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When I returned from Liverpool, there wasn't anything to stop me making a feature film. I had the camera, the stock, a rough script and I had met many friends on the Liverpool shoot. I grabbed my courage by the balls and went to see Rank Film Laboratories, Zonal, makers of sound stock, and two camera equipment rental houses, Sammies and Technovision. I told them all exactly what I wanted to do, which was to make a 35mm anamorphic movie on a macro-budget, despite the fact that I hadn't even directed traffic before. They all agreed to help. Rank gave me a great deal and tested the stock from the skip; 75% was OK to use. Zonal gave free 1/4 inch sound stock for the Nagra and 35mm mag stock for the edit, and Sammies and Technovision. rigged the Arri 2C camera into a sound proof blimp and loaned me a prime lens and a set of tall/short legs for the duration. It was only later, at the film's premier, that I found out that most of them thought I was crazy when I first walked in.

So everything set, I loaded the LandRover with my few belongings, the camera, stock, lights and headed for Toxteth in Liverpool. There I stayed for eighteen months and with the help of many friends, shot the movie. When I ran out of film stock, the late Peter Dimbelby, from Agfa, God bless him, heard about my plight and donated another 15,000 ft. to finish the film.

Whilst still shooting, I ordered a Steenbeck and Pic-Sync to start editing. We only just managed to get it though the front door and set it up in the living room. Learning all the time, John Morgan, my sound recordist, and I synced-up the rushes in about a month and started editing. Fortunately the London Film Festival heard about the film and requested a rough cut. After seeing that, they faxed saying they definitely wanted to premier the film at their festival.

With this news panic set in; we only had a month and a half to shoot the rest of the film, fine cut, sound dub and deliver. Still paying for everything by working at night in a restaurant, I managed to get a very small grant from the North West Arts Board, which still wasn't enough to finish the film. Luckily a friend introduced me to a production company called Activate Productions, who saw the rough cut and agreed to loan me the rest of the money I needed to do the final sound mix. It was touch and go; both John and myself fell asleep during the final mix at Shepperton Studios.

Two hours before the film was scheduled to be premiered at The London Film Festival, we were still waiting for Rank to deliver the final print. When it turned up, I was arguing with Sheila Whitaker, the festival's director, who wanted to pull it from the first screening, but I knew Rank wouldn't let me down. The premier went really well. So well, in fact, that another three festivals in Europe immediately booked the film. The party afterwards was great and everyone was there; lead actors, crew, sponsors. It was a chance to thank them all. Also both my parents were there after not seeing each other for 17 years, it was good to see them talking together, if only for a few hours.

For the next year I was flown around Europe and the U.S. to about 10 festivals including Rotterdam, Götenborg, Emden, Bradford, Birmingham, Cherbourg, Oldenburger, Annonay and New York. I had a few offers from sales agents, but having heard nightmare stories, I wanted to make sure I got a UK sales agent I could keep an eye on, or a least take to court if they didn't pay up. On my return to London I did some research to find out which company was the best and most honest; it turned out to be Mel Gibson's company Icon Entertainment International, but with my feet now firmly on the ground, I knew that unless the film received a theatrical release they couldn't do much with the film. So after learning every other facet of film-making, and with the film being too small for other UK distributors, I decided to become a distributor myself. (continue)