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Orwell (4th blog)

ORWELL: AGAINST THE TIDE

This month celebrates the birth of Eric Blair(George Orwell)on the 25th. June 1903

He changed his mind about the Scots after fighting alongside Bob Smillie, who lost his life in the Spanish Civil War.

“… here was this brave and gifted boy who had given up his career at Glasgow University in order to fight against fascism’(adapted from Homage to Catalonia).

On 20th. May 1937 Orwell was nearly killed fighting on the Aragon Front when a fascist sniper shot him in the throat.

‘…… there seemed to be a loud bang and a blinding flash of light ……the bullet had passed straight through my neck and blood was dripping from the corner of my mouth’( adapted from ‘Homage to Catalonia’)

He was hospitalsed in Monflorite, a remote village still marked by the conflict’s scars; where bitter memories, stillhaunt and divide local families.

As part of the film’s period re-creation, my art departmentpainted temporary war slogans on the ancient village walls.Then we followed a shire horse pulling a 1930’s hay wagonled by a young Catalan. This a visual device to reveal the life and soul of Orwell’s time there.

The result? A film that was nominated for a B.A.F.T.A., won international awards, and was warmly received by the Orwell estate. The Guardian/Observer also used the film during its Orwell Centenary celebrations.

Having been invited to the Oxford Film Festival, I feared Orwell scholars might dismiss our informal approach, but the packed audience of both film and Orwell buffs seemed to enjoy and understand our efforts to penetrate and reveal visually, the appeal and excitement of his story and that the written word was much more able to express his intellect.

You know what they say: “A Pictures worth a thousand words” or “Every picture tells a story”.

#GeorgeOrwell #BobSmillie #Aragonfront #monflorite#SpanishCivilWar #VisualStoryTelling #HistoryUncovered#BAFTA

‘Orwell: Against the Tide’ along with many other stories, is available in my book ‘Shaping the Shadows: A Picture Maker’s Story’ for £10 from The National Library of Scotland:http://shop.nls.uk/shaping-the-shadows-2798-p.asp

marklittlewood.org.uk and Amazon.

admin2025-06-26T18:01:54+00:00NEWS/BLOG|

Orwell: Against the Tide(3rd. Blog)

How did I end up at Shaftsbury Avenue? – read previous blogs(I) and (2).

…..I was wrenched back to Shaftsbury Avenue by the startling reality of a young man greeting me at the door of A.M. Heath, literary agents, dressed in pinstriped morning attire. Pinstripes proceeded to guide me through an Aladdin’scave of books and scripts balancing on shelves, on tabletopsand on the floor. Flecks of dust floated in the shafts of light,as the sun forced its way through the lashing rain outside,creating enchanting patterns in this magical Dickensian place.

I was terrified, but full of hope as I made my way through this hallowed literary land. This is where writing careers were in balance, some to be made, others to be broken.

I knew that the stern, silhouetted figure sitting opposite mecould sink my film to unrecoverable depths, either by limiting copyright permissions, not granting them at all, or charging an exorbitant fee which would impact the production values I had so carefully planned “….and which quote of Orwell’s do you wish to use” said the voice from across the desk.

With trepidation I said, “I need permission to quote from all of Orwell’s books, all his short stories and all of his articles”. Just a small ask 😉. I told him my ideas for the film and why I needed the complete freedom to use everything that Orwell had ever written, published, or spoken. Furthermore, I wished to dramatize some of his work from ‘Homage to Catalonia’ his masterpiece about the Spanish Civil War.

There followed a long silence. This person had never heard of me; I was just a very wet person sitting opposite him dripping hope and water onto his floor. I wasn’t from the BBC or some other major broadcaster, I wasn’t making a feature film with loads of money, no big– named actor attached. The silhouetted figure leant towards me, out of the shadows and smiling said, “I like your ideas for the film and I’m going to grant you all the permissions you’ve requested. The fee will benominal”.

He told me afterwards that Hugh Hudson, director of Chariots of Fire was planning a feature film based on ‘Homage to Catalonia’ and so he’d approached Hudson to explain that my dramatization would be more like John Grierson’s definition of a documentary: A creative treatment of actuality and not in conflict with his large-scale feature film.

2 A.M. Heath was formed by Audrey Heath and Alice May Spinks. Looking

back I feel fortunate that they were Orwell’s Literary Agents. Their mantra is ‘Independent Thinking’ and an ambition to shift, shape and enrich cultural conventions, with innovative ideas – we seemed a good match.

I will be writing a 4th Blog to celebrate the Birth of Eric Arthur Blair (George Orwell).

