Strange Tales: Press Release.
Watchers
Productions presents… Strange Tales
Strange
Tales is an all new YouTube Channel featuring individual short films of all
genres, which showcase talent in front and behind the camera.
The
channel will launch with a first phase of films in early 2019. The channel will
then continue to grow, with new content added periodically.
In
2018/19, we plan to produce eight short films for the launch. These films will
be made by Watchers Productions, working alongside other up-and-coming
directors, writers and actors.
Strange
Tales has no boundaries on genre of story and every film will be individual in
style.
To
make this happen, we will need help, mostly in funding the venture. A
crowd-funding campaign will launch in the next few weeks where we will raise
awareness of the project (along with some funding, hopefully) and develop our
audience, ready for the launch.
Over
the weeks building up to the campaign, we will announce the film makers,
writers and talent already lined up to appear.
Stand
by for a whole new range of entertainment from the team behind Whovians.
Crowd
Funding Campaign launches June 30th. www.watchersproductions.com
Key
Players Involved -
Exec. Producers
(Watchers Productions - Three writers/filmmakers - old friends, based in
Cardiff who produce Web Series, Film, Blogs, Podcasts and Live Events. )
Rhys
Jones: Director/Writer/Exec. Producer
Rhys has worked in
Television Post Production for the past 10 plus years, working on numerous
productions for BBC, ITV, Channel 4, SKY, MTV and S4C.
Working across a varied
genre of programmes - from Stella, Songs Of Praise, Coal House, Beach Break
& Wakestock Festivals. He has been the Technical Supervisor for Avanti
Media and now a Technical Lead at Gorilla/Boom TV.
In addition to his Post
Production day job and Producing/Directing Watchers productions, Rhys took part
in the It's My Shout 2017 scheme, in which he Directed the BBC short film
- Rory Romantic.
The film WON the Best Sci-Fi Short Film award at the 2018 New York City Int. Film
Festival.
Terrance
Edwards: Writer / Executive Producer
Terrance holds an MA in
Creative Writing from Trinity College, Carmarthen and has had poetry published
in Algebra Of Owls, Ink Sweat And Tears, Haiku Journal, and Roundyhouse
Magazine. He has performed his own poetry throughout South Wales and further
afield for over ten years, performing at the Sherman Theatre in 2004, the Wales
Millennium Centre in 2009 and at the HowTheLightGetsIn festival at Hay-on-Wye
in 2011. He is also an actor, recently performing in several plays for
Monstrous Productions Theatre Company and Dramatic Moose Productions.
Matthew
Ford: Writer/Exec
Producer
Matthew’s
earliest memory is scribbling a short story (two-or-three lines of illegible
handwriting); since then, pen and paper has rarely been out of arm’s reach.
Having
written for stage, Matthew has had scripts performed at scratch nights for the
Tobacco Factory Theatre, Bike Shed Theatre, Cheltenham Everyman, Genesis
Cinema, and Exeter’s Ignite Festival. In 2018, he was Assistant Director on
Dramatic Moose’s first production, Abandoned.
Matthew
was one of the executive producers on Whovians,
writing Geek in Silver (S1,
Ep4) and The Parting of the Ways (S2,Ep6),
and co-wrote Bradley and the Doctor (S1, Ep5), Behind the Table (S2,
Ep1), and the 2016 Christmas special, Two Nights Before Christmas.
Following
Whovians, Matthew was back as exec producer on the Christmas pilot
for Sketchy
AF, writing a number of sketches
including Ross Kemp on Christmas
and Hazel
Reardon: Foul-Mouthed Agony Aunt.
Matthew’s
first love is horror films. His short script Hanging Hill Row reached
the final ten in 13horror.com’s worldwide short screenplay contest. Hanging Hill Row is now available to buy as an eBook from Amazon.co.uk
Directors:
Richard
Williams
Richard Williams - In
2014 Richard began script writing, this started with the world war epic,
"The King's Own". Realising his passion for script writing he went on
to do it full after being made redundant from his day job in 2015. Since then he
has gone on to write and direct several projects including short films and
documentaries. in 2017 his western genre screenplay, "The Reckoning"
was nominated as Best Dramatic Screenplay at the American Screenwriters
Conference in California.
Luke
Walters
Luke has always been
fascinated with the way in which TV and film were made ever since catching an
episode of Dr Who confidential in 2006. After a few years of acting he decided
his talents were put to best use behind the camera mainly directing. Over the
years his short films have earned him numerous accolades across the globe.
