John Deol Q&A

John Deol is a documentary director, producing several documentaries for iconic media Institutions such as the BBC and Channel 4. He also worked at MTV, the biggest music television channel for over a decade.

"Remembrance" is a documentary by John Deol that aired on BBC1 remembrance week. The documentary tells the unheard stories of sikh and hindu soldiers in world war one. Viewers and researchers for the documentary were stunned to hear that "there were more indian soldiers than irish and scottish soliders out together" The documentary was decided by the BBC religious department to diversify programme listings and search for a different perception for Remembrance week. It has all the usual documentary conventions such as an authoriative voice over, first and second hand testimonies/interviews and archive footage of war and soldiers. The documentary took a month prior to filming to research, four weeks to edit and five weeks to shoot.

"Documentary examining why followers of the Sikh religion were marked out as a 'martial race' under the British Empire, and how thousands of Sikh soldiers valiantly laid down their lives for Britain's freedom across two world wars. With contributions from eminent historians, military experts and war veterans, the film features the last-ever interview with legendary WW2 Squadron Leader Mahinder Singh Pujji, and the first television broadcast of a rare audio recording of a WW1 Sikh prisoner of war, handed to Britain in 2010 after 94 years in German hands."

Click here for Part 1 of Remembrance; The Sikh Story. 

Another documentary by John Deol is "High Society’s Favourite Gigolo" (Channel 4, Tuesday, 25 November, 9pm), focusing on the rise and fall of one of Britain’s first black superstars, Leslie ‘Hutch’ Hutchinson. John Deol's documentarys seem to follow a theme of nostalgia and raising awareness to the unknown in our society. Hutch, was arguably the world's first black celebrity who was born and raised in Grenada before travelling to America, and then United Kingdom.

  Click here to watch High Society's favourite gigolo

Hutchinson was a renowned musical entertainer who created scandals in 1920 England for having an affair with a member of the royal family. Despite being embraced by high society, when times began to change around him Hutch became old, overweight, penniless and drunk and died unmourned and unaccepted into the celebrity life he craved. This documentary was a shocking insight in to Britain in the 1920's and presented the public with a figure who was so prominent to the 20's era, yet unknown to the majority of viewers. The documentary took three to four months to film and was aired at primetime on channel 4. Despite a lack of archive footage, Deol resulted to using actors to recreate scenes, this had to be historically accurate to validate the time it was set in and for example Deol could not use a shot of a road with double yellow lines as the did not exist according to the time period.

Leslie 'Hutch' Hutchinson at a jazz concert in 1920's England.

Tom Harper Q&A

 Tom Harper (Left) and Thomas Turgoose (Right) in a formal/casual ensemble at the 'Scouting Book for Boys' premiere in the West End, London.

Tom Harper is a young up and coming director, who began his career aged seventeen entering his works into film festivals; although none were accepted. Fast forward over ten years and Harper has directed televisions series such as Hollyoaks, Misfits, Phone Shop, 3 Minute wonders, This is England '86 and Demons.

Harpers first short film, made aged seventeen called 'Eyeline' was produced on a £50 budget using family and friends as cast with Tom writing the scripts himself. Tom says; "You don't need high production value for a good film, just well thought through ideas" He urges youngsters with a passion for filmmaking to enter their work into festivals as a kick start for promotion and marketing.


Harper describes his style of directing as organised as he plans shots carefully in storyboard formats then block's rehearsal with actor and completely alters his ideas according to the shooting environment but he tells us of the shift of directing from his short film days and how it was difficult for him to get used to working with a team of people, as he was used to working independently. Now Harper has a team of individuals from set editors to directors of photography who he works with.

Harper also continued his creation of short films with "Cubs" which won the PULSE award from the UK Film Council's New Cinema Fund in association with Film London. Harper creates his short films based on his perceptions of current affairs, Cubs was made shortly after the imposed ban on foxhunting, and the film draws parallels between the high society recreational activity and modern society gang involvements. The film is effective in allowing viewers to realise the similarities of killing as a 'sport' and killing in gang cultures. Tom says fox hunting is a "Barbaric practise of middle class traditions" Although the film being anti-foxhunting, the graphic scenes of the fox killing enraged animal rights activists.

Another short film of Harpers, inspired by the Iraq war is "Cherries", which is set in a urban comprehensive high school and tells the tale of a group of misbehaved teenage boys being forcefully sent to military schools to eventually fight for England in the war. This film explored the power of the army and government as well as raising awareness of the soldiers’ risking their lives to defend our country, Harper says it 'reminds us of the fact that things like this can happen' Friend and fellow director Noel Clarke, the creator of Kidulthood and Adulthood, is set to make 'Cherries' into a feature film. The name title has a sexual metaphor to suggest the loosing of virginity, but in this context the loss of adolescence and innocence.

Meeting Tom Harper has been an inspirational enlightenment that has encouraged me in to film-making. His sheer knowledge and passion for directing is contagious. Harper is a creative and insightful man and I wish him success on his upcoming projects.

Rupert Murdoch Case Study.

