Many Welsh or Wales based arts graduates are finding this current period especially difficult. Their usual opportunities to meet agents, prepare for final year exhibitions or productions may take place later in the year or sadly not at all. To raise awareness of the diverse talent graduating this year GTC is offering any Welsh or Wales based graduate the opportunity to be showcased on our website. If you are interested, please do get in touch.

Hi Callum great to meet you, can you give our readers some background information on yourself please?

Hi, thank you very much, I really appreciate this opportunity. So I was brought up in a small village in the South Wales valleys called Cwm near to the town of Ebbw Vale. I studied Media at Coleg Gwent’s Learning Zone, and then I went on to study Media Production at the University of South Wales.

After graduating I needed some sort of income so I got a job at Superbowl UK Cradiff as a general assistant, progressing then to a Trainee Manager, until recently when I got a job at Bad Wolf in Cardiff, the company responsible for major productions such as His Dark Materials and A Discovery of Witches. 

While I was at school, the film-making process really fascinated me and I knew I wanted to pursue a career. However there was something else that fascinated me, I seen this video online where someone built their own Iron Man suit (it obviously didn’t fly or have the major weapon systems), and after seeing this it was something I really wanted to do, after looking into it over the space of around 2 years, I finally got around to doing it myself. At college I borrowed some of the equipment needed over weekends and ploughed through getting it done ready for comic-con in May. I finished the night before and it went down a storm! I couldn’t have been more pleased with it, all day people were asking me for pictures, selfies etc, I couldn’t believe how well it went down. Since then I have been hooked on the fabrication process, the attention to detail and the appreciation received, its all the spark that lights the fire. Since then I have completed a full size Dalek, a Captain America costume and shield, also had another go at Iron Man in order to improve on my skills and do a better job than the first time around. This has all been on the sidelines, all with my own money for my own pleasure, looking to hopefully pursue a career in this and some sort of production work in the future.

On the flip side to this I also really enjoy being behind the scenes and while at University I got opportunities to work on TV productions, the first was “Cythrel Canu”, a show for S4C where I worked as a Trainee Art Department Runner. Also on “To Provide All People”, a show for BBC1 starring an A list cast filming at Neville Hall Hospital, the Sugar Loaf mountain and in Whitchurch. The film-making process is something I really enjoy, the organisation required and skill to produce something of a high quality fascinates me. Me and my brother have had a Production in the pipeline now for a good 2 years, having being on the sidelines while we both finish University, hopefully though when he graduates this year we can storm through it and finally get it finished.

 So, what got you interested in the arts?

Originally what got me hooked on the film making process was in 2001 when the Lord of the Rings came out. The way Peter Jackson immersed me in a mythical world really influenced me.

I would watch these films over and over again, and also take a look into the behind the scenes on the film making process, and how they done everything really appealed to me (maybe not in 2001 as I was only 4, but probably as I was getting older). Having then being influenced to be more creative and practical was down to Robert Downey Jr in 2008 when he assumed the role of Tony Stark in Iron Man, after watching this I really wanted to be Tony Stark and make the suit of armour, which I ended up doing in 2015.

Can you tell us about your creative process?

When I want to start anything, I make sure it is something I love and will want to put my all into, otherwise I may lose heart and not want to finish it simply because I wouldn’t love what I’m doing. When I know I am going to start something then I do as much research on it as I can as its easier to think something through in detail at the beginning, than to change it once its already done and too late. I keep my eye open all the time to ideas and influences that may help along the way that I may not have thought of and could be a great help. I ask my dad a fair bit too, anytime I’m stuck as to how something is going to work I ask him for his opinion as it really helps getting a fresh pair of eyes look at it.

 As a young Welsh artist graduating during a very difficult period what investment and support do you think is required to enable your career to develop and prosper?

In order to get support it is very important for someone to know exactly where they want to end up, as its hard to get help to get somewhere if you don’t know where you want to end up. While still in education the best support can be your lecturers/tutors, who are real industry professionals and have had experience in the industry, and even if you have finished education, I’m sure they will be more than happy to offer support and guidance as to which direction to head into. As a tool, YouTube is one of the best free learning resources out there, if you want to do anything, there’ll probably be some sort of guide/ tutorial on ho to get started.

A range of arts organisation and individuals are now working online or finding new ways to reach out to audiences. Have you seen any particularly good examples of this way of working?