Changing focus ever so slightly though Luke now holds a Masters Degree in
Producing and he's now producing a series of short films for BBC Wales. While
on set if he is not found near the camera you can always find him larking
around somewhere while taking endless amounts selfies.
Hannah
Celyn Griffiths
Hannah has had a love
for writing and a passion for drama since a young age. She studied English at
the University of Southampton and performed in over 10 shows for the
university's theatre societies, including two at the Edinburgh fringe festival
in 2010 and 2011. Hannah played the character of Jen in Whovians and wrote and
produced two episodes for the second series. She is thrilled to be associated
with Watchers Productions again and is looking forward to receiving her first
director's credit with Strange Tales.
Matthew
Fisher
Matthew is a new to the
world of directing. Only having directed two full length plays, “Abandoned” and “The Universe plc” –
both performed sold out runs – he excited to be part of this brilliant project.
Outside directing Matthew has guest starred in the award nominated web-series
"Whovians", be seen in "Packaged," one of the It’s My
Shout short films that was aired on BBC and even has been nominated for best
supporting actor by the Glamorgan Drama League. Matthew also likes to write
scripts in his spare time where he has found some success, with his writing
being performed all over the UK, online and even across the pond in New York
City."
Teddy
Smith
After graduating USW,
Ted established No.37 Media, the label with which he would start making his own
films, and telling the stories that meant something to him. Over the past few years, Ted has focused and
dealt with PTSD, Depression, Anxiety and Loss.
The highlight of his
time behind the camera was working on Whovians with Watchers Productions and on
STFU and Bitten with Big Rich Productions.
Craig
Fisher
Craig Fisher is a Welsh
Writer and Director who specialises in Horror and LGBTQ genres. With 5 short
films in his current portfolio, he is beginning to make a name for himself on
the independent film circuit. His 3rd film, Angelystor was nominated for a
Golden Stake Award at the International Vampire Film and Arts festival in
Transylvania, as well as hitting 8 other festivals Globally. His 4th film, Closure, premiered on BBC2 in
2017, is currently showcasing in various Film Festivals and has recently won an
Award for Best SciFi film at Outlantacon. An edited version of his latest
Horror short, Night Mære
won an Award for Best Film at the 90 Second Horror Challenge in London, judged
by the CEO of Hammer Horror, and the full version is currently on Crypt TV and
heading to Film Festivals.
Confirmed Cast:
Ellen
Jane Thomas
Ellen is an actress
with TV presenting and directing credits under her belt, having worked with BBC
Wales and Made Television in these fields. But her first love is performance,
experiencing working with Channel 4, National Theatre Wales and BBC Two Wales.
Ellen won the award for Best Supporting Actress at the It's My Shout awards in
2017 for her role as Tanvi in Rory Romantic, and can currently be seen online
in BBC Writersroom sketch Porta-LOLS.
Victoria
George Veale
Victoria is an actress,
presenter, dancer, model, singer and performing arts school owner/teacher. She
is a Royal Academy of Dramatic Art Shakespeare medalist and received the Simon
Eilbeck Award for Music & Drama. Victoria studied Monologue training at
Stella Adler Academy of Acting and Meisner Academy in Hollywood.
Her day jobs are
teaching acting at one of Wales’ top TV/Film Casting Agencies and running her
own Performing Arts School with two successful branches in different areas.
Last year, Victoria was honoured to receive the award for "Young Business
Person of the Year" alongside the "Training & Development"
award given by the International Achievers Awards organisation.
Victoria is featured in
BBC’s ‘DR.WHO’
(Mummy on the Orient Express and Robot of Sherwood), 'Sherlock' (Evil Nurse)
and has the lead role as Steph in “Whovians”. Victoria has recorded and aired
voice overs for six BBC2 documentaries. Victoria has presented FASHION TV,
London Fashion week and Haute Couture. Other work includes “Demons Never Die”, Cadbury’s and
Western Power advertisements. As a singer, she has performed alongside Blue,
Atomic Kitten, Petula Clark, broadcasting worldwide and is currently in the
final stages of finishing an album recorded with her sister. Victoria is Miss
British Empire 2012/13. Christmas 2017, Victoria was cast in the role of Prince
Charming for the pantomime ‘Cinderella’
directed by Owen Money at the Congress Theatre, Cwmbran and she thoroughly
enjoyed it. This month, Victoria has been chosen as the cover girl for the next
issue of "International Face" magazine along with inside interview
spread, to be published this June.
