The Club has just lost a dear and valued member in Nigel Barton who passed away on 16 January.
Nigel started to attend our Club meetings at the age of 13, being at that time a pupil at Ormskirk Grammar School. His cousin Miles Tarplee from Hertfordshire used to stay with the family. Together they made Super 8 cine films, often based on animation.
Nigel later attended Southport School of Arts & Crafts, followed by a TV production course in the north-east. There he directed a film made with his fellow students, involving acting as a stunt double, when he plunged from a hatch in the ceiling on to a mattress on the floor, dressed as a girl. The film had a scene where a pedestrian is knocked down by a car. The effect was produced by the actor vaulting over the bonnet of a stationary car. The actor would not do this until Nigel had done it. Nigel demonstrated the action and the actor then repeated it. Unfortunately, the actor’s arm caught the windscreen, which shattered. Nobody was hurt, but the cost of replacing the windscreen was £100, which was the budget for the whole film.
Nigel later went to Goldsmith’s College in London, where he graduated. The final part of his training was at the National Film & Television School at Beaconsfield, where he specialised in directing.
After working for some years in the film industry in London, mainly in editing, he moved back to Southport, where he found time to be involved in the writing and directing of a number of amateur films for the Club.
For three consecutive years these films won the Denham Gold Cup at the British International Amateur Film Festival. This is awarded for the best film made by an associated club of The Film & Video Institute.
The crowning glory came when one film, ‘
Rent-A-Mate’ was selected by the Institute for entry into UNICA, the world-wide amateur film competition. It was awarded a Gold Medal, and was declared to be ‘The Film of the Festival’.
As we look back at the filming over the years, it brings back reminiscences. When shooting ‘The Reaper’, we had filmed a cellar sequence at another location, and it was late when we moved to an office car park to enact a sequence where a man is attacked by a cloaked figure wielding a scythe. As we filmed in the early hours, there was a power surge, and the bulbs in our lights failed one by one. We had to work quickly to complete the shoot by the time dawn came. Apparently somebody phoned the police to say they had seen a man with a severe back injury. That was a tribute to the skills of our make-up girl.
For ‘
Mummy’s Boys’, we arranged permission from the landlord of the Bold Arms pub at Churchtown to film there on a Sunday morning, before opening hours. When we arrived, the landlord was not present, and the staff knew nothing about it. It took them an hour to locate him and verify that the arrangement was genuine, before we were allowed to set up for the shoot.
Some MovieMakers’ members were often critical of the number of takes which Nigel requested when directing a film. He had been taught the professional method of trying to obtain the most perfect take possible of each shot. On one film, an elderly actor was not feeling well, and had to be replaced by a stand-in until the actual
takes. However, Nigel always ended up with a wide variety of material to select from in the editing process, ensuring excellent quality in the finished film.
It was only just before Christmas 2013, that Nigel completed his last film, '
Ransom'. His skills will be sorely missed in the Club.
