Friday 25 April 2014

A Film Cameraman’s Bizarre Adventures of a Spooky Kind

May 8, 2011 by Richard Dodd

Mary Lou Brown, the magical person who actually runs Reelshow International tells me she gets lots of requests for me to write more Bizarre Adventures of a Cameraman stories. There have been quite a few and the response has been amazing, very flattering, but I am at a loss as to what to write next.
We have had stories from helicopter crashes, naked filming, canoes sinking in the shark infested Indian ocean, nuclear submarine adventures, being catapulted off the flight deck of the USS Nimitz, in a prop job..There are a few more…try this spooky one.
I was filming in Southern France many years ago and the crew stayed at a very old castle turned hotel, very nice place and handy for all of our locations.
The hotel had retained many of the old features of the ancient castle, massively thick stone walls, broad staircases that would sweep around a tower to open onto another big room.Very spacious, atmospheric and very empty…
Anyway, one day after a very heavy shoot we got back to the hotel, had a quick drink in the bar and decided where we would go for a meal that evening…we settled on the hotel restaurant..we arranged to meet back in the bar at seven pm..prompt..
After a shower , change of clothes, all of the crew, four of us, the sound man was missing , re-grouped, had a drink, waited for the sound man, rang his room, no answer, waited, rang again…eventually we made our way to the restaurant, ate, drank, went back to the bar, drank some more, went to bed about midnight..The usual location scenario,
The next morning we all met up in the lobby and waited for our transport, the sound man was extremely peed off with us and demanded to know why we did not meet as arranged the previous night.
Apparently he had arrived at the hotel bar, there is only one , and we were nowhere in sight, he waited, rang all of our rooms, and eventually went into the dining room…it was deserted..he ate alone. When he finished he went back to the bar and sat there until about midnight , then went to bed. As far as he was concerned the hotel was completely empty, except we were in a very crowded restaurant and a busy bar, all of the visitors were from the local village..the rooms were empty but the main rooms like the bar and restaurant were very busy…yet he never saw anyone else…Spooky
Here was another experience we had in a hotel in Bishop Auckland UK, much the same crew, we were almost unchanged for thirteen years,
The hotel was a very old manor house, oak paneled rooms, suits of armour dotted about, very atmospheric place.
As usual with my team we all met in the very quiet bar for a pre-dinner drink, or two.
There was only the five of us in there. When the front door from the car park/garden slowly opened, then closed…we all saw it…then the door to the toilets opened and closed…we all saw that too..
Then the toilet area door opened and closed..we saw it and now began to get nervous..the front door opened and closed…no one had been seen to enter or exit..we needed another drink..
That night in bed I heard what sounded like children playing in the corridor outside my room..I thought that some late arrivals with kids had turned up.
Along the corridor the Grip was having an altogether different experience…The children’s laughter had turned to screams and as he listened he saw a mist come under his door and lift him out of his bed, he spun around the room about four feet off the floor for what seemed like minutes and then was just dumped back on the bed..the children’s screams stopped instantly.
The next morning we described our stories to the Manager who said the place was really haunted, many people had heard the children screaming and it was put down to the fact that Oliver Cromwell’s soldiers had attacked the hotel which was at that time the home of Royalist sympathisers..The family were all killed and the bodies of the children, three of them, were all found on the corridor where the bedrooms were.. spooky!

Wednesday 23 April 2014

Introduction to Maginty's Quest

Introduction to Maginty’s Quest

by Chelsy Swann

Maginty’s Quest is a story of magic that will entertain adventurous and intelligent readers aged nine to ninety three and a half.

Originating in the troubled times of the 1700s, when a family of Wizards are burnt out of their home in London, the story makes its way across the Atlantic Ocean to the lair of Pirates. Two sea creatures are given a quest by a mortally wounded pirate, who just happens to be a Wizard.

One of the sea creatures is an Octopus named Maginty. His companion Deacon, the notorious Ace Navigator, is a turtle. A calming influence on this pair is an electric eel called Sissy.

They wait many years to carry out their quest which takes place in the London suburb of Chelsea.

Will they succeed against the many villains who stand in their way?

