December 2013 – Jonathan Melville

MovieMail pic

As well as working with the Screen Machine to coordinate various 15th anniversary events, I’m currently part of the team at Glasgow-based DVD retailer, MovieMail, helping to bring their service to online customers via their website, e-newsletters and social media.

I’ve been a MovieMail customer for a few years and so jumped at the opportunity to join the team to bring quality films to customers. It follows on from my work with Glasgow’s Park Circus, who also focus mainly on classic films.

It helps that Ethical Consumer magazine recently chose MovieMail as the best place to ethically buy DVDs online.

In addition to editing the blog, I’ve contributed a few interviews recently, one with actor James McAvoy and another with the Label Manager at Arrow Films – I plan to publish more in early 2014.

Short Circuit feature in SFX

It’s been a couple of years since I last pitched a feature to SFX magazine (that was Tremors in 2011), but I’m back in February 2014’s issue with a new article on 1986’s Short Circuit.

I carried out interviews with the film’s co-creator, SS Wilson, and director, John Badham, and discovered the origins of Johnny Five plus the behind-the-scenes battles to get the film from script to screen. The feature also examines the second film and looks ahead to a possible continuation of the franchise.

Both men were able to supply rare photos and design material from their own archives to help illustrate the feature, making it something special for Short Circuit fans.

The magazine, issue 243, is now available in the shops or it can be downloaded from the iTunes app.

Here are a few rare photos supplied by John Badham from the set of the first film, all copyright Bruce McBroom:

Preparing Johnny Five Ally Sheedy and Number 5 Multiple robots on set