The Dragon On My Shirt - The Director’s Cu… Blog

Since this is my first ever blog entry, I should probably start with an introduction. I’m Vicky. Pontypridd born and bred, and thanks to many years working on cruise ships I became a seasoned and well traveled videographer and photographer.

I started working for ESM around 18 months ago as a videographer, and since then my creativity has been constantly challenged, evolving at what sometimes felt like break neck speed! But now I feel I can quite confidently call myself a storyteller/documentary filmmaker. 

The Dragon On My Shirt Premiere

I came to writing this after having attended the premiere of episode 1 of The Dragon on My Shirt at Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff. As the director of the series and the editor of that particular episode, I was squirming in my seat the whole time, heart pumping and a mouth dryer than the desert.

It’s one thing publishing your work online, but sharing your work with a room of over a hundred people, on a massive screen, is something else, especially when it’s a project with a subject matter that is really important to people. 

Why did I want to get involved in this project?

The fact that it was funded by Anti-Racist Wales was initially what interested me; a chance to get involved with something that was going to help their ‘Make Wales Anti-Racist’ action plan was all I needed to hear. 

I think most creative people only ever want to make things that inspire people and help make a difference to somebody or something in the world, especially if they have witnessed or experienced prejudice or injustice themselves.

As someone who is part of the LGBTQ+ community I have seen, heard and experienced my fair share of those things, so if I have the chance to use my creative skills to help any other community or cause facing those kinds of issues, I will.   

Challenges?

The biggest challenge was keeping the electric car charged, but that’s another blog for another day…

I think the biggest challenge was finding credible voices to tell the Eddie Parris story as he passed away in 1971, and since then all his immediate family members have also passed on. However, between the ESM production team and Darren’s contacts, we collated a good mix of people who had some sort of personal connection to him, but also people who are experts in Welsh history and race equality.  

What I’ve learnt

Plan, plan, plan! Story, story, story!

Production wise I’ve learnt that you can never do enough planning in the pre-production stages. Collectively, there was a lot of time spent working on themes, contributors, historical research, the series’ structure and most importantly the stories for each episode.

Despite this, there were still times we were caught out and had to adapt, but that’s the nature of documentary filmmaking. Luckily for me, the production team were experienced problem solvers.

There aren’t enough hours in the day!

A project like this needs and deserves a lot of time. From pre-production to output, this series took almost 7 months, but no hour of that felt wasted.    

Feedback is essential! 

As creatives, your work feels like a reflection of you, so we can sometimes get too attached and even defensive of it. However, I constantly learnt throughout this process that even the slightest change can make a huge impact on the quality of a project. 

Z

My biggest takeaway was learning more about the Muslim faith from Zaid - my trusty camera op. Pre Dragon, I feel like everything I knew about the Muslim faith came from media coverage, but myself and Zaid had a lot of time to get to know each other during long drives to all the different locations, and his faith was often brought up in conversations.

In return, I would tell him about LGBTQ+ issues and answer any of his questions. I feel like this openness allowed us to bond and the quality of the shoots and the final outcome benefited massively because of this.

This project has been one huge group effort!

EatSleep Media

Congrats to everyone at ESM for pitching and getting this project green lit (esp. Dan & Cerys), and then going on to producing an amazing first series! Thank you all for trusting me to take the lead, for the research and archive hunting (detective Heledd!), and for the ridiculous amount of scheduling and planning of shoots (Mol & Ash).

Thank you all for helping me become a better storyteller (esp. Mr Daley), for taking on some of the mammoth edits and for the copious amount of ideas and feedback sessions (Luc D/Luke A, plus Siôn for the beautiful colour grade!). 

Thank you to the shooting crew, aka Zaid, Prad and John. Some of the days were long and cold, but you made them enjoyable which meant I could do my job with ease. 

The Storytellers

George Berry, Wendy Reilly, Nathan Blake, Safia Patel Middleton, Rita and Robert Earnshaw, Neil Taylor, Sean Wharton, Yusuf Ismail and Shawqi Hasson (UNIFY), Eleza Khan, Ahmed Noor and Yacub Ahmed (Cardiff Bay Warriors), Prof. Martin Johnes, Prof. Uzo Iwobi, Liz McBride and Armand Watts: thank you all for giving us your time and allowing us to help tell your very personal and important stories. The patience and openness we felt from all of you on the shoots was very much appreciated, and we learnt a lot from listening to each of you. 

The Music

Don Leisure, Lemfreck, Juice Menace, Sage Todz, Harry Jowett, Teddy Hunter, Carwyn Ellis & Rio 18: it was really really important for us to use and highlight Welsh talent, so thank you for working with us. The impact the chosen tracks had on the look and feel of the series was massive! 

The Presenter

Darren, the heart and soul of the project: thank you for bringing this idea to ESM and for trusting us to do it justice. Your knowledge and passion for this series was infectious. I really enjoyed getting to know you and your Fred Perry coat, and I like to think I’ve made a vegan friend for life!      

My hope for the series

My first hope is that everyone heads to RedWall+ to watch all 5 episodes, preferably on a big screen! 

For me, it was amazing to connect with people on why they love Wales and what being Welsh means to them. It made me feel really proud to live in a country that is diverse, but there is definitely still work to be done.

With that in mind, I really hope that this series will be used to educate people and help change attitudes towards race and identity. I want it to spark conversations and encourage people to not be afraid to ask questions. I also want this series to inspire people to learn more about, and to appreciate Wales’ diverse history, something that, as Prof. Uzo Iwobi put it, should bring joy and celebration.