Tuesday, December 18, 2012

B.Right.On Festival

I have been commissioned by Vince Laws to film the opening events of his B.Right.On Festival in Brighton on 1st February 2013. I'm looking forward to it. I really enjoy working in different parts of the country and I really enjoy working with Vince. He's a bit of a creative dynamo at the mo - his plan to have an exhibition in Brighton has rapidly evolved into a full-on festival with loads of amazing stuff happening throughout the month with all sorts of choirs, artists and activists. It's going to be a joy to make a movie that will promote the festival and capture the magic of Vince's work. It's also another opportunity for OUT140 to spread its wings and fly - Vince will be having speech bubbles of the stories in the library and selling our dinky books. I can't wait for the new OUT140 stories that will come in. Vince was interviewed on Out in Brighton radio show this week. I'm impressed by the podomatic website they use for their podcasts - am thinking making podcasts might be something I should explore.....

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Natalie's 30th Birthday


I filmed Natalie Drury's 30th Birthday Party in the summer which was a great pleasure. I first met Natalie and her mum in 2007 when I filmed them for a Carers Assessments DVD. They are a fab family, very passionate about Nat and her independence and her right to a full and happy life. I filmed them again earlier in the year for the Journeys DVD, commissioned by the UEA Nursing School to raise awareness of the needs of patients with learning disabilities. That's when Pauline asked me if I did birthdays too. The party was fantastic - every carer since Natalie was a small child was invited, as well as her big extended family. I captured as much of the action as I could - Pauline's emotional speech, the amazing malteser cake arriving, the singer entertaining everyone on guitar. I also interviewed as many people as possible to find out what makes Natalie so special.....her smile, her family, her personality, her love of chocolate! We uploaded the film to YouTube and facebook so people could watch it online and Natalie has ordered extra copies of the DVD for Christmas presents.

Friday, December 7, 2012

Queer Art Club

I have set up a new group called Queer Art Club with a fantastic artist called Eloise O'Hare. We have both been previous Art Leaders for Norwich Pride. We want to form a club so that artists can meet all year round to share ideas & skills, visit exhibitions, have workshops and talks etc. Our aims are "to make art, make a living and make Norwich Pride amazing". We have been working with Edith Karnitsch from Terra Network to develop a website using WordPress. Edith has been brilliant - very patient with us. 


Here's what we've done so far: www.queerartclub.org.uk. There's a long way to go but what's been interesting is how our ideas about the club have developed as we've worked with Edith to create the website. For example, we want helping artists "to make a living" to be an important focus of our work - part of the reason Eloise couldn't continue as the Arts Leader is that she needs to focus on getting paid for her art. Now I have always been very proud that I have made a sustainable living from my filmmaking but times are hard - with the recession and cuts in government funding, there isn't the same amount of work around that I was used to for my first 10 years in business (during a Labour government). I've never really had to think about marketing myself before - each film advertised the next. Now, film feels like such a luxury compared to saving front-line services. I have to convince people what a vital form of communication it is - and worth paying for.

So how can Queer Art Club help me? Well, there's going to be sections on "Jobs" where people can advertise Jobs they've got available so some interesting bits of work might come up there. We'll also have a "Wanted/Offered" section for equipment so I'm hoping that will help with my clear-out now I have moved from the Tea Lounge. I'm looking forward to picking up new skills from the workshops we'll organise and inspiration from the exhibitions we'll attend. Most of all though, I'm excited about working with more and more artists - Eloise has done some wonderful illustrations for my films; Joe Ballard has been brilliant doing drama and Kimberley Moore has been amazing making music. These are the things that will give Shelly Telly projects "extra value" and make them extra special - well worth investing in.....

Friday, November 30, 2012

Bye Bye Tea Lounge!

It's the end of an era! I have give up my office at the Tea Lounge. In these times of austerity, I have to keep my running costs low. I've also got a huge garage in my new house so plenty of storage space for all the props and costumes and stationery I have amassed across the years! I do want to do a massive clear-out too though so watch this space if you want to pick up some bargains. I will miss Dina and Annemarie and sitting in the kitchen catching up on all the gossip. We marked the occasion, as I always do, with a chocolate cake - this time iced with the word "Bye". Previous cakes have included ACTION, PRIDE, ART, OUT140 and various project names. Don't worry Action Crew - I will continue the proud tradition of starting each new project with a chocolate cake!


Thursday, November 15, 2012


Sing with Pride, the Pride choir, were in the paper. This week we headed off to Bletchley Park in Milton Keynes for the pre-Launch of LGBT History Month. We were amazing! I was amazed! We've never sung so well - congratulations to everyone, particularly our Musical Director Mary Lovett who worked really hard to get a great performance out of us. I took the photo of the choir throwing their scarves in the air. I used a really fast shutter speed and took loads. I played with the pics to create this little movie.....