The best example out there has to be YouTube, as this is a platform where anyone can post whatever they want to on there. Big organisations use it to promote themselves which normally makes for trending on that day and the days to come. Also some individuals use this as a way of income, to make their own “show” in which they post regular videos to entertain people. Two brilliant examples would be “TheSlowMoGuys” and “Colin Furze”, individuals who have made their career from YouTube and has been really successful in doing so.

If you were able to fund an area of the arts in Wales what would this be and why?

If I could fund an area, it would have to be to the individuals out there, who don’t have much of a background, have no money to get an education or the experience to get anywhere, and to give them a chance at doing what they would love to do, maybe thus giving them the kick start they need to pursue a career.

 What excites you about the arts in Wales?

What excites me is that I don’t believe Wales has hit its peak yet in terms of the full potential that the country is capable of. We have already seen massive shows such as Doctor Who and His Dark Materials grace our screens, but I believe this is just the beginning. Not knowing where the future is going to be for this country is really exhilarating, it can only go up from here. Recently Robert Downey Jr portrayed the role of Dr Dolittle, performing this role in a Welsh accent, showcasing this to the rest of the world. The talent we have in Wales is also something to be excited about, Luke Evans, Ruth Jones, Michael Sheen, Matthew Rhys, Anthony Hopkins, to name a few are all Welsh people who have made it big so far in the world, this list is going to grow by a great deal, a list of names that Wales is going to be proud of.

 What was the last really great thing that you experienced that you would like to share with our readers?

The last great thing I experienced was getting a job at Bad Wolf. When I used to work at Superbowl UK, I would pass the studio on the way to work, I would always look over and think “I would love to work in there some day” and now I do. While working at Bad Wolf I have also had amazing opportunities within the company, such as working on the His Dark Materials Welsh Premiere, being able to visit the sets of the mythical land and meeting the stars of the show. It’s something I will truly cherish forever. 

You can checkout more of Callum’s work at his YouTube channel. Or on Instagram

Terry Gilliam’s three-decade-long struggle to bring Miguel Cervantes’ seventeenth-century novel Don Quixote to the big screen is an epic saga worthy of its knightly hero. Everything short of divine intervention seems to have scuppered the Monty Python alum’s numerous attempts, including lost financing, flash floods, legal disputes and personal injuries. The film took so long so produce that the two main roles, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, were recast numerous times, with the likes of Robert Duvall, Michael Palin and John Hurt for the former and Johnny Depp, Ewan McGregor and Robin Williams for the latter. It was such a chaotic production that it’s intended ‘making of’ featurette, 2002’s Lost in La Mancha, turned into a documentary of its quixotic plight, predating the actual film’s completion by some fifteen years.

That the film finally got made is nothing short of a miracle. That it’s not particularly great is unsurprising, though it’s a triumph that it’s anything resembling coherent at all. Here’s the gist: while shooting a vodka commercial in Spain, Toby Grisoni (Adam Driver) comes across his first student film, an adaptation of Don Quixote he shot in a nearby village, Los Sueños (which aptly translates to ‘The Dreams’). Having long abandoned his scruples in pursuit of the big leagues, Toby ditches the shoot in an attempt to rekindle any artistic integrity he has left by revisiting the place where his love for movies began – only to learn of the collateral damage he unwittingly caused to the village where he shot his first feature. This is embodied in the fate of local cobbler Javier (Jonathan Pryce), whom Toby cast as the titular hero in his movie, and who now believes he is Don Quixote and that Toby is his loyal squire, Sancho Panza.

That synopsis alone may give you an idea of how convoluted the film is, but despite its over-complicated premise, its execution is often too simplistic. Most of its drawn-out run-time is spent on watching our odd couple traipse around the countryside with no real aim (or end) in sight – it’s even referenced when Toby breaks the fourth wall to exclaim, ‘There’s a plot??’ And while rural Spain looks utterly beautiful thanks to Nicola Pecorini’s sumptuous cinematography, the visuals mean little without some kind of plot to back them up. Perhaps it was meant to play like a nightmare, but it’s lacking even the dreamy coherence of a fairy tale. Many scenes feel superfluous, but none is quite so poorly handled as the grand ball, an exercise in exasperation which plays a lot of casual xenophobia and misogyny for laughs, and which features a truly abysmal scene where Quixote is fooled into ‘going to the moon’ to save fair maidens.

