Tim Stannard

I came to film making with no background in photography or particular interest in storytelling, but through the simple route of wanting to have a record of my newborn baby growing up.
Digital video was of a high enough quality and cheap enough in the mid 2000s for it to be worth me trying out and abandoning if a failure.

Having a background in IT digital imaging and editing seemed a natural match and recognising the boredom-inducing capabilities of even a two minute single shot of “baby on the lawn”, my first video (a family walk along the river with said baby) was set to music of the day, cut to the beat and told a very basic story.
I was hooked.

After some experimentation and development of technical editing skills, as “baby” Elise grew up, we started making educational/ amusing/ musical projects based around what she was studying at school.

The Great Fire of London, Tutankhamun’s Tomb, Theseus and the Minotaur were all subjects for films featuring Elise and her friends.

But the most successful of these must surely be “Tudor Rap” about Henry VIII and his six wives, which even now, ten years after the making, is occasionally shown at schools around the country to their Year 7s.

Aside from that I’ve made one or two films of local events, and a couple of deeper documentaries, but more recent films have been rather less creative as I am frequently asked to record local theatrical productions or Elise singing – whether that’s just for her grandmother or audition pieces for university.

Whilst my creative film making may be in hiatus, I love getting involved with amateur film and am frequently asked to judge local and regional film competitions where I enjoy furthering my understanding of film by analysing what provokes different emotional responses in the films I watch.

For the past five years I’ve had the honour and the privilege of being on the judging panel for Britain’s foremost festival – the British International Amateur Film Festival.

I am an Associate of the IAC (AACI) an honour given in respect of having received certain awards for films in BIAFF and regularly attend festivals where I love chewing the cud over the films we’ve just watched with other like-minded people.

Tim Stannard 's Video Selection

This Is Your (Surrey) Life (2021)

This is your (Surrey) life

Not everything we make is for our own benefit. My sister, Debbie Groves, approached me about making a film celebrating the work of Cliff Van Tonder, from South Africa who spent 15 years creating and developing first the Elmbridge Choir, a community choir, the Elmbridge Ladies’ Choir, Elmbridge Big Band and the Elmbridge Rainbow Choir.

This film was made shortly before he emigrated to Australia in 2021. Debbie wrote andpresented the piece and sourced most of the material from choir archives. There are several contributions from choir members and friends – all self shot on phones. My only contribution to filming was the shots of Debbie presenting. My main job was assembling and editing everything as well as adding a few graphics to help bring Debbie’s concept to fruition.

We are Here (2020)

I was asked to put together a music video for a song written to support a Care Workers charity during the pandemic. I was presented with the song and numerous still images (filming was not possible) and my challenge was therefore to bring life to the images whilst illustrating the lyrics and spirit of the song. I had a lot of fun experimenting with creating rainbow graphics and trying to

We Are Here (2020)

give a 3D look to some of the images. The film celebrates the tireless work and commitment of all who spend their time helping to make the lives of those less fortunate than most of us a little more bearable, be “being here” for them. Edited and Composited in DaVinci Resolve.

To Eleanor (2016)

To date my only fiction without any comedic element.

Starring (as most of my films do) my daughter Elise and written by my wife, Martine, from an idea we all devised, a girl mourns the loss of her twin sister. Edited in Vegas (the software, not the city).

Awards
4 Stars at BIAFF 2017
2nd Overall and 1st Place in the Drama Category in the Frome Five Minute Festival 2017
Runner Up NTRIAC Online Film Competition 2016

Greece is the Word

This was the most ambitious of the films made to coincide with the subjects Elise was studying at school. This film features many of her friends in that most famous of myths – Theseus and the Minotaur. Martine and I wrote some words to several of the songs, we stuck up a green screen in our living room and I had a lot of fun creating backgrounds and animations in HitFilm and edited in Vegas.

Greece is the Word

Awards
5 Star at BIAFF 2016
Best Editing and Best Film in No Special Category SERIAC 2016
Finalist in Nottingham Film Festival 2016
First Place and Best Use of Sound NTRIAC Annual Competition 2015

Miracle on the Mantlepiece.

I wanted to make a purely visual film and the idea of characters on Christmas cards coming to life provided me with the opportunity to come up with a simple feel-good Christmas story as well as the chance to experiment with a few new techniques.

Perhaps surprisingly, the part of this film which caused me the biggest problem and took the longest to solve was not a

special effect, but the slider shot of the cards along the mantelpiece. Although everything looked fine in the monitor while filming, the straight lines of the mantelpiece showed up the slight warp in the slider as the camera’s weight passed across it and I had to split the shot into four and warp each, before stitching them back together in the edit.

Lesson learned – there is a reason good sliders cost a lot more than the budget ones!