whalebonefilms-blog

[whalebonefilms-blog]

September 11th 2016

A few brags, firstly, our film about a Maine lobster fisherwoman The Long Haul was seleced for the Maine International Film Festival, Camden International Film Festival and WON the Grand Prize in Short Filmmaking at the International Maritime Film Festival. We’re chuffed that the film is doing so well in it’s home state :)

Secondly, we finished another short film called Once in Orgosolo, set in Sardinia, which we’re super pleased was selected to screen on Nowness, where you can watch it right now...

[whalebonefilms-blog]

6th May 2016

Here’s a little update with two films that we’ve finished recently and are super proud of:

The Barbican

World Future Council:

[whalebonefilms-blog]

28th February 2016

Happy new year! 2016 so far....

We stared the year by finishing our film Quiet Videos for the Guardian which you can watch here-

We then made a short film for the Bush Theatre announcing the changes taking place to their theatre-

We’re also excited to announce that our short documentary The Long Haul premiered at the London Short Film Festival to a great reception. It then screened at Doc Heads in Brick Lane and now it is available online to watch on the lovely Aeon.

We also finished off our animation for the Foundation for Future Justice which will be going live in March, as well as made some films for Save the Children, the Barbican and adoption charity PACT.

Alongside filmmaking we’ve also had some taking part in panels for the Frontline Club on Short Doc Making, and at the BFI on Finding Documentary Characters. You can read a summary of the Frontline Club panel discussion here.

We’re about to embark on a bit of a filmmaking adventure over the next few months but we’ll be sure to keep you posted on what we’re up to!

[whalebonefilms-blog]

31st December 2015

2015 has been a great year for Whalebone Films, here is a brief run down of our year:

- We went to Ghana with WaterAid to make a short film about their water projects there

- We visited Jordan and Lesvos with Save the Chidren to cover their refugee work.

- We went to Nepal with Oxfam to make a film about earthquake recovery work.

- Chloe did a month long artist residency at the Macdowell Colony in New Hampshire.

- We finished our first film for the Guardian (going online early next year)

- We made a short film The Long Haul about a lobster fisherwoman which is premiering at the London Short Film Festival next month.

- An All-Encompassing Light continued to get screened at festvals around the world and won the Audience Award at the Imperial War Museum short film festival. It was picked as One to Watch at the London Short Film Festival by the BFI.

- We made films for lots of lovely organisations including Barbican, the National Theatre, Space, BBC3, Channel 4, PACT, Bush Theatre, University of the Arts London, True TUbe, Only Connect, MACAT, Go-Ahead,  Restless Development, and BBC Future.

[whalebonefilms-blog]

9th September 2015

Spring has quickly turned to Autumn and during that time, here is a little bit about what we’ve been up to:

- We completed our short documentary ‘The Long Haul’, shot on a lobster fishing boat in Maine USA. This was our first true directorial collaboration and an attempt to experiment with some of what we’ve been inspired by in films we love – strong emphasis on music to create an alternative, subjective reality (stolen from Herzog films like ‘Lessons of Darkness’ and ‘Wodaabe -Herdsmen of the Sun’) and long, uncut camera shots which allow the natural rhythms of the scene to play out in full (see things by the Sensory Ethnography Lab and ‘Maidan’ by Sergei Loznitsa – see Will’s thoughts on ‘Maidan’ below). 

This has now been sent off to festivals and we’re hoping to get some good news soon. In the meantime, here is the trailer:

- Since returning to the UK following her US residency, Chloe has been off on more international filming trips.  With Save the Children, Chloe went to film at Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan, and more recently, was in Nepal shooting a short documentary for Oxfam about their earthquake recovery work.