#culturalconvensions #orwellagainstthetide #freedom#copyright #orwell #literaryagent #independentfilm

This story and many others are available in my book at the student rate of £10.

‘SHAPING THE SHADOWS: A Picture Maker’s Story’ available from The National Library of Scotland:

http://shop.nls.uk/shaping-the-shadows-2798-p.asp

marklittlewood.org.uk

Amazon.

admin2025-06-13T10:00:06+00:00NEWS/BLOG|

Orwell – Against the Tide 2nd Blog – Funding & Copyright.

Securing funding for any project is never a simple feat, but forindependent films, it’s almost impossible.—but in 2001, I once again stood at the edge of that unenviable task, this time driven by the bold ambition of bringing our Orwell Project, ‘Orwell – Against the Tide,’ to life.

I don’t know if luck came into it, certainly plenty of hard work did. We applied through Media plus, a department of the European Union and were the only recipients awarded the maximum amount of Development Funding that year. This was a brilliant start, as it enabled us to write the treatment & script and begin the long search for the co-producer and Production Funding.

That year we attended all the Festivals and Forums throughout Europe supported by the MEDIA programme, where we networked with all the Commissioning Editors to pitch our idea. Barcelona was our last Festival, and by then we had got to know each other better and everyone we needed signed up.

The strength of the Orwell Story; the persuasiveness of our case and personal resilience to suffer the knockbacks, each ‘no’ taking us closer to a ‘yes’, meant we had ten broadcasters lined up across nine language zones, including the new Catalan Agency ‘Institute Catalan de les Industries Cultural’

Scottish Screen, with a lottery grant, was the major production funder and by this point we had found our Catalan co-producer Oriol Porter. Porter was pivotal in sourcing key crew and facilities so we could film at the Aragon front(where Orwell narrowly escaped death, after being shot in the throat) and elsewhere in Spain.

I had been so focused raising the money that copyright permissions from the Orwell estate had somehow slipped on to the back burner. So now I had the money, but not the permissions!! This was a showstopper.

And so….I found myself standing in the pouring rain, staring apprehensively into a puddle reflecting the multicoloured lights of Piccadilly Circus, London. Slowly I began to squelch my way up Shaftesbury Avenue towards the offices of A.M Heath, Lawyers and literary Agents for the George Orwell Estate….

In my next post, you’ll learn more about what took place within those hallowed walls….if you can’t wait for that, read about it in my book….’Orwell: Against the Tide’ availablefrom the National Library of Scotland at a special student price of £10.00

See: http://shop.nls.uk/shaping-the-shadows-2798-p.asp

See further info at: marklittlewood.org.uk

#Funding #ComissioningEditors #IndependentFilms #Orwell #GeorgeOrwell #DevelopmentFunding #ProductionFunding #ScottishScreen, #EuropeanUnion

admin2025-05-28T08:56:36+00:00NEWS/BLOG|

SEAN CONNERY and The Eurovision Song Contest

Even the late Sean Connery admired their technique.

Here we’re paying homage to the Edinburgh Fire Department and the Fire Crews that operated their High Lift Rescue appliance on our behalf. All were invaluable to our efforts to make Edinburgh look stunning on celluloid for ‘Sean Connery’s – Edinburgh’ dir. Murray Grigor. Prod. Lynda Miles.

These were the same fire crews that had helped me ten yearsearlier achieve some of the spectacular camera movements on my self-funded film ‘Beneath the Skyline: Edinburgh to Music.’ Which, as you know, opened the ‘1972 EurovisionSong Contest’ when the BBC broadcast it to the world from Edinburgh’s Usher Hall.

With very little film training these firemen were soon moving their colossal appliance across the sky with great filmicawareness and precision – just like ‘Key Grips’ on a movieset.

I thought mischievously, it would be quite appropriate to have ‘Key Grip’ as an additional skill on their application forms.We’d also had similar help from Edinburgh’s LightingDepartment.

It’s all in my book ‘Shaping the Shadows: A Picture Maker’s Story’. Available for £10 from the National Library of Scotland.

#BeneaththeSkyline #SeanConnerysEdinburgh#EdinburghFireDepartment #EdinburghLightingDepartment#HighLiftRescueAppliance #MurrayGrigor #LyndaMyles.

