TOMMIES The Films

FILMS


It has been a real pleasure putting together some films of my own haphazard creation using material shot mainly on my phone when I'm on research trips.

But the really classy films were put together by my great film maker buddy Hilary Easter-Jones.

Here are all the Tommies films in the one place, in roughly the order we did them. The only exception is the first, which is sort of the summary film for the whole project.



Beyond WW1


This is the last film we made, with the quotes from four years of transmission.



Time Bomb


The film of the sound of the drama that kicked the whole thing off. Footage grabbed when I could.



Collecting Shells


Hilary and I met to talk films and she came up with this, heading in a more lyrical direction.



Dr Who meets Tommies


Hilary and I were thinking about the energy of Twitter in 2014, and Dr Who was then the biggest news.



Firepower


Just a clip grabbed while I was recording the breech operation at the now defunct Royal Artillery 'Firepower' museum. I was doing this well before the recording sessions started.



Tommies Begins


Looking back, this was a pretty prescient summary of what we were about.



NextRadio Talk


Also being done well up front was this talk at the Royal Institution. Short version and then below, long version.



14-10-1914


Pretty much the first date-specific film we went for. At the time I was mad enough to think we might do a film per drama. (!).



Tommies 1915


Second series was now up and running, though I note we'd shot all this way back in 2014. Way to go forward planning.



Gallipoli 11th May 1915


Hm. Obviously I'd been to Gallipoli by the time we made this film. But I'd shot no footage. Why not, I now wonder? Because the Turkish trip pre-dated the French bomb disposal one, and I know this sounds dumb but I hadn't yet grasped the potential of mobile footage. Seems bonkers in retrospect.



Tommies in Mesopotamia


Although this was shot on a research trip for the Salonika campaign, we angled it so it could be about operations in Mesopotamia, modern day Iraq.



Sound Affects


As befits a radio drama, some bits about sound itself, and how to go get it.



Somme 1916 2016


Probably my favourite film of all. I think it is the best combination of history and the more philosophical side of Tommies all in one.



La B Advance


Early days of me using the selfie-stick - and it shows.



Sound Barrier


Hilary saves me from my literal self.



German Listening Post


Mobile nice and dry in the back seat of the car while your truly gets rained on.



Pay Day


Hilary, thank goodness, was still pushing for the more oblique approaches to the subject.



Somme Splinter


Short but a lot in a few few seconds.



Screen Time

Another striking alternative take.



11th November 1916


Straight factual stuff, right up on the Greek/FYROM border.



Our Small Joke


The question is posed in the first film...

...and answered in the second.



Practice


Maybe you knew about the rehearsals for the Somme. I didn't.



The Last Day of the Battle of the Somme


I don't want to be immodest but I think one of our best moves on Tommies was focussing on the exact opposite of the rest of the world's media focus.



Nieuport 1917


And this one actually tackled an attack that never happened - WW1's D-Day.



Cambrai


We didn't actually do the Battle of Cambrai as part of Tommies, but i was commissioned to go to France to do this piece for Radio 4.



Bralo 1918


Beginning to wrap up now, this was the first film to reach beyond the end of the War. Filmed in Greece.



1st August 1918


A sort of podcast. I know it isn't really but it serves the same function. as did the subsequent threesome.



8th August 1918



15th August 1918



22nd August 1918



11-11-11-18


My favourite fact about that momentous moment.



M33 at Portsmouth


Once again, I'm so glad we blended the Battle of Armistice Day in Russia into the more normal material.



WW1 Belgium


Apologies - the camera was on the fritz so I had to shoot in lousy light. For that reason I'm glad it is short, but interesting stuff nonetheless.



Beyond WW1


This is the last film we made, with the quotes from four years of transmission.
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