Recently I got interviewed by Wild Filmmaker about Filmmaking and got deep into dream-talk, dreams and films have alot in common – I explain this further here:
https://wildfilmmaker.com/the-zen-art-of-stone-squeezing-exclusive-interview-on-harry-wheeler/
Delighted to see some of the footage that I shot for the up and coming Fifth Column Films production about folklore documentist Doc Rowe, including the shot of Doc’s wellys!
Doc Rowe has been documenting the folk traditions of the British Isles since the mid 1960s, and has built up a vast collection of irreplaceable audiovisual material spanning 60 years. It needs digitising and saving for the future! There is a crowd funder please follow the link for more details.
Happy to announce that I’ve finished ‘The Zen Art of Stone Squeezing’ and can finally start submitting to film festivals! I am also delighted to discover that on this day of compleation it just so hapens to be John Mounsey’s birthday! I made made a very rough cut of this last Christmas when John was still with us in the physical, so he could share it around. He was worried that he’d completely messed the interview up due to dropping psychedelics before filming (unbeknownst to me!). John was a great story teller and a filmmakers delight. This new version features illustrations by Seamus Kelly and a hilarious story about how he met Prince Charles. Planning to make it public in the spring in order to offer exclusivity to the film festivals. Meanwhile going to starting interviewing people for ‘Being with John Mounsey’ in the coming weeks…
I had the pleaseure of working with local folklorist John Billingsley on this short film and advert for ‘Dreaming Valleys’ – a day of deep topography with talks, short films and music all investigating how humans relate to place.
Billingsley has been the editor of Northern Earth magazine for decades which covers archaeology, folklore and extends to issues of humans and their relation to place like phenomenology and psychogeography.
Over the summer I had the opportunity to work with artists Julia Grime and Phil Davenport on their exhibition ‘Refuge from the Ravens’ which reimagines a new version of William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Lyrical Ballads, by people who have experienced homelessness.
We wandered to the sleeping spots and urban spaces that people with no fixed abode find themselves in. As I sat with Big Issue venders in Manchester city centre, filming their perspective, I got to see a different view of society. Thousands of people literally ignoring you can be hard to sit through, but while life on the streets is truly tough, it turns out there are tender moments that cut through the indifference. Some of the stories of humanity shining through, will never leave me. Like the story of the bouncer who let a homeless kid kip in a safe spot at night in 1970s Manchester and brought him maths workbooks. Without those few acts of kindness that kid might not have made it through to adulthood.
Songs were written and recorded, interviews captured, and field recordings were made by Sofie Cooper who also masterfully weaved all the audio together for a surround sound installation. I was editing blind, I roughly knew what the soundtrack was going to be, but because of the nature of the installation, I tried to create an edit that would compliment ‘happy accidents’ rather than following a set soundtrack as such and true to so much of my work, it ended up taking on a dreamlike quality.
Grime and Davenport’s working method has created a series of impactful impressions and perspective on homelessness that are punctuated by moments of tenderness.
Me, Dean McPhee and his trusty Fender telecaster have spent the past six months taking pilgrimages to a very special tree in order to get footage for his latest music video: ‘The Alder Tree’.
At the start of what ended up being a six-month shoot, I asked Dean McPhee why he chose the title.
As part of his day job Dean has been on the front line supporting young people in difficult situations all the way through the pandemic and he told me how he had got ill for several weeks at the very start of the first lockdown with a fever, cough and breathlessness. He wrote this piece of music as he recovered, and said he had been reflecting on how music has always helped give him the strength to get through difficult experiences. He had been thinking about breathing and the respiratory system, and how it resembles a tree, and how his guitar is made of Alder. Carl Jung coined the word ‘synchronicity’ to explain a very dream-like phenomenon that can occur to us all while we’re awake and with this, in mind, I wasn’t surprised to learn that within Celtic mythology that the Alder tree is connected to the qualities of resilience, support and protection. It’s used as firewood and its most distinctive quality is that it loves to grow by water. In our search for an Alder tree for the video, we located a very picturesque lone Alder tree growing by a reservoir many miles away, and yet, in another example of synchronicity despite this great distance they turned out to be the very reservoir waters that supply Dean’s hometown of Bradford.
The video premiers at 21:00 on Sunday 17th October.
Here is my latest Drone Reel. I have a Remote Pilot Certificate and am ready for hire!
If you need Drone Photography or Film please get in contact.
Happy New Year!
It’s been a tough one for live music. Undoubtedly the toughest yet.
Fortunately the musicians are playing on, including electric guitar instrumentalist Dean McPhee.
Back in October I climbed a hill in Bradford with him to meet the sky and created a music video for his track ‘The Alchemist’ from his forthcoming album ‘Witch’s Ladder’.
Please enjoy:
I created this Social Media Ad for BBC Radio 3’s Late Junction & Freeness programs.
Recently, I have been working on Natalie Sharp’s epic psychedelic opera ‘Marra!‘ commissioned by Aerial festival. She’s been diving deep into her cultural heritage that encompasses Cumbria & the Seychelles. Features Maxine Peake as gavel rapper, Tommy Martinson as his world champion Gurning self and Cal Kirkpatrick and Alex Wilson, as Cumbrian wreslers, plus Jamie Robinson as a bare knuckle Cumbrian boxer.
A deeply personal reflection on growing up as a first generation immigrant in small town Cumbria, a lucid dream set against the arcane, esoteric rituals and traditions that bubble under the surface of everyday life.
Aerial Festival
Its in three parts. Watch the whole thing here:
Harry Wheeler 