Blog - Chris Stone Freelance Director, Award Winning Film and Video Production in Stoke-on-Trent

The Rebel -Screenshots

2010-11-01T23:41:00.000Z

Another busy fews weeks!
The new project is having a major press launch on November 10th and all will be revealed!
'The Rebel' music video for The Amateurs is finished and will soon be launched... but until then here
are a few screenshot to whet your appetite.

The lovely Michelle painted head to toe in silver.

Richard Jack as 'The Rebel' in the casino.

Michelle recreating the famous scene from 'Dr. No'

The Russian soldiers in the nuclear bunker.

The band at the steel works. Alex's trouser almost caught fire!

Brian Gorman as Russian billionaire 'Viktor Toxikov'. His tuxedo is based on Connery's from 'Goldfinger'.

New Project

2010-09-16T12:23:00.000+01:00

As editing for 'The Rebel' music video is finished and the last few shots are being colour graded I now have started a brand new project that has been green lit (commissioned). Well, I say brand new but the basic idea has been knocking around since college.
I've spent the last four days solid in research and delevlopment and I need to have my grand plan of action ready for next Tuesdays meeting with the executive producer. On Tuesday I also get a chance to have a much better look around the location which is going to serve as the backdrop for the story. Shooting starts next month and so far only one person is cast.
Anyway this is just a very quick update on what I'm up to to, more details of the project will be released soon as I believe the project will get some publicity.

In The Media!

2010-09-05T15:31:00.003+01:00

I was in my local newspaper yesterday and I didn't even know!

Here's a link to the story on the 'This is Staffordshire' website and the article itself:

http://www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk/news/Chris-view-killing-box-office/article-2603478-detail/article.html

Published on Saturday, September 04, 2010, 09:20

Chris has a view to a killing at the box office

Chris Stone's ambition is to shoot a James Bond film.

JAMES Bond doesn't have an obvious association with North Staffordshire. The Saggar Maker's Bottom Knocker Who Loved Me somehow never quite happened.

But a young film-maker is crafting his own association, From Burslem With Love. Based within the town's burgeoning artistic community, Chris Stone has just put the finishing touches to a Bond themed video for up-and-coming Birmingham band The Amateurs, albeit filmed in locations, as far as we know, not oft visited by 007.

"We filmed on Llandudno beach one day," says Chris, "the intention being to make it look like the Caribbean." It's possible, I suppose. Not for nothing is the resort known as the Jamaica of North Wales.
"Typically, it was a lovely sunny day but the minute we got there the cloud came over." Thankfully, Chris, a former media production student at Staffordshire University, had the technical wizardry to make it appear as if the sun was blazing down on the finished edit. With such an ability, he may yet be called in to do some consultancy work for the tourist authority in Rhyl.

Further scenes for the song, The Rebel, were shot at Crewe Hall, the grand hotel transformed into a high class casino for the tuxedo clad spy and beautiful girls. High risk poker games, a white-suited villain, and an exciting fight scene ensued. Whether the lothario invited any scantily-clad lovelies for a night of passion at Crewe Alexander is unsure.
Away from the region, a nuclear bunker down south provided yet another backdrop – with all locations researched, checked out, and booked by a director who, by his own admission, thinks film 24 hours a day. The world to Chris Stone is one big cine-reel, an obsession which began as child when the Meir Park youngster happened across his dad's video 8 camera. "I started making films almost straight away," he says. "In fact, thinking about it, one of those was a James Bond film."
Chris made a promise to himself at the age of 12 that one day he'd direct the 30th James Bond film. With 22 in the bag, and one made, on average, every two years, the 26-year-old is set to be walking up the red carpet at the Leicester Square premiere sometime in his early 40s.
And maybe it's not as far-fetched an ambition as it sounds. Chris, who works alongside fiancée Steph, is already known in LA after winning several awards both there and in New York for work ranging from music videos to dramas and documentaries.
And he has already worked with one Bond girl, Caroline Munro, from The Spy Who Loved Me, who starred alongside Jeremy Bulloch (Boba Fett from Star Wars) in an independent production of Dick Turpin he recently directed.
He is, though, keen to dispel the notion that to get on in the film world would require a move from Stoke-on-Trent.
"Why would I want to move?" he says. "I've got every location I could ever need within about 15 minutes of where I work. I've done deserts, forests, Roman times, First World War, Second War War, all round here. It's brilliant. Why move? I'd like to set a big British film round here. You only have to look at SoulBoy (the recently launched northern soul flick which recreated the famed Wigan Casino at Stoke's King's Hall) to see it can be done."
A perfectionist at heart, Chris puts himself under a lot of pressure to create work to which he's happy to put his name, whether it's directing, editing, or etching storyboards. But, swaying away from the traditional director's reputation as something of a moody control freak, he tries to create a rather less heavy atmosphere on set. "The way I see it, if you treat people properly then they'll do the same to you. We always try to have a joke and a laugh."
Chris isn't naive enough to think that The Rebel will become the official theme for the next Bond film but, with a planned launch at Pinewood Studios, next to the 007 set, he is hopeful it will create enough of a stir to maybe launch The Amateurs towards such a scenario some way down the line. "I just think they've got a very 'Bondy' sound," he says. "That's what prompted me to do this video. So in future, why not?"
If they were to follow in the footsteps of Duran Duran, Shirley Bassey, Sheena Easton and the rest, who knows? If they're still going by Bond film number 30, they and Chris could be in for a big reunion?

