How did you get into filmmaking?
I can’t remember exactly what year it was. I know what my first film was, but I can’t remember what year it was. Like, I did a project with Tyneside Cinema, where you made like a short film with a group of some people, other teenagers and that was - I really enjoyed doing that because it was kind of similar to what I was going to do at university. Because I always enjoyed media studies at A-Levels... I did that for four years, for GCSE and for A-Levels and I enjoyed it. Like, I always thought what it would be like to set up a TV show, like watching the behind the scenes and I thought it looked really good. So I thought I should just sign up and do Film and TV production at uni... and that kind of got a lot more into that.
What was the first film you got involved in?
Uhm from what I can remember the one I did in the summer holidays of... in middle school, it was kind of about a key, about a weird fantasy thing. I wish I could actually look back at it, but I have no idea where the film actually is now, it was a very short film. We were like all in groups, like a big group, like a big group of people that wanted to this in the future, then put into little groups to make loads of individual films. You had to come up with an idea and then film things and act in it. I remember I did this one acting part in it, I was terrible at it - I remember we filmed bloopers for it, I remember tripping over and that's the only part I remember of it but I know we made the films. I have no idea where it is, I don’t even know if they every released it. It was on like their own learning platform. I think I filmed some parts of it. I think everyone had a go at the camera and tried like different parts of equipment, I can’t really remember.
What aspect of filmmaking interests you the most?
I think the most interesting part is the production of the film, when your dong all, it can be very stressful when you are filming, ehm and trying to get everything that you need because you have a certain amount of hours really you have to rush, sometimes from my experience I felt like I had to rush certain days when you’ve got two days to film and try to rush before the light goes or something. But it’s like the most interesting part, it can go very wrong which isn’t great. Pre-production is the most stressful part, like no one really thinks of that being the most stressful part but there’s like so much to go into it. There’s loads and loads of paper work and loads of things you need to think about, whichever role you decide to do on that film - f you try to do everything yourself, it’s like so much before you can even start filming. Post production can be good as well, if you know what the narrative is that you want to follow and you have all good footage you can just have fun with it and see what works best, but if your footage is terrible just... it’s just a nightmare to try and attempt to put anything together.
When did you decide what the role you wanted to specialize in?
Ehm, well I-I’ve tried every role to see what I enjoyed the most and I think I’m not the most creative person really but I’m like, I definitely prefer organising things so I decided kind of like producer seems like the best role for me. I like organising people. I feel like the least creative role is being producer so I decided that when I was going to do my final year film, do the producer role. Uhm, so I’ve always been good at organising like shows and events so I though filming was the same exact thing. But since I have started doing this film and other outside filming I’ve quite enjoyed doing camera, and I’ve quite enjoyed doing editing so if I have more time to do ehm, more time to invest in practicing editing skills I think that would be quite interesting to be an editor.
What style of film do you prefer to film, why?
I think I prefer to film documentaries it-it's interesting to find out the stories from real people. I think it’s just hard to come up with story for dramas and other styles. So documentaries can be just as interesting because you find out real lives, real stories, all about real people. Especially if you have an interest yourself in somebody, it’s a way to get to know them better and like why they’re doing what they’re doing and what they’ve done in the past. Uhm, you get to focus on what you want to focus on. A subject that you are interested or passionate about without having to come up with a whole story, to then create a narrative to then plan out and shoot. You can just sit down and ask someone questions, as long as it’s interesting questions you can make a narrative from the answers and not have to come up with the plot or the story itself.
What genre of documentaries do you prefer and why?
I think I prefer doing interview documentaries. As you really just get to sit down with the subject and film them and how they respond to the questions. And there isn’t really any, yes the questions are in a certain order, to get a certain reaction or expand on other questions - but the narrative can be played around a lot in editing and the order, you just get all the information at one go in the interview. It also kind of links to, I also kind of like doing observational documentaries as a part of that as I like following the subject around show what they’re doing and nothing’s really set up, it’s all real life and I literally just follow them almost like uhm... and follow exactly what they're doing and usually try to get the footage linked to what was said in the interview and what I want the documentary to be about, so I’d follow like the subject in their day to day life or in a particular setting to get the right kind of footage to over lay over and illustrate the interview.
What your favourite film you’ve made and why?
Ehm, probably be the film I’m currently working on for my final year of uni. I’m doing a documentary on a female wrestler. It’s kind of the first time I’ve been able to choose what I wanted to do for a film completely and have control over it, and so I‘ve decided to do something like what is one of my interests and what I’m passionate about, wrestling and wrestling shows and I know a lot of wrestlers and it’s nice to know more about her, like try to know her better and also find out more about... just the general of how women are wrestling and men. And I found out loads and loads of things about her that I didn’t really know and I probably would have never have asked. And I got to like spend time with her, follow her around, and see what she’s like on shows, behind the scenes and what else she does in her life
What is the most challenging part about filmmaking?
I think coming up with ideas probably is the most challenging part because if you're not like say the most creative person, you have a million ideas in your head, it’s hard to come up with one good idea that you know you can see actually happening in real life. If you have an idea and you have a subject in mind or you have like uhm like a, or just like a topic to focus on you have to think of more, it can't be so general you have think of more specific focus and even when you do get that sometimes once you’ve done all the filming, sometimes you have too much or not enough. So...you have to figure out how you're going to use that footage and how you're going to make it interesting and if you need any extra footage it’s kind of hard to do quite quickly. Then you got to figure out a narrative in the edit if you haven’t thought of one ahead of time.
Does your work link to any other aspects of your life?
Yes, it does eh... I’m very passionate about wrestling, I always go to wrestling shows. I’ve put on some wrestling shows and I’ve started prior to final year, started filming for local wrestling shows and editing them. And it kind of links with my film production course and my final year and choosing what project I wanted to do, because I ended up using some of my already filmed footage and use some of the contacts I have in the wrestling industry to kind build on ehm to get permission to film, and like find other wrestlers who potentially want to be filmed and interviewed and maybe create documentaries on them in the future. Knowing people in that industry then think with film making and it kind of just worked out.
When did you get into wrestling?
Well my parents both watched wrestling in the 90s and my dad kind of kept in touch with it. So I started watching it in the early 00s when I was very young which probably wasn’t the best idea. Ehm and them I always kind of kept on and watched like the Royal Rumble kind of every year. Then I finally got back into it like on my own when my dad wasn’t really watching it anymore, in about 2010 or 11. Watching WWE and then I got very invested in that and I kind of got, I was in love with it for like, a little bit obsessed for a few years. Then luckily somehow I managed, there was a show which had a lot of ex WWE stars on it in Newcastle in like the start of 2016 that was my first ever like live wrestling show that I had ever been to. That just got me more invested in wrestling and I kind of got to know about all these other local shows I continued to go to and get even more passionate about them.
When did you start filming wrestling shows?
I started filming wrestling shows in summer of 2018 because I have this wrestler friend who is like, who knows I did like film production at uni so I obviously knew about cameras and filming stuff. I also had another friend who already filmed shows, so I could ask her opinions uhm... then my wrestler friends encouraged me to contact this promoter who always struggles for camera people, so I messaged them and I literally got a trial to film one of their shows in May and it kind of grew from there, and I kind of started filming every single show for them as of one of two roaming cameras around the ring. I ended up buying my own camera and started contacting local promotions about if I could possibly test my camera out and sort of working for them, and I’ve bought another camera and I now I film like every show, I’ve shot like three to six shows a month now.
What is your latest project your working on?
My latest project is a documentary on Little Miss Roxxy. Uhm, I’ve done an interview with her that’s all about how she got into wrestling and how she feels like being a woman in wrestling and her personal kind of views on the industry, and she’s also in a relationship with a wrestler so I’ve also asked about that and how wrestling has over taken her life, like how much she loves and enjoys it. About the friends she’s made in the industry and just if she thinks that women are just as a bigger part as men are. I followed her to couple shows and filmed the matches specifically, so far I’m trying to film a lot more shows and use like, archive footage to like document when she talks about certain opponents she want to face and her favourite matches and kind of her as Roxxy the wrestler. then as Donna the individual.
Who do you think your films will appeal to?
I think, well it’ll appeal to wrestling fans definitely because either they know the character Roxxy or they actually know Donna personally. They’ll be interested in finding out more about her and if I do any other documentaries of course it’ll appeal to the wrestling fans. Wrestling fans always want to find out more about the wrestler themselves even if that’s just chatting with them for a few minutes at a show. It’ll kind of explore them and how they feel and the whole industry and about their characters. Also, for this film it’s about women in sports profession - so it’ll appeal to kind of female fans of any sport because it’s kind of breaking ground in a way, because men always seem more dominating with sports and women are thought of as less, when in fact they’re equal. So this kind of shows that women are just as good as men, and it’ll show female fans or like young girls that they can do what they want to do. If they want to be a wrestler, just be like Roxxy and like Donna. Just because she’s small doesn’t mean she can’t do just as well as men in the sport.
How do you come up with potential film ideas?
I think for me, I usually try to do more documentaries. It just comes up through just talking to people. Finding out about them and if they have like an interesting story to tell, then I’ll like kind of ask them if they wouldn’t mind like being interviewed or potentially followed for a couple of shows. Like I’ve been talking to a wrestler friends that’s going to be leaving wrestling this year. And I’ve asked them maybe if they want to, if they wouldn’t mind being followed on their last few shows and interviews about their time in wrestling. So, I could potentially build from there or from another wrestler who is kind of new, and just starting off so we get lots of different perspectives on like the same subject from people in different stages of their career.
Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
Ehm, hopefully in 10 years time I’ll have my own... like little filming company. I’ll have a good portfolio of like a few documentaries on different people on different subjects and probably wrestling, have like a load of wrestling companies under my belt to film for or edit for or maybe even have someone which could film alongside and be in charge of. Uhm, the idea would be just like full-time be filming and editing shows and making documentaries, but if not then have a part time job to make money on the side as I like grow kind of like, my own portfolio of companies and start like doing the documentaries, yeah.