St Trinian's 2

My August holiday was interrupted by a surprise call asking me if I could 2nd Unit Direct an action sequence for 'St Trinian's 2: The Legend of Fritton's Gold'. How could I say no? So, late August saw the St Trinian's 2 cast and crew take over the South Bank, much to the surprise of the tourists and the delight of the paps and tabloids.

The sequence forms a chase across London and features some background Parkour elements (provided by Parkour Generations). The filming managed to fall in a decent spell of sunny weather and the South Bank - littered with it's polka dot trees and newly painted yellow and blue staircases - provided an acid Tim Burton landscape for a suitably surreal backdrop for the mad world of St Trinian's... Great fun!

Big Art

In the summer of 2003, my business partner Mike Smith had a brain wave in a pub toilet. It was called 'Paint Britain' and involved getting the British public to commission art. It was one of the first ideas we pitched when Carbon started in 2004 and after a year of development it went into production as 'The Big Art Project'. The art in question was now to be found outside the gallery because the second realisation had been 'what have the public got to do with public art?'

I had the pleasure of shooting the first phase in 2006; the site selection and some of the curator and artist selection, which makes up most of prog 1 and some of prog 2.

Four years after it's commission, the TV series begins this evening. Four programmes that took four years and resulted in real change and debate in a number of communities around the UK. I don't think there'll ever be a TV series like it, because - quite simply - despite the fact it happened because of the TV series, it's all so much bigger than that. An extraordinary journey for everyone involved. I hope you'll watch it and see for yourself.

Wayne Rooney's Street Striker: The Final

The final episode of Wayne Rooney's Street Striker airs this Sunday, December 14th, 2008, on Sky 1 HD and Sky 1, at the slightly earlier time of 6.30pm. This is probably my favourite episode of the series. Here's the blurb:

Wayne Rooney’s search for the country’s best, young, all-round, raw street football talent reaches its climax. The final of this uniquely street talent competition takes place in a fitting setting, a world away from the X Factor stage or the Apprentice boardroom: the top three floors of a multi-storey car park in Stockport.

Wayne - assisted by his competition sidekicks Andy Ansah and Sue Smith - have set two final, evil street football challenges in the car park, and there are some added twists along the way. The stakes are high; Wayne must decide which of the nervous, final five contestants – Henry, Ahsan, Travis, Jordan and Mohamed – is the rightful winner of the title Wayne Rooney’s Street Striker.

Production and post-production on this series lasted 15 weeks, which is very fast for three hours of TV. It's had great feedback and ratings. I've had a blast. Huge shout to Wayne Rooney, Andy Ansah, and Sue Smith, Stuart Cabb, Paul Stretford, the teams at Coke and M&C Saatchi, Clare Tomlinson (and her evil laryngitis), and the hardcore; Craig Hastings, Ian Masterson, and especially Olivia Baldwin.

Wayne Rooney's Street Striker

The first episode of Wayne Rooney's Street Striker airs on Sunday, November 30th, 2008, at 7pm on Sky 1 HD (and regular old Sky 1 for the low resolution amongst you). I directed this series for my friends at Plum Pictures, and it's great fun. There's two more episodes to follow; same time and channel, December 7th and 14th.

Here's some blurb:

Wayne Rooney’s powerhouse talents have amazed the country since he first graced a premiership pitch aged just sixteen. But long before he was signed up for an academy, he was crafting his own skills on the streets of Croxteth. His passion for street football inspired this unique competition; his search for the country’s best, young, all-round, raw street football talent. Hundreds of teenage street footballers entered.


The first round takes place in the shadow of a tower block in south Manchester, where the best 24 battle it out in extraordinary, urban, football challenges. Rooney may be a long way from the hallowed turf of Old Trafford, but he isn’t afraid to step up, unrehearsed, and very publically put his own talents to the test. In this round, Wayne – who, by his own, admission does not relish the role of judge – has to send half of them home quite literally on the spot.

I am a minder!?!

So we started shooting Wayne Rooney's Street Striker the other week and I'm really enjoying it. One of the great things about directing is being able to work on great projects and different challenges. 

And should my directing career ever fail, I could always become a minder.... Although according to the Daily Star, I already am a minder!!!! Yes, that's me on the right, photographed on location. Made me laugh.

Wayne Rooney's Street Striker airs on Sky 1 in the Autumn.

Yesterday We Were In America

I've just finished shooting this drama-documentary: it's the story of Alcock and Brown, the first men to fly non-stop across the Atlantic back in 1919. I'm really pleased with it, especially the drama scenes. This photo was snapped on set, of Toby Sawyer who plays young Arthur Whitten-Brown.

However, as much as I love it, it will have to wait and the film won't be edited and complete until November. I'm directing a new series for Sky called 'Wayne Rooney's Street Striker', and I think it's going to be fun...

Suede, Derek Jarman, me and YouTube

Maybe they did it a while ago and I didn't notice, but it seems YouTube has finally upped the limit of uploads from 100MB to 1GB a clip. This is great news as I rarely make anything less than 30 minutes and normally at least double that. 

So, new content. First up, an old VHS that never had an audience; a video of the concert I produced between Suede and Derek Jarman in July 1993 at London's Clapham Grand. The recording was almost an accident. We only had two camcorders there but the footage was so good, concert collaborators David Lewis, Andy Crabb, James Mackay and I, with the help of Jason Collier, cut a little memoir of the show. I recently came across a VHS so I uploaded it for all to see (for a limited time only) on my YouTube account. 

I've also uploaded the whole of 'Lives Less Ordinary: Ian Shaw'. A 30 minute documentary I made in 2001 which is one of my own personal favourites.