Mark Craig : Stopwatch Productions

08/06/2024

18/03/2024

Sad to learn that a legendary astronaut has left this Earth for the last time... Tom Stafford, who I had the pleasure of interviewing a few years back, and who flew 4 times to space (including a trip close to the Moon on Apollo 10 with Gene Cernan.

He also commanded the Apollo-Soyuz flight in 1975, famously shaking hands in space with his Russian counterpart Alexei Leonov, and paving the way for international collaboration in space that continues today despite the politics.

The two became genuinely close lifelong friends, and enjoyed each others company immensely until the end.

Godspeed you to the stars Tom...

07/12/2023

Went to see the amazing new ‘Moonwalkers’ exhibition at The Lightroom in London yesterday. Presented by Tom Hanks, scored by Anne Nikitin, and featuring numerous NASA images remastered by Andy Saunders. It was a beautiful, immersive assault on the senses with some fab motion graphics. Highly recommended!

03/12/2023

Birthday Greetings to Alberto Juantorena - 73 today.

03/12/2021

Happy Birthday Alberto!

Today is Alberto Juantorena's birthday. All of us on the production team wish him a very happy one, and hope that he'll be coming our way sometime next year.

Several of us will be attending the Conference for Latin America in London tomorrow, and will raise a glass to him.

Director / producer Mark Craig will be presenting some clips from the film to an audience of around 300 delegates and doing a Q&A.

https://latinamericaconference.wordpress.com/about/

A report and photos will follow...

Saludos!

23/11/2021

17/11/2021

The Havana - Glasgow Film Fest s underway...

A film by Mark Craig | UK CU 2020 | 81’ | English, Spanish Cuba’s greatest ever track athlete Alberto Juantorena shares his remarkable personal journey…

05/11/2021

Details about Running for the Revolution's screening in Milan next week...

26/10/2021

International Film Festival News...

A film by Mark Craig | UK CU 2020 | 81’ | English, Spanish Cuba’s greatest ever track athlete Alberto Juantorena shares his remarkable personal journey…

26/09/2021

Running for the Revolution news...

Celebrating Cuban film and culture in Havana's twin city of Glasgow

18/09/2021

We are delighted to announce that Running for the Revolution has been selected as the opening night film at the Havana - Glasgow Film Festival.

Date: Tuesday 16th November

If you're based in the area please come along and watch the film on a big screen, as well as a Q&A session with the director, Mark Craig.

Please keep checking this page and the festival website for further details in the next few weeks...

https://hgfilmfest.com

Other exciting news about the film coming soon!

Saludos,

The RFTR team.

Celebrating Cuban film and culture in Havana's twin city of Glasgow

23/07/2021

The Olympics have begun...

Meet a few of the great Olympians in Running for the Revolution

15/07/2021

Cuba’s greatest ever track athlete Alberto Juantorena shares his remarkable personal journey through a cauldron of sport & politics - offering a fresh…

11/06/2021

With the Olympics just around the corner, some film news...

ANNOUNCEMENT:

We can finally announce that Running for the Revolution will be available to watch on iTunes in Europe and Latin America from the 8th August. Confirmation of the US date will follow very shortly.

It will also be on several terrestrial TV channels throughout the world - details for which will follow in the next few days...

It's been a long journey for all of us involved in this production, but we are excited that it will be available to watch very soon!

More info and links will appear on this page and on other social media platforms over the next couple of months, so do keep looking and sharing...

Gracias, y saludos!

MC

31/05/2021

Earlier today, a team of fab women rowers I've been working with recently set off from San Francisco in their 24' boat 'Pepe Wai'.

Destination: Hawaii - 2,400 miles across the Pacific!

They hope to break the existing world record for women of 62 days. And I reckon they're going to do it.

If you want to follow their progress, check out their Website Facebook / Instagram / etc. https://www.dreamdaredo.org.uk/

Here's a local TV news report broadcast yesterday:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4qRs8ijJc0

Godspeed the crew of Pepe Wai!

MC

Three brave women will begin a harrowing, two-month journey later this week, traveling from San Francisco to Hawaii in a row boat. They are the only all-fema...

22/05/2021

We are delighted to announce that Running for the Revolution will be screened on the opening night of the River Film Festival in Italy on July 1st.

https://riverfilmfestival.org/en/programma-2021/

Padova is a charming medieval town not far from Venice, where an outdoor audience will watch films from the banks of the river and in small boats!

More news of other festival screenings and TV slots coming soon...

Saludos,

MC

07/03/2021

I must give a big shout out to 3 awesome women - who in June will set out from San Francisco in a 24' boat, and row 2600 miles to Hawaii.

I did some filming with a couple of them yesterday as they made final preparations before their boat is shipped out to California.

Jane Leonard, is a former Royal Engineer and England rugby player - who I worked with 11 years ago when I was making a documentary about the England Women's rugby team.

Vicki Anstey is a former contestant on Channel 4's SAS : Who Dares Wins, and the third crew member is Orlagh Dempsey.

None of them have any experience of the open ocean, so it will be a very serious challenge for them. They expect to be at sea for 60 days, and will also be expecting the unexpected!

You can read all about their adventure here:

https://www.dreamdaredo.org.uk/

28/02/2021

Here's a sneak peak of our poster design for Running for the Revolution.

More news coming soon...

20/02/2021

During the challenging times we all live in these days it's not easy to know when things are going to happen with any certainty, but the news from the Running for the Revolution camp is this:

The completed film and all its supporting materials have now been delivered to our sales and marketing team Autlook - who are in discussions with a number of television and film festival people.

We hope that in the next few weeks we'll be able to post some news about where and when the film can be viewed. We think that it would be a perfect fit during the final run up to the Tokyo Olympics in July.

To the best of our knowledge the Games are still going ahead in some form - as stated recently by IOC president Thomas Bach:

"We are fully concentrating on the Opening Ceremony on 23 July this year. We are not speculating on whether the Games are taking place. We are working on how the Games will take place.”

You can read the full article here:
https://www.olympic.org/news/ioc-president-reaffirms-commitment-to-the-olympic-games-tokyo-2020

In our next post we'll be unveiling our fab new poster!

Till then, stay safe,

MC

01/02/2021

For anyone who may be interested in the history of TV Graphic Design, there is now a marvelous archive collection of work that was done either by or for the BBC.

https://www.ravensbourne.ac.uk/bbc-motion-graphics-archive

Some of it dates back 50 years or more, and includes classic idents and titles sequences that many of you will remember.

The driving force behind the archive has been former BBC designer Michael Graham-Smith, working with a dedicated small team at Ravensbourne University. It's taken many years of curating and haggling!

I've been helping out a little by capturing a few interviews with some of the designers featured - but Covid hasn't made it easy. I intend to continue when it's possible to do so again, and who knows... it may even turn into a documentary one day ;)

MC

The BBC Motion Graphics Archive is a showcase of the history and development of motion graphics across the BBC and includes examples of opening titles, promotion trailers, stings, idents and programme content sequences. We have so far worked closely with around 150 BBC graphic designers who have sha...