This year’s Panic Awards were another big success, and for the first time you can see behind the scenes at this special annual event by watching the very first Panic Awards documentary.
The Panic Awards 2001: or How I Learnt to Stop Panicking and Start to Love the Awards was filmed, directed and produced by local filmmaker Adam Barker, the man responsible for the infamous Hitler Panic Awards parody video. It was material filmed for the awards that the concept first came from.
“I was originally asked by [Panic Awards organiser] Andy Poole to help film a couple of short promos for The Panic Awards” Adam told us.
“Afterwards, I came to him with the idea of maybe filming a documentary that shows everybody what work goes into putting together an awards show, and then film the night from a backstage/side of stage perspective. Andy was fully up for that idea, and I started to film relevant preparation of the awards from then on.
“I had never made a documentary before,” Adam added, “so it was a challenge with the equipment I had.”
The documentary itself was filmed for approximately a month before the awards themselves, and during that time Adam was able to film interviews with Andy Poole plus fellow organisers Mike Standing and James Lapham.
He also filmed several of the planning meetings which captured the panic (no pun intended) and stress of planning such a massive undertaking.
After filming the event itself, it was a case of editing everything down.
“I was able to get all the footage and piece together a documentary lasting just over an hour and a half” said Adam.
“Obviously I had to cut a lot out, but I didn’t aim to have an epic style documentary which never ends!”
After putting in so much effort, Adam feels it was all worth it.
“I am extremely pleased with the final result” he said, “and I hope others feel the same.
“My general aim wasn’t to make a documentary that just had a filmed version of the awards on it, I wanted to film things from a viewpoint that not many people see. This included getting interviews explaining the awards and its origins, filming them setting up on the day and getting a quick word with the winners backstage.
“I hope the documentary gives people an insight into what the Panic Awards is all about and also has some entertaining bits that will make them smile. Plus you get to relive the awards show too.”
Adam managed to get input from many people involved in the awards, both as organisers and performers.
“On the night of the awards I got my friend Billy Cutmore to film from the audience for extra shots throughout” Adam explains.
“Obviously Andy, Mike and James were always available to be interviewed and Andy pretty much gave me free reign on what went into the documentary.”
Adam went into the documentary project on the back of completing his first short film in over 10 years.
Titled (re)CYCLE, the film is about a man trying his best to hold on to the one girl he loves, no matter what.
“Over the last year I kind of got tired of always talking about making a short film but never doing it” Adam said.
“I always moaned it would be too hard, or too expensive, but I started to realise that being a filmmaker isn’t all about spending and making money, it’s about actually telling a story through the medium of film.”
The film itself was shot in one day with a leading two person cast of local actors.
“I asked my friends Kat Tokley and Dean Hempstead if they would be willing to be in it, and they jumped at the idea. These two are memebers of the CTW group at Old Cort Theatre and they couldnt wait to do something a bit different.”
So far Adam has had an extremely good response to the film. Various people have contacted him with their own interpretations of what the film means – something he is extremely proud of.
Part of the soundtrack to the film was provided by a local musician.
“I am friends with Chris Saunders from Another Dead Hero and I asked him one day if he ever fancied scoring part of my short.
“I sent him the script and he sent back several samples of music to use. I am a big fan of his band and his solo projects in which he creates John Carpenter-esque music. Music is a big part of film and I feel Chris smashed it out of the park with his theme in this.”
Adam has plans to create more promos for next year’s awards, and possibly film the event itself again.
He also has a weekly podcast, The Oddcast Podcast with Adam and Billy – a show where they take the news of the week and deconstruct it with their own unique style of humour.
As well as all this, he is in pre-production of another short film that he is hoping to submit to the Virgin Media Shorts Festival very soon.
Details of Adam’s projects are on his website: www.barkerproductions.tumblr.com
The Oddcast Podcast with Adam and Billy is available at: barkerproductionsuk.blogspot.com
LOVE (re)CYCLE is available to watch on YouTube.
