Jo has just completed filming on a small project called "Sparks". Its a TV Pilot about a group of people that have the ability to transport themselves shorts distances (otherwise known as Sparking). Their skills attract the attention of a secret military group who want to use these skills for other purposes! The group find themselves trying to rescue a young girl Hena with the ability to spark but doesn't really understand her potential. Hena has spent her whole life wondering if she is the only one with a supernatural ability; the ability to teleport over short distances. A stranger named Grace tells her that she's not alone and that her research is being tracked. She encounters members of a special ops team, who will take her dead or alive. With the help of a mysterious group who share her ability, she must evade her pursuers.
It's a race of who will get to her first.
Jo plays the role of Grace the woman in charge of the good guys!
*Update* March 2007
Sparks has now been completed and will be put forward to television companies to see what interest it gets, fingers crossed!
It had it's premiere at Derby University on 4th March 2007 and it was very well received, well done guys! Check out the website for Stickmen Pictures
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( 3 / 295 )With new Toys R Us stores opening across the country, Merry Hill was one of many stores that had members of the UK Garrison attending the grand openings. With the massive PR machine working and special offers and opening deals the crowds were certainly expected to turn up in large numbers.
The Garrison were invited to come along and mix and mingle with the crowds, in attendance was 4 Stormtroopers and Darth Vader to menace the crowds. Alongside the Garrison members were several costumed characters ranging from Noddy, Nora, Mega Block Man, some Japanese cartoon characters, Bob the Builder and of course Geoffrey the Giraffe with his wife and baby!
With it being so warm inside the store, eventually the group moved outside where it was a lot more cooler. The crowds were pouring into the store and we were constantly being asked for photo opportunities to which of course we obliged! Several smaller children were quite scared and hid behind their mum and dads legs, but generally most children big and small couldn't get enough! One little lad was so cute, he saw the stormtroopers and came running up to us and flung his arms around my legs and gave me the biggest hug! And proceeded to do the same to the other troopers and Darth Vader! He came back across to me and wanted to take me home! He eventually had to be led away by his mum as he wouldn't leave us alone! (ssoo cute!) I had to walk him part of the way before handing him over to his mum.
One of the funniest moments of the day was giving the giraffe family the stormtrooper blasters and them posing as Darth Vaders bodyguards. Just so wrong but really funny! It was a really fun troop to do with loads of positive feedback from the public and no trouble makers! The opening event was a great success with the crowds flocking to the store and the Garrison members going down a storm!
Fellow Garrison members who made it a great fun event: Andy(
), Scott(), Andy(), Mark(Darth Vader), Julia, Lee and Laura as spotters/helpers, cheers guys!
Photo kindly supplied by UK Garrison member Julia Troman
http://www.ukgevents.com/index.php
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( 3 / 135 )Teds Big Day Out is the annual fundraising day for The Forever Friends Appeal, when people from all over the region engage in a variety of fundraising activities to help raise thousands of pounds to purchase new equipment for the hospital.
Funds raised from the hospital event and beyond, are starting to flood in and it looks set to raise hundreds of thousands of pounds towards the campaign for a vital second £800,000 CT Scanner.
The days event consisted of fundraisng stalls, entertainers and the rugby player Matt Dawson dropped by to show his support. The Forever Friends Appeal happen to be a client of mine with the fire walking company I work at, it was through talking to them that I got the UK Garrison involved. Knowing what a great cause the "TBDO" event was, I thought it was just the perfect place for the Empire to make it's presence felt!
Being a week day (Friday) it's always a worry how many members can make these events. Thankfully true to form the Garrison didn't disappoint and in attendance was 2 Stormtroopers, Jango Fett and a Jedi, unfortunately our Darth Vader for the day had to pull out of the event at the last minute due to family matter. Really we were there to parade the VIP's onto the stage area and mix and mingle with the crowds. With the unfortunate loss of our Vader for the day, the charity had planned for him to draw the winning ticket for the raffle, so the charity went out and bought a Darth Vader fancy dress costume! Needless to say the costume was lacking in authenticity, but at the end of the day it was the thought that counted and it all went to plan. After lots of photo tarting and talking to the crowds we had some official photo's taken with Matt Dawson and Big Ted himself! With two little lads who were big Star Wars fans with their light sabres, they basically talked for 10 minutes straight without taking a breath! In the end I think I had them believing we were stationed on a Star Destroyer that was orbiting the Earth and were transported down by a troop transporter to be there for the day!
The second part of the day for us was a visit around the Childrens Ward in the hospital. This as always is a really rewarding part of of what the Garrison do, when you can put a smile on a childs face who is suffering or is upset, it really is a great thing. As we went from room to room all the children really enjoyed the visits with the characters jesting with the children and each other. I remember talking to a little girl who was a Dr Who fan, as we got talking I was joking with Adam who was playing Jango Fett, I told the little girl that the Bounty Hunter only works for money. When he said what else is better than money, I replied chocolate! The little girl straight away said "I have some chocolate" and promptly got her box of sweets and handed one to me! Result! I thanked her very much and said our goodbyes and went to the next room. In there was a little lad who became very shy when we approached and buried his head into his mum! When I gave him the chocolate I just aquired, funny how he wasn't as shy as he was when we first entered! Never under estimate the power of the chocolate side!! Another young lad had been involved in an accident with a car when riding his bicycle, he looked a little worst for wear, bearing the bumps and bruises of his adventure! He was in quite a bit of pain but managed a smile and a little laugh when we joked with him.
