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you your picture.’ We brought on a brilliant editor Jonathan Rudd, who’d done House! for us, built a new sound track and new score, and eventually delivered it to Ben’s great delight.”
The finished film has since won two top prizes at the Austin Film Festival, including Best Film. It also cited in five categories, including Best Drama, at the recent prestigious BAFTA Cymru Awards.
Since then CF1 has completed a pair of productions. The idea for Alone, in which the killer is the sub- jective camera, originated with Ball before being worked up by Newport Film School graduate, twentysome- thing writer-director Phil Claydon. “Phil,” enthused Ball, “has unfath- omable talent, with perhaps more flair than any director I’ve ever worked with.”
This offbeat exercise in “fear” – that’s the buzzword, said Ball – has an ecelectic cast including veterans John Shrapnel and Miriam Margolyes along- side newer talent like Claire Goose, Caroline Carver, Laurel Holloman and Susan Vidler.
Then it was straight into Anazapta (the title of the co-production with Spice Factory, refers to a precious tal- isman), a story of forbidden love and revenge in the plague-ravaged England of 1348, with Jason Flemyng, Lena Headey and David La Haye.
Ironically, considering the subject matter, filming started just three days into the foot-and-mouth crisis which dogged these isles earlier this year.
“So now,” laughed Ball, “we have a courtyard without animals, no exteri- or locations - apart from some recent wide exterior pick-ups in a couple of relaxed areas – and a trial by water in the river is now a trial by water in the village well. We had lashing rain and unsocial hours but the crew were fan- tastic to a man.
“In fact, they were so fantastic they’ve been invited to do our next production, again for Spice Factory, which is called Plots With A View, a comedy about duelling funeral par- lours in the valley, with Christopher Walken, Brenda Blethyn and Bob Hoskins, directed by Nick Hurran.”
Plots profitably gets in the way of CFI’s next project, the romantic come- dy Pig In Astral Plaza, from another first-time director, Gavin Williams which like Spic ‘N’ Span, “about a cleaning company with attitude”, is currently being developed in-house.
“We are,” declared Ball, “in an ageist industry, I’m afraid to say, so we’re actively encouraging young tal- ent which includes having five work- ing relationships with graduates of the Newport Film School.
There’s an accent on youth too in The Boy From Nowhere, perhaps CFI’s most exciting pipeline project, a true-life drama based on the early life and rise to superstardom of Welsh singer, Tom Jones.
“At the moment,” said
Ball, “this is uncleared land-
mine territory, but we hope
to meet up soon with Tom
and his manager to move the film forward with them as co-producers. It’s such a strong period drama set in a close-knit mining community that’s long since been erased, and about a boy who shouldn’t have had those lungs
because he had
TB for 18
months while
growing up.
“It starts in the 50s, and
goes through
the sixties end-
ing up with his
first hit record
and then Tom
getting his big
break in Las
Vegas. We’d
have to use two
actors, and
we’d all like to see if it’s some- thing that Robbie Williams might agree to do.”
No wonder Ball ballyhoos, “Everything’s buzzing. We always say ‘Give us 100 sheets of paper and we’ll give you 10 rolls of celluloid – and we’re bondable.” You better believe it. ■ QUENTIN FALK
House!, Up ‘N’ Under, Alone and Anazapta were originated on Fujicolor Motion Picture Negative
company news
Cardiff-based CF1 is at
the vanguard of a filmmaking boom west of the border