WRITERS' BLOCK ARE BUSY BEES!!!

Writers' Block are based at Pop Up Arts Space: 95-97 Albert Road, Middlesbrough

Friday 3rd September

WRITER/DIRECTOR MARC PRICE IS COMING TO MIDDLESBROUGH!

AFTERNOON
Writers’ Block is incredibly pleased to be able to present a day with MARC PRICE, director of highly-acclaimed made-for-£45 zombie feature Colin. Join Marc for…

1pm Zero-Budget Special Effects Workshop
Pretty self-explanatory. Colin cost £45 (did we mention that already?) and it's brim-full of gore, make-up, gunfire and bits of body. How did he do it? Come along to find out.
3pm Flip for Horror Challenge
The first Writers' Block "Flip for Film" challenge. With Marc's expert guidance we will write and shoot at least one short horror film in just three hours, using our Flip cameras and your ingenuity.
5pm-7pm Film Screening TBC
Marc will choose a film to be screened while we order and scoff tasty takeout foot... uh, food... Basically we’ll order pizza and watch a movie, and Marc will talk us through it.
EVENING
7pm Marc Price Q+A
Marc Price wrote and directed Colin, a practically zero-budget feature which brings a new angle to the zombie movie genre. Made with inventiveness and enthusiasm, problems had to be solved using creativity rather than cash.
How did he do it? Why not ask him yourself?
8pm Screening of COLIN
The most touching film about a decomposing corpse you'll see all year ****
- FHM
Colin is bitten by a zombie; he dies and returns as one of the undead. We follow him as he wanders through suburbia during the throes of a cadaverous apocalypse. Through his encounters with objects, places and people, we learn who Colin was and more pertinently, what he has now become. Including a broad daylight zombie versus human street battle, an epic housebound siege and bags of gore. Colin is the must see Zombie phenomenon of the year.
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkJZ3FlOWeM

£12 SPECIAL EARLYBIRD DISCOUNT for the whole day if you book before midnight on Friday 27^th August

£15 if you book after that
Buy here: http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwritersblockne.bigcartel.com%2Fproduct%2F3rd-sept-marc-price-event-writers-block&h=f4ee6
£7 for the evening only (Q+A, screening)
Buy here: http://writersblockne.bigcartel.com/product/3rd-sept-marc-price-event-evening-

Saturday 4th September

LET’S MAKE A FILM 8

We’re writing a feature film as a community, and it’s never too late to get involved. Next session will see us writing a beat sheet for the film, while eating chocolate brownie. ALL WELCOME - and we'll warn you, as soon as you're through the door you're classed as a writer...

£3 (incl. hot drinks and home-baked confections) 10am – 1pm. Pay on door.

Sunday 5th September 10am - 4pm

Writers' Block Sweding/TEESing Day

Location: Writers' Block

Tickets: http://writersblockne.bigcartel.com/product/sunday-5th-september-sweding-day

THE PLAN

Ten teams of up to four people will gather at Writers' Block at midday. Each team will be provided with a Flip camera (http://www.theflip.com/en-gb/) and two local actors, and have access to a prop box and a whole load of cardboard. They will then have just four hours to recreate a film, sweding/TEESing-style. It's pretty much what Tim Burton did with Planet of the Apes...

At four, we'll break for a rest as our panel of distinguished judges decides which film is the GREATEST SWEDED FILM EVER. The makers of the winning film will take home a trophy and some other special goodies. And their film will be screened as part of the Christmas 'Concept' film event.

We will all then decamp to Blu bar for a post-Sweding party, and a screening of all the films plus a special screening of Be Kind Rewind.

Sweding day is a great opportunity to have a laugh remaking a film, and meet other artists and filmmakers from the region - and then we'll add in a film and popcorn in a great basement location - this is networking but with tinsel and flipcameras.

Sounds like fun, doesn't it? WHO'S WITH US?

Entry fee is £20 PER TEAM (which includes free refreshments and screening of Be Kind Rewind), but we're got a SPECIAL EARLY-BIRD DISCOUNT of £15 until midnight on Friday 27th August. To less that £4 each for all of this!

