Before you read the main article, please consider making a donation using the PayPal button above or at this link. This enables me to continue providing films, music videos, documentaries, podcasts, comedy sketches and art. Every penny donated is used in the creation of these projects which are made available for free as a reward and thank you for your generosity.
If you can't afford to donate, then please help spread the word by sharing my work on social media. Please also help me to lose the word 'underfollowed' from my bios by following me and recommending me to others. My social media links are at the end of the article.
The next presentation of my 2022 Goose Fair collection was filmed walking around the fair at various points during the ten days. In order to fully capture the magic of the occasion I have kept the shots long and made as few cuts as possible. I have never really been too keen on the urgent cutting style, and I am sure that a lot of filmmakers only do things because nobody has told them that they don't need to. My approach to filmmaking has always been rooted in the 'less is more' philosophy.
As for the sound, everything you hear is the genuine noise from the different aspects of the fair, the music, the crowds and the barkers. It's just a shame I couldn't capture the smells of the various food outlets.
This brings me to another influence on my filmmaking style. This influence is not the people behind the camera but those nameless figures in front of it. The archives of Pathe and Mitchell and Kenyon are just two examples of films of ordinary people doing ordinary things, and YouTube is littered with fascinating and totally random footage of street activity at various periods in time. A 1950s flickering black and white film of any High Street will present you with women in big dresses and hats pushing big prams, those babies being the only people possibly still alive, and men in immaculate suits, hats, moustaches and untipped cigarettes. Where were they going? What were they thinking? What was their story. Even street footage from the 1980s or 1990s will throw up surprises that remind us how life has evolved. Cars and vans of a different shape, town centres with far more traffic, clothes, hair styles and forgotten shops all spark something in us that we probably don't notice on a day-to-day basis. Even the most random slice of life from a Super 8 or VHS camera can present a social history lesson.
During the pandemic I stepped away from the camera due to a decision about not capturing a moment that most of us would like to forget. I was due to start filming a comedy drama during the 2020 Easter holidays but obviously that went down the toilet. I resisted returning to this project during the summer when lockdown sort of stopped because I didn't want to feature masks or social distancing. In hindsight I kind of regret this because these details will be forgotten about and then remembered for reasons good or bad. Repeats of Eastenders on the Drama channel will baffle people in the future with their sudden use of shockingly obvious greenscreen and people having conversations from a distance, as equally baffling to future generations watching gameshows or panel shows on Dave when the furniture suddenly gets further apart.
If anyone is watching my latest 'people' film All the Fun of the Fair in 100 years from now, then all of those differences and similarities will be noticed. Perhaps the Minions will still be around and as recognisable to children as they are today, Elsa from Frozen will have the same iconic status as Disney's Snow White has now, and of course the (the) mushy pea stall will still be there. I just hope that somebody carries on my photographic legacy once I am dead.
All the Fun of the Fair is available to watch for free here.
