Fancy yourself as the next Nolan, Markovics or Hallström? We are currently looking for filmmakers to get involved with our events.
Check out the submissions page for specifics or just drop us a line.
Three emerging filmmakers get thirty minutes to showcase and chat about their work. A short film night with a difference!
Doors 7pm / Films start at 7.30pm
Hackney Attic, Hackney Picturehouse, 270 Mare Street, E8 1HE
Making Tracks returns on 27 July 2013 with a new set of live scores performed alongside short films by up-and-coming filmmakers.
Doors 7.30pm / Films start at 8pm
Rich Mix, 35-47 Bethnal Green Road, E1 6LA
£10 door / £8 advance
Photo credit - