JC MonaghanI'm a filmmaker from Stockport, Greater Manchester. I took an interest in acting, drama and photography at an early age, and in my teens that developed into an interest in filmmaking.
I also took an interest in politics and current affairs as a child, which is... odd.
When I was 14 or 15 I took my first few tentative steps into experimenting with VFX by following some tutorials on Andrew Kramer's VideoCoPilot website. Since then, I've self-taught quite a lot about filmmaking and the like. It's handy that I self-taught, because umm... me and traditional education don't get on too well.
Basically I bollocksed up school in spectacular fashion by being dyslexic, except nobody noticed until I'd also screwed up college and people started to connect the dots. By then it was way too late, there was too much work that I hadn't done and I only really went to college when I needed to use the studio or the cameras to finish off my short Two Blue Lines. You can imagine how well that went down.
They told me to leave.
Shortly after leaving I started a film company, and I've been working ever since. One of the first things I shot professionally was an interview with The Stereophonics for XFM - incidentally, the interviewer here was Darryl Morris, who I met at college before he dropped out to take a contract with Global Radio.
Now, I've got loads planned; I'm writing two TV Series, and I've prepared ideas for screenplays for films that span every genre, from WWII films all the way through to dystopian futuristic thrillers.
My ultimate aim, one day, is to set up the Monaghan Media Foundation, where young creatives can come and get a living wage for a few years and are given the space necessary to learn and create and the support necessary to build a stable career.
Interesting Notes:
One of my tutors at college was film director Lawrence Gough. He's cool.
I went to college with XFM's Darryl Morris,
Two of my highschool teachers, his head-of-year Mrs Hammersley, and his drama teacher Miss Richardson are credited with 'With Thanks' on every film I release.
I remain certain that the promotional video I shot for my college the day before I knew I was going to be thrown out is the greatest film I've ever shot. There was a scene in the gay village. I'll dig it out one day and put it on youtube.
