Rom Boys is a feature length documentary on which I spent four agonising years producing about the worlds only heritage listed skatepark - Rom in Essex.
Working for clients on commercial shoots where you're a hired gun is great but I wanted to take on a real challenge by producing, directing and shooting a proper feature length documentary. I wanted COMPLETE creative control from the poster design, logo, marketing, merchandise and social media surrounding the film.
I just wanted to see how far I could take it creatively.
I had no intention of it taking four years but the story just evolved and there was no way it could be told in a shorter time (when you watch it you'll understand why).
When shooting had wrapped I couldn't see how anyone else could edit the huge amount of footage that I'd gathered together - it just seemed impossible that anyone would be able to get a handle on the interview subjects the same way I would (also I had run out of budget). So I then took on the editing, color grading and VFX work which was an epic 8 month challenge.
Of course as the film came together I could see it was turning into something really great and one area where I accepted my limitations on was sound and music. Fortunately I'd been approached by a great US film composer - Fernando Martinez who worked with me for FOUR years on the music composition - he produced around 30 tracks of original music. The end result I think really transformed the final production.
For sound design, and the final cherry on the cake I worked with Will Berridge and Carlos Hernandez, two sound designers who had produced a lot of work for Red Bull - they absolutely got what was needed and just nailed the final output, like when you wash and wax a car, these guys put a ceramic coating on top of everything.
To date the film has a 100% Fresh Rating on Rotten Tomatoes, an 8.8 ranking on IMDB, 5 stars on Amazon UK (Based on 184 ratings giving an average of 4.8/5).
Here are some of the quotes...
"Beautifully shot and brimming with substance", "Top notch editing", "wonderfully shot and produced", "Brilliantly edited", "Absolutely awesome documentary".
Available now on all your favourite digital platforms.
Client: Self
Production Company: Pixelwork
Role: Producer / Director / Editor / DOP / VFX / Writer / Colour Grading / Sound Recordist /Aerial Camera
