The Lost World of Mr. Hardy

UK national screenings

2009-10-29T09:46:00.004Z

The regional and rural cinemas of the UK have really taken to the film so we are delighted to announce a bunch of screenings. I am going to introduce as many of them as I can. Dates still to come are:

Nov 28th - Ludlow Shropshire - Assembly Rooms, 8pm - SOLD OUT

Dec 3rd - Hailsham East Sussex, Hailsham Pavilion - (film followed by filmmaker Q&A) - 7.45pm

Jan 19th - Street Strode Theatre - (film followed by filmmaker Q&A) - 8pm

Jan 26th - Newcastle Tyneside Cinema - (film followed by filmmaker Q&A)

Jan 27th - Alnwick Northumberland, Alnwick Playhouse - (film followed by filmmaker Q&A) - 7.30pm

Jan 28th - Berwick Upon Tweed Northumberland, The Maltings - (film followed by filmmaker Q&A) - 7.30pm

Jan 31st - Norwich Cinema City - (film followed by filmmaker Q&A) tbc

We are awaiting final confirmation for screenings in, Strode (Somerset), Saffron Walden (Essex), and Totnes (Devon)

Do you really want Digital?

2009-09-28T16:10:00.007+01:00

It's all change at Trufflepig Towers as we try and lurch The Lost World of Mr Hardy into the next stage of the digital age without too much of a groan. Digital filmmaking freed up filmmakers like us to make the films we always wanted without the need to bludgeon a broadcaster into the act. Now it's the turn of the audience with the chance to watch by digital delivery. Thing is, I'm not sure the audience really want it, not yet anyway.

What it means is watching the film from a digital file, either rental or to own. So no DVD in a box, nothing to handle but then nothing to drop and scratch or ruin with jam stains. Instead just another file on your computer. But do you want it? So far it seems most people do not. Tons more people buy the actual DVD from our site than the 'digital download' version - despite the download being half the price.

And now.... just to aggravate things we are introducing a digital rental. You can download the film for $4.95 and have an incredible 30 days to watch it before the file self destructs. If you would like to give it a go, it's up at indieflix, and open to anyone, anywhere in the world.

We are really unsure of the uptake on this. The great thing about this digital thing is nobody anywhere knows how things will go. It might open up our film to a huge new audience who previously found the cost of the DVD off putting. But then again maybe those who would have bought the DVD will now just rent it and we will have no money to buy our Christmas presents this year. The good thing is customers vote with their feet so we will know sooner or later.

That's what I'm talkin' about!

2009-06-12T16:02:00.004+01:00

The screenings are now done and dusted. Great fun they were too, and many thanks to all who turned up. Almost everyone stayed for the Q&A at the end which was great. Those can be a bit like the stampede for the doors when back in the old days they played the national anthem in cinemas. The Uckfield screening had a very mixed audience too, which always helps remind us that this isn't just a film for anglers but for anybody with an interest in our own modern history or a desire to see films just a little different from the pack. Really nice.

So seeing as our mums and dads like the film too, I guess that counts as a pretty well universal success!

We will be doing another bunch of screenings later in the year, so if you're interested don't forget to add your town to the 'request a screening feature on the website.

Screening dates so far

2009-04-28T17:33:00.004+01:00

Cinema showings so far are:

Penrith - Lonsdale Alhambra Cinema, Cumbria - Sunday 17th May (8pm) - as part of the Cumbria Fishing Festival.

Elgin - The Moray Film Festival, The Gallery, Elgin Library, Elgin, Scotland - Saturday 30th May 11.00 am

Uckfield - The Picture House Cinema, East Sussex - Sunday 31st May 6pm

Seats for Penrith cinema are bookable from Monday 11th May at the cinema on 01768 862400.

Seats for Uckfield are bookable on 01825 764909 or online at - www.picturehouseuckfield.com

The Film Poster

2009-04-28T17:18:00.003+01:00

Not so fast shorty... Mr Hardy has come to town

2009-04-28T17:03:00.004+01:00

Aherrmmm...

The idea was to put this blog to bed and concentrate on the next film, but luckily things don't always turn out to plan. It seems we have a mini-cine tour on the go. A couple of weeks back I heard about the fishing festival happening in Cumbria in May and thought that might be an interesting opportunity to show our film in a cinema there. Unsure of the technical requirements I called up our local cinema in Uckfield and asked advice from the owner. Not only was Kevin supremely helpful, he even asked the magic question "why not show the film here too?". So up in Cumbria the Alhambra Lonsdale in Penrith agreed to show the film in May as did the Moray Film Festival, and suddenly we had a mini tour.

That's great...but lots of work. Hopefully we can get some publicity out there, fill up some seats and some of you reading this may even come along to one of the gigs. We are going to try and be there if we can, so best hone your bun throwing skills now.

If these showings go well we will soon add more dates as it would be great to make a feature of taking Mr Hardy out on the road.

One blog ends another begins...

2008-12-14T11:55:00.009Z

Welcome to The Lost World of Mr Hardy blog. We're involved in a new project so this blog is now complete. Everything is still here though. To read the story of how and why we made the film its best to go to the archive box on the right and read the earliest entries first - otherwise you'll be reading the story back to front!

We've also started a new blog for "The Moo man", our new film, to give it some space of it's own. We want to follow up some of the raw milk and farming issues as well as the whole slow food / local food thing which seems to be surfacing in the making of that film. Read more about this and life on a small farm over on the moo man.

Onwards to a new film

2008-12-01T16:42:00.004Z

We Trufflepiggers have fallen for a new story. It's set on a local farm. Funny how stories are so much closer to home than we often think; our door step delivered milk comes in lovely old retro bottles with pictures of each cow on the bottles, the whole notion seems somehow impossibly outdated. Kate was my fave but when I visited the farm and met Ida, I just knew she was a film star in the making. She was out on Eastbourne beach early in the morning recently, and goodness she really did pull in the crowds (more on this later).

