Mike Christie

St Trinian's 2

2009-09-11T15:53:00.004Z

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

2009-05-10T11:41:00.003Z

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

2008-12-10T23:25:00.010Z

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

2008-11-24T12:09:00.002Z

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!?!

2008-09-02T07:12:00.003Z

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

2008-08-14T18:00:00.008Z

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

2008-04-12T11:06:00.003Z

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.

Easter Sunday

2008-03-23T11:59:00.004Z

My company (Carbon) has turned this two-hour special round in twelve weeks for Channel 4. A fascinating programme. Theologian Robert Beckford and the team travelled across the globe – to Jerusalem, India, Greece, Spain, Italy and Turkey – to reassess the fate of the 12 disciples. I on the other hand got to travel to a studio in Acton where I created and directed the studio sequences; the concept involved re-interpreting Da Vinci's Last Supper onto twelve canvasses (thank you Adrian Baumgartner, I know this nearly killed you).

Enjoy the programme; there's lots of mystery and conspiracy. It starts at 5.45pm tonight (Easter Sunday) on Channel 4, and - as it was all shot in lovely HD - you can also find it on Channel 4 HD. C4 microsite here

Little Britain Down Under

2007-11-23T01:06:00.000Z

Little Britain Down Under is now available on the new Little Britain Abroad DVD.

Dainton Connell

2007-10-05T23:42:00.000Z

I met Dainton in 1991 when I first worked with the Pet Shop Boys. He was unique, warm, and extraordinary. Rarely are people such a constant; loved by all, a pleasure to be with, completely genuine and profoundly generous and protective.

His death today in Moscow has left me shocked beyond words. :O(

TX news

2007-07-16T21:23:00.000Z

Little Britain Down Under airs at 9pm, Friday July 27th, 2007, on BBC ONE.

Little Britain Down Under

2007-07-12T08:58:00.001Z

I had the pleasure of spending 2 months in Australia with Matt Lucas and David Walliams earlier this year, filming a documentary for BBC1 called (unsurprisingly) Little Britain Down Under.

They were touring the final leg of their huge stage show. It was great fun, as you'll see in the documentary. There are - of course - various characters and hilarious sketches from Little Britain Live, not all of which went as planned, and a variety of other guests including Kath and Kim, Dame Edna and Harold Bishop. I finished editing it all a few weeks back and it should air soon. The BBC have posted the opening sequence on YouTube and you can see it here. I'll post the TX date as soon as it's scheduled.

Jump London DVD re-release and other PK bits

2007-06-15T17:12:00.001Z

Here's a sneak preview of the new Jump London DVD sleeve. It's been re-designed to match the look of the Jump Britain DVD (the disc will feature the original content, though also sports a new look). It's out next month!

Oh, and while I'm on the subject of Parkour, the U.S. publication Smithsonian Magazine ran a piece recently on the growth of Parkour in the post Casino Royale [2006] world. Read it online here.

I had lunch with Sebastien in Paris the other day and interesting to note that he's stopped using the word Parkour again as he did when we were shooting Jump London, though he was using it again the following year when we made the sequel. He also told me some very interesting news about one future project, but swore me to secrecy. Sorry, lol.

Post-lunch, Sebastien and the wonderfully mad Jerome Dion (who worked with us on Jump Britain) in Paris, May 2007.

Coming home...

2007-06-02T10:27:00.000Z

I'm lucky enough to have been to the "new-Wembley-Stadium" twice before last night, for the U21 opener and the FA Cup final. Last night was different: there was an amazing atmosphere for England v Brazil. It felt to me like last night was the real opening night, and, as the national stadium is the home of the national team, maybe it was.

Jump London DVD re-release

2007-05-25T08:57:00.000Z

Finally, some 18 months after it disappeared after a change of distributor Jump London is being re-released on DVD in July (the 14th I believe).

It wasn't a well timed absence as it's been an interesting time for Parkour and the demand for Jump London has been high. Eon - who contacted me after Jump Britain was aired in order to put Sebastien into Casino Royale - were graceful enough to acknowledge it's influence and include a clip in James Bond For Real, Sebastien also toured with Madonna, and Anthony Mingella's movie 'Breaking and Entering' (another Jump influenced project) was released. All of this made Jump London something of a cult DVD, and it's been changing hands for around £100 here in the UK and upto $200 elsewhere.

Anyway, you don't have to pay those prices anymore. It's available here in all it's region-free glory for a mere £14.99. The disc content remains the same, but there's a new sleeve, which is good as the original one - above - is a bit crap, lol.

Footnote and fancy free

2007-05-25T06:55:00.000Z

Who reads blogs? I don't know, but they show up in Google, and my website gets tens, sometimes hundreds of thousands of hits, so I've started this to replace the old news page. I'm sure you don't want me to share with you the intimate details of my inner workings (who cares?) or pontificate about war and peace, so I'll try not to.

Of course there'll no doubt come the day when I stupidly post after drinking too much, and then it will all be inner workings, war and peace, and so for that moment - in advance - I apologise.