Introduction & Project History
I have had many ideas for films and stories over the
last 10 years, but have not found an idea that, quite
selfishly, once finished in my head, motivated me
enough to go to the effort of bringing it to the
screen for others to enjoy.

Forgotten Corner was different because the main
intended audience of 16 - 25 year olds did not have
anything comparable. Too many young drivers had
been killed on local roads and once the idea had
fully formed, the nagging thought that someone
might change the way they drive after watching
the film, if even for a short while, would not leave
me alone.

3 months of writing and planning later I finally felt
ready to air the idea to the people I wanted
involved. A friend of mine had lost a friend in a car
crash and I put it to him first. David Bowen became
the first ally of the project and its producer. Garry
Handley from the county’s road safety unit was next
and he provided the link to Police, Fire and
Ambulance crews who were prepared to stage a
major crash at night on a forest road. Next were the
actors from the local College - Emily Grace Cooper,
Joss Porter, Max Freedman Fisher and their amazing
make up artist friend Jessica Stonechild. Mike Webb
and Jimmy Martin from the Time and Place charity
provided advice and moral support as well as a
connection to Pip Deave to play the Mother who
would link the documentary interviews with the
emergency services to the main fictional story.

I had no experience with younger actors so was
lucky to find Lisa Joyce who directed Ged Rawson
and Ben Laughlin from her own youth theatre group.
Ian Williams volunteered to record the sound and
although that put all the key players in place there
were still all the usual things to sort out; Locations,
permissions, insurance, transport, schedules, food,
equipment etc. With only a few weeks to organise it
all so we could shoot in a solid 12 day block at the
beginning of the school holidays, we ploughed
through the mountain of work and acquired all the
things we needed to make the film without anyone
locally turning us down for help.

Due to the low budget and the cast and crew having
schools, colleges and jobs to attend, there was very
little time for rehearsals. Most scenes were blocked
out and quickly story-boarded once we arrived at
the locations. I think that strangely, this lack of
time for story boarding and rehearsals worked to
our advantage as there really was no point in
worrying about the next scene until we arrived
there. We would have to work with what we had
around us and that ensured a fresh energy for the
two and a half weeks that filtered through to the
final film.

The major scene and crux of the story were the two
crash scenes. The final night shoot was a distinctly
memorable scene for all who were there. The Fire
crew commented to Jessica how real her make up
for the victims was and there is no doubt that we were in awe of the Paramedics and the crew from
Cinderford Fire Station as they performed the
rescue we ’documented’.

Everything was then left alone for a couple of weeks
before reviewing the footage. We were forced into
some creative gambles in the shoot but it was clear
they had come off and after the first rough cut we
knew for certain that we had a film far in excess of
our budget. Aaron Jones came on board to provide
the blue screen and special effects, John Hoare
worked up an incredible score, MCM provided a track
for the opening plus Joss and Max gave some of
there own acoustic songs as background music and
the edit edged towards completion.

Suddenly it all came together and we had an hour
of professional, engaging, entertaining and
informative drama/documentary/fantasy. It was time
for a screening to thank all those who had helped
make the film for £15,000 rather than £150,000.

BBC, ITV, Severn Sounds Radio and three
newspapers were all attracted to this ’premiere’ -
which was really a private screening for contributors
and participants. ITV ran the story about what we
had done, why and how we had done it for 3 days in
a row!

Feedback after the screening was interesting and
positive. The county’s Police Chief Constable, Dr Tim
Brain said ”Personally I liked the story and I think
the film will be very useful” - Police, Fire and
Ambulance are now working on a proposal as to how
they would like to use the film as a basis for a
national module in secondary schools.

We had a gathering after the screening and it was
very rewarding to receive the many plaudits from
the road safety groups but even more so were the
comments from the 17-19 year olds who were
invited. After the screening, some told me how the
film had made them think and then how they really
liked the story and the characters.

At the very beginning, even before the idea, I
wondered if we could make a film about driving,
about choices and confidence that was informative
without being patronising, entertaining whilst being
respectful? As well as that - would we be able to
successfully mix styles of drama, documentary and
fantasy?

People keep telling me we have.