Film tribute for Stephen Sutton underway

Now footage of the 19 year-old from Staffordshire, whose personality and plight touched the world, is to form a documentary about him and his fundraising.

Stephen met film director Grigorij Richters, from Films United, ahead of the Wembley cup final between Bayern Munich and Dortmund last spring.

His team were filming the opening ceremony, which Stephen was at as part of his 'bucket list' aims.

After getting to know the teenager, a crew started to film and interview Stephen before giving him the equipment to start filming himself.

This included a trip to Ibiza, where Stephen got footage of himself laughing around with friends, at a party and swimming.

Over an eight month period clippings of him doing a range of activities from sky-diving, fundraising drumming in Birmingham and playing the Playstation at home have been captured.

In total more than 15 hours of film has been recorded and his friend Mr Richters is now aiming, after getting the blessing of Stephen, to create a documentary.

The former Chase Terrace Technology College pupil died on Wednesday after a battle with cancer. He has already raised more than £3.8 million for the Teenage Cancer Trust.

Mr Richters, aged 26, and originally from Germany, said: "We were hired by UEFA to do the film for the opening ceremony, we met Stephen during the rehearsals.

"After the event we had so much footage with Stephen that we followed him with a couple of camera crews.

"Quite a lot of it was shot by Stephen himself. He had the cameras for eight months, he was filming every now and again.

"He went out to a lads holiday with his friends and shot a lot of that footage.

"Just imagine a teenage lad with his best friends, it is fun, light-hearted.

"We have got 15 to 20 hours of footage and the plan is to put a documentary together."

Stephen's family will be involved in the documentary and creators are planning to interview more family, friends and some of the celebrity supporters he gained.

There is no timescale yet for when it will be released.

Mr Richters said: "We have got to give his family and friends some space.

"We are going through the footage at the moment and when the time is right we will make a beautiful documentary that is going to be a great tribute to such an inspirational young man.

"We spent quite a bit of time with him during the Champions League process. We knew this was a very special young man. We got to know him very well, very quickly.

"We want to really show the world what a great soul he was and for everyone to remember him for a very long time.

"He was a really good friend of ours, a lot of my team have spent a lot time with him. It is more trying to show Stephen in the light that wanted us to see him.

"What he did was actually incredible but I also think what was quite fascinating was how he did it. We didn't think we would meet someone as inspirational."

Anyone with any footage which could be considered for the documentary are invited to send it to the info@filmsunited.com email address.

Tributes have been flooding in for Stephen since his death last week.

A carpet of flowers has been put outside his outside his former school in his memory along with a book of remembrance.

Tributes have been paid by a string of well known names including Prime Minister David Cameron and comedian Jason Manford.

It comes as plans are also moving forward for a memorial to Stephen in his hometown of Burntwood.

Staffordshire County Council leader Philip Atkins has asked staff to explore how best to 'capture' Stephen's 'aspiration and spirit' with a monument.

It is not known what form the memorial will take or when actual plans are likely to be revealed.

But councillors in the authority have backed the sentiment.

A petition has been launched calling for a ward at Birmingham Children's Hospital to be renamed in his memory.

While calls have also been growing on social media for him to be honoured with a Broad Street star in Birmingham – an honour previously handed to celebrities such as Ozzy Osbourne and Jasper Carrot.

Donations to his www.justgiving.com/stephen-sutton-tct page rocketed by up to £1,000 a minute when news of his death emerged.