Ray Johnson

As a documentary film-maker, film archivist and programme-maker I have collaborated with such organisations as Titanic International (USA), The British Titanic Society, The British Film Institute and National Film Archive (Mitchell & Kenyon Restoration Project), The British Transport Museum, British Waterways, The National Motor Museum - Beaulieu, The British Commercial Vehicle Museum, The British Tramway Museum, The Media Archive of Central England and archives and local authorities throughout the UK.

I have worked as consultant and film archive researcher on many television documentaries as listed below. Programmes I have directed and produced have been screened on BBC2, Carlton Cinema, The Discovery Channel and various television networks worldwide. I have devised and directed Community Film Commissions with multiple camera filming and large scale community involvement for the Stafford Film Festival – one multi-camera project on The Christmas Truce 1914 being screened at the Flanders Field Museum, Belgium, autumn 2006.

As a writer I have had scripts produced at the Edinburgh Festival, Oxford Playhouse, TheatreSpace, London, Theatre Royal, Stoke-on-Trent, UK tours and on BBC Local Radio. I am currently setting up extramural projects to be mentored by University students and assessed as part of their course.

From the CV:-

Recipient – Learning & Teaching Fellowship, 2007
Fellow of the Film and Video Institute
Vice President, Arnold Bennett Society
Director, Screen West Midlands
Chairman, Funding Sub-Committee, Screen West Midlands
Director, Media Archive of Central England
Steering Group – Port Vale Community Project
Audio Visual Archives Strategy for the East and West Midlands – Steering Group
Member
Board Member – Media Savvy (Media Action Group for Mental Health)
Board Member, Abbey Hill School and Performing Arts College Board
Founder of Staffordshire Film Archive, BUFVC listed
Founder and Organiser; Arnold Bennett Conference – 2004-2007
Documentary Filmmakers Group - Member
British Actors’ Equity Association member
British Titanic Society member
BBC Radio Stoke - frequent broadcaster, former member of Education Committee
Guest Tutor - Workers’ Educational Association, Wedgwood Memorial College
Stoke-on-Trent Cine & Video Society – Honorary Life Member
Recipient - City of Stoke-on-Trent Arts Award, 1996
Film archive researcher for many TV documentaries, including Europe-A Natural
History, Britain- A Natural History , English Landscapes, The Real Robbie Williams,
Restoration, Antiques Road Show, The Great Antiques Hunt, Flog It, Heart of the
Country, Landmarks, Country File, Midlands Today – BBC, The Second World War
in Colour, Britain at War in Colour, The British Empire in Colour, Made for the
Masses, The Way We Were – Carlton, All Change, Home Movies on the Home Front,
Green & Pleasant Land, Pottery Ladies, A Pocketful of Posies – Channel 4.
External Examiner; Media, Communications and Culture degree – Keele University

Teaching Responsibilities: Film and Television production modules - all aspects of research, scripting, planning and producing film/TV dramas, documentaries, television programmes and programming, theory and practice in the field of film genre, MA research and production in film/TV drama, staff development workshops etc

Research interests: Arnold Bennett, M’Lita Dolores – variety star, Titanic, local culture, history and industry, early cinema etc.