Kate and Ida are part of a small herd on nearby Longleys farm which is run by farmer Steve Hook and his dad Phil. It's such an interesting set up. Steve milks the 55 cows. His wife Claire bottles the milk in the kitchen and Phil delivers door to door in Hailsham. It's a great little family business and it's just so ridiculous that dairy farms like this with a fantastic provenance find it so impossible to operate in modern day UK. Steve's herd is about one third the size of what would be expected to be the absolute minimum for an economically viable herd. But he's surviving!

What's the USP? Well for one, Steve sells his milk raw, completely unadulterated, its natural goodness intact. However because his milk is unpasteurised, it's unsellable in supermarkets. Is this avoidance of supermarkets how he manages to survive in an impossible market place?

Raw milk is really contentious though, it's banned in many countries including Scotland, Germany and the U.S. In the States it's fine to pump cows with bovine hormones to increase milk yield yet the selling of unpasteurised milk is outlawed. Why? Big business of course, raw milk is very much a small scale, local farm thing which the big dairies hate. Och there's millions to tell and I could go on for ages, and no doubt will.

Suffice to say that the farm and what it represents is so interesting that we are now making a new feature length documentary all about it. Watch this space and the website for news and clips coming soon.

Coming soon to a screen near you?

2008-11-29T18:17:00.002Z

Copies of Mr Hardy are shifting fast just now, hurray for Christmas (I never thought a humbug like me would ever say that). The new 'book a screening' option on the website is generating quite some interest too, predominantly in the North East of England. No great surprise I guess as the film will be playing on home-ground up there.

What has surprised me though is when I've called a few cinemas up and told them about the film, and tried the 'stalking horse' approach. I was ready for the brush-off and it was great to get a positive and interested response. Okay, so I was quite careful in picking the more rural cinemas, ones with a higher potential fisher density and in staying away from the cinema chains. I think the small cinemas really got the idea, they liked the idea of a quirky little film that works on a people level and perhaps says something a little different from the average film. So here's hoping to taking the film out on the road in the New Year.

However if you'd like the DVD for Christmas, don't forget to drop a heavy hint or two and steer your beloved in the direction of our website (or even Amazon I guess).

coming to a shop near you...

2008-09-30T18:14:00.003+01:00

We've been trying to sell our film as an online thing. Generally this is great, as it gives us a direct contact with customers, many of whom call up and chat about rods, reels, fishing and stuff. But we are realising that the internet is not for everyone, and as word about the film has spread, a few distributors have been getting in touch, asking if they can stock the film in shops for us. Well why not we thought. So, for customers in Germany and in the United States can now find the film in your local fishing store too. If you have any problems finding a copy, tell your store they can order the film from either Etheon in Germany or Angler's Book Supply in the States. They'll know who we're talking about as both are very respected names in their fields.

Meanwhile I'm hoping the weather calms down a bit, as every year I hear that the really big bass swim up our local estuary around about now and my fly rod is itching to let them feel its curves.

Pirate justice

2008-07-05T12:54:00.005+01:00

It's been a high seas roller coaster for the last couple of days. The other evening, I discovered that 3 websites were offering rip-off illegal downloads of our movie, and there were no shortage of takers. I was horrified and really hurt, I felt like someone had broken into our house and stolen something very valuable to us. We spent 2 years making our film, that's 2 years with no income and the idea was to sell this lovely film over our website and receive an income, support a family life, and also hopefully make more films like this.

Amazingly, it is astonishingly hard to stop the pirates, in fact one of the biggest, piratebay, a Swedish outfit actively enjoys laughing in the face of any copyright holders who complain or issue them writs. The police don't want to get involved, as it is so hard to get hard proof when everything is digital and when the crime crosses borders. I also have sneaking suspicion that somehow they feel they have more serious work to do.

One of the things that most stings me, is that the rather large amount of people who have illegally downloaded our film presumably want to watch it because of the love and care of the craftsmen in our film. Yet they seem to have no respect or desire to pay us for our work and craft in making the film itself - yet they probably wonder why craftsmen find it hard to survive!

However this story does have twist: determined not to just accept the piracy (which, amazingly was the general advice) I did as much tracking as I could with my limited internet knowledge. The websites involved are registered anonymously in Arizona then use ISPs in Amsterdam and the Czech Republic but take payment in Portland, Oregon in the U.S.. I wanted to track down this organisation being paid for the downloads as they charge $5 for the 1st day then $30 a month to give their customers access to illegally uploaded film like ours. Despite the fact that this company takes credit cards it seems able to hide itself incredibly easily, astonishing.

Anyway, on to the best bit. I did some research on this payment company 'paymentforge.com' keen to find if their was a way to get to them. And low and behold but my searches instead came up with a consumer protection website with a huge list of furious punters very worried about compromising their credit card details. They had joined the pirate ship to plunder the copyright files of films like ours, paid their $5 'one-off' one day fee and now the pirates are happily ripping off their credit cards accounts too. One website was absolutely full of complaints and that was just from the last few days. The big banks seem very slow to react and there are now hundreds of irate pirate wannabees being charged $30 a month and cannot cancel their service! Funnily enough many are UK customers and are now complaining about how 'someone' should do something about this fraud.

I must say it brought a certain smile to my face, the first for a few days.

Steaming flanks

2008-05-27T18:06:00.003+01:00

Not many rumblings from here at Manor Cottages of late. Is it just that time of year? The cow parsley is high, the mayfly are out and about, and maybe we're all outdoors and fishing whenever we can? Oh I wish it were the case. The marketing of Mr Hardy still takes up most of my time but Heike has decamped to deepest Eastern Germany to research a new documentary; a story from the days of the old Stasi, the East German secret police. Meanwhile not to be outdone, I've dusted down the trusty camera and started shooting a film around here.

