What would...your life be like? Oct. 21, 2006

The film of my making “Football Photography & The World” has begun…
Scene One is my sat on a small balcony above my porch, before an endless sky. Behind me, the French window doors from the bathroom are open and the net curtains are trailing outwards in the breeze. Inside (the bathroom) is a warm light. Behind the house is Blaze Fell. Camera cuts to the railway line and a steam train chugging across one of the huge arches that hop over both the road and, seemingly, the River.

The filming is imagined and hasn’t actually started yet.
But I will continue to give you more scenes as I build up a picture of what the film would be like. There is a very real chance there will eventually be such a film.

What would a film of your life (or what you are about to do) be like? How would it begin, on screen?

If I now imagine a film starring Manchester City , which would be billed as a blockbuster, then it would start with the disaster that was today. They didn’t show up at Wigan. The energetic Joey Barton and the young debutant Thomson were left to wander across to their depleted bank of fans (most had left at 3–0) to wave and whisper their apology. Stuart Pearce has some of the weekend to think up excuses on the teams behalf.

It’s strange in any field (but football can teach you about this aspect as it can so many things), when people seem NOT to try at a job one feels they should be revelling in … and are paid to do.

I was a guest of the Premier League and enjoyed wonderful hospitality in the Lounge upstairs where people scoff themselves and talk endlessly about the game (just as they do down in the rest of the ground). The compeer for the raffle, with his wit and warmth and humour was probably my man of the match.

Wigan film by contrast is off to a flier. Not looking like a disaster movie at all. I remember the ‘pilot’ to this film, just a few years ago… they were again playing City and the occasion was the last match ever at Springfield Road (where I took my most famous picture “The Sunset Over…”). They were a budding actor then. Now they are a leading player.