Poly Styrene: I Am A Cliché

In 2019 I worked with my good friend Paul Sng on the Bristol leg of the shoot for his film Poly Styrene - I am a Cliché (co-directed with Poly’s daughter Celeste Belle) The crew had been around the country for various shoots and they needed to film some studio sections with Celeste reading from her book about her mum. I helped organise the studio for the production, recommending my old friends at Band Studios who are always up for the task and it’s always been a pleasure to shoot there (I’ve probably done 6 productions there over the last 8 years).

I was also bought onto the shoot as sound recordist, it was a fairly simple set up of a single mic and a backup rigged above Celeste. The shots for this set up were incredibly long, so booming it would have been prohibitive, but luckily the style was fairly close ups and restricted movement, so rigging a static shotgun mic worked a treat.

It’s been a while since I worked on a doc or drama as a sound recordist, as I’d mainly ‘retired’ from sound in around 2010. I’ve stepped back into booming for friends over the years now, either when the project is up my street or when it’s been part of a crew that I’ve wanted to work with. This project was definitely both of those, as it’s always been great working with Paul and this documentary, about a true punk pioneer, was great to work on and I’m proud to be part of it.

You can see the trailer below and watch the film here.