Jack to a King, is the remarkable story of a group of life long fans who band together, with courage and determination to reclaim their club from the brink of extinction.

United against an owner who’s first task is to sack the six best players, they risk everything to get Swansea City a shot at playing in the richest football league in the world.

One match, a prize of £90 million, winner takes all. Easy, “not if you know Swansea City”

A universal tale of triumph over adversity that will appeal far beyond fans of the Beautiful game.

On the 12th of September 2014, Swansea City are three games into their fourth Premier League campaign. Memories of their remarkable ten-year rise from near extinction are never far away for fans who have followed them through thick and thin. After three wins, they are joint top of the Premier Division. What better day for the release of the documentary feature film

Jack to a King. The Swansea story, is the incredible true story of Swansea City FC’s momentous journey from the lower rungs of league football to the mighty heights of the Premier League, the most watched league in the world.

The film celebrates the Swans’ survival using the voices of those who came together, through blood, sweat and tears, both of joy and sadness, to save the club they love.

In 2001 Swansea City was sold for £1 to businessman Tony Petty. His turbulent three-month reign almost brought the club to its knees and made him “the most hated man in Wales”. His plan to cut costs by sacking players met huge opposition from supporters, who joined forces to take over the club and rebuild its fortunes. As anyone from Wales will recognise, you need someone from outside to galvanise the troops, one enemy to fight. Tony Petty played that role and the fans on the North Bank, the Double Decker and the other terraces became the heroes of the hour.

While some groups of fans pressurised Tony Petty to quit by chaining the gates shut and threatening violence, others put money into a consortium which included the Supporters Trust, local businessmen and not so local fans from Holland and New York. Just as the VAT man was rumoured to be calling at “The Vetch” to close the club down the consortium stuffed £20,000 of their own cash into a Tesco carrier bag and drove off to meet Tony Petty and buy a football club. But as the old saying goes, ‘Be careful what you wish for, you might get it!’

As the new owners of Swansea City, the consortium now had to find the money to keep the lights on and to water the pitch. On home game weekends, they would loan cash for the gate float, getting it back on the Monday. David Morgan was one of the fans who took control of the Swans’ and became scared that if he made the wrong move, he could now be blamed for the football club being destroyed. The people of Swansea supported the club by filling the stands but as David says, “Unfortunately, it was the worst season for football at Swansea.”

For the first time in their 91-year history, Swansea found themselves at the very bottom of the English football ladder and facing the very real prospect of dropping out of the professional league altogether.The Swans had to win their final game of the season against Hull City to ensure their survival. As in all good fairy tales, Swansea’s shining knight emerged that day in the form of the big centre forward James Thomas, who scored a hat trick to help Swansea secure a 4–2 win and football league survival.

From here the Swans rebuild until 2011 when they reach the Premier League play-off final. Victory over Reading at Wembley, in a game reputedly worth £90m to the winner and give entry to arguably the best league in the world. The film offers a rare view of a game of such magnitude through the chairman, players and fans eyes. It’s a fitting climax to the Swansea City fairytale. That was their day, and this is their story.

“Jack to a King” then is clearly a football film, but it’s ultimate strength, and what sets it apart is that it is not actually a film about football. It is a film about people. Ordinary people possessing a passion for football. A passion for their club. A passion for their town. A passion for doing things the right way. It is a story of spirit, of fight, of determination, of violence, but also one of love, of care and of humour.

It takes the audience on a roller coaster ride, exploring the harsh realities of competitive sport but, at the end of the day, it explores loyalty.

What really gives this film a soul is the experience of one young fan.

As an anorexic, she hoped her hospital trips would kill her.

As a fan of the Swans, she wanted to live, live and live again.

Jack to a King is now showing in selected cinemas.

Details of screenings can be found on the films website.

DVD released on December 26th 2014

 

 

A woman snoops through her boyfriend’s palm pilot and reveals his former girlfriends, which causes her to question why they’re still listed in his little black book.

• Official website
• Little Black Book at the Internet Movie Database
• Little Black Book at AllRovi
• Little Black Book at Box Office Mojo
• Little Black Book at Rotten Tomatoes
• Little Black Book at Metacritic

Little Black Book – Behind the Scenes Gallery

 

[See image gallery at jrfilms.com]

This iconic 2006 romantic comedy film features Woody Deane (Kevin Zegers) and Nell Bedworth (Samaire Armstrong), total opposites who, as fate would have it, swap bodies due to an ancient Incan spell.

As they both begin exploiting these new incarnations to destroy the others’ life, once they come to terms with their situation, they realise they must work together to reverse the curse.

It’s A Boy Girl Thing was produced by Elton John’s motion picture company Rocket Pictures, directed by Nick Hurran, written by Geoffe Deane and film editing was done by John Richards.

