Current Movies
In the Mix
Are YOU the Red Rory Type?
Roddy's late father was in the SAS.
He was also an expert parachutist, officer boxing champion, and legendary bagpipe player.
He was awarded the Military Cross and an OBE.
This film focuses on a race "Red Rory" took part in back in 1959, aided by his SAS comrades.
His time from London to Paris was 57 minutes 47 seconds.
Sixty years on and we're going to recreate his route.
Stoked in the Van
Our mate Pete lives in a van.
In Sagres, South Portugal.
Surf, work, sleep, repeat.
Roddy visited there for a little surf trip and ended up making a film about his lifestyle.
Expect a big character and bigger waves.
Some of the films from the last few years...
The Reins of Reinas
Hi video lovers! Roddy here. Last year I spent a little while in Spain as an actor on the period drama "Reinas" (If you're in Spain then tune in to rtve.es1 on Tuesdays)
At the start of the process I was given an awesome horse riding lesson by Ricardo Cruz, director of Stunt 3G. The next week I heard that some of my fellow cast members were heading back for their lesson, so I grabbed my camera and jumped in the wagon for the hour long drive in to the wilderness.
I shot like crazy for their two hour lesson, trying to get as much as I could and be in as many places as possible within the time frame. Plenty of sunburn and sweat. Ricardo very kindly allowed me to briefly interview him and showed off some of his stunt horses and their tricks.
Thank you to everyone involved- to Ricardo, to my amazing translator Viveka (Mary Seton), to the excellent actors on the day, and in fact the entire cast, crew and production team behind the wonderment that is Reinas.
Mohamed, The Moroccan Tyre Man
A couple of months ago whilst traveling in Morocco, we came across Mohamed, a nice old fella who has spent his life upcycling old tyres and making a variety of different products. With amazingly limited kit- a camera and a little mic that we had with us, this super on-the-fly short film was shot in about 25 minutes! Wham Bham, sometimes you just gotta roll with it and seize the day!
Thanks of course go to Mohamed, for being such a legend.
Also thank you to Marion Scheppers for being our translator. This is doubly special as it's the first ever film she's been involved in.
Music "Sunday Stroll" by Huma-Huma
Here's to more holidays, and more interesting people along the way.
Live Action, Real People
Behold the mockumentary that is Live Action, Real People.
Created by Blates Productions, a team of actors from Roddy's drama school days, LARP visits the world of action role play.
Written, filmed and edited in just 48 hours as part of the Edinburgh 48 hour film festival, LARP was the final instalment of a trilogy of films that helped put Blates on the map and solidify Roddy's love of filmmaking.
Winner of Best Costume & Best Script.
Big love to all the team that are now off doing a variety of amazing things.
One day we shall regroup and smash out a 4th film.
Finding Focus
This film is going way back to 2013 and is the seed of our love for film making.
Roddy was off travelling around the USA for 7 weeks armed only with a crap camera (no tripod, and an iphone as his mic!).
After making a small film about a busker in NYC, Roddy set himself the challenge to make a film in every city he visited.
In seven weeks he made six shorts, documenting interesting people he met along the way.
Finding Focus is from his time in Vegas, where he met photographer Peter at his hostel, and asked to go for a ride-along.