Tickets: http://writersblockne.bigcartel.com/product/sunday-5th-september-sweding-day

Back to the Future sweded: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1B2GRz09hg

Wednesday 8th September

CONCEPT FILM NIGHT

Screening films by North East filmmakers, the next Concept Film Night will return to its regular home at Teesside University Campus. Laura Degnan and James Harris from Writers' Block are guest hosts for the evening and we will have a few little surprises in store for you including a film challenge. And hey, maybe we'll make a film on the night!

If you would like to attend this event please email Christine Wilson at c.wilson@idi-uk.org

FREE 7pm – 9pm, Centuria Building, Teesside University

Thursday 9th September

WRITER'S BLOCK READING GROUP 1

Apples by Richard Milward.

FREE 6-9 pm

Saturday 11th September

THEATRE SEEN 1

Early September 2011 will see performances of a new site-specific and multi-media work in and around the buildings and spaces of the plaza outside MIMA.

That work has yet to be created.

All we have is a starting point created by writers at the Writer’s Block Launch on July 2nd 2010. What we now need are writers, from whatever media, genre and experience, to begin the creating a work that will excite all people involved – artists, audience, funders, sponsors, politicians, cynics, the young, the old – so that they will leave the event having had a night out they will talk about for years, energised, optimistic, ready to continue the transformation of their lives and the place in which they live and work.

All we ask you to bring is a your imagination.

FREE (bring biscuits!) 10am – 1pm

More info on David Napthine: http://web.ukonline.co.uk/suttonelms/dnapthine.html

Thursday 16 September - 9th December

ARC and Writers' Block present: ARC Performance Group

This autumn sees the start of a new performance group for adults at ARC, where participants will co-write, co-direct and perform a new show in twelve weeks.

The group will be led by James Harris and Laura Degnan, who between them have a wealth of experience in writing and directing for film, TV and the stage.

This emerging group will take ownership of this creative writing and performance project. It is a fantastic opportunity for the creative talent in Tees Valley to gather together and work towards a performance.

James and Laura will guide the group through the process, drawing on their past experience to help participants work towards a performance at the end of the Autumn Term.

FREE 7.30pm - 9.30pm

At ARC, Dovecot Street, Stockton

http://www.arconline.co.uk/detail.php?id=2100

Monday 27th September

10x10 SCRIPT DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOP 1

Workshop led by Laura and James

A new regular workshop for up to 10 participants. Bring along up to 10 pages of film or play script. We will provide actors to read excerpts and lead a discussion designed to strengthen your ideas and guide you towards the next draft. This will be a brilliant opportunity to exchange ideas with other writers, and meet the acting talent in the region who can bring your characters to life.

NOTE: Doors will open from 6 for you to come in, grab a beanbag and read or write before the session...

Numbers are strictly limited to 10 participants for this workshop, so pre-booking is essential.

£5 (incl. refreshments. Yes. Cake.) 7 – 9pm

Tickets: http://writersblockne.bigcartel.com/product/mon-27th-september-10x10-script-development-workshop

CURRENT COMPETITIONS

BORO BITES

Writers’ Block are working in association with New Writing North, Northern Stage and Middlesbrough to offer 3 playwrights the opportunity to have their work performed at Northern Stage when Richard Milward’s ‘Apples’ comes back up to Newcastle. Submit your 10 minute ‘Middlesbrough’ inspired play to artsdevelopment@middlesbrough.gov.uk before noon on Friday 27th August.

PUPPETRY OF THE PUPPETS

We have puppets hanging around the place and not enough reasons to pick up a camera and get them on to film again. Three-minute piece for our puppets anyone? This can be a script, a short story or poem, a song or a rap - basically, we’ll accept anything - and then add puppets in to the mix.