We discovered a fascinating organic dairy farmer, who we visited back on my birthday and felt we just had to make a film about Hooky. 'Hook and son' produce organic raw milk and are the kind of set-up we at Trufflepig really admire - people dedicated to an idea and passionate about what they do. In many ways not a huge leap from the early Hardy Brother themselves. But besides that, ever since reading Tess of the D'urbervilles I've always wanted to walk amongst the steaming flanks of cows on a misty dawn. Who said romanticism is dead? Mind you I'm not milking them, I'm filming them but that's almost as good. You wouldn't believe how funny cows can be either!

A Hardy salmon fly dresser

2008-04-29T21:39:00.002+01:00

It was a nice surprise the other day when somebody got in touch, asking for Ken's address. Ken ties, (or rather he 'dresses' to use his correct terminology), salmon flies. Ken ties (or dresses rather) them without a vice too, just as he was taught back at Hardy Brothers 50 years earlier. I've noticed a few people commenting on this on other websites, so people do seem to notice this, even from just watching our trailer online.

Anyway, a viewer called us up at Trufflepig to get Ken's address as they wanted him to make him some salmon flies. I don't know why but I felt quite proud about this. Ken was made redundant from Hardy's quite a few years back when they closed their fly shop down, something was lost at that moment. All these years later to be able to point some new orders in Ken's direction is very rewarding.

The Lost World of Mr Hardy - trailer

2008-04-29T21:37:00.001+01:00

The story of a much loved family fishing tackle firm and the struggle for craftsmanship in our modern world.

New Reviews

2008-04-15T20:43:00.003+01:00

When we set out to make our film we kind of knew what we were up against. Both of us are experienced filmmakers and know that in reality, films take longer than first thought. But if you believe in the film it's worth doing properly, plus they're organic, they grow as you make new discoveries (yes, they are our babies! In fact sometimes I even think The Lost World of Mr Hardy has a mind of its own).

The making the film is one thing but the whole selling and marketing was entirely new to us though. We're quite novel in that we are doing it all ourselves. I guess we are realising that in one sense that bit is exactly the same as making films too; it takes longer than you think, the summit of the hill always seems a just a little beyond the 'final' slope, the one you're now climbing.

And so that brings us to getting the film reviewed. It takes a little while to get the ball rolling but what's also new is to now have to step outside of our cosy world. By making our own film we've unwittingly built a comfort zone around it, after all we had no telly or film execs to tell us what to edit in or out. So imagine the horror when we realised one day our film has to get up and walk all by itself. The poor little bleeder had to walk to school on his first day and all alone. And all those critics are out there, and they're just waiting to pounce...

So we've been bracing ourselves for the ambush, awaiting the cruel mauling. Thing is it hasn't come yet, the reviews are starting to happen and they seem to well...purr. Pure Piscator published one just today. Malcolm Cullen the reviewer did a tremendous job and delivered a great in-depth tome on the film and Hardy's as its subject matter. What is really great too is that for the first time ever we can begin to see the film through other peoples eyes and low and behold they don't find our little critter too ugly at all.

Who knows, maybe I'm speaking out of turn though, as in the next few days reviews come out in 'Trout & Salmon' and in 'Fly Fishing & Fly Tying' magazines. Let's see what they have to say.

New Website

2008-03-25T14:28:00.005Z

We launched our new website last week. Check it out with the link on the right if you've not seen it. It was a funny ol' moment doing the upgrade and it came with considerable debate amongst Heike and I. The previous Mk1 website was my own baby but to be frank was a bit of a messy child, hand cobbled together on a 'learn what you need' basis, simple, rough and ready, yet I did love it. I found it quite direct, simple and honest (but hey that's me all over ;-)

As we now proceed to a more sophisticated site with much more information and professionalism, is there something lost? It's a big question for us just because of what we have made in our film, something we think of as a very personal film, a hand crafted article and with a style and feel all of its own. It's very well made but never glossy or formulaic. Yet as businesses we have to try and instill confidence in the customer, but do we actually lose something of the 'personal touch' in the process? It's a funny old world is it not, we are quite determined to hold onto our film craft niche, yet need to earn a living and so put the right message across. Dear, dear, these modern times are all a bit to sophisticated. Can't I just go camping and fishing in the mountains, please!

Mullock's auction at Ludlow

2008-03-19T13:58:00.005Z

We had a 'works day out' last weekend and travelled to Ludlow to visit a Mullock's vintage fishing tackle auction. We've filmed there a couple of times while making our film so it was a bit like visiting old friends. Mullock's had invited us down and given us a stand to show clips from the film and do a little face to face marketing. We packed the car up with a flat screen telly, a laptop and a box of DVDs and were away.

The 'face to face' bit of actually meeting people was great for us, as we suddenly realised how much of a rarity this has become, most people buy the film from the internet and a few buy over the phone. Phone-buys are nice as it is interesting to hear a little about the people themselves who are interested in our film. One kind gentleman from Sweden even sent us a picture of a lovely Grayling he had recently caught on his Hardy gear.

However, getting back to Ludlows, as I say, the 'face to face' was a first and it was also the first time we had met people who had already seen the film. The thing that most astonished us was that virtually all of them had watched our film 4 or 5 times already. They invite their friends around and have an evening in, almost a cult film. I'm quite proud of that because I know that something really has to hold up on the quality front and especially on the editing to bring people back to watch again and again.

The big downside was that I missed the lovely little brook rod I had an eye on. I guess we will just have to visit Ludlow again..

Mr Hardy at Hardy's

2008-03-05T11:29:00.004Z

We are really pleased to say that our "The Lost World of Mr Hardy" DVD is now also on sale in the Hardy's shop in Alnwick. I am still not quite sure if it is correctly called "The Hardy Country Store" or "The Compleat Angler", however it doesn't really matter as it's built onto the front of the Hardy factory alongside the museum so if you've got that far you can't miss it.

And heck if you have made that special trip why not buy the DVD and Jim Hardy's book at the same time - what a classy double act!