Storytelling is important to John, and at the heart of this romcom is a coming-of-age tale about two individuals, overcoming obstacles and learning to work harmoniously.

The film has a 67% score on Rotten Tomatoes and remains a teen cult classic to this day.

Dawn and Jackie, two workers in an electronics factory, have been best friends since childhood and share practically everything. So it is no surprise to anybody when Dawn shares her big bingo win with Jackie. Eventually Dawn discovers the results of her tests and knows for sure that she has terminal cancer.

Dawn has always dreamed of going to Las Vegas so, on impulse, Jackie buys the tickets and off they go on one last great adventure together. In Las Vegas they meet the enigmatic Cody who is attracted to Jackie but immediately understands the situation and helps the two friends to enjoy their dream holiday in Las Vegas by taking them on a trip into the desert.

The two friends return home for Dawn to make her peace with her friends and family before her ultimate demise. Dawn’s death, even though expected, devastates Jackie leaving her friendless and alone, or does it?

IMDB

The tools of the trade.

As the hire companies started to take over the supply of gear, I used both Media Composer and Lightworks, depending on how many systems were required. The more work stations that were needed, the more likely it was that Avid offered the best platform. Band of Brothers had the maximum at that time of 13 Avids linked together. In straight forward editing though, i.e. low VFX requirements, the Lightworks was unbeatable to me.

If more manipulation of the picture was required, then grab the Avid. My last time on Lightworks was in the USA in 2003/4 on Little Black Book. It was a multi system but the networking was quite a problem. That’s when I converted to Mac and eventually became a full time Media Composer user during the edit of Its a Boy Girl Thing, while in Toronto, Canada.

Soon, the new kid on the block was Final Cut Pro. FCP became a viable way to finish a film, not just offline it. I used it on one feature shot on film and one on HD Cam. Caught in the Act, which was directed by the BAFTA winner Matt Lipsey. This HDCam project was off-lined on my Mac Pro’s and then conformed into them at full resolution. We did a full audience test screening at Theatre 7 in Pinewood with 200 people and me sitting at the back driving it all off FCP via a Kona card. It looked and sounded as good, if not better, than the film test versions I did for Little Black Book in L.A. And at a fraction of the cost. Once the picture was locked, we did a file transfer to a Baselight grading system at Molinare, in London. Progressing to a full D.I. and Film Out to 35mm neg for release prints. Every frame of the images on my local cinema screen had gone through my Mac. Very impressive.

Now, I have several copies of MC5, Adobe CS5 and a couple of FCP’s. I run all three on my MacPro or MacBook Pro. £60k can be replaced by an investment of only £4k, stunning value.

So, what do I think of all the options. Well, just like in so many walks of life, I try and use the right tool for each situation. It’s difficult to specify exactly which system and when, so I mix and match as I feel it necessary. All have features that are good, save time and help creativity. However, I’m quite sure that the last few years of development have been so spectacular due to the competition between platforms. I fear that may slow in the future as Apple appear to be killing off FCP for professionals.

But, for me at least, the bedrock of all my decision making in the cutting room comes straight from all I learned using good old fashion film. I can’t quite say why this is, but organisation and focusing on the material are two of the central reasons. I know it would be painful to cut again on a Steenbeck with only two audio tracks and no ability to manipulate the picture as you go. But as a tool that allowed you to play with storytelling, film was way ahead of its time.

 

John

Room To Rent is a bittersweet comedy about Ali, a young Egyptian screenwriter determined to succeed in London where he’s been a student. He loves the artistic and political freedom, the colours, the music, and the individualism.

But Britain isn’t an easy place for a foreigner to break through and nobody takes his efforts seriously. He has to scrape an illegal living in ‘Arab’ London as a waiter and Arabic voiceover artist; his student visa is about to expire; and he is caught up in a highly unsatisfactory relationship with married Vivienne, a French woman who moreor less pays him to have sex. On the same day his visa extension is refused, a strange old blind woman accosts him on the bus and he has a fight with his landlord and is thrown out of his lodgings.

His friend Ahmed, a streetwise hustler, thinks Ali’s dreams are a waste of time. In his view, Ali should scrape together £3000 and buy an indefinite visa by entering into a fake “white” marriage with a British woman, supplied by Ahmed, if he wants to stay. With little money, a student visa and no home, Ali sees no alternative.

 

However, a series of relationships in different London ‘rooms to rent’ soon has a major impact on his whole life. First, he moves in temporarily with Vivienne’s friend Mark, a photographer. Initially he is highly suspicious of the photographer’s gay lifestyle, but when Mark rescues Ali from police custody a real friendship begins to develop. Ali also starts to understand that he has to get past his prejudices and accept his need for love if his writing is ever to reach another level.

