Jamie Quince-Starkey

College creative writing course leads to Quad documentary premiere

Aero-engine worker Jamie Quince-Starkey used creative writing skills learned at Derby College to create a pilot documentary about his ambitious city environment project.  
 
Rolls-Royce employee Jamie, 26, who was brought up in Allestree, founded The Down to Earth Project as a result of the conflict he felt between his job and the natural world. He had also always had a love for reading, writing and story-telling.  
 
Jamie enrolled for creative writing evening classes at the Roundhouse to “get back into learning things” and to develop his ideas. He found the course gave him the toolkit to plan out a pilot film documenting The Down to Earth Project.  
 
It was screened at the Quad venue in front of an audience of 150 people, including the Mayor and Mayoress of Derby. The pilot documents the community aspects of the project’s allotment off Markeaton Street. Jamie said he launched the project to help people reconnect with the natural world.  
 
He created the pilot with the help of (Nottingham Trent University) photography student Jason Sheehan and other volunteers. Jamie feels the documentary fills a community niche missed by major documentaries.    
 
Now he hopes to create a series of documentaries about the project and pitch them to TV, or to run them online as a webseries.

I was so happy how the pilot went at Quad: people I knew from school in Allestree bought tickets and said they wanted to get an allotment. Derby College helped 100 per cent. It doesn’t matter what it is: it could be a book, or a movie or a documentary, there’s always a story being told and a way to get it across. The course taught me how to approach the planning and writing. It’s a buzz when you find you have a creative side. I’d recommend it highly.

Without the support of Derby College, and the support of my lecturer Tina Jay, I don’t think I’d be at the point that I am with The Down to Earth Project.