Jon Ellison

No, I don't refer to Walt Disney himself, but the organisation he founded back in 1923, which has since become one of the most famous movie organisations worldwide. Therefore, it gives me great pleasure to wish a very happy anniversary to Walt Disney Pictures. Many people around the world have grown up with Disney and I can honestly say that, I'm one of those people. I have great fond childhood memories of some of the many projects that Disney has brought us. I can remember when we, my family, taped Pinocchio , Dumbo , Mary Poppins , Robin Hood , Sleeping Beauty and The Sword In The Stone off the TV; most of them from ITV, except Robin Hood which was off BBC1.  Remember this? I also had some of the original VHS tapes, one of being Fantasia , which I believe may have been the first feature film I ever saw (my memory's rather bad). I can recall the time when we saw The Lion King in cinemas when I was 4, and The Hunchback Of Notre Dame two years later - I even had the fig...

 Last weekend, I was in the Peak District. In a way, you could say that it was for both work and pleasure - I was assisting a film crew on the shooting of a pilot episode of a fantasy TV series. For me, it's always been a pleasure to be part of a film shoot. But this experience was also an adventure. Most film crews are likely to stay in hotels whilst shooting takes place far from their hometowns. On this occasion, we spent some nights on a campsite - for me, this was the first time I'd been camping since less than a decade ago when I worked at the annual Bloodstock festival. I shan't give too much away since the project is currently under the production process. But I do look forward to seeing how it looks. I hope you do too. For this experience, I was the runner and sound assistant. This involved working directly with the sound recordist and boom operator, ensuring the equipment was in good working order. Occasionally, I would also operate the boom mic. Being that I was a...

 In one of the blog posts I wrote last month, Happy International Women's Day (2022), I gave a brief tribute to Lynda Baron. This time, I'm writing this post as a tribute to another celebrity who has died earlier this month. As you probably can tell from the title, I'm referring to June Brown. June Brown is probably best known as the actor of Dot Cotton/Branning in EastEnders. Now for those of you who don't know, EastEnders is a UK TV soap opera that is set in the fictional London-based town of Walford and has aired since 1985. On estimation, it has been one of my most frequently watched shows in history along with other shows such as the Simpsons. As far back as I can remember, my earliest memory of watching EastEnders was when I was six; I had come home from Beaver Scouts and it was broadcast on BBC1. Out of every soap, EastEnders is sort of the only one I've watched properly. It has rivaled Coronation Street, a longer running soap and I did watch that show occasi...