 

Then Mark introduces Ali to Linda, one of his models. Linda agrees to marry Ali for less than one of Ahmed’s girls and offers him a place to stay until he can find the money. Linda is young, blonde, very sexy and a Marilyn Monroe impersonator. Ali promptly proceeds to fall in love with her, or so he thinks. For a time, they look as if they might have a future together. Ali gets his first film commission starring Linda, but they soon realise that the director intends to shoot the script as soft porn. Linda breaks down, revealing to Ali that she is already married, in desperate need of money herself and in no position to help him as she promised.

 

Understanding that she is being trapped by her own behaviour, Linda leaves London. Al is now without a room, money, love and any prospect of sorting out his visa problem.

 

Before she goes, Linda arranges for Ali to rent a room from her healer, who turns out to be none other than the blind lady Ali met on the bus. Miss Stevenson seems even more eccentric at close range. She is convinced that Ali is the reincarnation of her dead Egyptian lover from the 1930s returned to fulfil his obligations and marry her. Desperate now, and with his visa about to expire, Ali tells Ahmed to get him a fake wife and gives him all his money. Ahmed steals it and gets a fake British passport for himself.

 

At the end of his tether, Ali agrees to marry Miss Stevenson, deeply depressed by his own behaviour.

 

But as time passes he finds himself drawn more and more to Miss Stevenson. Instead of thinking of himself, he starts to help her selflessly and enjoys making her happy. He finds himself coming to love her and in spite of his youth and her age, there really is a meeting of souls. She also helps him understand that his Egyptian past has made him what he is, that he should not reject it and that he will only become a true writer by embracing the past as well as the present.

 

When Miss Stevenson dies, Ali is distraught. A little older and quite a bit wiser, he takes her advice and throws all his newfound emotions into his writing and has his first success. With an indefinite visa, a house of his own and a little lonely, he decides to let out a room to rent himself.

 

To his amazement and pleasure, the first tenant to walk through the door is a lovely young woman called Sarah, she is just like the photographs of the young Miss Stevenson….

 

Starring Said Taghmaoui, Juliette Lewis, Rupert Graves and Anna Masey.

One of the Hollywood Ten (2000) is a Spanish and British bio-picture. The film was written and directed by Karl Francis.

The drama focuses on screenwriter/director Herbert Biberman and his efforts to make, what would become the historic political film, Salt of the Earth (1954), produced without studio backing after being blacklisted for belonging to the American Communist Party.

• One of the Hollywood Ten at AllRovi
• One of the Hollywood Ten at the Internet Movie Database

 

Virtual Sexuality is a 1999 film about a young woman who designs the perfect man at a virtual reality convention, but then an accident occurs causing the man to be brought to life.

17-year-old Justine (Laura Fraser) bemoans being a virgin so, after being stood-up on a date, goes to a virtual reality exhibition with friend Chas (Luke DeLacey). There she encounters a virtual makeover machine which she uses to create a 3-D image of her perfect man. After a freak power-cut Justine finds herself inside that male body, becoming her own ideal mate (Rupert Penry-Jones). Naming this alternate self “Jake”, she/he moves in with Chas to try and come to terms with being a teenage boy.

Jake then realises that an unaltered version of Justine is still around unaware of his existence. This unaltered Justine, on meeting Jake, falls for him unaware of the complications this poses. Jake fends her off by feigning interest in the infamous local man-eater known as “the Hoover”.

A frustrated Justine then decides she must lose here virginity at any cost, and dates town sleaze Alex to achieve this. As the big date looms Chas and Jake do all they can to to thwart Justine’s plans.

Wiki

• Virtual Sexuality at the internet movie database

The film details the adoption of an eight-year-old girl named Jody (Gabrielle Boni) by a loving couple, Don (William Katt) and Barbara Mitchell (Michele Greene). Jody develops an obsession with her father and paranoia and jealousy about others spending time with him. This leads her to become psychopathic and so envious of his relationships with other people she sets out to remove these people from her father’s life.

• Daddy’s Girl (film) at the Internet Movie Database

 

The Miracle Maker is a stop motion-animated film about the life of Jesus Christ through the eyes of a young girl, Tamar, the daughter of the Biblical Jairus who is raised from death by Jesus (the daughter of Jairus is not named in the New Testament.) Some clips of the film (especially when stories are being told) are animated cartoons instead of stop motion.

The film was directed by Derek Hayes and Stanislav Sokolov. It stars the voice of Ralph Fiennes as Jesus. The cast also includes Emily Mortimer, Julie Christie, William Hurt, Ken Stott and Richard E. Grant.

Wiki

• The Miracle Maker at the Arts & Faith Top100 Spiritually Significant Films list
• The Miracle Maker at the Internet Movie Database
• The Miracle Maker at Rotten Tomatoes