1st DVD review

2008-03-05T11:11:00.006Z

Our film has been hinted at on Clarks Classic Fly Rod Forum in the U.S. over the months but as the film only came out on NTSC (North American format) last week nobody had seen it and several over there were asking for a review from somebody over here. Shoeless Joe saved the day, he was one of the 1st in the U.S. to receive a copy and posted this review on the forum. Many thanks to Joe and for his permission to reprint here. Over to you Joe:

"Only the best is good enough for fishermen"

... and though it was fishing tackle that John James Hardy Jr. had in mind when he uttered that line near the end of the 19th century, after viewing this documentary one might surmise that J.J.'s words are indeed prophetic, as they have come to embrace the efforts of Heathcote and Bachelier and their film, The Lost World of Mr. Hardy.

Though The Lost World could stand alone on the anecdotes of former Hardys directors and employees or perhaps even composer, Stephen Daltrys' music, particularly intriguing is the way the filmmakers chose to incorporate present-day rod and reel makers, Edward Barder and Chris Lythe ... their inclusion brings the film full-circle and thus fulfills Andy Heathcote's desire that we "Be inspired by a poignant reflection of the world we live in and the myriad ways it has changed over 130 years."

As I reflected on my first go at The Lost World of Mr Hardy, I found myself at once, not only wrestling with a sense of loss, but also nuturing rekindled feelings of adoration for those who churned out and stamped their intitials into my Hardy reels ... one reel at a time.

We were really touched by this. Being an independent film we never really knew what people would think of our film or what we wanted to say in it so it is really gratifying to know that people share the message.

Around the world

2008-03-05T09:43:00.001Z

Now the "Mr Hardy"DVD is out and about it's really interesting to see how it will find its way onto distant shores. What really amazed us from the outset is just how many of the website visitors are from outside the U.K. I guess once could expect North America to figure highly but I am quite surprised that Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands must be big Hardy acolytes too. Similarly with Japan. Yukio at the Andy Murray society is helping us out over there and the web interest from Japan is incredible.

We had an order this morning from Copacabana, our first from Brazil. As we print out the labels to send off peoples DVD to Rio or Wyoming or Vermont or all these interesting sounding places it just makes me want to experience the countryside there, to fish in all these places, smell the grasses on those hills, feel the big waters running down from distant mountains. Such a big beautiful world but I guess you can't fish everywhere, can you?

Off topic birthday surprise

2008-03-04T17:55:00.000Z

It was my birthday on Wednesday last. It is tradition that Heike and I give each other a little surprise trip. "Urrhh where is she taking me" I wondered as we trundled through an unpromising locale and she refused to be drawn.

We ended up at a farm and not just any farm. Steve runs a raw organic milk dairy farm and it was astonishing. We live in the countryside and regularly have cows nibbling away at the bushes in our own back garden so I don't quite feel the total townie. However I must admit that I have had my worries about farming practises and animal husbandry for years. I hate what looking after the 'bottom line' does for animal welfare, something has to give and with supermarkets piling on the price pressure it is usually the animal that suffers one way or another.

The great thing about Steve and his dad's farm is that it is not like that at all. It is a low yielding farm with very unstressed animals which live longer. I'm sure most farmers care about their animals but here on this farm it is almost as if that is the main thing, that's the business idea.

The cost of all is? Well the milk is double the price but when we walked around his farm you can't help thinking. 'If that's what milk like this costs then that's what it costs and if this kind of farming is the result then bring it on.'

porridge

2008-02-19T11:56:00.004Z

I've been having a chance to visit the real world recently. It's not as bad as I thought. We'd spent a year and a half trapped in the office and held prisoner by a film, or rather the editing of it. It might sound odd but since my release people ask me what the film is about and it is quite hard to define in a sentence or two. That's because while editing there's been an infinite number of stories and possibilities in our heads and the challenge of editing is to organise and select from all this. So what has been interesting is to go out and meet civilians, people who have no feeling for fishing, or collecting or Hardy's whatsoever and tell them what we're doing. Will their eyes glaze over, the drink slip out of their hand and roll across the carpet? You learn a lot from peoples responses, (even if they are British) no drink was spilled either. People and I mean ordinary people here, really latch onto that idea of craftsmanship. Their is a real sense of importance and an awakening that human craft is something that has to be valued. People want to talk about it. It's odd as I'm not sure that this feeling was around to the same extent even three or four years ago. Will the world suddenly beat a path to Callum Gladstone's workshop (Hardy's cane rod maker), or perhaps demand only a Chris Lythe reel? I'm pretty confident quite a few will.

Mr Hardy goes global

2008-02-19T09:39:00.001Z

January saw us bogged down with the difficulties of making our film look good on DVD for the rest of the world. We shot our film on an excellent but relatively new format and realised that in some stages of our game the technology was off and running away before it could really walk. That's what happened when we tried to make NTSC copies for North America. Strangely the very expensive machine they use called an Alchemist and does all the jiggery-pokery would have had to down-grade the images we were so pleased with in our film. They would have lost their filmic quality. A new way had to be found to do the job and as running speeds are different over the pond too it created all manner of problems, mostly to do with making people mouths synchronise with what they say. I have that problem too but it's usually pretty late on a Saturday night when it kicks in.

However, problem sorted. Our man in the Midlands just called and said the NTSC copies of The Lost world of Mr Hardy have been pressed, checked and okayed and are now in the truck on the way to us. Mind you it's another big fog expected tonight so no doubt the driver will spend another couple of days driving around in circles lost in the wilderness off the Pevensey Levels.

Christmas

2008-01-22T20:48:00.000Z

It takes a while to recover from Christmas and the New Year follow up. At least it seems to for us, we got the UK and Europe version of The Lost World of Mr Hardy DVD out before Christmas but only by the skin of our teeth. I think you could have measured the countdown to crimbles in hours and seconds. But it was with some relief we headed over to Heike's folks in Germany for Christmas and a break.

Having said that how nice to have our Christmas interrupted, I mean it! People were calling up on the mobile to say how much they liked the film. I was so happy at that I almost forgot I was paying the foreign cost of being called up on the mobile. One call on Christmas day, saying thank you for saving a special piece of history and making my Christmas. "It bought a lump to me throat" said another caller. I have to say that by then I was quite moved myself. We have been getting some really nice emails back so will try and include some of those on the website soon.

