. 

He said the inside shots are some of the hardest to film as people are always suspicious of a man with a camera. 

He said: "It's really hard to get permission to film in places. We were in a pizza shop once and got chased out because the owners thought we were from the food standards agency!

"It's hard to be taken seriously at my age. To be able to film in someone's location is only a small thing to them, but it means the world to me."

As well as location hunting, Oliver is also hoping some kindly investors, with a keen eye for talent, may come along to help fund his project. 

"Finance-wise our project is probably too unbankable," he says quite level headedly.  

To help fund his film, Oliver is hiring himself out as a personal film maker, willing to be a cameraman and producer for events from baptisms and bahmizvahs to weddings as work promos.

His dream is to have his films are shown at Cannes, but it's definitely not the glitz and glamour of Hollywood that attracts Oliver. 

He said: "As long as I always have the opportunity to make films, although I'll need an element of success to make a living out of it, I'll be happy."

Anyone wishing to get involved with Oliver's latest film making project can contact him on 07815 581793 or email him at: ambitiouspictures@yahoo.com

KAYE  JEMMESON

First published in Dale Life magazine, May 2008