Choices Local - Launch July-August 2017

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Independent films thriving in Wood Green Anthony speaks to Haringey entrepreneur Lloyd Gardener of Wood Green Films, to get some insight into the independent film industry. Tell us how long you’ve been doing this and why you chose Wood Green to base yourself in? I've been doing this for, must be nearly 30 years now. I had a shop in Tottenham called Black Vision back in the day when we were really looking to promote films that had black people in it, because, there was no outlet then for people who wanted to see people of colour on screen. From there, I learned a lot about production and what people needed and I decided I wanted to make films and really change the perception of what we were seeing of black people on TV. I did a bit of studying at the University of Westminster, studied film and television and then set up my own company back in1991. And from there on in, I've been working as an independent producer. I've filmed a lot of reggae concerts and community events and just really continued learning. I've set up in Wood Green because I'm close to Tottenham, where I've lived for a long time. How easy was it for you to start? Did you face any difficulties getting the business off the ground? When I started back in the day, it was a lot more difficult to get the business going than it probably is now because it was an industry where there weren't many black people at the time. You didn’t have role models, so there weren’t people there to give you advice and help. My attitude was I wanted to do this and I was going to have a go. Some people knew me from Black Vision, so I used those contacts and let them know that I was now in production, and then spent time looking around and just being in the business. One thing I always say to people who are thinking of getting into this industry, the film business, is that you’ve got to stay in it. It's not something that you come in and you spend a short period of time and then give up. You've really got to stay in it for a long time and learn the art, but it's also about being there, so when people decide that they want something done, they can find you; because a film, whether it's a corporate film or a music video or a short film, isn’t something that people make every day. So, you’ve just got to be in the game and stay in there. You know I must admit, I think as a filmmaker, I've been very lucky, in terms of what I've done. As Wood Green Films, I got a call from Sony Music about Michael Jackson's tour that was coming over and they wanted a production company to follow him around for a couple of days and film him at various private events and then 12 CHOICES <strong>Local</strong> Haringey
also backstage at the Wembley concert. I did that and that was amazing because, obviously, apart from being just a few feet away from Michael Jackson and capturing him at the Guildhall and a couple of other events, at Wembley backstage, everyone was there and everywhere you turned, I was bumping into film stars and footballers and so forth. So that was great. " The more I think of the names like meeting Jazzie B and working with Kylie Minogue and the then heavyweight champion of the world Lennox Lewis, I've just been very privileged in my life to have done something which I didn’t set out to do at the start, and it's something that I've really enjoyed. I would say to anyone who's considering working in this business, is that it's a fantastic industry to be in. Sometimes you may not always make a lot of money but the experience and things that you get out of it, I just think is first class and it's just worth being part of a journey that is never ending. Every day I meet new and interesting people and there's always journeys that you go on and some stories to tell. What have you learned about yourself, Lloyd, on this journey? There's so many things I've learned. You know, I've learned maybe I should have listened to myself a lot earlier, you know, before I knew what I know now. But I know, one thing I've learned is that life takes you through difficult things and you learn a lot when times are difficult. I've learned that it's really about believing in yourself and sticking to your values. So at least, at the end of the day, when things don’t go right, you can't say I blame this person for telling me this or telling me that. You know, don’t blow with the wind. You have certain values and certain goals and You have certain values and certain goals and certain attitudes, stick to them because, at the end of the day, they're the things I think that's going to make you successful or not certain attitudes, stick to them because, at the end of the day, they're the things I think that's going to make you successful or not. I like that. What are you working on now? " Well, we're in a very interesting position at this time. It's taken us a while to get here but we have a number of projects in development. We're in the early stages of doing some initial research on a little film. I say a little film because it's a Tottenham film. It's a true story set in Tottenham and we'll be employing some actors locally. And then there's a couple of other film scripts that we have which hopefully will kick off on the back of this film, which we're hoping to take into production early next year. We're running training programmes and working with some schools in Haringey and Barnet, running animation programmes and digital photography programmes with some young people. And we hope to see a feature film coming out of Wood Green fairly soon. Wood Green Films Chocolate Factory 2, 4 Coburg Road, London, N22 6UJ. Tel: 020 8829 8931. www.woodgreenfilms.co.uk CHOICES <strong>Local</strong> Haringey 13
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Page 22: Last word... Thank you so much for

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