Meanwhile the NTSC copy of the DVD for North America and Japan drags on, and on and on. Our apologies for that, we are doing our best but it is out of our control. We have been promised a test copy of the NTSC version for tomorrow so fingers crossed.

film clips and shopping carts

2007-12-22T12:59:00.000Z

Phil is a very good friend of mine and he knows a thing or two about things. He helped us put a video wall together for our website. A 'video wall' indeed! sounds interesting does it not? Don't worry its nothing like an art installation or a colossal wall of sound. Its just a variety of short clips from the Lost World of Mr Hardy. It is worth checking out and it can be accessed from the home page of the website - www.thelostworldofmrhardy.com

And there's more. Sometime later today the shopping cart for our website should be online meaning the DVD can now be purchased with credit cards (no Switch or Maestro for another two weeks I'm afraid).

So basically everything is up and running just in time to miss the Christmas rush and when everyone has much more urgent things on their mind anyway. Och well I'm sure the DVD makes the ideal New Year's gift!

and finally...

2007-12-22T12:38:00.000Z

Well yesterday really was a momentous day. It was freezing fog and the lorry driver managed to get lost but we did eventually guide him in throuh the mists of the Pevensey Levels by phone - although you can't really describe landmarks because he can't see any. So this big truck backs up outside the cottage and then, "where do you want 'em guv?" The driver opens up the tailgate to reveal a huge pallet of stacked and wrapped DVDs. It might sound daft but we hadn't realised how much space a few thousand DVDs take up. The pallet was broken down and its contents distributed amongst 'safe houses' well err various neighbours spare bedrooms. When they said the UK film industry is a cottage industry they were right.

Finally everything stored we can break open a box and see one of our cellophane wrapped DVDs. Goodness it even plays perfectly and you know even after watching it hundreds of times I still find it a lovely and very personal film. Naturally that is what you would expect me to say but it really was a wonderful moment to see the reality of what we have captured immortalised on DVD so that hopefully many others can share the same passion.

With the DVDs now arrived it was a bit of a scramble to post all the orders out before the last Christmas post. Hopefully some people have their copies already. We would really love to hear any feedback on the film so please do let us know, either here or using the feedback button on the website.

Progress...

2007-12-02T09:22:00.000Z

People might be wondering where we are at with our little project. Not many posts from me for a while and no DVD yet!

As per usual our little cottage industry here on the South Downs has been swamped with finishing the film but with this now done our attention is now aimed at the DVD release. Meanwhile the film has been translated into subtitles in 5 languages; Japanese, French, German, Danish and English Hard of Hearing which took a little while.

Everything to do with the film has now been delivered to the DVD authors. The DVD cover will be finished mid week (and very nice it is too) and then well one big 'huzzah' and we can deliver the master to the DVD pressing plant at the end of this week and finally run off the DVD copies. The film will be available in both PAL (Europe) and NTSC (North America and Japan).

We cannot give a delivery date until the pressing plant has all the materials and is happy but will know by next week and will be able to take advance orders for the film. Hopefully these will be delivered to you 7 - 10 days after this.

I can't really say we are fans of our 'everything wrapped in cellophane' culture but when we have a stack of boxes full of our own DVD all sealed in cellophane I know I will see cellophane in a different light.

How do you like your eggs?

2007-12-01T10:42:00.000Z

What might raise an eyebrow in the film's audience is not necessarily what we first thought. Our film has some pretty tough revelations about Hardy's. Many are hard to take but they do come from Jim Hardy himself and the enthusiasts are probably big enough for that.

Our film however does feature quite a lot of bamboo rod building, not all of this is by Hardy's. Much is by independent rod maker Edward Barder. Now then, driving moisture out of the bamboo is an important early stage of the rod building process. At Hardy's they have always done this by roasting their bamboo in ovens. Right back in the early days their shop in Fenkle Street in Alnwick was located next door to a bakers so that they could borrow their oven for that job.

Edward Barder tackles the moisture issue differently. He shuttles and spins his raw bamboo sections over an open gas flame. He does it like this so that he can see what is happening to the warming bamboo as well as hear it. As the moisture starts to mobilise and increase in temperature it hisses and steams. Edward compares the process to cooking an egg. You can do it with the shell on but then you can't see what is happening inside. I thought that seemed quite reasonable.

At Hardy's however the most important thing about this process was that it should allow moisture to be driven out at a consistent controlled rate. Baking or roasting the bamboo poles in an oven was the only way to do this. Sounds reasonable too.

To my surprise the contrary opinions raise a hackle or two. Which side of the fence your opinion falls on could count for a lot and we wouldn't want to alienate any potential viewers.

Personally though, I'm quite partial to a two egg omelette. A three egg omelette is such another beast and should be run out of town. And you know at the end of the day, "eggs is eggs".

First feedback

2007-11-30T10:32:00.000Z

The film is finished now and we have shown it to on or two of the contributors for their opinion. Jim Hardy liked it very much and was very congratulatory, especially at the way we weave in so much archive Hardy's film footage from over the years to tell such an involving story.

Meanwhile we continue the process of turning the film into a DVD...

Jackie's jacket

2007-10-21T20:13:00.000+01:00

One of the things I most like about our film is the way it connects ordinary people to a very rich past through the stories of their own everyday lives. It was always intended to do this to tell the story of Hardy's as a company but to achieve this for individuals too is a great bonus.

We have some great characters but also the help of some remarkable archive film. Rod inspector George Trannent tells several warm and amusing anecdotes in the film and once we have established who he is we are able to subtly show him busy at work. To see him as a 35 years younger man inspecting Hardy Smuggler rods is a real joy. Similarly with Jackie Dotchin. Jackie finished up as a reel inspector at Hardy's and with an MBE for his services. He too is seen doing his job 40 years earlier. Jackie Dotchin, what a lovely man, in his eighties and still with piercing blue eyes and an infectious laugh.

