Sustainability is something very close to my heart in all things, from helping to set up a group for sustainable productions in my time at LIPA where we encouraged fellow students to consider both the material choices and make more from what they could recycle on productions. Through to my own personal life with clothing and fashion, from my earliest days back in Birmingham, where I would visit Birmingham Rag Market which then was full of vintage and second-hand clothes and more to create my individual look as a New Romantic.
Most years I would invest in a few key pieces and mix up with my charity shop finds, to the point now when I treasure my treasures discovered in my favourite secret outlets! From the very warm as new jacket, I wear most days on my walks through to the most amazing Alexander McQueen shoes I tried to make fit lol some results of the hunting trips are better than others.I hadn’t really had much experience or using fast fashion until I went to Uni and began to see the daily parcels being delivered to the reception from all of the known brands and seeing students scrolling through their screens did I begin to grasp the size of this market. Order for the weekend, wear once, bin! The culture and price points offered made it hard for them to refuse as budgets tight, the overt marketing to create this ethos is immense and hard to resist.
Fast forwards to lockdowns, no theatre I have been attending the rather wonderful Artist Drop-Ins hosted by the Manchester International Festival team, a real tonic in dark times. A place to meet and just share where we all are, offer support to each other and share practices. They have developed over the year (can’t quite believe I am typing that statement) to now hosting some great zooms with local, national and international artists and a brilliant concept Matchmakers. A kind of creative speed dating affair, bringing possible collaborators together and forging new working partnerships. Check them out here
https://mif.co.uk/whats-on/mif-matchmakers-february/
From there Rebels of Extinction formed, collaborating with Actor Devisor Simone French, Actor Devisor Visual man Tom Halls and Director/Producer/Writer and brilliant Voiceover artist Rebecca Taylor Sharman.
With our bid sucessful the time to create content was here, so as a newbie to be sure with filming and so far only creating work for projection I hadn’t really given sound and eek editing footage with words in sync! much thought! Big Big learning curve and at times I may have thrown my toys out of the pram had it not been for the calm more experienced Tom stepping in to help re-edit sections .But that is what a creative growth life is about right? going in with naivety perhaps but then also allowing yourself to be helped and supported.
This is one of the big takeaway moments for me on this project, how a team working remotely and under time pressure can come together and make something happen.
I really enjoyed getting my head into After Effects once more and to a more advanced level than I had attempted before, with lights,cameras and action, there is that wonderful moment when you are self learning software when the basics become second nature and free up some more heaspace to push on to learn more.Since entering the doors of LIPA in 2016 I seem to be on a continual route of new software learning and folks it doesn’t get any easier trust me.
With the additional footage from an oustanding documentary about just how destructive the production of clothing around the world is having on our planet from ‘Riverblue the Movie’ a huge boost, and the fabulous images of Salford Mills from my old neighbour and local historian Tony Flynn we had our story. A story crafted by Simone and Tom with their unique satirical approach, the catchiest earworm so far of 2021 all underpinned by Rebecca’s scripting and direction.
A huge big thank you to the team from MIF who looked after us in the production process, we streamed as the second of this years Festival in My House and Yours on January 28th . It is still online and available to view here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cH9yiWP3HYw&ab_channel=ManchesterInternationalFestival
Simone and Tom’s theatre of TomYumSim here
https://www.simonefrench.com/tomyumsim.html
http://www.tomhalls.com.au/welcome
River Blue http://riverbluethemovie.eco/
Cherish your clothes,make considered choices,change one thing