User:Jstevens73/Deborah Hadfield

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Deborah Hadfield is an English film director, writer and producer. Her films include The Kindness of Strangers(2010), Sweetest Love(2011), Handcuffed(2005), Silver Lining(2005) Blind Date (2005) Naughty(2005) Barcode(2006).

Contents ·	Background

Hadfield was born in Burton on Trent, Staffordshire, the daughter of Jean and Robert Hadfield. She grew up in the South Derbyshire village of Stanton. She loved watching movies and her favorites include all the James Bond films, It’s A Wonderful Life, Grease, and Pretty Woman. She studied at Burton College and graduated with a BSC Combined Studies Honours degree in Drama, English and Business Studies from Nottingham University.

·	Early career Hadfield trained as a reporter at the Lichfield Mercury, where she had a film column and was also arts editor. She gained a 100% pass rate in her journalism law exams and went on to win on a national award for the best newspaper practice paper when she took her journalism exams at Birmingham University while working as a reporter at the Express & Star Newspaper in Wolverhampton. She joined the BBC working as a reporter and presenter at Radio Derby. Hadfield was headhunted by ITV and worked at Central News in Birmingham. She presented bulletins, produced programmes, and reported before moving to ITV:s Lenton Lane studios in Nottingham as a full time reporter. In the East Midlands she also produced documentaries and several series, including Trading Places and Dream Jobs. While working full-time for ITV Hadfield began training for her move into feature films training at the National Film and Television School, Ravensbourne, and Raindance. Screen West Midlands and EM-Media supported her extensive training.

·	 Early films In 2005 Hadfield wrote, produced and directed her first short film, HANDCUFFED starring Toby Kebbell. It was filmed on location in Burton on Trent, Staffordshire on Valentine’s Day. It was premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in the same year. Kebbell helped her develop and cast her next short film, Silver Lining starring Shauna Shim, who starred alongside Nicole Kidman in Dogville. Chris Brazier, who starred in Sky’s Dream Team, appeared in Hadfield’s third film Blind Date and her fourth Naughty which was filmed on location at Hoar Cross Hall in Staffordshire. Kebbell helped Hadfield workshop her fifth film Barcode which starred Tabatha Williams and premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2006. In 2007 Hadfield Directed Brief Encounter 21st Century starring Rebecca Mahon which was sold to the Mini Movie Channel when it was screened at the Cannes Film Festival.

·	Recent career

The Kindness of Strangers Hadfield and Toby Kebbell came up with the original concept for The Kindness of Strangers when they met in New York for the Premiere of Control. The idea was to shoot an improvised road movie across America with Kebbell in the lead role. But Kebbell started work on The Prince of Persia before the finance was raised. He gave his blessing to the project going ahead without him. The location was changed to Europe and principal photography started in Amalfi in Italy in August 2009. The film starred Dave Prowse, famous as the man behind the Dath Vader mask in the original Star Wars trilogy. Locations included Rome, Passo Oscura, Monte Carlo, Cannes, Alpes D’Huez, Paris, Staffordshire and Derbyshire. The story followed a couple who meet in Rome then travel across Europe but the secrets of his past catches up with them. The movie premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2010.

Sweetest Love Hadfield’s new feature film Sweetest Love is being filmed on location in Italy, Ireland and England. Director of Photography Roger Pearce is the cameraman who won awards for his work on the Bond movie Casino Royale and also filmed Goldeneye. Editor Kant Pan was nominated for an Oscar for The Crying Game.

The Goodbye Letters The Goodbye Letters is Hadfield’s most ambitious script to date. It is inspired by her time as a reporter during the Kosovo War. It was optioned by Tower Films and Giant Films in 2004. It is now in Development with Queen Bee Films. The Action Thriller will be filmed across Europe and the Baltics.

Personal life Hadfield has a daughter, Jessica, who is a hair stylist and make-up artist who works on her movies. Her home is in Burton upon Trent in Staffordshire with her office in nearby Derbyshire. She was married to Stephen Groves and was known as Deborah Groves until they divorced in 2007 when she reverted to her maiden name Hadfield.

Approach and style Hadfield is considered an actor’s director as she insists on work shopping her scripts with her cast before filming. He encourages her team to contribute ideas and is happy to incorporate them in her movies.

Awards Hadfield received the Best Director award for The Kindness of Strangers at the International Filmmkaers Festival of World Cinema in 2010. The film picked up a further 3 awards, including Best Actress for Tabatha Williams, Best Support Actor and Lifetime Achievement Award for Dave Prowse. It also received nominations for Best Film, Best Producer for Hadfield and Best Actor for Jason Stevens.