Puppets to choose from: Doctor Who, Amy Pond, Dalek, Freddie, Jason, Michael Myers and Sadako. Any or all of the above. And if you haven’t seen these characters in action yet, visit our You Tube channel at http://www.youtube.com/writersblockne

Submit your entries to laura@writersblockne.com before noon on Wednesday 1st September.

WINDOW SEEN

Would you like your short story on our window for the whole of October? Send us your 50 WORD short stories on the theme of TRICK OR TREAT, and the winner gets immortalised in paint on glass... for 30 days.

Submit your stories to shamelessfilms@gmail.com before noon on 30th September.

CONCEPT FILM NIGHT

Want to submit a film? If you are a local filmmaker and would like to have your film showcased at Concept Film Night on Wednesday 8th September please submit your film on DVD, along with a synopsis and short biog to the following address:

Concept Film Night

The Institute of Digital Innovation

Phoenix Building

University of Teesside

Middlesbrough

TS1 3BA.

Please note that films must be no longer than 15 minutes in length, although show-reels or trailers of longer features will be considered. If your film is chosen for showing it is a requirement that you do attend on the evening to talk about your work with the audience and answer any questions posed. Submission deadline: 3pm on Friday 27th August 2010

And if you’ve made it this far, just to let you know that The Kumo Project are currently putting the finishing touches to the two winning films from our ‘Writing for Animation’ competition. The films will go off to Depict next week, to be considered for a screening at the Bristol ‘Brief Encounters’ festival. Huge congrats to our winners Tony Galuidi and David Stringer once again!

Hope to see you at the Writers’ Block soon!

Thanks,

Laura and James

ZINE! An post-residency interview with Peg Powler

Hello my name is AJ and along with my fellow artist/curator Rebecca Little I run a project called Peg Powler Gallery. Peg Powler - named after a mythical figure from local lore - is a totally independent and D.I.Y. art gallery.

We run regular exhibitions and events on a shoestring in locations such as Green Dragon Studios or, this August, ARC in Stockton and we always try to show our favourite alternative local art in a relaxed and welcoming environment.

A big interest of Peg Powler is the world of zines - D.I.Y. books and mini- magazines on any subject self published on a photocopier by the people that make them. We've always had our little zine library at Peg Powler events, we put on an exhibition based on the zine 'The Story of Grass', my own endeavors include Estelle co-authored with the esteemed Alyson Agar. So we were highly excited to be able to be part of We Are Open, taking over the lovely Pop Up Studio on Newport Road for weeks in June/July and filling it with zine related activity.

Our objective was to boost zine culture in the Middlesbrough area - a place where we know there is so much creativity. Here are some of the most common or best comments we would receive during our stay:

" What's a zyne? "

Its a handmade, self published book, comic or magazine knocked out totally independently on a photocopier! Also its usually pronounced "zeen" as in "magazine" or "fanzine". We didn't make the word up, it comes from the science fiction fanzines of the 1950s and then the punk fanzines of the 1970s - a combination of fan and magazine. The fan part tends to get dropped because zines don't have to be by a 'fan' - they can be filled with art, comics, poetry, rambling diatribes. One zine we had in the studio was called Yellow Jets and Mellow Pets and featured a collection of drawings all of either relaxed animals or various types of jets all on yellow paper.

"I'm not touching it! "

Some of our visitors would have a quick look around and ask a few questions, some would join us for some drawing or stay to read, some people came back whenever they could. A lady with and upper class speaking manner and nicely sculpted ice cream hair seemed quite interested as to what a zyne was and we we're happy to explain. She drew the line at actually handling one though, giving us this legendary quote.

" Do you do babies' passport photos? "

?? Would you see a place with a crudely stuffed (and possibly fake) fish and a wonky drawing of the late Frank Sidebottom in the window and think, 'ah this the place to get my bairn's portrait taken for the purpose of a legal document'? Because quite a lot of people did.

" Did you to make all these then? "

This question would come while gesturing to about 100 different titles from across the world, on subjects ranging from football to menstruation to heavy metal to the history of the anarchist movement to bears, probably constituting 10,000 hours of loving effort from the various authors. Of course our answer to this question would be 'sure'.

