Diary of a Bad Lad - Showing at Ace Centre, Nelson

The Ace Centre, Nelson, is holding a free special preview screening of Diary of a Bad Lad at 7pm, thursday 28 January. This is part of the run-up to the film's theatrical release where it will launch in cinemas across the North West, followed by London and the rest of the country, this Easter.

Films like 'Paranormal Activity' have shown that 'no-budget' movies can go on to great success if the audience gets behind them - and, right now, the Bad Lad trailer is getting more than six times the number of views as the Paranormal Activity trailer on www.dailymotion.com!

Producer Jonathan Williams will be introducing the film and participating in a Q&A session after the film. He's also going to be screening a couple of local short films which were screened at the Salford Film Festival in November.

 

[Joanna]

HURRAY!!x

 

[Jon Williams]

Not a fantastically good turn out at the ACE, but a pretty good night. Being free went against us a bit; they said they'd had quite a few people wanting to make telephone bookings, who found out that all they had to do was turn up on the night. But at 7pm? That's a bit early. And on a Thursday? And pouring down with rain. And, for that matter, why aren't the local colleges getting their students along? Nicole, at the ACE, said that the colleges had asked them to screen a couple of Almodovar films, because they're on a Film Studies syllabus, and not a single student or member of staff turned up for either!

The facilities at the ACE are superb, but they really do need to make the outside of it look like an arts centre - there's no flags, no big 'coming soon' poster displays. It maybe looks more like a job centre!

I took a couple of short films with me that had featured at the Salford Film Festival: "Kiss" by Mat Johns, which is a real demonstration of how packing powerful emotions into just a few minutes is what a good short should do and which too few achieve. The other was the quirkily titled stop frame animation, Parek Det'arko (apparently it means 'baby food'), by Vivien Peach. DV has opened up all sorts of possibilites for stop frame animation, and Vivien's short shows what you can do with a bedside cabinet, a few quids worth of fast food items, and a bit of imagination.

I have to say that the ACE has an excellent projector and superb surround sound speakers. Both shorts looked and sounded good. But the moment Bad Lad started it was obvious just how much Jamie Parry at Sumners had transformed the look of the film. Despite having originally been shot on similar technology, it made you think, 'Wow, this looks good on the big screen'. Couple that with Simon Auster's brilliant, edgy, mood-reinforcing music and audio mix, and the results were quite literally gob-smacking. Afterwards one member of the audience said he thought you'd have to go right back to 'A Clockwork Orange' to find another film with a similar impact.

So, what I can tell you is, when the film starts playing in cinemas around Easter time, even though it cost little to make, the audience most derfinitely aren't going to feel they've been short-changed!