Blind Crow have had the immense pleasure of working over a series of productions with the great folks at the Museum of London. One of the great cultural gems of the capital, the Museum of London has nine permanent galleries and a wealth of exhibits, collections and research.

So far, Blind Crow has been lucky enough to spend time with different exhibits and curators, to film, and to learn, about the Great Smog, The Docklands at West India Quay, and even how to correctly pack away a wedding dress!

These are just the first of a handful of short films we’ll be producing for this fantastic institution and we can’t recommend a visit highly enough. If you’re in London, either living or visiting, get yourself along to one of the galleries or the many events that the Museum regularly organises.

Visit their site here (and look out for our films!): http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk

TravelSMART is an initiative in Surrey that is aiming to cut carbon emissions whilst supporting economic growth. In the Autumn of 2012 they asked communities in Guildford and Woking which local projects should receive funding to this end.

Rather than the traditional approach to decision-making when it comes to funding local organisations, this new and exciting, and ultimately empowering way of working meant that a pot of money was put forward and those initiatives who wanted to be considered had to present a pitch to the local community. Those of the community who attended their local event then had the power put in their hands by voting for the initiative and organisation whose pitch had resonated most.

Not only did this engage the local community in the decision making process, it gave some much needed publicity to those important people who were making a huge difference in a range of ways around Guildford and Woking.

Blind Crow Pictures were brought in by TravelSMART to document the two days of presentations and voting so that the process and success of this new approach could be communicated to other communities around Surrey.

Toward the end of 2012, Blind Crow Pictures were brought in by Greg Davies, Head of Behavioural and Quantitative Finance at Barclays, to shoot a range of material based around the musical Performance – Open Outcry.

We documented the rehearsals and the final performance, which took place during a fantastic evening at Mansion House in The City, of this experimental production which used the ebb and flow of emotion and money on a stock trading floor to create musical theatre piece.

Created by Alexis Kirke, a composer at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Computer Music Research at Plymouth University and the aforementioned Greg Davies, the piece was directed by Alessandro Talevi and sponsored by Barclays.

The evening of the production included talks by the Lord Mayor’s representative Alan Yarrow, Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University, Marcus Du Sautoy, and Artist, Author and Financial Planner, Carl Richards who also exhibited new works created specially for the evening.

Blind Crow created a range of trailers and mini-documentaries using interview footage accrued over the rehearsal period and on what was a wonderful event at the Mansion House.

The Crows were thrilled to receive a call from those lovely peeps at the Royal Court again – this time to produce a teaser/trailer for their spanking new production ‘NSFW’.

A great time was had shooting at the offices of Ideastap with three of the cast members and then putting together a little taste of what we have no doubt will be a fantabulous production. NSFW stars Julian Barratt of Mighty Boosh fame as part of a sweet-ass ensemble including Janie Dee, Kevin Doyle, Sacha Dhawan, Henry Lloyd-Hughes and Esther Smith, is written by Lucy Kirkwood and Directed by Simon Godwin.

Carrie’s getting them out for the lads. Charlotte’s just grateful to have a job, Sam’s being asked to sell more than his body and Aidan’s trying to keep Doghouse from going under.

Money, sex and photo-shop. Lucy Kirkwood’s sharp new comedy looks at power games and privacy in the media and beyond.

[NSFW: Not Safe For Work – online material which the viewer may not want to be seen accessing in a public or formal setting such as at work].

The show opens in the Jerwood Theatre downstairs and runs from the 25th of October through to the 24th of November.

Give it a gander.

Us lucky wee Crows got to spend a great deal of time in and around Surrey throughout the spring. We were commissioned to shoot a trailer for the Arts Partnership Surrey – an organisation where the different Borough councils of Surrey have come together to make arts and art based activities more accessible right across the county.

We had the pleasure of working with and filming a range of courses, groups, activities and events over several days – the people were great and the work was impressive. From Guildford to Woking to Weybridge to Hazlemere to Box Hill, we shot actors and dancers, printers and painters to name but a few. A great time was had by all, and hopefully the film is a testament to that.

All shot, as per usual, on the trusty Canon 5d and 550d,  we also had a play with some Cinema4d titles composited into the trailer with After Effects.

Hope you enjoy AND, if you’re in Surrey you should definitely visit the Arts Partnership Surrey website and see what is going down in Surrey town.

http://www.artspartnershipsurrey.org.uk/

Sadly there’s no video to look at on this one – but what a mammoth project it was!

Contacted in May 2012 by the Young Vic, we were tasked with filming the truely beautiful ‘The Beloved’ at the Bush Theatre, London.  A haunting and heartbreaking twist on the story of Abraham and Issac which reminds us that this historic tale of sacrifice began with just one family.

Beautiful performances.  Beautiful script.  Beautifully directed.

But the big question remained, how do you film a piece of theatre without losing something special?  The beauty of film lies in its ability to take us in close, to allow us to see the small moments of genuine interaction, to see the subtleties of the performance; but how could we do all that without losing the thing which makes theatre so unique – it’s ‘live-ness’?