In the film Jackie tells us how he was 14 when he began work at Hardy's. He show a picture of his 1st works outing to Glasgow. It's Alnwick railway station, the yard is full of hundreds of woman but for one small chap on the left. Says Jackie, "that's me at the end there with the little blue coat on". The picture of course is black and white and is nearly 70 years old but for Jackie his coat will always be in colour.

music please maestro

2007-10-16T22:32:00.000+01:00

A day spent with Stephen the composer. It is so great to hear how with his music he can really bring people's anecdotes to life, whether their fond memories of the Hardy's shop at 61 Pall Mall or the antics of a dog devouring a favourite fishing rod. Best of all is his improvised musical accompaniment to the 1935 film of LR Hardy's fishing trip to the thunderous River Aaro in Norway.
This is a silent film more true to the tradition of the 1920s with its stark captioned titles, but featuring the huge power of an unbelievable and dangerous river where our heroes struggle against the best of nature's elements as well as monstrous fish. The wonderful thing about Stephen's music is how strongly it amplifies this world. Because it is a silent film music becomes so powerful, so important and only makes the original silent film even stronger. I really hope we get the chance to show the film in some cinemas at film festivals because I really think there is something quite unique here and I think seeing this on a big screen would bring a warm smile to many a face.

the final edit

2007-10-15T22:23:00.000+01:00

Monday morning, 3am and we finally finish editing the film. Big huzzahs. Funnily enough it is also an admission of defeat although I actually mean that in quite a positive sense. Over the last couple of weeks we have been trying to squeeze into the film something of the essence of all this new archive material we discovered. The thing is our film was actually working really well already, it has many great and wonderful characters who with genuine warmth and openness tell us all about how they have dedicated their lives to their passion for fishing tackle. We have managed to capture something of their personality and of that magic - however as we tried to introduce more archive material it began to lessen people's individual stories. It took a little while to realise this but now we have settled on our final edit. It does still have some truly great new archive material in it though, unbelievable footage of LR Hardy carrying salmon home bigger than the throngs of boys running along behind him or of his ghillies struggling to stuff his salmon into numerous sacks after a rewarding day on the Eden.

Don't shoot the chauffuer

2007-09-27T23:12:00.000+01:00

When we started researching "The Lost World of Mr Hardy" various people told us about these great old Hardy films from the 30s. Story was of how Hardy's boss 'L.R.' commandeered his chauffeur to help shoot the movies. L.R. was the star and his driver the cameraman. The story goes that the chauffeur couldn't operate the camera properly so everything is all a bit jerky and speeded up. During our edit we had a rough copy of the archive films and this seemed to the case.

However as soon as we got into our telecine suite to transfer the films to digital format, Gerry the telecineist soon sank that theory. There was nothing wrong with the films, just that they had been projected at the wrong speed for the last 50 or so years. Thinking about it, it kind of makes sense. Hardy's used to take their angling films around the country to game fairs and angling clubs. They would show the more modern 'talkies' like "To cane a trout" and "Angler's Catch" which were sound films as well as the pre-war black and white silent films. Thing is the talkies were shot at a different speed than the older films. 24 frames per second as opposed to 18. But when they projected the films together at events they would always be shown at one speed, the sound speed of 24fps otherwise they would sound odd.

Shooting the old films at the slower speed was a hangover from silent cinema days. Filmmakers at the time probably saw no reason to change from the 18fps they were used to filming at, especially as they were still making films without sound. It was only years later when the two formats were shown together that it mattered. Projecting them at a faster speed made them appear speeded up and jerky. However as Gerry the telecineist showed me, when played at the correct speed they are perfectly normal. They look great too. You will not believe the size of some of the salmon L.R. Hardy pulls out of the river Eden.

The 1st colour fishing film ever?

2007-09-15T19:52:00.000+01:00

Our contact in Soho filmland manages to blag me some time on a bells and whistles telecine machine. Finally I can view the rest of the old film cans so we can work out what to actually transfer to video. The telecine operator sticks the films up on his machine, the 1st is an old film from ATV made in the 70s about salmon fishing on the Tweed. 70s colour was pretty rubbish and this film bears perfect testament to that. It is totally red and I mean 100%. No hint of another colour. But to my amazement Gerry, the man in the big chair swirls a few dials and switches and amazingly full colour bleeds its way back into this tired old film. Quite amazing.

Next up on the telecine bench is a very old Hardy's film I have never heard of but its from 1937. It starts black and white and it's LR Hardy salmon fishing on the River Eden in Cumbria. Suddenly it cuts to colour, all blues and browns and the camera tilts up from the river and up a huge viaduct. It must be the Carlisle -Settle railway. And gadzooks! A dirty old green steam train puffs on by over the viaduct up above. Amazing. Apparently colour came in in 1936 but Kodak could not find a way to make it stable until mid 1937 so this is quite possibly the oldest colour film of fishing in existence.

A shot or two of this will no doubt find it's way into the Lost World of Mr Hardy.

Are salmon that silver?

2007-09-14T18:32:00.000+01:00

Huzzah! I manage to get onto a film viewing machine in London at a film laboratory. I'm surrounded by my pile of archive film cans eager to see what's in the tins. The trusty ol' Vidette machine however has other ideas and refuses to play in forward motion. Okay, so I'll have to view them backwards. Fair enough. Ah! Because 16mm film only has sprocket holes on one side it also means that when I rethread the machine to play in reverse I also have to watch the films upside down. And err because it is playing backwards the rack line is wrong which means you see the top half of the film frame at the bottom of the picture and the spillover comes back in at the top. So, it's a film played backwards, upside down and with half the picture spilling out of the frame. Not ideal viewing conditions. Still, these machines seem like gold dust so musn't grumble and just get on with it.

