ARSE - film in Liverpool

A.R.S.E is Neil McLean and James Slater; two children that decided never to stop playing. While the rest of us were being told to put down our Light Sabres and Amstrads, and pick up our briefcases, Neil and James made them into robots and filmed them.

The business was created in 1999, initially as a solution to graduate poverty and the desire to have their own office (‘cos you can take your pants off and swear’ – Neil). In little over a year, A.R.S.E has established an enviable reputation through hard work, determination, and an imagination which has not so much as cornered, but conquered the market in low-budget, top-quality film-making.

They believe that their success can be partially attributed to, what they call, their Œanti-hollywood¹ set of production values. Put simply, these are a fundamental passion for film-making, and a distrust of those companies whose big-budget extravagance takes the place of orginality and imagination. It seems that the products of A.R.S.E are living proof that squandering excessive amounts of cash is not an essential component of music video production. This Œanti-hollywood¹ ethic is inherent in everything they do, and has attracted several successful new-comers/ local heroes, such as Ladytron, Hayley¹s Cake, Ooberman, and Mancunian maestros Mint Royale (just think ŒPriory¹ theme tune), and has enabled them to have no less than five A.R.S.E productions aired on MTV. Currently, A.R.S.E are producing a Ladytron documentary for US company Emporer Norton, as well as a documentary about 1970¹s Liverpool Punk venue, ŒErics¹ (featuring Joe Strummer, Ian Broudie and Will Sargeant Ian McCulloch had toothache). Will they stop at nothing?

Neil or James can be contacted at A.R.S.E. tel: 0151 236 0004