Lace Market Media have followed up their documentary about The Cockle Man with another well-known Nottingham legend, Annie from Annie's Burger Shack. We caught up with them to see what's what...
Who’s behind Lace Market Media?
A pair of nutters. I’m Matthew Daunt; I direct, edit and shoot all of our projects. Mark Daunt is my father, business partner and producer. He is the realistic one out of the two of us.
Tell us a bit about your new film, a documentary about Annie’s Burger Shack…
It’s not really a new film, it's over two years old now. We premiered it in the Contemporary back in 2015 and Annie and her team made a huge deal of it, even put on a black tie after party. Easily one of the best nights of my life. Since then we took it on a festival run and it was selected by the Rhode Island International Film festival which is an Oscar selection festival. It was really successful over there and voted the favourite film out of our screenings. Unfortunately we didn't win our category and didn't quite get the Oscar nomination… One day!
What was it that drew you to Annie’s as a documentary subject?
I’ve known Annie since she started and have always been eating her burgers. She used to tell me all the crazy stuff that she had gone through to get to where she is now and it just made sense to make the film. Annie is also extremely natural in front of the camera, something all documentary directors look for in their subject. Check out some of the content on her Facebook and you will see what I mean.
How did you first approach Annie about making the film?
We had just premiered our previous film The Cockle Man and I was hungry to start another. I grabbed my laptop, met her for a pint, showed her the film and she loved it. When I told her my idea for the next one, her face lit up. It didn't take much persuading to be honest.
What problems did you face during the project?
Thousands. Our biggest problem was in the edit: I had 12 hours of interview tape that I had to find my story in and all of it was so interesting. The first cut was over 90 minuets and it swallowed me whole. I lost my mind a little bit so I took a couple of months off from the film and when I came back I started with one scene. It all fell into place after that. On top of that, in all of our films we like to feature what we call a ‘long shot’. It’s basally a continuous shot that is far too complicated than necessary so it was pretty fun trying to fit that into the film.
Both this and your previous documentary about the Cockle Man focus on well-known Nottingham residents, is that a conscious decision?
100%. Nottingham is an incredible place because it’s full of incredible people. I intend to keep the series going and continue making more films about these heroes.
Are you planning any other documentaries about Nottingham?
We are about to release our latest film Until Now, a 45-minute documentary about the GMB Nottingham Panthers' success in the Continental Cup. I'm a huge hockey fan and had the opportunity to go film the Panthers make history by being not only the first British team to make the final 2 rounds, but to win the competition. We are just finishing writing the music for the film and will be looking to release it before the year ends. To say I'm excited would be an understatement!
Annie the Movie (+ Q&A with Matt Daunt) will be shown as part of a special Short Stack at Broadway Cinema on Sunday, 24th September at 6pm
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