 - Whalebone films now offer animation services!  We completed our first commission for adoption charity PACT (Parents And Children Together), available to view here:

 -Will worked with Prof Fred Deakin of Central Saint Martins School of Art to create a series of films to accompany Fred’s workshop, ‘Collabology’.  Collabology is designed to help students in the creative industries learn to collaborate with colleagues in other disciplines.  Find out more at : http://collabology.org/

- Whalebone Films are making a series of recruitment films for Go Head London, London’s largest bus company.  We’ve been spending time at their bus garage at Merton, creating ‘day in the life’ films with three of their drivers.

- We are working with SPACE – an arts organization based in Hackney, to create a documentary about a workshop they’re running which involves primary school students gathering data in the Olympic Park, which they then find ways to visualize.

- Whalebone Films were commissioned to make a short doc about homelessness for criminal justice charity Only Connect. You can see the finished product right here:

- Other project include short films about the National Theatre, an educational film about the Islamic birth ceremony, and an interview with Jamie Oliver for Channel 4! Not a bad summer at all….

[whalebonefilms-blog]

11th April 2015

So it’s been a long old time since we’ve updated, but no updates means lots of updates because we’ve been oh so busy. Here is a little bit of what we’ve been up to...

We finished our beloved Barbican film and watched with joy as it was screened at the Barbican concert hall to a packed audience.

We’ve also been getting political, filming and editing a short film for Channel 4 about their event #IfweRanThings. This highly charged event saw young people and MPs get together to discuss important and relevant issues ahead of the elections in May. The event was presented by Krishnan Guru-Murthy and there were MPs and young people from all over the country. Our film should be up and online very soon!

We are currently working on three really lovely projects all related to the arts- which is what we do best! We have two for the National Theatre, one about the building itself, designed by Denys Lasdun, which has really opened our eyes to the intricacy and depth of the structure. The second is about Man and Superman, the new Bernard Shaw play starring Ralph Fiennes. The film focuses particularly on the controversial third act. Ahead of starting work editing the film we were lucky enough to go and see it, and it is 4 hours (almost) of pure gold.

Finally, we’ve just started work on a series of educational films for the University of the Arts London. We can’t say a huge amount right now but expect great things! 

The last thing to say is that for the next month Whalebone is split in two, with one half (Will) working in London and the other half (me) in the US working at the Macdowell Colony. Macdowell is a prestigious artist-in-residence programme where artists are invited to come and work in their very own unique studio in a forest in New Hampshire. I’m currently in New York but will be heading north in two days to get started. I’m too excited for words and am hoping to focus on developing new projects and learning how to animate.

Following this, Will is coming to join me in the US and we may or may not be making a film about lobsters....

[whalebonefilms-blog]

5th March 2015

Reflections on ‘Maidan’ by Will Davies

Although it documents a political revolution, Maidan is not primarily a  political film.  It offers minimal context and zero analysis of events.  To think of this as a weakness is to fail to engage with the film on its own terms.  Film making is a laborious craftand it must be assumed that every decision is the result ofdeliberation.  This assumption applies toevery moment that is included and also all that is excluded.

In the case of Maidan, the lack of context or analysis leaves us with a portraitof a group of people in a desperate situation forced to do what people in their position have done for millennia, resist power by organizing and utilizing the resources available to them.  The very form of the confrontation is also as it has often been historically and so allows us to travel to other places and times.  The protesters methodically lifting and breaking up the cobbled streets and launching these rocks at their targets.  The need for kitchens with individuals making food for those on the front line.  The long periods in which nothing happens.  All must also have been true of any similar conflict from the past.  One particularly uncanny example of this is the polices’ use of the ‘tortoise formation’ in which a group hold curved shields so as to collectively defend themselves.  This technique is inherited from Roman Legions who, perhaps, being showered by rocks, stood on the same spot in the 1st or 2nd century.  So these scenes we are watching have a truth which transcends the particular circumstances of Maidan.

