Created in Birmingham

Here are a few trailers that have made it onto my ‘to blog’ list recently.

First up, a trailer for the upcoming performance of the Mozart Requiem by Notorious:

Clare Edwards has blogged some info about this.

Next is the trailer for The Last Projectionist:

I’d heard of The Last Projectionist before but somehow hadn’t twigged what it was about:

The story centres on The Electric in Birmingham, the oldest working cinema in Britian. From its silent beginnings in 1909; to a news and cartoon cinema during WWII; a porn cinema in the 70s & 80s; then saved from demolition and restored to its art deco glory in 2004.

And finally, the trailer for a soon-to-be-released documentary about King Adora:

I met Ben Lewis (who was also involved in The Last Projectionist) from Siwel Productions last week and he emailed me some more info about this one.

I’d wanted to make a documentary for a while and although my close friend was in the band I’d never really explored what that experience was like for him. We got talking and I’d decided that I’d like to produce a film about not only King Adora but what its like being in a band, any band, the music business at that time ( pre social media boom) , and nature of creativity etc

Self funded and calling in favours from friends in the industry the project grew and various characters that had featured in the bands timeline began to show interest. Steve Lamacq gave a great interview as did John Cornfield, the producer of their first album.

We managed to get into the jug of ale pub in Moseley ( now being converted ) as it very much was a part of the band and many other bands history.

The band reformed in 2010 for two shows at the Hare and Hounds and the Garage in Islington. It was great to interview the fans, some from way back and new fans that had found the band via you tube and facebook etc

I was always conscious that I didn’t want to adhere to a narrative in which band get signed, band break up, band reform etc

The film runs parallel narratives that explore the relationships witihin the band, what there up to now and how the “ride” effected them.

I’ve just noticed that Paul Hadley’s been interviewing people named in the Birmingham Post’s Power 50 and has managed to get hold of quite a few of the creative nominees. Here are a few:

• Councillor Martin Mullaney
• Kerry Thomas
• James Yarker
• Simon Wales
• Helga Henry
• Clare Edwards
• Justice Williams MBE

• A Conversation with Government – Help!
  On Weds, Clare Edwards is off to “a 90 minute session to tell Government how they can better help creative entrepreneurs and where things are working and where are they failing”. Suggestions welcomed
• Introducing-DJ Shadow’s Endtroducing-Live | Hare and Hounds
  “Full 10 piece live band perform DJ Shadows classic album – “Endtroducing””. Looks interesting
• Lots Of Things To See And Do In The West Midlands: March 2010 « Oh. (Russ L wishes you way more than luck)
  “The theme of the month definitely seems to be “motion pictures””. Russ cherrypicks the pick of the cherries
• Postcard from South Africa – Reloaded |
  The film of the seminar. I turned up late to this and completely missed it. People were saying good things though
• Area Culture Guide 06 « Area Culture Guide
  “The latest edition of the Area Culture Guide is out now for March 2010″
• We Are Eastside | Birmingham
  Ooh, tasty. “Welcome to We Are Eastside; your guide to the organisations that host and produce bold new work across film, digital media, crafts, music, visual arts, literature and photography all based in Eastside, Birmingham, UK”

For me, arts funding is an area that’s shrouded in mystery and confusion. But then I’ve never applied for any, so maybe it’s not such a big deal.

Anyway, two folks who have recently shed some light on the situation are Pete Ashton and Clare Edwards.

Pete went along to the Arts Council yesterday to chat about the Digital Content Development (DCD) fund. In a lovely, comprehensive post he’s found out what the fund’s for, what organisations have been doing wrong in their applications to date and what Anna Douglas and Steve Manthorp (the fund’s administrators) are looking for in applications.

Pete would also like to make it clear he’s available to help organisations (RFO’s only I’m afraid) who are trying to figure out what to use the fund for.

Clare was recently asked for advice on finding funding for a creative project. She was happy to help and thought it’d be useful to put her tips in a blog post, so here are Clare’s tips for finding funding for a creative project.

Gigbeth looks to be coming together quite nicely.  There are some well recognised names signed up (Sugarhill Gang, Young Knives, Guillemots, Stanton Warriors, Kano, Fabio and so on) along with some good localness too (Einstellung, The Destroyers and a who’s who of local promoters organising their own nights).

Here are some links to things out there:

• Today (15 Oct) is the last day for buying cheaper earlybird tickets
• Here’s the Gigbeth schedule, although at the mo there are more bands listed on the Gigbeth MySpace
• For a second year, Jon at B:iNS has braved the Gigbeth MySpace Marathon, checking out each band that’s playing
• From watching the interview below, it seems that although the music part of the festival serves as the shop window, the Gigbeth Conference is a bigger thing than many of us will appreciate
• Incidentally, rather than churning out press releases, the Gigbeth blog is an engaging and lively thing written by a few people (I think – who writes each post is a bit of a mystery)

Last, and certainly not least, our Frankie sat down with Gigbeth’s organiser, Clare Edwards, for a natter about how the festival and conference started, what it’s all about and this year’s most exciting acts:

Interview with Clare Edwards, Gigbeth from Created in Birmingham on Vimeo.

• First day nerves – My Fierce Placement…
  Gemma has just started a placement with Fierce and it looks like she’ll be blogging about it. This could be a good chance to see what Fierce do all year round, when not concentrating on their festival.
• AFWM – Local Animator Wins Watch Film Award
  More award-winning – “last week’s Shooting People Watch Film winner was none other than West Midlands-based animator Joe Butcher”.
• Fused Magazine – read Issue 35 online
  “It is the VERY first time Fused has been available to browse through in this way”.
• Clare Edwards wins UK Young Music Entrepreneur 2008
  “The board of Gigbeth would like to congratulate Clare on winning the UK Young Music Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2008″. As would I – congrats Clare!
• BIAD’s BA(Hons) Fine Art graduates
  BIAD’s gradutating students of 2008. Hopefully I’ll have a reason to bog about their creative exploits in the future. For now congrats to the lot of em.
• The Triangle Cinema – Gosta Green, Birmingham | Dave Harte
  Dave says “After much searching I have at last found the video I made in about 1988 about the Triangle Cinema in Gosta Green, Birmingham”.