Friday 18 April 2014

Life Choices We Make

by Richard Dodd

Choice…a small word that has massive implications.
Nearly everything we do in life is by choice.
We get up after sleeping, choose what to eat or drink..
The cooler is empty, no fruit juice, no food, no coffee.
That’s because we made the choice yesterday not to purchase any of those things, next choice…where to go to eat and drink, choice is limited by the amount of cash available or credit on your card, card is maxxed out, you chose not to pay the last bill…choice is becoming limited. .how much cash decides where to go and what you can have..
Choice…do you drive to the diner or walk to the store, the car is low in gas, you walk…at the junction, another choice…which store, the Chinese deli on the right or the Italian one on the left…or the small grocery store across the street..check out the money..It is the grocery store…check the traffic..start walking..you didn’t spot the fast moving motorbike hurtling towards you…
WHACK…you are dead..and all because you made the wrong choice.
But which of those many choices you made since waking was the wrong one.
Can you see where I am going with this?.
Good, because this is a difficult subject and I am not too sure where it is heading and it may wander a little but stay with it if you can.
In fact you did not make any bad choices, you followed the pattern of events that would deliver what you required…food and drink at a price you could afford at the time. Maybe the motorbike rider made the wrong choice, if he has set off a little earlier or later he would have missed you.
You both made free will choices that brought about your demise.
Or did you.
I am not suggesting some massive subliminal conspiracy theory, nor playing too heavily on the Chaos theory. Every move you made before you were killed was the right one.You made the right choice according to your circumstances.
The most important choice you did not make was to look out for the traffic again.
But that was choice also.
It could be said that you did not check the traffic because you secretly wanted to die, or were just plain stupid, but that is a dark place so let’s not go there, yet.
Twenty twenty hindsight will tell you how many choices you have made that have actually altered, improved or damaged your life.
There is a huge amount of activity and money spent on prisoners rights. The Punishment should always reflect the crime but there are a great number of organizations that say most crimes are caused by a set of circumstances, family dysfunction, inadequacy, low personal esteem, lust, greed, envy…the list is endless. And that the punishment should not be too harsh given a certain set of background circumstances.
Another school of thought is that if you commit a crime you choose to do so, plain and simple. You assess the risk to yourself of getting away with it and then you make your choice based on that assessment.You can, at that point just walk away..It is a choice…you make it.
Are you still with me..Good..Let’s try another common example..Drugs.
The vast majority of drug takers willingly embrace the habit, they make that choice, even though they know the dangers to health and sanity, plus all of the social drawbacks that becoming a heavy user entails. It suggests that as they made the choice in free will that they want to go down that route..bye bye.
Smoking is another classic example..In the Western world billions are spent on health education warning of the dangers of smoking, and the habit is growing. People are choosing to put their lives and health at risk for the sake of being one of the crowd, fitting in, having something to do with their hands..if there is an excuse available then they will use it..but it all boils down to choice.
I have made some heavy duty choices in my life and with hindsight I have been lucky in that most of them have worked in my favour, but it could have been the other way .I could have turned right instead if turning left. That split moment in time can send you down an entirely different route in life.
I was a miner in my youth, studying to be an Engineer. One day, sitting in a dark corner of the coal face I decided I wanted to be a D.O.P.
It was a massively long journey and some canny decisions had to be made.
I made it in the end but I recall some career moments and choices that were catastrophic and put my career back a while, but I have absolutely no regrets because they were my informed choices, made entirely by me and of my free will.
The point of this article I suppose is to alert you to the fact that nothing is pre- ordained..the world of choice is out there just waiting for you.You will make the best choices if you weigh up all of the facts and then see which is the best route for you.See the main objective and aim for it.
Do not enter a random state.
Random means you are actually making the wrong choices and you are blowing in the wind.
Stop, rethink, step back and make another choice.
Some of the looters in the recent riots in the UK offered a plea in the courts that they were just caught up in the moment of madness They were actually caught up in the madness of making a series of appalling choices. All of them bad ones.
OK, Some thoughts there, maybe we can continue with this theme in the future, or not..but then that is just another choice..
PS..Keep an eye open for that speeding motorcycle..