Publications

Article “Tricks, Traps and Transformations”, Journal of Early Popular Visual
Culture Vol 5 ISSN: 1746-0654 2007
Past Publications – last 5 years
TV, Video Productions, Films Original scripts for all documentaries; Staffordshire
Film Archive
The Pottery Industry; 20th Century to today – DVD, 2007
Mitchell Memorial Theatre 50th Anniversary – double DVD, 2007
Homemaker: Ceramic Design Classic - DVD, 2007
Sneyd Pit Disaster, January 1st, 1942 – DVD, 2007
Victoria Pleasure Grounds; Community Film Commission – DVD, 2006
Stoke-on-Trent 1986 – National Garden Festival – DVD, 2006
Trentham Gardens: the Story of the Ballroom – DVD, 2006
The Story of Captain Smith & the Titanic- update and DVD version, 2006
Stanley Matthews – the Story of the Statue – for the Stanley Matthews Foundation, 2006
Back to Back Birmingham (Ed.) – Documentary of back-to-back housing, DVD, 2005
Reginald Haggar – A Passion for the Potteries – Potteries Museum exhibition video,
DVD, 2005
Street Party – Community Film Commission, DVD, Stafford Film Festival, 2005
Treetops Trek – documentary DVD revisiting 20 sites of former collieries, 2005
David – A Story of the Warsaw Ghetto – with Sir Thomas Boughey High School,
2005
This is Your Half-Hour Call – Amateur Theatre in Stoke-on-Trent, 2005
Christmas Truce, 1914 – DVD, 2004
Singing in the Rain – Video design & Production of period film sequences – Sadler’s
Wells, 2004
A Staffordshire Time Machine – archive compilation, 2004
The Making of “The Card” – interview compilations, 2004
Burslem Port – Restoration of the Burslem Canal – documentary, 2004
A Christmas Time Machine – archive compilation, 2003
Joyce Holliday - Playwright - documentary on her writing career, 2003.
Angel over Burslem - history of Burslem Old Town Hall, for Ceramica, 2003.
Newcastle-under-Lyme Best Performance Plan - with Newcastle Borough Council,
2003
Stoke-on-Trent City Centre - for Stoke-on-Trent City Centre Management, 2003.
The Story of the North Staffordshire Infirmary - documentary for Bicentenary, in
partnership with the Potteries Museum and the North Staffs Medical Institute, 2002.
Stoke-on-Film, 1980s - video archive film/interviews compilation, 2002.
The Potteries Century; Royal Visits and Coronations, 1913-1999 - archive
compilation, 2002.
Over the Rainbow - documentary of aid convoy to refugee camps of Western Sahara,
2002.
King TUT - the story of local flyweight boxing champion Thomas "Tut" Whalley, 2002.
Remember – 3-hour video plus teaching pack produced with Dr. Pauline Elkes, 2002
Transformation and Change - the Jewish Community in Stoke-on-Trent -
documentary produced for National Holocaust Day, 2002
Radio, Audio Productions
Pitfall - radio play/CD produced with student support, 2006.
Burslem Saturday - producer, digitally re-mastered CD, 2003.
The Big Picture - four one-hour radio programmes broadcast on BBC Radio Stoke,
each featuring prominent local figures and recorded by undergraduates - devisor,
editor, producer, 2002
A Sense of Place - BBC Radio 4 - interviews and readings as Arnold Bennett, 2002
BBC Radio Stoke - a recording of the 14 hour broadcasting day of the radio station
prior to its move to new premises and new technology, filmed by a team of
undergraduates - producer, 2002

Scripts, Written Projects

Spitfire Dream – original theatre script for production at the Mitchell Theatre, 2007
It’ll All Be Over by Christmas – original WWI script/production; Potteries Museum,
2004
M’lita – original theatre script/production; career of local variety artiste, Rep Theatre,
Rediscovering Arnold Bennett Stoke, 2002

Conferences

Conference – Making Visual Histories, MMU September 2007 – paper given
“The Time Machine”
Conference:,Arnold Bennett and the Great War, June 2007 – organiser
Conference:,Arnold Bennett; Town and City, June 2006 – organiser
Conference:,Arnold Bennett; the Idea of the Feminine, June 2005 – organiser
Conference; Visual Delights, Sheffield University, July 2005 – paper given
“Illusion in Victorian Spectaculer Theatre”
Conference:,Arnold Bennett; New Perspectives, June 2004 - organiser
Current Research activities
Reginald Mitchell and original work on the Spitfire and preceding planes
External Engagement (such as externalships and so on)
External Examiner; Media, Communications and Culture degree – Keele University
Director, Screen West Midlands
Chairman, Funding Sub-Committee, Screen West Midlands
Director, Media Archive of Central England
Board Member – Media Savvy (Media Action Group for Mental Health)
Board Member, Abbey Hill School and Performing Arts College Board
Steering Group – Port Vale Community Project

Membership of professional organisations

Documentary Filmmakers Group - Member
British Actors’ Equity Association member
British Titanic Society member