CLAPPERBOARD
CLAPPERBOARD UK LTD Introduction by Director, Maureen Sinclair
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Hello, I’ m Maureen Sinclair, Director of Clapperboard UK Ltd, an award winning, small charitable organisation and film production company. We are delighted to start the New Year off with our new partners Firestyle Magazine as we embrace some exciting new joint initiatives this year. I’ d like to take this opportunity of introducing myself by giving you some personal and professional background information.
I initially set up the Clapperboard Youth Project in 2004, whilst heading BAFTA’ s regional offices. I was fascinated by the professionals, and their roles‘ behind the scenes’ in film and television productions, such as; make-up artists, location managers, set designers, camera work, directing, writing, etc. and was frustrated that young people didn’ t know about these kind of career opportunities.
My idea was to bring creativity into education and communities across the North West of England through developing exciting education film-making and media initiatives in partnership with other organisations and young people some from deprived areas who display challenging behaviour and / or suffer from mental health and other disabilities. To date, more than 2,000 people between the ages of 7 to 28 have actively participated in our projects, producing award winning short films on issues that affect them( hate crime, identity, disability, race, gun, and knife crime) giving them a voice. Our short films have gained recognition regionally, nationally and internationally.
One of the questions I’ m asked regularly is how did I end up working in the industry of moving image. My career background has been a bit of a fluke... I went to school in Kirkby and left without hardly any qualifications as I wasn’ t at all academic. However, I did enjoy a secretarial course provided by the school that I passed with a distinction and these skills came in very useful when I decided to leave Liverpool to travel across Europe in the late 70’ s. Eventually, I ended up living in Amsterdam, securing secretarial employment in the legal department of Cinema International Corporation, which was a new company set up by a group of multinational film companies( Paramount, Universal, MGM etc.) to combat video piracy. It was incredibly innovative and a very new organisation, so I was taken on board and had the most brilliant professional experience. I had a lot of freedom to develop my role and was promoted quickly after setting up a staff Video Library and organising regular screenings as we had the privilege of seeing all the new film releases in the company’ s private cinema! I also was able to travel extensively giving me opportunities to mix with other cultures, still one of my great passions.