Hello there and thank you for looking at my website. I feel very fortunate that my creative passion into my full time job.
I am a visual storyteller in the medium of film and my work encompasses all aspects of production from concept to release, including research, direction, filming, editing and promotion.
I have Directed and produced large scale short films and in 2023 Co Directed and edited a Dance Musical film for the "Agatha Christie Festival".
Films I have produced have garnered thousands of plays on social media , had sold out Cinema Screenings, featured on US T.V and Amazon Prime. I have written film courses for film makers of the future. Given talks, lectures to the colleges, organisations and businesses about the film industry and the power of video / film .
All to raise the profile of the Independent Film Industry in Torbay , Devon and beyond.
Photo from one of three sold out screenings of my 2024 Directed film "Music Scene Memories at Torquay Town Hall" April 2024 at the Lyceum Theatre Torquay
My commercial projects have included working with statutory and voluntary sectors as well as business, tourism, educational organisations, events and music artists. I have worked on projects with South Devon College and Exeter College.
In 2022 a local history documentary I made with some young film makers and Torquay Museum was part of a National Festival for British Archaeology. A Wellbeing film I collaborated on with many local organisations was shown as part of a National Conference on wellbeing - mental health.
I have produced and run film workshops for many heritage organisations . With the finished films being released online and part of major exhibitions seen by thousands of people.
My produced films and music videos have received thousands of views , social interaction and have reached audiences locally, nationally and across the world.
Film Festival
In 2015 I instigated the English Riviera Film Festival in Torbay and have served as its Director over the following years, coordinating a team of volunteers and growing the Festival from an ad-hoc one day event into an International event attended by delegates from across the globe.
The Festival, now in its eighth year, has as its highlight an annual award ceremony recognising emerging film industry talent from around the world. The festival has shown over 250 films and hosted panels and film-related workshops with over 50 film industry professionals.
I also produce an online show that runs as a complement to the live Festival, taking viewers deeper into the world of film through interviews with professionals from all aspects of the industry. From indie short films to Hollywood blockbusters.
Testimonials
“From the first meeting with John, I was reassured that he was very knowledgeable about his industry, he also really cared about our work and took time to find out more from us, so he could do all the appropriate planning and preparation ahead of filming. Throughout the process John has been professional, meeting all deadlines and communicating really efficiently; he also put our staff, volunteers and young people at their ease during filming. The finished product was excellent, I would highly recommend using Emberlense for any filming you need.”
Maria Goodwin CEO YMCA South Devon
“Agatha Christie Festival Ltd commissioned John Tomkins and his company, Emberlense Productions, to film selected live events at the 2022 International Agatha Christie Festival to create a promotional video and trailer for future years. John responded brilliantly to our brief and delivered a superb mini-film which captures the essence of the Festival within its stunning heritage setting. We are delighted with the result.”
Heather Norman-Soderlind
Chair, Agatha Christie Festival
More testimonials available on my website
https://www.emberlense.com/testimonials.html
In 2022 a local history documentary I made with some young film makers and Torquay Museum was part of a National Festival for British Archaeology. A Wellbeing film I collaborated on with many local organisations was shown as part of a National Conference on wellbeing - mental health.
I have produced and run film workshops for many heritage organisations . With the finished films being released online and part of major exhibitions seen by thousands of people.
My produced films and music videos have received thousands of views , social interaction and have reached audiences locally, nationally and across the world.
Film Festival
In 2015 I instigated the English Riviera Film Festival in Torbay and have served as its Director over the following years, coordinating a team of volunteers and growing the Festival from an ad-hoc one day event into an International event attended by delegates from across the globe.
The Festival, now in its eighth year, has as its highlight an annual award ceremony recognising emerging film industry talent from around the world. The festival has shown over 250 films and hosted panels and film-related workshops with over 50 film industry professionals.
I also produce an online show that runs as a complement to the live Festival, taking viewers deeper into the world of film through interviews with professionals from all aspects of the industry. From indie short films to Hollywood blockbusters.
Testimonials
“From the first meeting with John, I was reassured that he was very knowledgeable about his industry, he also really cared about our work and took time to find out more from us, so he could do all the appropriate planning and preparation ahead of filming. Throughout the process John has been professional, meeting all deadlines and communicating really efficiently; he also put our staff, volunteers and young people at their ease during filming. The finished product was excellent, I would highly recommend using Emberlense for any filming you need.”
Maria Goodwin CEO YMCA South Devon
“Agatha Christie Festival Ltd commissioned John Tomkins and his company, Emberlense Productions, to film selected live events at the 2022 International Agatha Christie Festival to create a promotional video and trailer for future years. John responded brilliantly to our brief and delivered a superb mini-film which captures the essence of the Festival within its stunning heritage setting. We are delighted with the result.”
Heather Norman-Soderlind
Chair, Agatha Christie Festival
More testimonials available on my website
https://www.emberlense.com/testimonials.html
Click on the link blow to see more of my commercial and documentary films
https://www.emberlense.com/
DIRECTOR SHOWREEL 2024
Beard Envy: a smile-enducing surreal journey on a quest for a beard
Aug 2018 D &C Film
Beard Envy is a surreal journey into an aspirational, envy-ridden day-mare. Based on the spoken-word poetry of Robert Garnham, it tells the story of one person’s dream to have a beard.
The beard envier – Dan A Beard – is played by the wonderfully wide-eyed fresh-faced Jack Allum, who is constantly perplexed, amused, confused but mostly envious of the beards he encounters.
And what a range of beard-based brushes they are! From bumping into the South West’s most famous pirate Cpt’n Blackheart in a historical setting, through a tidal wave of beard competitors, science lab, barber’s shop and a wistful bus journey.
The first beard encounter is at Torquay Museum, and along with the location of Paignton’s The Lucky 7 Club, the settings add a sense of the real to this very other-world adventure, making it even more tangibly bizarre.
What’s lovely too is that the crowd of beardies are real… well… beardies. They combine with a range of actors, who sprout their own sense of ‘odd’. And Robert’s own dryly enthusiastic narration captures a sense of another, slightly off-set consciousness.
Quick-paced, the short film comes in at just over five minutes, and we can’t even guess at the length-of-beard-per-second ratio.
There are strong visuals from the duo of DoPs Jacob Brandon and Julian Kemp, and screenplay by Tom Eastwood has transferred the essence of a live stand-up to a the opportunities of a multi-faced media environment.
Beard Envy belongs in that pantheon of engaging off-kilter flicks – it’s a quick excursion into the smile-enducing surreal.
Directed, produced and edited by John Tomkins, Beard Envy is beautifully British, eccentrically English and fittingly hopeful for hirsute heroes and wannabes alike
A Dark Tale Review
A Dark Tale is a blackly comic little gem that is both theatrical and cinematic in perfectly balanced proportions. Not many films can withstand any aspect of theatricality at all, but John Tomkins manages this almost as well as legendary directors Ingmar Bergman and
David Lynch— in his own inimitable and bleakly humorous fashion.
The film’s strength lies in its storytelling, which is philosophically and moralistically profound, but camouflaged so that these academic qualities are not evident. Equally fine is Tomkins’ choice of actors, and his careful direction of them, so that all characters, as eccentric as they are, seem completely real. I especially enjoy the movie’s silent moments, where the imagination can run wild among faces and landscapes, both interior and exterior.
Any weak points in the film are so negligible as to be rendered nonexistent, in my critical opinion. A Dark Tale will definitely satisfy any film lover’s palate, and is strongly recommended.
Film Threat Review 2013
Devon and Cornwall Film Website
http://www.devon-cornwall-film.co.uk/author/john-tomkins/
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