Phillip Hunt Week 2 - The plot thickens.

18 November 09

First, a formal apology to my Mother who is adamant that we ALWAYS wore seatbelts in the car as kids (See blog 01). Hopefully this will be enough to deter retroactive action by child services against my parents, who are not cut out for electronic tagging. Let me make it clear that we never took bridges at 45mph either...

That aside, B-Day approaches and I’m treading carefully, lest I’m denied my seat due to my accident-prone tendencies. I’m looking both ways to cross the road, eating my vegetables & avoiding shellfish. However, I shared a plane back from Norway on Sunday with the Oslo national sneezing choir and I’m now convinced I’ll miss the big night due to ‘Fluius Hypercondrias’.

At least I made it to the nominees’ reception last night at BAFTA - where I loitered self-consciously amidst key Children’s TV creatives without being rumbled. The event passed incident free, no fights broke out and no one gave me ‘the hard stare’... Instead, I had a lovely chat with fellow bloggers Myles & Ben, reflecting on how brief moments like these are when compared with the realities of our normal working lives. Sadly I didn’t spot Lucinda, but did manage a garbled hello to Dave who still has no idea how much my kids love ‘Henry’. I’ll have to up their pocket money and bring them back ‘on side’.

Knocking back my third orange juice, I reflected on the people aside from Sue and I who aren’t getting the attention they deserve on this film; not least Contender/E1’s Joan Lofts who brought Sue, Pam and I the idea to adapt Oliver’s book in the first place, (and then trusted us to make it in our own way). There’s also the work of Max Richter our composer and Adrian Rhodes the sound designer who both made our pictures sing. But I can’t begin to pick out names on the animation crew - really it’s like asking me which of my two kids I prefer - but as you watch all those names drift past at the film’s close, you should be aware that the conductor is getting the praise for his orchestra’s faultless performance...

One last thought - I do hope that the noise surrounding the film at the moment leads to more kids seeing it. A half hour film is an unfashionable format these days, yet the feedback has been amazing and humbling. Whatever happens on the 29th, this film is one I’m so very proud of in what it’s taught me about the value of working for children - even within my favourite but tricky demographic of ‘ages 4 and up, including pensioners’. Hopefully we’ve created a lasting work along the way. I’ve been travelling recently with the film (incl. New Zealand, Chicago, Bradford and Fredrikstad...) and next week I’m aiming to Twitter and Facebook the film to the ends of the earth - on the back of this nomination - to get it seen by even more of you... So apologies in advance for gurning in the spotlight still further.

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