The National Theatre have done a great job with their NT Live, however, cameras are very much a part of their production.  Would it be possible to shoot a piece that felt like film, but didn’t disturb the audience’s experience?  Would it be possible to cut various performances together without huge problems with continuity?  Would it be possible to get in close enough to get the kind of beautiful close up that smacks of narrative screen drama and not of ‘locked off camera at the back’? If you’d asked us a month ago, we’d have probably told you no.  But now, after a lot of head-scratching, a lot of planning and a long edit, now our answer is a resounding YES !

THE BELOVED….

“When you held the knife to my throat…I opened my mouth to beg for mercy… I was no longer a human being. I knew that at once”

When Abraham returns home from a journey with his son, his wife is troubled by the boy’s state of mind. What took place on the mountain that day is the beginning of a lifetime of suffering for his son and the dawn of a new age for millions.

Under the direction of Amir Nizar Zuabi, trailblazing Palestinian theatre company ShiberHur return to London following their acclaimed productionsI Am Yusuf and This is My Brother and In the Penal Colony. Nizar is currently directing the Comedy of Errors at the Royal Shakespeare Company.

‘An unsettling, vivid 60 minutes of theatre… exquisite.’
Time Out on In the Penal Colony

‘A Walk On Part’, the stage adaptation of the critically acclaimed diaries of former MP Chris Mullen, produced by Live Theatre and The Soho Theatre is starting its West End Run at the Arts Theatre (19th June – 14th July).

We were invited over by the good folks at the Soho to shoot a fun little trailer for the transfer – an interview of Tony Blair (played by the fantastic Hywel Morgan) by reporter Michael Crick.

It was a fantastic experience and the cast were a joy to work with. The play has already enjoyed sell out runs at Live and the Soho, has been frequented by a range of contemporary political figures, and has received stellar reviews.

If you can, get along to see it. Important viewing and entertaining…

Importaining, if you will.

Or Enterportant, even.

(ahem).

Us Crows had the immeasurable pleasure of working with Filament Theatre again this year – this time on their fan-double-dabbi-dosi production of Michael Ende’s Momo.

We posted about this a while back – we were commissioned to film a small mini-documentary style piece that detailed the research and development process of the production – the first shoot took place at the Jackson’s Lane Theatre in Highgate in November of last year.

We re-joined the company in May at the South Street Art’s Centre in Reading for their second week of R & D and to watch the the showing of their work so far. We are putting together two films – the first of which is a small trailer for the production and Filament’s work, (at the top of this blog), and the second will be a slightly more detailed mini-doc which will be coming soon.

Momo is a fantastic story for all ages that is incredibly relevant to today’s society, and there is no better company to bring it to life than Filament – a company dripping with talent. Hopefully this show will get the backing deserves.

Ladies and Gents, we can finally reveal our latest trailer for ‘In Basildon’ a new play by David Eldridge at the Royal Court Theatre. It’s been a lovely piece to work on – and thanks to the fair town of Basildon for it’s excellent hospitality !

There’s been some great reviews flocking in for the show – so we can heartily recommend taking it in ! Here’s a little more info….

In Basildon, a new play by David Eldridge
16 Feb – 5 Apr 2012

Len’s on his death bed and the family gather to say their final farewells. His sisters still aren’t speaking after nearly 20 years, his nephew’s trying for a baby — and a bigger house, while his best mate Ken remembers ‘Bas-vegas’ when it was a village. As the spread is laid out and the ham sandwiches sit next to the wreaths, it’s hard to see who’s hungry and who’s just greedy.

An epic family drama exploring inheritance and the myth of place.

Director Dominic Cooke
Cast Linda Bassett, Max Bennett, Debbie Chazen, Phil Cornwell, Christian Dixon, Wendy Nottingham, Lee Ross, Ruth Sheen, Peter Wight, Jade Williams

Blind Crow are chuffed to bits to be working with the Royal Court Theatre later this month. We have been set the challenge of producing the promotional trailer for their February production of ‘In Basildon’ – a brilliant new play that has been written by David Eldridge and will be directed by the Court’s Artistic Director Dominic Cooke.

We are particularly excited by this project, not least because of the Royal Court’s standing within the international theatre community and unparalleled reputation for exciting productions and new writing, but also due to our both having had fantastic experiences as audience members at the Court over the years, and one of the Crow’s having a particular soft spot for this venue having trained there many years ago on the Royals Court’s Young Writer’s Programme.

‘In Basildon’, featuring an exciting cast that includes Linda Bassett, Max Bennett, Debbie Chazen, Phil Cornwell, Christian Dixon, Wendy Nottingham, Lee Ross, Ruth Sheen, Peter Wight and Jade Williams, is an epic family drama exploring inheritance and the myth of place. Here is a little more info:

“Len’s on his death bed and the family gather to say their final farewells. His sisters still aren’t speaking after nearly 20 years, his nephew’s trying for a baby – and a bigger house, while his best mate Ken remembers ‘Bas-vegas’ when it was a village. As the spread is laid out and the ham sandwiches sit next to the wreaths, it’s hard to see who’s hungry and who’s just greedy.”

It runs from the 16th of Feb through to the 24th of March so get to the Royal Court site and book your tickets now. Here is a link for the ‘In Basildon’ pages where you can find out more about the production and get yourself a seat for what is going to be, we are sure, another brilliant peice of theatre at London’s best new writing venue: http://royalcourttheatre.com/whats-on/in-basildon