Page 32 - Fujifilm Exposure_31 The White Countess_ok

NEW TOWN ORIGINAL
Essex boys go for Basildon bonding on feature debut
It started with a short and now, eight years on, the Essex- born triumvirate of childhood friends, Terry Bird, Jamie Palmer and Jason Ford, have just ushered – almost literally - their first feature film on to
the big screen.
New Town Original, written and
directed by Ford with Bird and Palmer as producers, is the micro-budgeted but admirably stylish story of 23-year- old Mick (Elliott Jordan), who’s bat- tling personal demons and a deadly dull 9-5 job.
ty theatre: “After the success of Simple Minds it was only a matter of time before we put our minds to something feature length. To get an idea of how the system worked and to gain further experience, we shot a two-and-a-half minute visual treat- ment for New Town Original (yet to be written) and took that to Cannes as a tool to raise awareness of the project and more importantly us as a company.
“The strength of the trailer helped us secure a solid relationship with hire companies [including Fujifilm]
As if Mick’s life wasn’t already tough and bleak enough, he then falls for Nicki (Katharine Peachey), one- time girlfriend of the local ‘hard man’, Si Naylor (Paul McNeilly). Which is where the ‘fun’ really starts.
The trio’s company, New Town Films, was first formed to make their short, Simple Minds, back in 1997. It was nominated for Best Screenplay at the British Short Film Festival and had a successful run on Sky Movies.
According to Terry Bird, whose background also includes communi-
that would later prove invaluable. After 18 months and with the promise of money failing to materialise we decided to invest in our own talent and started to tailor the script to a budget we felt we could realistically raise (which of course was barely enough to get the film in the can).
“Pre-production started in October 2002 and we began filming in [Basildon] February 2003 for four weeks. Once a rough cut of the film was assembled, it was viewed by regional Arts board, Screen East and
the film was awarded their maximum completion grant of £20,000.”
Ford, at 31, the youngest of the threesome, says he wrote the story for three reasons: “First, it was a world in which I had lived so therefore knew suf- ficiently about – and as they say, ‘write about what you know.’ Second, I am a new director so if we did get produc- tion funding, it’s a genre that I have worked in previously and extensively as an actor so would have a good chance of being at the helm. Thirdly, it’s per- sonal. I figured that even if it’s the only
30 • Exposure • Fuji Motion Picture And Professional Video
MOTION PICTURE & PRO-VIDEO feature in focus