Friday 25 August 2006

An archive

In May 06 I began the phonecalls and the reading, finding out as much as I could about everything made or written about Hardy's. I knew of James Hardy's book, 'The House the Hardy Brothers Built'. It was essential reading but out of print, every other title I could dig up seemed very hardwear orientated. I also phoned as many publishers as I could to, not just to pester them but to sound out the marketplace for the subject. What stuck out the most was James Hardy's initial publisher Fly Fishers Classic Library who told me what a lovely man he was. That sounds very encouraging I thought as I munched lunch.

Naturally washed it down with a bottle of Montepulciano ( yeah right, as if) and that's when I first spoke to Medlar Press. It was quite a conversation, Sophie probably originally thought, 'loon', so she passed me onto Rosie who no doubt thought 'drunk' so passed me onto Jon and then I don't think there was anyone else he could pass me onto. So I told Jon about my film idea and he was well, very enthusiastic. Great. He was going to republish James Hardy's book in the Summer and is historical consultant to Hardy's. He was pretty keen on their story being told, what's more he told me there were archive films - Am I dreaming?

I really do love archive film material, although I don't quite know exactly why. I think it's something to do with capturing a world so recently lost yet so very different from ours but irrefutably there for us all to see. Those world's perhaps a century away and saved by the same technology responsible as much as any other for all the changes.

It stings to think of how much of this heritage is just fading away in forgotten attics. Once it's detiorated it's lost forever and it seems so needless. So when Jon mentioned the archive film footage the hook was truly set. To be able to rediscover and build a story around such a world, that legend of Hardy's, suddenly became a real possibility. The only problem now was the biggest hurdle, how to find a broadcaster to fund the project.

Wednesday 19 July 2006

Courgettes


I was going for a run one day, up through the woods onto the track to the open tops of the South Downs near where we live. That's where I had the initial idea. Running is good like that, ideas come from out of the blue. I just thought I'd love to make a film about Hardy's, they were such an interesting, enigmatic and iconic name.

The idea had not come from totally out of the blue. I had wanted to buy a spare rod, just to have handy for when I can persuade visitors to come along for a spot of fishing. But I thought hmm maybe I can buy something a little different and let the visitors use my own rod. I wondered what would I like and remembered that I'd always wanted a cane rod for dry fly fishing when I was a kid so why not try a second hand one. There are probably lots of reasons not to buy a second hand one but it was an old itch and I was keen to scratch, even if only to consign it to the dustbin of the past. Ebay beckoned and I could not believe just how many used cane rods were out there. So a week or so later our grinning postie knocked on our door with a Hardy Palakona Perfection. It was a lovely old clunker too. Luckily I'd missed the advent of the more modern carbon in my 20 year absence from angling so I had no real idea of what I was missing in the modern high tech stakes. Probably just as well.

Anyhows what really struck me was that the rod came in the original bag and with the original oiled label. A 50 year old rod, older than me and with the label still attached. It cost me about £55, probably about the same as it cost when new but goodness has the world changed since then. That rod and it's dried out oil label became to me a touching link with the past.
The seed for all of my films start like that, some little curiosity, a tick that grows into a idea and through this a film develops.

I got back from my run and related my thoughts to Heike my producer. She happened to be in the back garden ruminating over the chalky spots that were appearing on the courgette leaves. Surprisingly there was no snort of derision, she's very encouraging like that. Instead she hummed it over and we said no more for a while. We both just thought hmm, there is a film in there but how can we get it made?

Tuesday 18 July 2006

The beginning

In May 2006 I had the idea that I'd like to make a documentary film based around Hardy's, the fishing tackle company. I had come back to angling after many years away and found it such a reassuring surprise that the name Hardy's, a name so prevalent in my youth and 80 years before that, still meant so much to thousands and thousands of people all over the world. I always was and still am interested in the idea of why they became so popular, why they meant so much to so many people and also in discovering how much fishing has changed in the years since they came on the scene. I quickly became absorbed and passionate about making the film but with many years of filmmaking under my belt I was also aware of the difficulty in finding a broadcaster who would be interested.

Later that month we, as in myself and my producer Heike, took a trip to Cannes for the film festival. We also have a feature film project called "Captain Kirk" and we were there to finance this. Whilst suffering down at Cannes (no irony intended, its really not as glamorous as people would have you believe) we hit upon a way to make our film. The method was great, simple and very modern - for us it was really exciting as it meant we could set sail on a year long odyssey to make The Lost World of Mr. Hardy.

The blog will gradually build to tell all about the film and how we made it and our journey across the UK from the Summer of 06 until March this year and into the edit room where I now sit. As we add to the blog we hope it brings across the passion and enthusiasm of the people we met, the love of Hardy's and for fishing tackle of the very highest quality, the importance of the hand made in our lives, of angling, the countryside, conservation, history and even for films themselves... Hmmm, no pressure there then, so better get started.