An idea which made national news last week had previously been brought to life by a Midsomer Norton-based Film Director.

Alun D Pughe has released his latest short film featuring the story of Lucy Hughes, a 24-year-old student, who, as of last week, is the UK and Global winner of the James Dyson Award 2019.

Heart-broken by seeing the seas she loved as a child become so

polluted, she decided to teach herself chemistry, which would, in turn, allow her to make a plastic substitute from fish waste.

Lucy, who is a graduate in product design from the University of Sussex, won the £30,000 prize for her biodegradable invention known as MarinaTex, which will break down within four to six weeks. Her entry beat 1,078 others from 28 countries across the world.

In the film, Lucy explains that she noticed a very linear way of consuming – that, simplified, we would invent something and later throw it away. She decided to use materials from nature, rather than created by people, and looked at waste sources.

She settled on fish skin and scales as a future-proof economic model – 172,000 tonnes of it is created from UK processing plants annually, and then set about finding an organic binding formula to create a bio-plastic. Whilst the idea has won the support of many, some critics have argued that it may fuel over-fishing in our seas.

It is estimated that five million tonnes of plastic is used in the UK each year, and nearly half of this is packaging. Only 51% of local authorities in England currently have separate food waste collections, and even where recycling schemes occur, the majoritiy of bio and compostable plastics are not generally suited to the existing waste infrastructure.

Alun tells The Journal: “The Lucy Hughes project was one of those wonderful opportunities that I was hired to come on board for, and immediately realised what a gift this was.

“Commissioned by Louise Lacourarie, Dyson wanted a little filmed interview with Lucy to put out to the media outlets and promote the winner of the UK James Dyson Awards. I asked JS Productions (the Malmsbury-based film production company that brought me in), if I could make a short film instead; as I felt the subject to be so important. Between us, we pitched the ideas to Louise, who loved it.

“We had a tiny crew (myself Directing, Louise there as Executive, Thom Heald on Camera and Rob Saunders on Sound and Still Photography, so we could move quickly.

“I storyboarded every shot and filmed the scenes with the children - who were my actual kids! The evening we arrived was between thunderous summer rain storms. It looked so peaceful and serene in the film, but if the camera had turned in the other direction, it would have looked very different!

“The interview with Lucy was at the University of Sussex and we met there early in the morning and I immediately liked her. She was calm, kind, and clearly very intelligent. She politely took great interest in the plan for the day, nervously asking about the acting elements, but she needn’t have worried – she was consistently perfect.

“The interview lasted about two hours, and then we raced against the clock to get all of the shots in. It was incredibly ambitious for our timeframe, but the crew were magnificent, and we wrapped literally as we lost the last of our light.

“We put the first cut of the edit together in a couple of days, and from there, Lucy’s story has, quite rightly, spread like wildfire.”

Alun moved to Midsomer Norton in 2011 from Ceredigion, mid-Wales. His career began through making music videos for local bands and low budget short films for festivals by night, whilst working in a video rental shop by day. Alun says: “I was very lucky and managed to win a few awards – one by the late, great Richard Attenborough, that gave me the confidence to continue.

“After several years, I began writing feature scripts and had one in particular grenlit for production. With the economic crash I received a lifeline from Bath-based publishing company, Future, who were looking at putting together a commercial video team and wanted a Director to come in and shake things up a little.

“I spent many happy years with them, and now, as a freelancer, still often work with my old collaborators there, and gained a reputation for finding heart in the projects and expressing that through my storytelling.

“I’ve travelled all over Europe making films and TV adverts for big, multi-national companied like Canon, Warner Brothers and Ducati, but also local companies, musicians and bands.”

To watch Alun’s film, Lucy Hughes, a Voice for the Ocean, visit: http://www.alundpughe.co.uk/lens_portfolio/lucy-hughes-a-voice-for-the-ocean/