National Library of Scotland see: https://linkd.in/egEyBYFF

My web site www.marklittlewood.org.uk

and

Amazon.

admin2025-05-23T10:14:47+00:00NEWS/BLOG|

GEORGE ORWELL (1st blog)

In 1999 I found myself helping Lecturer Tony Grace and his students at the University of the West of Scotland with their Media Studies. Tony was also an avid Orwell enthusiast and reminded me that in a few years time George Orwell would be 100; so that is why in 2003 I was making a film to celebrate the birth of Eric Arthur Blair(George Orwell) born inMotahari, India. The film ‘Orwell – Against the Tide’ won several international awards and was nominated for a B.A.F.T.A. However, the award I really treasured was given to me at the Bergamo International Film Festival for the ‘Most Original Presentation of a Known Subject.’ The filmsinnovative approach was also recognised at the Australian, ‘Down Under International Film Festival’ where it was awarded ‘Best International Feature Documentary’ The European Union chose it to represent them at the ‘European Film Festival’ in Chicago and it received a ‘Special Mention’at the Philadelphia Film Festival.

At School Orwell always seemed beyond me, taught in a very boring, unimaginative way, but in later life I discovered he’d also been a freedom fighter, a man of extraordinary courage with a remarkable ability to express himself in the English language. This I found exciting and developed a passion for presenting another side of Orwell with the potential to attractand inform a non-academic audience, whilst at the same timeseveral professors would illuminate his literary prowess. One of those was Noam Chomsky who reminded us ‘…… that the British ran by far the greatest narcotic trafficking enterprise in history. The Colombian cartels don’t even come closer. In fact George Orwell’s father worked for the government department responsible for the sale and quality of Opium tothe Chinese.

The truth is that Orwell’s life was so eventful and so rich in contrasts that no single portrait could do justice to the complexity and controversy of his character. Our intentionwas to look beyond the public persona to uncover the heart, humour and humanity of the man. We planned the film to oscillate between the extraordinary events in Orwell’s life; the lasting impact of the books and essays he wrote, his contemporary relevance and influence on modern writers and political thinkers. We believed that a sensitive and evocative visual approach would convey the compelling drama and tensions of the films memorable story, smuggling through within this depiction, the high quality of thought lying behind his ideas.

‘Orwell: Against the Tide’ is in my book ‘Shaping the Shadows: A Picture Maker’s Story’ and is available from the ‘National Library of Scotland’ at a Special Student rate of£10.

http://shop.nls.uk/shaping-the-shadows-2798-p.asp

Also at : www.marklittlewood.org.uk

admin2025-05-08T10:45:33+00:00NEWS/BLOG|

THE DREAM TEAM

Dolly Parton’s appearance in my life was yet another highlight and along with Jools Holland we would form a very creative partnership.

It all began when BBC Two decided to celebrate Country Music with a three-hour continuous broadcast called Country Night, to be shown at peak viewing time on BBC 2.

Two of the three hours would be live broadcasts; one presented by Dolly Parton from Nashville; the other presented by Jools Holland from London. The third would be a specially commissioned film, for which they would cast their net far and wide for ideas, both within and without the BBC.

So, I’d become aware of an unusual friendship betweenDougie Maclean – now O.B.E. and the two times grammy award winner, American singer–songwriter, Kathy Mattea.

I thought that this was a very appealing human interest story, so I wrote my proposal and called it SongRoads – A Musical Friendship and sent it to Avril MacRory, Head of TelevisionMusic Programmes at the BBC and waited and waited.

Eventually, Avril phoned to say that the BBC had selected my idea and would like to commission me to make ‘SongRoads’from my own proposal.

The dream team of Dolly Parton, Mark Littlewood and Jools Holland all contributed to a very successful three-hourbroadcast of Country Music on BBC2.

BBC Country Night – Photograph: Back; Mark Cooper(Controller of BBC2); Middle; L – R: Jools Holland; Dougie Maclean OBE; Front: L – R; Kathy Mattea; Avril MacRory(commissioning Editor); Mark Littlewood(Producer/Director).

To read my successful proposal and many other brilliant stories that feature in my book see:

‘Shaping the Shadows: A Picture Maker’s Story’. There’s a special offer on now £10 from the National Library of Scotland:

https://shop.nls.uk/shaping-the-shadows-2798-p.asp

or

marklittlewood.org.uk

admin2025-02-13T19:56:04+00:00Features and TV Drama, NEWS/BLOG|

JANE HAINING: Scotland’s Schindler

On this International Holocaust Remembrance Day, let’s think of Jane Haining a Scottish missionary who was murdered in the notorious Nazi extermination camp Auschwitz,prisoner 79467

The Jewish nation bestowed their highest honor on this daughter of a farming family from Dunscore, Dumfriesshire and in Israel, on the Yad Vashem memorial to victims of the holocaust, her name is inscribed along with that of Oskar Schindler.