Ahhh, the first of the old colour films. It's 1937 probably, salmon fishing on the River Tay it's early Spring with the snow still on the hills. LR Hardy walks proudly into shot in quite amazing technicolor brown tweed 'plus fours'. I've never seen actual 'plus fours' in colour before. The past really does come so much closer. It's alive.He hooks, lands and gaffs a salmon, so silver and blimey there's blood all over the place. Interesting how much more real colour feels. And then the Vidette breaks, the lamp switch apparently. The switch is the size of a door handle, nothing subtle here and nothing easy to fix either. Mind you the machine probably is about 50 years old too. They don't make 'em like that anymore.

Unable to open the treasure chest

2007-09-13T19:17:00.000+01:00

I've been carting a huge stack of rusty, dusty old film cans around South East England most of week. That 70 year old dust really makes you sneeze. Problem is we can't find anywhere to look at the films and see what is in the tin.

When I trained as an assistant film editor 15 years ago, 16mm film editing and viewing machines were ten a penny. Every other door in Soho had at least one behind it. They seem however to have gone the way of the Yangzte dolphin and very quickly. Within a 100 mile striking distance of home I can only find two and no 16mm editing machines. So we have this big pile of film (and a couple of dolphins in the bath) and the frustration of knowing that the film can may contain something great but we can't view them. The films can not be put on a projector as it puts too much stress on the very old filmstock and would damage these the only copies.

We know that 2 of the films are pre-war and colour and there are not many of those around.

Buried Treasure

2007-09-10T10:36:00.000+01:00

Reaction to the film so far has been great. This is the basic, unpolished version of the film I am talking about. We wanted a few okays before 'locking off' the edit and then going on to do all the nice stuff, the sprucing up of the visuals, adding an atmospheric soundtrack and music.

The only problem? - we also wanted to pick up the original Hardy film material. This is from the 1920s onwards and needs a little restoration so we can make it look really great in our film. Hey presto, a big pile of rusty, dusty old film tins arrive. The labels however bear little relationship to what we were expecting. A potential disaster. With these old 16mm film you can't just have a quick look to see what's in the tin, you need some kind of viewer which won't damage the old fragile material. I had a bit of a sleepless night that night thinking the original films we were hoping for must have been lost forever and so also leaving one very big hole in our own film.

Next day we head up to Alnwick and show our film at Hardy's. It gets a really great reception. However suddenly another large box of rusty, dusty old film cans turns up there. Nobody knows where they have been hiding but it turns out that these are the films we were originally expecting. Fine and great, our worries are over. However - what was in the earlier batch of film cans! We don't know. 16mm film is increasingly hard to view these days so I have booked a suite in London tomorrow to go and check them out. However it does look like they contain some pre-war colour film, probably salmon fishing on the river Tay as well as footage from inside Hardy Brother's Bondgate premises in the late 40's. Both are fantastically useful for us and our film. Only thing is we thought we were finished our edit. Hmmm, time to think again.

Heading North

2007-09-01T10:28:00.000+01:00

Yesterday witnessed a manic struggle to finish the edit of the film before heading up North for some feedback. We want to take the camera too, just to get the odd extra little shot in as we will be up at Hardyland in Alnwick. We haven't even got Alnwick Castle in the film yet so we must make amends - if the castle was good enough for Harry Potter then surely we need it in our film too.

Eek, the camera and production insurance needs renewing - that means we started filming one year ago to the day. A nice symmetry as we head off to get some feedback on the virtually finished film.

Wondering if the film will be finished by August

2007-08-14T19:55:00.000+01:00

A recent post was about how I thought it takes 3 edits to get a film right. I must have written that as a mental message to myself, a vain hope that theory is the same thing as reality. We are starting that 3rd edit now and it becomes so clear that the film we actually end up with could be one of many. We have the material to make "the rise, fall and rebirth of Hardy's", or we could instead make it a film on the desire to fish and go fishing with beautifully made equipment and about fishing tackle which means something and makes angling richer. Then again we could make a film about why people are prepared to devote their lives to making the very best fishing tackle. And then there's the story of how fishing has changed over 100 years and not just with tackle but through increased wealth, better access, pollution and globalisation - all of which change our fishing. The list could go on. It depends on which story we think we can tell best and so will make the best film. Discovering the best of the material, interviews and locations takes a little longer than we thought. 3 edits my foot!

1st music for the film

2007-08-10T21:35:00.000+01:00

Stephen the music composer delivered his 1st sketches today and we lined them up against some visual sequences, one of Ken Middlemist, one of the last of the Hardy fly dressers at work and another, a very poetic piece on fly fishing on the River Test. Both were fantastic, music is so odd in it's powers of elevation. Suddenly the music emphasises the story and a trout in the crystal clear waters becomes a character all of its own as it evades the hapless fly fishermen.

Ever so slowly the film does comes together!

3 edits make a film?

2007-08-08T21:17:00.000+01:00

I hope and kind of believe that it takes about 3 cracks at editing a film to get it right. After that the law of diminishing returns tends to kick in, the film will get better but only incrementally so and often further edits just becomes different rather than an improvement. We have just about finished edit 2 and so I hope in a couple of weeks we will be there with the big number 3. Hmmm no doubt my theory is mere pants and soon I'll have to eat my words.

Edit one viewed

2007-07-28T20:54:00.000+01:00

Hmmm, tricky thing film edits. We watched our first edit this morning. Our 1st edit has everything in our film which we think we need to tell our tale of the angler's love of beautiful fishing tackle. It explores this idea by telling the story of Hardy's, the effect of empire, war and new technology on this and the personal stories of many people who worked for Hardy's all their lives. And then we want to show modern makers of great tackle because aside from their own intrinsic interest they are the only real way to actually see craftsmen at work and they come across fantastically well.

