A new film has been announced by Filmmakers Anthony Caulfield & Nicola Caulfield called From Bedrooms To Billions, which aims to tell the story of the UK games industry from 1979 – 1996. The tag line for the movie is ‘ A scientific Curiosity That Sparked A Revolution’  And no truer word has been said, If it wasn’t for those bods who sat in their bedrooms learning how to code the ZX Spectrum, we wouldn’t be were we are today. Check out the full press release below.

Filmmakers Anthony Caulfield & Nicola Caulfield have announced they have launched an Indiegogo campaign to fund the production of their new 90 minute documentary feature film titled ‘From Bedrooms to Billions’. The film tells the remarkable, true story of the British Video Games Industry between 1979 – 1996 and how the creativity and vision of a relatively small number of individuals allowed the UK to play a key, pioneering role in the shaping of the billion dollar video games industry which today, dominates the modern world’s entertainment landscape. Featuring interviews with key contributors to the UK story in video game development, publishing and journalism from over the last 40 years, combined with compelling archive, ‘From Bedrooms to Billions’ is the first to attempt to bring this fascinating story together starting in the late 70’s, spanning ‘Thatcher’s Britain’ of the 80’s and culminating in the dramatic shift of fortunes for the UK Video Games Industry by the late 90’s. The film celebrates the importance of this era and why it has become such a landmark period in the history of British invention, creativity and industry.
Producer, Anthony Caulfield said “From Bedrooms to Billions has been a very personal project for us since June 2008. Having completed many documentaries we have always wanted to document the rise of the British video games industry and the incredible story that went with it. What’s so fascinating is how the UK computer scene was originally nothing more than a scientific curiosity which snowballed into something so vast. As we started putting this film together we uncovered so many incredible stories, these people had to literally make up an industry as they went, some were very successful, but others were not so, however collectively we felt it a strong story that’s long overdue and should make a wonderful movie”. Fellow Producer Nicola Caulfield said “This film will be a great piece of nostalgic entertainment that documents an important part of UK history. This era is so often overlooked and not known by young British talent looking to enter the games industry, as the vast majority of UK children, school leavers and even students believe that gaming originated mainly from the US and Japan and have little to no knowledge that a British games industry even once existed”.

Excited? I know I am, you can see a trailer by clicking this very link, it’s worth a watch just for the great archive footage. If you want to see this film made, then we all need to get behind it and support it.  The Caulfields need to raise $35,000 before July 17, that’s only 57 days away. So gamers and film lovers alike, this is a call to arms.

You can also visit the film’s official website www.frombedroomstobillions.com or by emailing Anthony Caulfield at anthonyc@graciousfilms.com

Also the Facebook page for the film can be visited at http://www.facebook.com/pages/From-Bedrooms-to-Billions/136306856397331?v=photos&ref=ts#!/pages/From-Bedrooms-to-Billions/136306856397331?v=wall

Things have come a long way since: 10: print: ‘gaming’ 20: go to 10