The days event went better than the organisers had hoped for and were really happy with it all. The children loved the ward visits and we couldn't have been made to feel anymore welcome than we were. The charity wrote a letter of thanks to the Garrison, I have quoted a passage below:
"On behalf of The Forever Friends Appeal I am writing to extend our biggest thanks for being such a fantastic support on TBDO 06. The Star Wars characters went down an absolute storm, and according to the feedback we have had from staff so far, this years Atrium event is being hailed as 'the best ever', so a job well done!
Your visit to the Childrens Ward also proved to be very popular. It really was a tremendous treat for those children that were being cared for on the ward and I can safely say from the look on their faces having a visit from Star Wars characters really made a positive difference to their day in hospital."
That is what it's all about and why these events are the best! Thanks to the Garrison guys who supported the event, Adam (Jango Fett), Brett (Stormtrooper), Sarah (Jedi) and Tony was helper/spotter.
Photo kindly supplied by The Forever Friends Appeal
http://www.foreverfriendsappeal.co.uk/
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( 3 / 154 )Jo was asked to attend an audition for a small part in the new series Dr Who in the first episode of the new series (3).
I went down to Cardiff for a crazy audition where we had to act very scared and pertified! It was so funny, all who where there were paired off and sent up stairs, couple at a time to act infront of the casting director and his camera! The embarassing thing was everyone downstairs who was waiting for their turn could hear your audition! Now when your acting scared and pretending a monster is after you it isn't a quiet affair! Afterwards when I went back downstairs, everyone has a big grin on their faces and commented saying, "wow that sounded good!" So embarassing but also lots of fun too.
I got a call back from the agency to say I got the role of rocking woman! I wondered what the hell that was, some kind of rocker!
No, it was a woman in total shock rocking and crying! The scene is set in a hospital where the building and all in it are transported to the surface of the moon! (as you do). It then gets invaded by an alien race called the Judoon. My scene in all this is set in the hospital corridor when all hell has broken loose and everyone is running around in panic. My character is lent against the wall crying and rocking in shock! The new Doctors assistant rushes infront of me and delivers a few lines to an elderly lady patient before rushing off. Thats it really, there will be another minor scene when you see peoples faces appear at the hospital windows when it has landed on the moon to see what has happened. I did a couple of those too, not sure how much of me you will see.
I believe the episode is airing on 24th March 2007.
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( 3 / 174 )The NEC is an old haunt for the UK Garrison with Mem being an old favourite with a good social in the evenings. Here the Garrison can show off a wide range of characters from Film, TV and comics as well as the usual Star Wars presence! This particular weekend also saw the Garrison attend a large event for Sky TV in Manchester, so the Garrison numbers were down from the usual numbers at this particular Mem. Most characters in attendance were Star Wars ones but there was also Batman, Predator, Stargate officer and White Power Ranger.
Saturday was a very quiet day public wise, the scary thing for them... they wouldn't get past the Imperial security! The Garrison paraded into the entrance for the opening of the event, lining up both sides to greet the public. The usual stalls, Q and A sessions and star signings were lined up for the weekend. The star signings consisted of characters from Star Trek, Stargate, Buffy, X Files, the cast of Allo Allo, Star Wars, Dr Who to name but a few. There were other costume characters walking around but special mention has to go to the purple darlek who is just a brilliant interacting with the crowds and the stormtroopers!
One of the highlights of the day was arresting a mother and daughter and getting them to stand against the wall with their hands on the wall, the little girl couldn't have been older than 4 and she stood infront of her mum to get out of the way of the troopers. The other was a little lad who kicked my bum and upon turning around to see who had done it, he started to run away. I started chasing him pretending I couldn't catch him which led the chase to go on all around the entrance and into the hallway and back outside! I don't know who was more tired him or me!
The evening social was a lot of fun, with it being my Birthday I looked forward to have a drink with everyone. The socials are one of the highlights of weekend events, time for people to wind down and have a laugh, and this one didn't disappoint. The best moments are when the the CO's dark side came to the front and started to pick on people to do press ups! Eventually no one got away with it and we all ended up doing press ups at some point or another. The Scout troopers blending session was very funny too (unless you were it's too long to explain!) All in all it was a fun social.
The Sunday was busier with the crowds in better numbers, thankfully the wet weather didn't keep them away. The troopers were in fine form outside mis-directing the public to locked doors and then arresting them for trying to break in!! The photo stand did well with a slow but steady stream of public adding to the charity coffers. Standing on stage for the Hasbro presentations was hard going as they took so long, but I think it was appreciated (hope so!)
duties can be hard going! With all the usual photo tarting with the star signings, one of the best photos had to be Andy's Imperial Officer with Darth Vader and the actor Richard Gibson as Herr Flick from Allo Allo in his Gestapo costume! Another fun moment was when I changed back out of my trooper armour back into civvies. I was on the phone to a friend as I walked around the star signing section and came across Marina Sertis (Star Trek, NG), as my friend was a fan of hers I asked if she would mind saying hello to him. I passed my phone to her to which she happily obliged and chatted away to him much to his delight! She was very sweet and Gary came along at that moment and took my photo with her! All in all another great weekend and another glorious weekend in the UK Garrison! Garrison events are like bugs, "I only need to know one thing, where they are!" (Sorry I had an Alien moment then!)Hopefully the next Mem in November will see me show off my new Star Wars costume which is currently work in progress, will just have to see how well I get on with it! Fingers crossed and hope to see you then!
Special mention has to go to:-
* Gary for taking lots of cool photos
* Barry for leaning on the Hasbro dude for a birthday gift!
* The CO for his Dark Side moments!
* Vince for covering the taxi on the Saturday night so I could have a drink on my Birthday!
Cheers guys
Photo kindly supplied by UK Garrison member Gary Sheriston
Check out more of Gary's photos of this event and others at
http://agentsheriston.fotopic.net//
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