I continue Marcus Fair’s Story, describing how and his team of people in recovery, along with some police officers, made a film for Simon Shaw, the Assistant Chief Constable of North Wales. In addition, I introduce you to Peter Norrey, a BAFTA-winning filmmaker, who helped Marcus out with the film and became part of an exciting new initiative. I start with Marcus’s words:
‘I now had to make a film about addiction and show how people turn their life around and find recovery, using both police officers and people who had been in trouble with the police. I knew that I faced the problem of having addicts who later watched the film saying to me that they were in a much worse state than that shown. So, I had to find as actors, the worst of the worst who had turned their lives around. Luckily, I had friends in low places. I also had to deal with my film crew of three police officers, who were not happy being seconded to an addict, and had initially turned up prickly and in uniform.
Simon had given me carte blanche with the North Wales Police Force. We had access to police cars—we pranged one during the production—and filmed in police stations. We didn’t just have three police officers as crew, but a number of other officers acted in the film, along with a number of my mates in early recovery who had committed a lot of crime.
The project went from being a police training film to being something that we were all getting a lot out of. People from very different backgrounds, not really knowing what they were doing (other than me) because they had never previously been involved in film, were coming together as a film crew and being creative. Nobody had the edge over anybody else. Addicts and cops were becoming friends, creating a massive level playing field. They were becoming like a family.
One of the most poignant occasions during filming was when they had recovering people dressed as police officers during a chase scene. One of my friends, who was in early recovery and had led one hell of a life, was dressed as a police officer. During a break in filming, an old lady came over and asked him the time. She thought he was a genuine police officer. The friend just melted—he had never felt that level of respect.
Along the way I met Peter Norrey, a winner of BAFTA [British Academy of Film and Television Arts] Awards for film editing. I told him that I was making a film for North Wales police and had borrowed a camera to do so. Peter loved what I was doing and ended up sending me a top-end film editing suite that I set up in the bedroom of my humble NACRO flat.’
Peter Norrey: BAFTA-Winning Filmmaker
I went to school in Middlewich, Cheshire, with Marcus’s older sister Annette. Years later, I used to quite regularly visit my grandmother who was in a care home in Middlewich. On one occasion, I was staying in a hotel in nearby Davenham, where Annette lived, and decided to contact her. We met up for the first time in years and she told me about Marcus and how he had been in addiction pretty much since school. I was quite shocked. Annette informed me that Marcus had just come out of rehab and was three months clean, and wanted to make films.
I met up with Marcus in a pub a few months later and learnt how enthusiastic he was about film. He told me that when he was in prison he had made a film about prison life—how to navigate prison when you are new—for the governor using a cheap Handycam camera. Marcus explained that film was the only thing he had ever loved other than drugs. I had a strong feeling that Marcus realised that he was in the last chance saloon. He wanted out of his old life, but didn’t know how to build a new life. He saw film as a way out.
It wasn’t just Marcus’s love of film that helped me connect with him. I had experienced a difficult home life and left school at 16 under a cloud. It was touch and go whether I might have gone down Marcus’s path. After two years of messing around, creating hell for my parents, I began to realise that you have to endure certain things which can be quite traumatic when growing up. I decided out of the blue that I wanted to go to art college, but I had to first pass an A-level and successfully complete a foundation course to get into college. Going to art college and computers were the only things I was interested in at that time.
My whole experience at Wrexham College of Art was fantastic. It introduced me to a creative world, provided opportunities for me to explore different arts and crafts, and in a way helped reconstruct me as a person. I then received a place at Plymouth College of Art, which is now Arts University of Plymouth, and started on a combined media course which involved film, television, photography and related areas. When I finished my degree, I realised the expanse of the world I was lucky enough to be entering. I have never looked back since that time.
I have been been working in film and television for over twenty years and have won a BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) for editing work on BBC2’s 2002 documentary ‘SAS: Iranian Embassy Siege’, as well as a Grierson Award of Best Historical Documentary. Along with my passion for editing, I has also developed a directing career with credits across all major TV channels.
I could really feel Marcus’s passion for film and creativity when sitting across from him in the pub. I know the power of the film and TV world, and of creativity, for helping someone build a new way forward in their life. I had experienced it personally, so I knew there would be no going back for Marcus. I believed that if I helped him, Marcus would make the most of that opportunity. At that stage, the two of us just talked about some film ideas and the fact that Simon Shaw had offered Marcus the opportunity to make a low budget film for the police force.
Marcus asked me if he could help make the film, particularly by providing some equipment. I donated an editing suite and then started to play a producing role, in effect. I helped Marcus create a structure for the film, did some editing cuts, and provided feedback when requested. I would describe it as a ‘symbiotic collaborative relationship which led to a reasonably good film made with next to no money.’
Premiere of ‘Flipped It!’: Marcus Fair MBE Story, Part 7
My Path to Heroin Addiction: Marcus Fair MBE Story, Part 1
Peter Norrey with two of the stars, Nick Devine and Lisa Clutton, of the film made by Marcus and crew. You can read more about ‘Flipped It!’ in my next blog posts.