And so that's were it gets tricky. It's just too much - we need to remember that less is more. So we plan to spend this week refining the edit, concentrating on the beauty of the film, the poetry, to still tell our full story but to realise where to concentrate the firepower. Oh it's not easy this editing lark. Hopefully the 2nd cut will be finished later this week - we've high hopes for it!

edit one

2007-07-27T20:46:00.000+01:00

Finally, finally today we finished the 1st edit of the film. The 1st edit generally contains all the stuff you think absolutely essential for the film and is edited to what feels like the most natural structure and layout. Only problem was this 'essentials only' cut is already about 2 and a half hours long. An hour too long. Anyway it was with some excitement that we put the cut to bed ready to watch in full (for the 1st time) tomorrow morning with refreshed eyes.

The trailer (nearly)

2007-07-22T23:42:00.000+01:00

Medlar Press kindly offered us the chance to show a promo for the film at the CLA Game Fair at Harewood this year. A great opportunity, it just meant cutting together a trailer. Believe it or not editing a film trailer's takes ages, weeks. It's not just because every frame counts and you are trying to squeeze in as much as you can, rather that you are trying to create a real sense of the flow and feel of the film and it is quite a gentle film. The other dilemma is we didn't really want to use spoken words - it was going to run on a continuous loop on a stand in The House of Fishing and so it would instead use music.

We dropped everything to concentrate on the trailer for 5 days. As the trailer slowly came to life it's quite surprising how it evolved to create it's own sense of mini-magic. The combination of some great archive footage; casting competitions and salmon fishing from the 20's, craftsmen at work today and also showing their treasured photos of time at Hardy's as well as Jim Hardy recollecting on camera and you suddenly do get this alchemy, the feel of this quite wonderful and magical lost world. The fact that their are no spoken words seems to make it even more special - representing that lost world even better. We were happy.

Then we discovered the Game Fair had been cancelled, the weather! Oh man what a shame!

We hope to put the trailer on the website soon instead. It needs a little tweaking first though. The edit was meant for a biggish screen so it looks and feels very different when watched on a tiny internet video window on a computer. The images need simplifying a little, will see what we can do though.

1st music moment

2007-07-11T20:17:00.000+01:00

I picked up Stephen our music composer from the station yesterday. It was his 1st visit. The day the music man arrives is always magical. It means the film is moving on, taking shape and at a stage that other creatives are able to contribute their talents. Suddenly through them the film becomes so much better without me personally having to do much. That first time you hear music ideas sitting alongside scenes you have filmed and edited is pretty wonderful. I've worked with Stephen on a few films and so I know his music does the job beautifully, it adds it's own extra layers and enriches the film. Satisfying and an eye opener.

We have several landscape scenes in the film, e.g. dusk settling in on Alnmouth estuary, (home of the late J.J. Hardy) or graceful dry fly fishing on the Test in late afternoon sunshine, just add poignant well observed cello and piano and suddenly nice photography is transformed into beautiful, moving scenes. With Stephen's visit and viewing the film together the emotional potential of The Lost World of Mr Hardy leapt out. We saw for the first time our intention to make a connection with the past come true. What the film wants to do is engage and explore the craft and creativity of the craftsmen of the past - yesterday we realised it worked and it was very reassuring.

No mayflies

2007-06-05T23:57:00.000+01:00

Early June. Got back from Cannes, very tired, lots of bickering and dying to go fishing. Maybe those mythic Mayfly are still about sending the fish stupid.

Arrive at the water. Express my enthusiasm to the Bailiff. I think he mutters 'stupid boy' to himself as he walks away, a bit like Captain Mannering in Dad's Army.

Didn't see anything all evening. Do mayflies really exist?

Cannes

2007-05-27T23:38:00.000+01:00

Making films with something to say has always been my aim but it's never been easy. I've spent the last 2 years writing Captain Kirk, a feature film about a young boy growing up in a small town in remote Scotland during the last days of punk rock and torn between his rebellious brother and an overbearing father. It's a great tale, gritty, full of brotherly love and hate and the passionate mistakes of youth. We took the film to Cannes film festival last May and ran ourselves into the ground with meetings to find financing. When a film is finished I'm sure Cannes Film Festival is a wonderful place but when your looking for money it really and honestly is not so much fun. Funny thing is money people make promises and I think they do mean well but the rosé seems to zap away a few of their memory synapses when you speak again in the UK.

However while sheltering from the sun in the British tent we hear a seminar on the big buzz coming from the states - D.I.Y. film distribution using the internet. Very interesting, and very empowering - away with the middlemen, the shopkeepers, if your film is good enough then sell it yourself. It makes sense as no-one one has quite the passion for a project than the actual filmmakers.

Great but not so much use when we first need to find a million quid to actually make Captain Kirk.

Heike "No but what about our other project - the Hardy's and fishing film?"

Andy "Err, yeah, are you thinking what I'm thinking..."

Yes we were. That was a year ago and now The Lost World of Mr Hardy is coming along nicely. We were able to go back to Cannes last week and pick up some great ideas about releasing our film on the internet.

Mayflies

2007-05-17T23:22:00.000+01:00

Growing up in Scotland I'd only heard of the mythical mayfly from the Trout and Salmon magazines. What was this beasty? A three tailed mammoth that sends trouts crazy but cruelly only inhabits the bottom few miles of the Kingdom. Maybe it's just a myth to taunt the chookters!

I'd waited about 20 years just to see my 1st Mayfly and now I'm a Southerner too so I now claim my rights under Mayfly regulations. I've still never seen or fished a proper Mayfly hatch so there's always a revival in excitement come late May a little akin to waiting for Santa Claus. My fave local water claims to have one of the best hatches of any still water. Thing is though, late May is really tricky in my calendar as film work always gets in the way and so I always miss the mythic beasties. I duly head down to the water too early in the season but full of expectation.

The odd mayfly drifts across the top but a cold easterly blows up to put everything down (just like all the years before). The bailiff grins a 'well what did you expect look'. No luck and I can't try again for another three weeks so the mayfly will foil me once more.

I see a badger on the way home though so that makes up for a lot.

An archive

2006-08-25T20:39:00.000+01:00

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.

Courgettes

2006-07-19T19:16:00.000+01:00

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?

The beginning

2006-07-18T17:22:00.000+01:00

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.