" I've got some copies of something I've done knocking around the house, would you be interested having a look? "

YES! And we still are super interested in all locally created zine and comics - email info@pegpowler.com to get in touch we really would love to hear from you.

" I'm going to make my own zine. "

Our most beloved comment, it was really brilliant to see people take some inspiration and for new zines to either be created there in the pop-up studio or for people to start their own zines in their own time on subjects including monsters, poetry, even Linthorpe Road.

We've now started putting some zines into a corner of Writers' Block on Albert Road, another great place to be creative couretesy of We Are Open. So look out for the best new and old local zines and if you have a zine you've made or want to make, get in touch!

AJ

pegpowler.com

Pistol & Fur: New Contemporaries - a residency in pictures

Pistol and Fur: New Contemporaries
We Are Open Interview
06/08/2010

No less than two months ago, 148 Linthorpe Road was an empty, disused retail unit. It was home to nothing, and stood for weeks collecting dust with locked doors and closed shutters. In the gap between then and now, the team behind We Are Open acquired the space, worked a little bit of magic, and soon enough it became the project’s Pop Up Gallery.

Currently housed in the three-storey unit is an exhibition by international photography collective Pistol and Fur. ‘New Contemporaries’ displays selected images from a Flickr pool started up by group leaders Jason Hynes and Steven Brown. I had a chance to catch up with the collaborators for an interesting insight into P&F.

We Are Open: For somebody who has not heard about the current exhibition, how would you describe the pieces on display, the aesthetic behind them, and P&F itself?

Jason Hynes: The work in New Contemporaries, as I see it, is about expression, whether it be in the way people view themselves their surroundings, beliefs, feelings, anything at all. The work is born out of the snapshot aesthetic, what Henri Cartier Bresson called "immediate sketch". Pistol & Fur is a group I formed on flickr over a year ago, I edit the submissions from photographers around the world each week and add those which I feel lend themselves to the groups aesthetic. In other words Pistol & Fur is something that in essence is purely selfish but hopefully inspires those who view or take part in the group.

WAO: Recently in the gallery you carried out a project involving disposable cameras; photographs of which are now displayed in the shop window. Can you elaborate upon what this project entailed and how you feel about the results?

Steven Brown: Running workshops was part of our project so in order to reach a wider audience we decided to have open days for the public. We advertised for people to pop into the gallery, talk with us about the work on display to get feel for the style of photography we were looking for and then take away a free disposable camera to shoot whatever they desired. They would bring it back, we would develop it for free, have a editing session to give people experience in the editing process and then select the best from the roll of film to go on display in our window.

I thought the results were amazing. I realised there are a lot of talented people in Middlesbrough with a great eye. There was an eclectic mix of images with some beautiful compositions. I think the photographs in the New Contemporaries exhibition really helped people looks at things in a different way.

We named the project 'The People's Gallery' and passers by would stop in their tracks to look closer at the photographs on display. We had a lot of positive feedback about the project. It was a really great experience.

WAO: As your residence in the space is only temporary, what will become of the framed prints on display when the time comes to pack up and leave?

SB: It wasn't our intention to sell the images as part of the exhibition but as we like to keep the fresh and the images need a home, we have decided to auction them off to the public. All the proceeds will go to the charity bullying UK.

WAO: What benefits has the residence brought to P&F and yourselves?

JH: Pistol & Fur has gained new members, over 100 since we started the residency and has helped raise the profile of the group. As for me it has helped me gain relationships with photographers and the public and has inspired me to try new ventures in the future

WAO: Jason and Steven, thanks for your time. Are there any future projects or plans for P&F in the near future?

JH: Pistol & Fur will continue for the foreseeable future as a blog and flickr group.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/pistolandfur/ - Pistol and Fur on Flickr

http://www.jasonhynes.co.uk – Jason Hynes’ Website

http://www.flickr.com/photos/56385524@N00/ - Steven Brown on Flickr

Interview by Matthew Neil