The Rebel Comic

2010-08-30T18:51:00.001+01:00

I've been extremely busy this last week or so editing the hours and hours of footage. The fight scene alone took two days. I've got the rough cut finished now and it looks great! As of tomorrow, I'm tweaking it and making sure every shot is the very best it can be.

Now here's something very cool, the first page from 'The Rebel' comic based on my storyline for the music video! This amazing piece of art is by my good friend, graphic illustrator Brian Gorman. Brian stars as the villian in the video, Russian billionaire Viktor Toxikov (Brian is pictured in the bottom left hand panel).

Storyboards

2010-08-23T17:02:00.004+01:00

I thought you guys would like to see one of my storyboards from 'The Rebel' music video.

I sketched these while sat in a coffee shop in Birmingham about three months ago. The storyboards really helped me work out exactly what shots I wanted. As it was a music video and time was quite tight, each shot was important and I had to tell the story very quickly ie. who a character is, their motivation, their relationship with the other characters... The audience had to know exactly what was happening straight away.

I'll post some more when I get the chance as right now I have to go and pick my actor up. Tomorrow is the big 'car' scene ;-)

It's really been like 'boys with toys' the last 7 days.

The Rebel - Teaser Promo Images

2010-08-22T21:15:00.005+01:00

After a full on week of shooting, 99% of the video is in the can! Here are the first teaser pictures, taken from the video's 'title' sequence.

The model is the lovely Michelle Chalmers.

Photography by my good friend, Rob Spuffard (www.rob-spuffard.com).

Photo editing by my fiancee, Steph.

The video should be done in the next two weeks. I'll post it here once it's finished.

2010-08-13T20:57:00.001+01:00

Its been another busy few weeks. I'm working on a new music video for the most amazing band, 'The Amateurs', for their track 'The Rebel'.
I've already filmed all the band sections to the video and next week it'll be all the drama sections....it's a full on mini-movie of a music video!

Everything's fairly secret at the moment but here's a teaser photo for now, until next week when it'll be in the press.

Victorian Mini-Drama Video

2010-08-05T23:32:00.002+01:00

As promised. This short trailer-esque showreel is made up of 4 very different scenes that were all improvised by the actors involved. Its supposed to show how they tackle different emotions in a period setting.

First Post: Making a Victorian Mini-Drama in 2 days...

2010-08-05T15:00:00.001+01:00

It's about time I used this blog, but I've been so busy I've not had a chance to sit down and write an entry.

Spent Tuesday afternoon filming a 2-minute Victorian period drama for an actress' showreel, which she needed edited and on a dvd for last night. I thought it was going to be a hard ask but, annoyingly, everything went incredibly smoothly even though there was no planning, not even a script!

We managed to get a couple of great locations on the fly and shoot the entire thing without lights, just a reflector and a torch... Which was a good thing as two of the locations were authentic period Victorian and had no plugs or electricity!

Anyway, will upload the video later and add it here. For now, have a couple more screenshots: