Your film Ghost
Attack on Sutton Street - in a few words, what is it about?
A
group of ghost hunters that go off to investigate strange occurrences at a
local indoor market place which is attached to a busy shopping centre.
They
chew off more than they can chew.
Why
choose the Old Street Market of Sutton Town for your movie, and what can
you tell us about its history? The
market place is actually very active and has been used by real ghost
hunters in the past to hold events and for private research. The Market is
situated where a busy housing estate once stood and was ripped down in the
1970’s to make way for a new state of the art shopping centre. There are
tales of those that once lived there still roaming the centre and the
shops!
What we see on film, is
this more or less what you expected in terms of paranormal activity? What
you see in a Ghost Hunt - but intensified by 50% to make an on the edge film,
the film was cleverly put together by Philip Gardiner [Philip
Gardiner interview - click here] as we started the
evening with a few guests and the manager of the centre, that part is all
100% for real, the stories that manager tells me on film, the way we go
about setting up trigger objects and experiments and even the table
tipping exercise and glass moving early on is all 100% for real and not
staged at all. We do move onto more staged activity for the film purposes,
but I will let the viewers decide at which point that happens. Having
gone over the footage of Ghost
Attack on Sutton Street at a later date, were there some
"paranormal" occurences in your film for which you found
perfectly logical explanations that simply didn't occur to you due to all
the excitement?
Good question, I feel it is always essential to go over any footage after an
investigation as you may have missed something that adds to the mystery or
explains it. For this particular film my honest answer is... No, nothing
from the film after watching it back shocked me or added any explanations,
I knew what was real and what wasn’t throughout the filming and most of
my reactions on the night was acting to make a good film. If I had
explained everything on the film it would not have made a good film but a
decent documentary. In this case I hope that I do look shocked and
confused throughout, as that was my aim to capture the audience and make
them feel that all was going wrong. A few words about your co-host on
Ghost
Attack on Sutton Street, Michelle Gent?
Michelle
is great to work with, very funny but a true professional. What was good about
the night of the filming was that we just rolled with it, no briefing, no
script, no instructions - and Michelle’s reactions are some of the best
bits of acting I’ve seen on set. She was so convincing I had to keep
asking if she was ok off camera, to which she slapped me and called me a
soppy sod!
Michelle
is also a great author and has written some great books, you can find them
at www.gingernutbooks.co.uk.
Ghost
Attack on Sutton Street also features medium Michelle Hare, with
whom you have worked a lot of late, right? What can you tell us about her,
and also about your collaborations outside of the movie? Michelle
Hare is the official medium for Haunted
Events UK (the company I own) - we
met a few years back when I asked her to attend an event in Scotland with
me. Michelle is a very talented lady and is one of just a few mediums in
the UK that has agreed to work with a Paranormal Investigator on a full
time basis researching her gift and putting her to the test. We do a great
stage show together where she does the usual Mediumship show delivering
messages etc but then I come on and do some LIVE experiments on stage and
also put Michelle to the test live on stage for all the guests to see...
don’t get me wrong she doesn’t get it right all the time, but some of
the results are amazing and good on her for being brave enough to give it
a go and stand up for what she believes in. Michelle is a very busy lady
with events, shows and 1-2-1 readings but you can read more about her at
www.michelle-hare.co.uk.
Ghost
Attack on Sutton Street was directed and shot by a good friend of
this website, Philip Gardiner [Philip
Gardiner interview - click here], with whom you have also worked
on quite a few previous occasions. You just have to talk about him for a
bit!
What
can I say about Philip Gardiner? A very good friend who has given me lots
of opportunities in several areas such as Film, TV, Radio and marketing as
a whole. We have worked on a few films together as well as the Awesome
Online Magazine (www.awesomeonlinemagazine.com)
which I was editor of for a few editions.
Phil
knows what he wants when directing a film, TV show or even a photo shoot,
but he is also open for suggestions and takes your views on board when on
set. I have had great fun over the past few years working with Phil and
would like to thank him for being a great motivator, although I am not
working directly alongside Phil at the moment I know he is there should I
need to call on his advice or just someone to talk to as a friend, and that
just sums up who Phil is. Can’t speak highly enough of him really.
I know you have been working in the field for quite
some time now - so will you turn more of your ghosthunts into movies?
You
never know, I am working on a few things at the moment that are Ghost
Hunts with a bit of a twist involving a few celebrity names that may turn
into TV shows, but as for movies, if it works and the viewers get
something from it then YES, why not? I had great fun making it and it was
great to play myself, but I don’t want viewers getting confused with the
Film and Real Events we offer... but YES, never say never. A
few words about your company, Haunted
Events UK?
The
company was set up in 2010 and was initially to give the public a better
quality Ghost Hunt than what was already out there, we don’t just look
at the spiritual side of the paranormal but also the scientific too. We
work with mediums and equipment to try and contact the spirits of the
locations we are at but I also like to try and explain what else it could
be and how we can explain it. It helps when you have someone dragging along
a partner with them that doesn’t really believe, they go away thinking
“you know what, I enjoyed that and learned something too”. Haunted
Events UK offers ghosthunts to the general public. How does that
work?
We
have contracts at locations such as Newstead Abbey, Wollaton Hall,
Nottingham Castle and Sherwood Forest to run exclusive Ghost Hunts to the
public. We have up to 60 paying guests on the night and split them into
groups of 15 who then go off an investigate the location. We then give
usually 4 vigils that explore all different aspects of the paranormal to
give the guests the full package. At all times on each vigil the guest is
in control, if they want to do something different to what we have planned,
then we go with it, my staff are just guides and will assist the guests
all they can. No investigation is the same and the activity varies from
location to location and through the different groups and guests.
My
advice is keep an open mind and go with the flow, you never know!
How does one become a paranormal investigator in
the first place, and is there any way to actually learn this? You
can study Psychology and Parapsychology and look into what causes people
to see, hear or experience this kind of activity, but the best way to
learn this trade is experience, get out there and have a go, speak to
experienced people in the industry and get help and advice on what
equipment you need to start up and where are the best places to go. That’s how I started many years ago. Although I have no formal education
in Paranormal Activity I have been studying Paranormal Activity for 16
years and there is no better education than experience in my opinion. Your
spookiest experiences as paranormal investigator so far? Another
great question, So many to choose from but not all spooky but some great
activity, I will have to go with The
Clifton Hall Hauntings back in 2007 and 2008 which made
international news. The family fled a £5 million mansion after activity
there, and I was called in with my team back then to investigate. The hall
was weird, like nothing I had experienced before, almost like a scene from
the Twilight
Zone. Strange figures, whistling, doors slamming,
disorientation and more. The only place ever I have had to stop an
investigation and have a break because my team were dropping like flies
after being locked in rooms, fainting and crying. The place is still empty
and cannot be sold! Any
future projects of any kind you'd like to talk about?
Plenty
of events coming up with Haunted
Events UK, which can be found on the
website including a great Friday 13th Special in July in
Sherwood Forest and also some Halloween special too.
Also
I am about to start a radio show on Takeover Radio 106.9 as a mid-morning
show - not paranormal related, just a general magazine style show.
Again
we are working on a few TV projects so watch this space for some cool
Ghost Hunting documentary shows and some putting Celebrities through their
paces.
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And
since this is a movie site I just have to ask: Your favourite and least
favourite movies?
Favourite
movie has to be Halloween
(original) with Jamie Lee Curtis, loved that
film as a kid and never grow tired of it.
Least
favourite has to be Mamma Mia!, little unfair as I've never seen it, but I have
seen clips and parts of the movie and had to stop myself from falling to
sleep or throwing up with the cheese factor! Not a fan...
Your/your movie's/your company's
website, Facebook, whatever else?
www.officialleeroberts.com
www.hauntedeventsuk.com
www.facebook.com/officialleeroberts
www.twitter.com/MrLeeRoberts
Anything else you are
dying to mention and I have merely forgotten to ask? Just
for me to say thank you for the great interview questions, hope you all
enjoy the movie and I hope to see you all on the screen again soon. Thanks
for the interview!
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