Nominated by
tracy lamourie
October 07, 2020
George M. Atkinson was born in Dumfries, Scotland in 1992. By the age of eight or nine, he was
spending his spare time exploring the local Galloway countryside and deserted beaches, allowing his imagination to run free and unhindered. When at home, he spent much of his time, playing in
his “Lab.”, at the top of the family’s house, recording “shows” on cassette tapes and writing his first scripts. By the age of eight he had script accepted and performed by actors at a local, provincial, small theatre. His early, self-educating, studies of film production, came from watching hours of television; in particular, the more highbrow science fiction series. It was all of these
activities that fermented an unstoppable desire, from an early age, to pursue a
career in writing and making films. At High School, he was not the most focused of students. The inner eye of his fertile mind was more preoccupied with the mental images of his amazing stories, worlds, times; past, present and future. Stories of a calibre that belied his age. Homework
time was spent, not so much on homework but developing and writing scripts, in addition to trying to organise film shoots. By the age of 16, the Pyramid Arts Centre, in the north west of England’s large town of Warrington, had invited him to premier his first short film, ‘The Scottish Brick Society’.
From High School, George enrolled at Salford City College and completed a two-year film media course. Having taken a couple of years “out” but without any breaks in his script writing and film making, he then completed a two-year course at the Brighton Screen and Film School, on the south coast of England. Here, he developed and created a variety of short films projects and having been “noticed”, was asked, by a lecturer on behalf of a production company, to edit a TV pilot, which
was to be pitched in the USA. Over recent years, George’s creative capacity has proven to be unstoppable. The subject matter for his scripts is ever increasingly diverse, aimed at both feature and short films. Adventure and intrigue, all with his own, outstanding, element of the unexpected are finely executed. Some of his stories can be comedic, some are hard hitting dramas. All are compelling, requiring reliable edges of seats. With his own production company, Effortless Pictures, George has written, directed and produced commercial promotional videos. More recently, he and other members of the company have held auditions, in Manchester, England, for his latest short film,‘Grace’, which examines the moral test for a middle-aged woman whose husband is in the advance stages of a degenerative illness. Her dedication and care for her him
is put into conflict when she is unexpectedly contacted by an old school flame. This year saw the release of a documentary film called ‘Searching for Secret Heroes’ made in collaboration between Effortless Picture and the award-winning heritage record label Document Records. With film direction by George, the documentary focuses on interviews of music historian, writer and record producer Sam Charters and his wife Ann; a noted photographer and writer. They tell of how, as a young couple in 1962, they left their home in New York and embarked upon a journey into
the segregated southern states to make the first film which would exclusively examining the subject of blues music, as it was played and what it meant to those that performed it. Whilst working on his projects, George applied his talents to another of his passions; fragrances and with that he created the long running and well received YouTube Channel ‘The Fragrance Apprentice’, on which he employs his film and cinematic skills and experiments, to create and produce Fragrance reviews in the style of various films. With narrative and an overarching structure, the channel rapidly gained
wide popularity, attention and momentum with the channel now amassing over 20,000 subscribers and increasing. Beyond the calibre of the reviews George has been recognised for his signature atmospheric style, extraordinary location shoots, characterisations and at times, left field humour. ‘The Fragrance Apprentice’ has been hailed as one of the most intriguing and creative YouTube channels in its niche. Indeed, his innovative, abstract style has caught the attention of many in the
fragrance industry and which has led to him being commissioned to produce shoots
in Los Angeles. George is a prolific creator of stories and the main project that he is currently working on is the outstanding ‘The Secret of Svalbard’; a thirteen-episode, science-fiction
thriller, series.