Former Plume pupils put Battle of Maldon doc on Youtube

Film-maker Ryan Grant, 28; museum employee Steven Gridley, 27; and musician and writer Chris Burrage, 31, put their heads together to produce a 12-minute video about the battle to repulse a Viking invasion.

Titled The Battle of Maldon, it examines the famous poem which recounts the battle in 991AD and looks at the possible locations of the fighting.

The trio were schoolmates at Plume Academy in Maldon and have stayed in touch ever since.

Chris and Steven are from Maldon and Ryan lives in Heybridge.

The idea started when Ryan was testing his camera equipment by filming barges while kayaking down the River Blackwater.

Steven, who works at Maldon Museum, saw the footage and offered to write the dialogue to accompany it.

After Chris saw the finished product, the three of them got talking and decided to combine their talents and make the documentary.

Ryan said: “It took us about six weeks and we worked on it once a week.

“I did the filming and video editing, Chris did the research and Steven works for the museum so we were able to use some resources from there.

“I haven’t really worked with other people on a project but I was surprised how well we worked together.

“It was an enjoyable experience having to rely on other people.

“We each gave each other jobs to do and it gelled well.”

Ryan spent more than seven hours going out and waiting for the right time and weather to shoot footage with his cameras and his drone, yielding 30 minutes of footage.

He said: “There is a time-lapse in the video which I took.

“I sat on Northey Island and filmed for about three hours.”

He added: “This is definitely not a one-off.

“I like to tell stories so if there’s a good story to tell then we would be more than happy to do it.

“It doesn’t have to be a history documentary. Hopefully if people see this, we can get more people coming up to us and asking to tell other stories in Maldon.”

To see the documentary, visit youtube.com/watch?v=4B4l3gvEuIg.