Sunday, October 28, 2012

OUT140 in the news

Fab article about the launch of "OUT140: the Little Book of Coming Out Stories" in this week's Great Yarmouth Mercury. I am so very proud of this project. It was brilliant when Sophie from Radio Norfolk said the newsroom staff loved the book and were all fighting to read it. I'm sure it will become an internet/publishing phenomenon at some point!! It has been wonderful to work with Poet/Artist Vince Laws on OUT140. Check out his website www.vincelaws.com and look out for him and his I AM A POEM exhibition in Brighton Library in LGBT History Month in February.

You can read all the OUT140 stories we have collected so far at www.twitter.com/OUT140. You can buy a copy of the book from the Greenhouse Shop on Bethel St or by emailing me at shell@shellytelly.co.uk. It's been lovely developing a book and seeing it in print and it is soooooo dinky - about the size of a credit card. I'd love to do a book about community filmmaking too - I've learnt so much over the last 12 years.


Saturday, October 27, 2012

Sew Gay's Pride Patchwork


The Sew Gay group started meeting again today. We meet from 12-2pm on the big table on the first floor of the Millennium Library in the Forum, on the last Saturday of the month. We are doing a brilliant project, led by curator Stevie. We are trying to capture over 50 years of LGBT history in a quilt, each square representing a significant event that year. The inspiration comes from Lillian Dring who in 1951 created the "Patchwork of the Century" for the Festival of Britain. She gathered together women with no sewing experience to produce a quilt documenting advances in women’s rights over 100 years. This photo is of some of the first Pride patches to be completed. The finished quilt is going to be AMAZING. For more information go to www.sewgaynorwich.shutterfly.com

Friday, October 26, 2012

No to Hate in the Advertiser

Great piece in tonight's Norwich Advertiser about the No to Hate Vigil. I particularly like the way that Ann Nicholls from Look, See, Click Photography gets her own blue box acknowledgement for her photo. Ann worked for me on the Young Carers Big Day Out event earlier in the year capturing all the fun on camera. You can see some examples of Ann's work on her Blipfoto site: www.blipfoto.com/lookseeclick. Big thanks to everyone who helped at the Vigil - it's brilliant to see such a strong message from Abraham Eshetu at Norfolk Constabulary about tackling Hate Crime. My friends from Opening Doors also spoke. They are a self-advocacy organisation for people with learning difficulties and it was helping them to to film their Hate Crime conference in 2008 that inspired me to set up Norwich Pride. I was so appalled by the stories of hate crimes against people with disabilities that I felt I needed to do something. I realised that one of the things I had to face first was that I was part of an oppressed minority who also lived in fear of hate - I would think twice before holding my girlfriend's hand in public. So I needed to tackle my own fears first. Being involved in Norwich Pride has given me loads more confidence in myself and my sexuality and I love Opening Doors speaking each year at the Vigil - a reminder that the best way for us to tackle hate crime is for everyone to work together and say No to Hate.

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Top 10 Tips for Getting Your Health Check


Don't forget your Health Check! Top 10 Tips for Getting a Health Check is now on YouTube. Thanks to Kimberley Moore for the fabulous music workshop that created the soundtrack and to all the Action Crew who helped to make the film.

Monday, October 22, 2012

My Pride Life


I was invited by Pride Live!, the Norwich Pride Radio Show on Future Radio every Monday at 6.30pm to record My Pride Life - choose six of my favourite songs and explain why they are relevant to me as an LGBT person. I've grabbed some pics of all the artists I chose - can you guess who they are and what the songs might be? You can hear a podcast of My Pride Life if you click here

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Action News


Came across a couple of my old newsletters the other day and include one here to inspire me to do an up-to-date one soon. Great to see a pic of Natalie Drury in this edition - this was the first time I filmed her and her mum Pauline for a DVD about Carers' Assessments. Natalie was 25 then - I know because I've just filmed her 30th birthday party for her. Also sweet to work out at last how long my team have been playing in the Norwich and District Table Tennis League - looks like this is our 6th year in the bottom division! But the Action tshirts look great! And of course 2007 was the last time I went to Ghana and had such a brilliant experience with Agnes, Evans and the rest of the Action Crew. It was amazing to be with them as they filmed their Chief in his Palace. These are the moments when I realise how much I love being a filmmaker.