But at least the acting here more than makes up for the shaky narrative. As sardonic ad director Toby Grisoni, Adam Driver turns in yet another excellent performance. His character is supremely unlikable practically from start to finish, but his arc wraps up an interesting and not entirely predictable way. He’s a lightning bolt of smarmy charisma and manic energy, and any strength the film has traces back to the strange and spiky chemistry between Driver and his onscreen partner in crime: Jonathan Pryce, as the charmingly delusional Quixote. Pryce is absolutely wonderful here – he feels simultaneously ancient, chivalrous, masterful, adorable, mad, sane, wise, foolish, otherworldly and mischievous. Perhaps something magical happens when Pryce and Gilliam collaborate, given that some of their best work can be found in their last collaboration, 1985’s Brazil. There are shades of Midnight Run in the scenes where Driver’s sweary Millennial tries to cart around Pryce’s endearingly doddery oddity like an exasperated babysitter. Their interactions are funny, chaotic and sometimes moving, and they are easily the best part of the film. Even Óscar Jaenada and Jason Watkins excel in small roles.

It’s a shame they’re saddled with such scant material. Don Quixote may be Gilliam’s best work since 1995’s Twelve Monkeys, but it’s still a haphazard scrawl of a movie with way too many eccentric sojourns that makes it feel like ten different versions smushed together. Its despicable portrayal of women is easily its worst element, though, throwing Gilliam’s Madonna-Whore complex into stark relief. Jacqui, the character played by Olga Kurylenko (a supremely multi-faceted actress who excels across multiple genres from drama to action to romantic comedy) is portrayed as a nymphomaniacal harpy who throws herself at Toby any chance she gets. When Toby gropes a woman on his crew, it’s played as some kind of joke; in fact, it’s Toby’s inability to remember her name that is played for laughs – his casual groping of her is completely brushed over. And Angelica (Joana Ribeiro) caught Toby’s eye on the set of his original film when she was fifteen years old. They never progressed past innocent flirting at the time – thank god – but it’s uncomfortably specific, especially as Toby and Angelica do become romantically involved during film.

It’s a difficult film to review because, in a way, it feels as if it involves appraising Gilliam’s soul. Gilliam has long been likened to Quixote, both dreamers who defiantly live a fantastical existence in the face of orthodox society. Watching his finally finished treatise to the elusive knight errant feels like a trip into the windmills of his mind. He even gets to wreak cinematic revenge on the producers who dashed his hopes for decades by framing Stellan Skarsgård’s producer character as the embodiment of all evil in a way that resonates with M. Night Shyamalan’s decision to write the gruesome death of a callous film critic in Lady in the Water. It’s a fittingly metatextual adaptation given that the novel played with those kinds of elements, branded as a relic from the ‘archives of La Mancha’ in order to enhance its credibility. And though the line between fantasy and reality remains, as in much of Gilliam’s filmography, blurred, its period features seem to comprise a fantastical gloss over the modern world – modern-looking security guards with shades and earpieces line the castle walls, and Kurylenko, resplendent in gaudy medieval finery on a horse, taps away at her smartphone.

The narrative may be rickety, but the film’s presiding theme decidedly isn’t. Gilliam expresses it through one of the film’s tertiary characters – Rupert, Toby’s agent (Jason Watkins) – who tells his client that ‘we become what we hold on to’. It’s sneaked in so early in the film, and spoken by such a minor character, that it almost slips under the radar, but it’s essentially the mission statement of the movie, which goes on to literalise it in many ways, not least through Pryce’s Quixote, and of course through Gilliam himself. A significant portion of his personal and professional life has been tied up in this movie’s making (and ‘unmaking’, as he memorably states in the title credits); to even conceive of its completion was viewed by many as Gilliam tilting at windmills, so of course he feels justified in a little self-indulgence. But Gilliam does seem acutely self-aware of his own impractical endeavour, as the film directly tackles the notion that collateral damage always accompanies obsession, and that a singular artistic vision may take its toll on many.

I think Mark Olsen of the L.A. Times said it best: ‘For anyone struggling with whether to give up, concerned that the result will not match the effort, Gilliam seems to be planting a flag — or more accurately charging a windmill — to say the effort is the reward.’ Having seen the film while I was in the final weeks of my PhD corrections, I felt rather warmly towards it – like Gilliam, I too just wanted to get the thing done at last. There are moments of brilliance here, when Gilliam considers the social cost of filmmaking, the melancholy of growing old, of losing hope, and becoming set in your ways. But the power of transformation, for better or worse, also remains. There’s merit in watching a filmmaker produce something so bizarrely incoherent that only about three people will enjoy it – and though it makes The Adventures of Baron Munchausen look as finely crafted as Memento in comparison, I was grateful that Gilliam still has windmills at which to tilt.