Soup of the Day

A worthy fellow

I would like to extend my congratulations to Lord David Puttnam for the awarding of his honorary fellowship into BAFTA. David Puttnam was a british film producer until eight years ago when he decided to leave the film industry. His decision was fuelled by his belief that the movie industry would not be able to produce the kind of films that educate, inform and emote whilst still maintaining an entertaining narrative.

During his career as a producer, spanning over 30 years, David Puttnam has helped develop and deliver a resounding portfolio of films; Memphis Belle; The Mission; Bugsy Malone; The Killing Fields; Local Hero; and Chariots Of Fire to name but a few. He is widely praised as the man who helped revive British cinema opening the doors for production companies such as FilmFour and Working Title.

Since leaving the film industry, David Puttnam has helped set up SkillSet, a training and advice service for anyone with aspirations of working in the film industry - albeit mainly behind the camera. He was also the Chairman of the National Film & Television School in Beaconsfield for a number of years before becoming the Chairman of UNICEF UK in 2002.

During the acceptence speech he gave on Sunday 19th January, 2006, at the BAFTA ceremony in London, he praised the calibre of the films nominated for awards this year - giving a huge nod to George Clooney and associates for his film, Good Night and Good Luck. The BAFTA voters overlooked George Clooney’s offering in many of the categories, unfairly in many peoples opinion, including David’s obviously.

So what has this got to do with me and why do I feel I can congratulate Lord Puttnam so publically. Well, quite simply because I admire his work for the industry and his previous films, but most of all because I met David Puttnam eight years ago just as he was retiring from the industry. He was presenting myself and three friends with two awards from the Young Engineers for Britain committee in 1998. At that time I didn’t know I wanted to be a film maker, but hearing David talk to me about his experience in the industry was so inspirational that I re-evaluated my goals at the time and decided to study visual effects.