Saturday, October 20, 2012

No to Hate Vigil


I worked with a talented team of people to organise the fourth No to Hate Vigil to remember victims of hate crime everywhere. I was so very proud of Action Crew member Ki who did a speech based on the voiceover for the film he made for Evolve Youth Group. Ki's story of being born into the wrong body and being bullied at school for being different was very moving on film but even more so in the flesh, surrounded in candles. You can find out more about the Vigil at www.norwichnotohatevigil.org.uk You can listen to my interview about the Vigil with Jasmine on Future Radio and read a report in the Norwich Evening News

Monday, October 15, 2012

Shelly Telly Table Tennis Team

I have got a team in the fourth division of the Norwich and District Table Tennis Division. Thanks to Di, Colin and Ruth for all your skill and hard work. OK, we don't win very much but we always have fun and every year we win a Team of the Month competition at least once! Check out all our results on the NDTTL website

Friday, October 12, 2012

OUT140: The Little Book of Coming Out Stories

OUT140 is a project that artist/poet Vince Laws and I created for Norwich Pride. We asked people to tell us their coming out stories in 140 characters or less - a tweet on Twitter. OUT140 has taken various forms over the last two years - it began as a multimedia show on the Fusion screen in the Forum accompanied by 12 second films; we had the stories printed huge for an exhibition at the Norwich Art Centre; Vince painted them in speech bubbles for an exhibition in Folkestone; and this year we published them as a book. The Norfolk Library and Information Service has bought copies for every Norfolk library and we celebrated this with a launch at Great Yarmouth library today - National Coming Out Day. You can hear a podcast of an article about it on BBC Radio Norfolk. We were delighted that her Worship, the Mayor of Great Yarmouth Colleen Walker and Norfolk County Council Cabinet Member for Cultural Services Barry Stone, helped us celebrate  by raising the rainbow flag and cutting the OUT140 cake. Photo by Antonella Muscat

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Norwich Sound and Vision Festival

On stage at the Norwich Sound and Vision Festival with Marcus from NORCA, Ben from CME, Martin from Media Projects East and Mark from UEA discussing community film and music production.

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

If you want to buy a tiger

Had a fabulous premiere of "If you want to buy a tiger" last night - a DVD exploring cultural identity for young people in Norfolk. Was so very proud of all the stars sitting on the beanbags in Fusion in the Q+A after the film.

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Young Carers Review of the Year

Had a great workshop yesterday with some fab young filmmakers making a film about the Norfolk Young Carer's Forum. It was magic!

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Sex, Drugs and Drum & Bass


This is a film I made in 2006 for the "Bad Boys" project. The idea was to make a movie that would make young people think about the consequences of the choices they make. The young stars really did all want to be DJs and the music soundtrack is made entirely by them. The film went on to be shown at the Coop Young Filmmakers festival in Bradford. DJ Oblivion, "Nosher" in the film, went on to make music for more of my films, including my promotional DVD. He also won an Outline magazine award for his DJing.

Monday, July 30, 2012

Pride Sweeps Norwich


Was very proud to see this outside my local newsagents today! I'm the secretary of Norwich Pride this year and also had to take on press duties when our Press Officer, Lee, had to step back because of family health issues. Norwich Pride was on the front page of the Evening News and had a double-page spread on pages 2 & 3 with lots of fabulous photographs. The Lord Mayor of Norwich, Ralph Gayton, said: “It’s a wonderful historic summer of celebrations and Norwich Pride is an important part of that. I’m here today to tell you Norwich is proud of its LGBT community and proud that it is colourful, accessible and welcoming to all.” Read all about it in the Norwich Evening News

Friday, June 15, 2012

Nick's Story


And if you want to know more about Nick, you can watch his story here. Check out the stories of Nigel, Felix, Natalie and Tristan too - all part of the Journeys Project, created with the UEA School of Nursing and the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital Trust to teach medical professionals about the needs of patients with learning disabilities.

Thursday, June 14, 2012


Lovely article in the Evening News and EDP last week about the Journeys Premiere. Wonderful pic of Nick and Tristan looks like an angel!!

Friday, June 8, 2012

Young Carers Big Day Out

Had a hectic, creative day yesterday at the Norfolk Showground working with over 100 young carers on their Big Day Out. Had to bring in a Big Action Crew to help. Thanks to Stevie Read for making my lovely Action banner. Kimberley Moore ended up posing with her guitar and young carers for an article in the Norwich Evening News

Friday, June 1, 2012

Hello from Shelly Telly!

3,2,1 Action! Welcome to my new blog! I'm a freelance filmmaker from Norwich in the UK. I work with people from all sections of the community to help them tell their stories on film. I use equipment that is easy to use and produces great results. This way I can involve my customers at every level. Everyone who works on a Shelly Telly project gets a superman-style Action tshirt and can join my crew. I've started this blog to keep you and the Action Crew up-to-date with all my projects. Keep in touch!