The film consists of a series of long, locked camera shots.  Only twice or three times does the camera move and when it does it is a shock because we are suddenly reminded of the presence of the filmmakers who are reacting in those moments to a sudden change in events or a threat to their safety.  For the rest of the film, the influence of the creators is very marginal.  Of course decisions were made on what to film and how to edit these shots, but in both cases the makers attempt to negate their influence.  This is done by filming many different aspects of the events, from the highly dramatic through to the mundane.  Each are given equal emphasis and so neither is preferenced or sensationalized. Again, by keeping the shots long, the characters depicted are represented by their own actions and distorted by the editor as little as possible.  When there are musical performances, they are allowed to play out in full, as the performers themselves would have insisted.  This approach brings a sense that the filmmakers offer their contributors a very high level of respect and dignity. 

Maidan is directed by Sergei Loznitsa 

MAIDAN is available to watch in cinemas, on DVD and online via Dogwoof: http://www.maidanfilm.co.uk/screenings/

[whalebonefilms-blog]

17th February 2015

Happy New Year from Whalebone Films! The new year has gone to a great start, we've been beavering away on films for WaterAid, PACT, BBC Worldwide, True Tube, and BBC Future.

One film we particularly enjoyed making was this little number for the Bush Theatre- a behind-the-scenes at photo shoot with Nicholas Pinnock star of new Bush play The Royale.

Another behind-the-scenes film that we shot for the BBC has just gone online and takes a peak at the filming of the Doctor Who Experience. The film that we've been spending most of our time on is for the lovely Barbican and is about their Barbican Box Music project where they've been going into schools in Hackney inspiring the students to compose their own pieces which they'll eventually perform at the Barbican concert hall. Our documentary about the process will be screened before the concert on the 26th February. Here is a picture of us filming in the magnificent concert hall:

We're also super excited that our film An All-Encompassing Light has been shortlisted for the Hunger TV and Doc/Heads short film competition. We'll leave you with a short educational film we made for True Tube about the Page 3 debate...

https://www.truetube.co.uk/film/no-more-page-3

[whalebonefilms-blog]

16th December 2014

December has been a great month so far for Whalebone Films. At the beginning of the month we picked up the audience award at the Imperial War Museum Film Festival for An All-Encompassing Light.

We then found out we would be screening the very same film at the UK's biggest short film festival London Short Film Festival. The film will be showing among some amazing other films on the 23rd January. Full line up can be seen here.

We've also had the pleasure of working with some great clients this month, including regulars BBC Worldwide, the Innovation Unit, the Bush Theatre,  the good people at Only Connect (on a film about the impact of Legal Aid cuts), as well as some newcomers: WaterAid, and Deliciously Ella (about her new book being realised by Hodder and Stoughton).

Finally, Chloe spend two days at the BBC in Salford working on our new short film for BBC3 Fresh. 

Phew!! 

Sooo many exciting projects coming up in January too- hopefully we'll be working so hard we won't notice the cold and grey!

[whalebonefilms-blog]

24th October 2014

Whalebone Films have been spending the last week working out of the beautiful Cyprus College of Art. Surrounded by amazing sculptures and bathed in glorious sun we have been editing projects for the Innovation Unit, BBC Worldwide as well as developing some other exciting projects!

[whalebonefilms-blog]

18th September 2014

Nothing to perk up a Thursday then a nomination...An All-Encompassing Light has been nominated for Best Documentary at the Imperial War Museum Film Festival!

[whalebonefilms-blog]

22nd August 2014

More good news on the festival front. Chloe's film An All-Encompassing Light has been accepted to Underwire Film Festival AND has been nominated for Best Editor!

[whalebonefilms-blog]

14 August 2014

We heard today that two of Chloe's films have been selected for festivals:

'Recommended Washing Powder' will screen at Branchage Festival, Jersey, 25 September.

'An All Encompassing Light' is showing at Aesthetica, York.

[whalebonefilms-blog]

13 August 2014

Hello! Welcome to our new website! Keep your eyes on this page for exciting news and updates....