Working in Budapest Hungary as Matron of the boarding house for Jewish and Christian girls run by the Church of Scotland who later advised Jane to flee, but such was her commitment to her wards, she stood her ground only to then be arrested by the Gestapo in 1944 leading to her journey to Auschwitz.

Inspired by Jane’s story and the E.U. Commissions MEDIA plus programme having already supported my BAFTA nominated ‘Orwell – Against the Tide’ film I felt I needed to bring Jane’s story to a wider audience and hoped to secure funding for my Jane Haining Film – working title ‘There are Mountains on the way to Heaven’. Success I was awarded Development Funding for a feature length film to tell Jane’s story. Sadly I was unable to secure production funding despite my best efforts, but if there’s a budding filmmaker out there who would like to try again, it’s a fabulous story of heroism..

marklittlewood.org.uk

https://shop.nls.uk/shaping-the-shadows-2798-p.asp

admin2025-01-27T14:54:33+00:00NEWS/BLOG|

PROSPECTS (12 x 1hrs.)

The Sweeney, Minder, Widows, all had a radical impact on the way television drama was produced. These famous tv series’s led the field in the shift from studio-based drama to the reality of location based films.

They were all made by Euston Films, whose reputation for making ‘Cinema for Television’ attracted producers like Verity Lambert (founding producer of Dr. Who for BBC) and Linda Agran( Poirot and Widows)

So, Linda invited me to London to direct the photography on Euston’s next major production, Prospects(12 x1hrs). This was to be a co-production, with Ch.4 making their biggest investment to-date.

I was thrilled to be asked to work for Euston Films. Certainly,it would break the London–centric phenomenon of London producers bringing their own talent from ‘down south’ to work on Scottish based productions – a practice that stillcauses friction today.

Angus Robertson: “The spirit of production quotas should be fully embraced to ensure a strong, sustainable future for the future of broadcasting in Scotland.”

Similarly, Ofcom said: “…channel 4 must, in the future, be much more open and transparent about its approach to commissioning and its impact on each individual nation”.

But I was placed in a dilemma for different reasons.

I had already directed the photography on the late Charlie Gormley’s first feature film ‘Living Apart Together’ starring B.A. Robertson, when he asked me to photograph his second ‘Heavenly Pursuits’ starring Helen Mirren and Tom Conti. Gary Parker had also asked me to photograph his first feature film called ‘A Girl in the Picture’ starring John Gordon Sinclair from ‘Gregory’s Girl’ fame. Three fabulous offers , but only Euston Films ‘Prospects’ was fully funded at the time .

History confirms that I would spend the next three months on the Isle of Dogs, as the wrecking ball demolished Canary Wharf and the bulldozers left nothing of the surrounding community. A community which had once been the haunt of the Kray Brothers and where Arthur Conan Doyle had Sherlock Holmes searching for Jack the Ripper was now only a bomb site – ready for the new financial centre.

2) So ‘Prospects’ take place in a tough, hostile, derelict, kind of world, in which two young lads, one black, the other white are trying to make their way. It’s a comedy-drama where all the boy’s efforts to make money fail, but it’s more than that; Prospects also dealt with many human issues of British society at the height of Thatcherism, including, unemployment, crime, poverty, regeneration, racism. There were metaphoric threads throughout portraying how the social, political and economic landscapes of Britain were changing.

Prospects was very successful and gained a cult following; the ratings being well above everybody’s expectations. The series was so popular that it earned a repeat network showing, in the nine o’clock prime-time slot on I.T.V.

That year I was director of photography on twelve hours of high-end film drama. Naturally I was disappointed that both ‘Heavenly Pursuits, and ‘A Girl in The Picture’ passed me by,but what a triumph that both Charlie and Gary got their films made in Scotland.

Read about this and many more stories in my autobiography:

‘Shaping the Shadows: A Picture Maker’s Story’ currently onstudent offer(£10) from The National Library of Scotland:

http://shop.nls.uk/shaping-the-shadows-2798-p.asp

or

www.marklittlewood.org.uk

admin2024-12-04T17:18:04+00:00Features and TV Drama, NEWS/BLOG|

SUBMARINE – THINGS SENSED BUT UNSEEN

Andrew Lloyd Webber, Vaughan Williams, Dame Joan Sutherland, Vivienne Westwood, Rudolph Nureyev, John Constable, Yehudi Menuhin,

They are amongst the world’s most famous people. Their film profiles had been entered into the biggest and most prestigious arts film festival in the world: The 10th. FESTIVAL INTERNATIONAL DU FILM SUR L’ART.
They are the most outstanding programmes from BBC’s ‘Arena’ ‘Omnibus’ and London Weekend’s ‘South Bank Show’ offered to the ‘Best Portrait of an Artist’ competition and directed by such luminaries as Ken Russell, Tony Palmer and Derek Bailey.

