Beyond The TARDIS Strange Tales Video Review by DJ Forrest

Watcher Productions is a non-profit organisation based in Cardiff which makes web series, podcasts, comedy sketches and short films. This is their latest project. Strange Tales is a series of short, stand alone films that have a twist in the tale, and these three definitely have that, more so I’d say with the middle one. You don’t see that coming for a while!

The idea of the project is to provide local emerging talent, from actors, writers and film makers, with a showcase of what they can do and promote low-budget filmmaking in South Wales.

The screening of these three films was on the 5^th June, 2019 at Milk & Sugar, The Old Library, The Hayes, Cardiff.

You can find out more about the series of films and so much more by checking out their website here: https://www.watchersproductions.com/strangetales

Brand New Beginnings

'Our Memories are the Closest Thing to a Time Machine.'

It's an alternate present-day setting. Wales. More people are using social media as a way of life. It's easier to meet someone online these days than meet someone at a social outing away from the computer.

  

In this story, Seth and Tristan, played by Christopher Maxwell and Harold T. Spencer have a loving relationship, but something is missing; that spark of passion has died. So, they head off to the city and sign up for a treatment at the Brand New Beginnings clinic in order to have their bad memories wiped clean, replacing them with brand new but false happy memories. As Kate, played by Sarah Bennington explains the procedure, the couple have second thoughts. Sarah plays a blinder as Kate, so much so, the hairs on the backs of my arms stood to attention. You felt there was something much more behind her eyes and that strange finger movement - what was that about?

Written by Matthew Ford and directed by Matthew Fisher, this is the first of three videos in the Strange Tales collection, by Rhys Jones, that leaves you wondering whether this is really cutting-edge relationship counselling or something else entirely.

HR Master

'I don't like to repeat myself.'

Written by Richard Williams it is filmed in black and white and centres around Sam, played by Ellen Jane Thomas, an office executive of a company with very few staff. Noah, played by James Morgan, who comes from HR, and Justine Jones as Marcy, the Office PR, who arranges Sam's schedule.

The letter from HR seems unusual. They normally send out an email. Except, Noah from Human Resources, is not someone you expect to find in HR, and he's not there for the reason Sam thinks.

In fact, it's a very neat trick. This is a very twisted story and you may need to play it back a few times to the point where it changed. I didn’t see it at first but then it all made sense. It’s a great piece of acting from the three main cast members. Brilliant. Loved it.

Second Chances

'Sometimes you just have to be there.'

Second Chances, despite its hard-hitting beginning, is a light-hearted short story written by Matthew Fisher and directed by Teddy Smith of No. 37 Media, and centres around John Smith, played by Ben Wilson from The Whovians. John Hutch plays a truly entertaining Secretary to God and Lisa Grace plays Alice. It begins and ends at a bus stop, but it's the moments in between that matter, and the decisions that Ben makes that determine whether he can get a second chance.

Ben's character, John, has done nothing with his life, he's kept himself to himself, and doesn't want to get involved in anything. So, in the grand scheme of things, life would move on tickety-boo and nobody would remember him. It's as much a story about John, as it is about many of us, who move through life and achieve very little.

Very moving and wonderfully played. I think, as much as I enjoyed HR Master, Second Chances is my favourite and John Hutch plays the brilliantly up beat role in this story. I would like to see him in more roles. Be sure to hang on for the credits, that's truly worth it. I had a fair chuckle.

News Strange Tales: Press Release

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. )

www.watchersproductions.com

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.