"News Corporation, is the world's third-largest media conglomerate (behind The Walt Disney Company and the Time Warner Company) as of 2008, and the world's third largest in entertainment as of 2009. The company's Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and Founder is Rupert Murdoch"

        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_Corporation

Rupert Murdoch inhertied the australian 'News Limited' company in 1953 after his father Sir Keith Murdoch passed away. Twenty six years later in 1979, Murdoch created News Corporation as a holding company (company with controlling shares in other companies) for News Limited.

"News Ltd. made its first acquisition in the United States in 1973, when it purchased the San Antonio Express-News. Soon afterwards it founded the National Star, a supermarket tabloid, and in 1976 it purchased the New York Post.

In 1981 News Corp bought half of the movie studio 20th Century Fox, buying the other half in 1984. In 1985 News Corp announced it was buying the 'Metromedia group of stations' setting the stage for the launch of a fourth U.S. broadcast network. On September 4, 1985, Murdoch became a naturalized citizen to satisfy the legal requirement that only United States citizens could own American television stations. In 1986, the Metromedia deal closed, and the Fox Broadcasting Company was launched. This network, known on-screen as "Fox", can now be picked up in over 96% of U.S. households. "

Rupert Murdoch is the oligarch of his media corporations and his trans atlantic ownership in the media industry accounts for three quarters of the world.

Sky News political editor David Speers talks to News Corporation chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch about paywalls, politics, and more

Groove Grove Graphics. John Phillips.

The Groove Grove Graphics print studio in West London is an artist run organisation that prides itself on providing an artistic outlet for the community by making the studio publicly available space, for example teaching different methods of printing and providing printing services. John Phillips says "Visual arts of understanding the world are important to society" The Studio costs around 15,00 a day to run and only generates 1/3 of the amount. The rest of the comes from charitites and the government to subsidise.

We are also given insight into how much our local area influenced many cultures music. Gilberto Gil and his Caetano Veloso brazillian muscians and activists were exiled from Brazil and came to London. As he was walking down Portobello road listening to reggae he was intrigued by the instruments and beats, after theyre three years of exile he returned to South America and played the reggae music, creating reggaeton.

John, who is clearly passionate about the collection of prints on display at his show begins to tell us about different methods of printing, inviting us to the manual printing room to see all the employees at the studio at work.

Stencilling; A template used to draw or paint symbols, shapes and images. Stencils are formed by removing sections from template material in the form of text or an image. The template can then be used to create impressions of the stencilled image, by applying pigment on the surface of the template and through the removed sectikons, leaving an imprint of the stencil on the underlying surface.

Screen Printing; is also a method of print making in which a design is imposed on a screen of silk or other fine mesh, with blank areas coated with an impermeable substance and ink is forced through the mesh onto the printing surface.

Etching; Is a printmaking process that dates back 500 years. The etching process involves sheets of metal, usually made of copper or zinc and acid is used to etch the print onto the metal.

We are then escorted to the Digital print studio equipped with industrial sized inkjet printers that print images that look strikingly simillar to the pristine hand printed/painted versions.

Mr Phillips who is a fascinating speaker tells us how this form of media, Print, first became popular. 'In the year 1968 a significant year because of the vietnam war there were alot of student protests in Mexico, France and Czechoslovakia. In Paris of '68 came a mass student demonstration rebelling the rule of opposite sexes visiting each others' dormitories. They created placards which read 'Allow dorm visit's after 10pm' etc because of the scale of the protests police were forced to use brutality to regain order but within months the workforce and factories joined the protestors and all services were shut down, the protest had become an Anti war demonstration and posters started a rebellion is paris. Artists and students created print studio's to make witty posters with messages'

John began making posters on his kitchen table for community organisations and the studio grew from thats. He wanted to celebrate the posters and graphics that evolved form 68, which has now turned into his exhibition. John remains extremely proud of his local area and claims "West london wrote the soundtrack and created the uniform for the 60's revolution. Over 50 years, 20% of music has been associated within four miles of west london" and he believes Groove Grove Graphics in Ladbroke Grove is the centre of the revolution.

The exhibition displays music record covers dating back from the 40's, the unique catergories are also a factor which makes the show interesting to observe.

1. D.I.Y- taking domestic things as instruments, tin cans etc. This category celebrates the 'clash of cultures' sharing and inventing music, of the Windrush generation meeting white working class and this is the chronicles of their cultures entwined.

2. Other Music Around The World- American G.I's; Jazz, Blues. Carribean; Calypso. Irish music etc.

3. All you Need is Love- This category is the title of a hit Beatles' song first performed live in BBC Studio in Whitecity, local to the studio and area, broadcasted and watched by 14 million.

4. War in Babylon- This category is about the conflict between cultures, despite John embracing the mixture of cultures and creation of new music he also acknowledges the history of our society.

5. Sex, Drugs and Rock'n'Roll- All great music genres have been influenced by drugs in one way or another. Jazz culture- Heroin, Hippies- LSD, Reggae- Marijuana. Drugs influences thoughts which inevitably led to music.

6. Dreams- This category is the events and lives, depicting the routes or changes music makes.

7. Rock'n'Roll Shrines; this section of the exhibition is of framed photographs of buildings and places important to the creation of music.

"Art is universal and should be available to everyone" Music us and so he wanted visual to surround the studio. John percieves the photographs as the "rhythm" in the studio. He is very passionate about music and says it "expresses raw emotion"  and can "challenge and provoke peoples sense of the world"

Groove grove

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