The film I directed and photographed, about a little known artist from Clydebank, called Tom McKendrick was also entered into the same category by Channel Four.

Much to our amazement in this David and Goliath contest, the Festival Jury voted our film, ‘SUBMARINE – THINGS SENSED BUT UNSEEN’ the ‘Best Portrait of an Artist’.

‘Submarine’ went on to win other trophies including’ Special Jury Award’ at the Atlantic Film Festival for ‘Excellence in Craft Techniques and Historical Narrative’.

Allen Wright: Chief Arts Correspondent for The Scotsman.

‘When you bring together an artist as articulate as Tom McKendrick and a film maker as visually eloquent as Mark Littlewood, you get an Art Film of exceptional quality’

These awards are never won by the efforts of one person alone, so thanks are due to many people including Barony Films and the Commissioning Editor, Mike Bolland.

Shaping the Shadows: A Picture Maker’s Story available for £10.00 student price from

https://shop.nls.uk/shaping-the-shadows-2798-p.asp

marklittlewood.org.uk

admin2024-11-13T12:26:02+00:00NEWS/BLOG|

BOBBY ROBSON THE FIRST 90 MINUTES – are the most important

THE FIRST 90 MINUTES – ‘ …are the most important’
In 2002 he was knighted Sir Bobby Robson

For those of you who have been reading my posts about the two Olympic Games films Mike and I (Pelicula Films) made, The Long Sprint (1976 Montreal, with David Jenkins and David Hemery) and ‘No Easy Way’ (1980 Moscow, with Allan and Margo Wells) you could be forgiven for thinking our only interest was athletics.

But the 1981/82 football season offered us a wonderful opportunity to make another in-depth sports film. This timewould be different though. ‘The First 90 minutes’ would not be about the success of an individual, but about the success of a team created and motivated by an individual.

Another high-risk venture!! When Mike and I started to invest in our own films the outcome was totally unpredictable. As independent film makers this was a leap in the dark, failure wasn’t an option, but you dared to dream.

As the 2024/25 football season gets underway, I’d like to tell you about ‘The First 90 Minutes’, the film we made about Bobby Robson during his last year as manager of Ipswich Town Football club.

After several weeks of my persuasive effort, Robson invited us to go and see him at Ipswich to discuss our proposal. We showed him our two previous sports films, emphasizing the in-depth nature of their content and that we would need access to all areas, including the dressing room for his half-time team talk, when Ipswich were losing.

Robson liked this approach but warned that ten of his teamwere international players, all with top agents, who would charge a fortune for their clients to appear in our film.

The room fell silent. Mike and I were devastated as we saw all our hopes come to an end. Our self-funded idea was destinedfor the dustbin.

Robson’s face suddenly brightened, “If you’re willing to travel all the way down from Glasgow to Ipswich throughout the football season, then I’ll make the film a club project, then all the players will have to take part’ and so began, ‘The First 90 minutes. From the depth of depression to the tears of elation, but they remained in my eyes.

Once again, the official broadcasters refused to support us, but Channell Four was about to begin!!

Mike and I had risked everything, but this time we had also encouraged others to work for nothing. We are indebted to Ian Madden, Norrie Halley, Louis Kramer and Colin Nicolsonwho invested themselves in this Pelicula idea and remainedunpaid till the film was sold.

Then came some good fortune. During that season Robson was asked to become the England manager. Naturally, we hoped his promotion from club to international status would increase the attraction of our film.

Working so closely with Robson made all things in the football world seem possible. We were underneath WembleyStadium, amongst the assembled press/broadcasters waiting for Robson to appear after an England game. Because we weren’t part of the official press corps, we’d been shoved to the back of the scrum. Robson noticed this and much to our delight beckoned us forward.

As we thought, Robson’s elevation to international manager was a great help, ‘The First 90 Minutes’ became one of the first films bought by Jeremy Isaacs the Chief Executive of the fledgling Channell Four and so began the rise of British Independent Film making. Read about the above stories and many more in my autobiography, ‘Shaping the Shadows: A Picture Maker’s Story’

marklittlewood.org.uk https://shop.nls.uk/shaping-the-shadows-2798-p.asp

#edsheeran #englandmanager #jeremyissacs #channellfour #wembleystadium

admin2024-10-03T11:54:12+00:00NEWS/BLOG|