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Football
Crazy
Produced
& Directed by Pat Conway,
02-06/02/1994
(1
x 10 mins) Bournemouth University / B.A. Media Production Video Major
Gary's
passion is football. His bedroom is full of trophies, scarves and
programmes celebrating his favourite team, Barnet FC. He idolises
their top scorer Kenny Jacques and dreams of playing alongside him on
the pitch. But his fantasies are shattered when he witnesses the star
player carry out a racist attack against the elderly Indian
shopkeepers for whom Gary works. A tale of fallen heroes and lost innocence.
I'm
not sure how much of this story is drawn from Pat's personal
experiences, growing up in Barnet in the 1980's. Whatever his
inspiration, he certainly gives us a clear insight into lower middle
class teenage life in north London.
I
have fond memories of the four-day shoot, staying at Pat's family
home, and working with the close-knit crew. We were all good mates,
making Football Crazy a pleasure to shoot. It also made a nice change
for me to be out on location instead of sat in an edit suite. The
schedule involved us staying up all night twice in a row, filming in
one of the smallest newsagents imaginable. It was always tricky to
avoid 'crossing the line', and on at least one occasion we failed.
But these challenges were what made the shoot such good fun. Nobody
cared about being totally exhausted, we were having a laugh.
I
also really admire the concept, in which juvenile dreams are
shattered by harsh, adult reality. The script and performances rarely
fail to deliver. Football Crazy holds up very well after all these years.
Cast:
Mathew
Barger, Julia Goodman, Norman Bowman, Surendra Kochar, Vimal,
Charlotte
Fring, Katie Ross, Suhel Ahmed, Gavin Conway and Pat's Dad.
Production
Manager: Scott Fairweather
Location
Manager: Orin Solomon
Production
Assistant: Simon Harries
Camera:
Katie Parker
Sound:
Gary Truman
Lighting:
Joseph Potts
Post
Production: Scott Fairweather |
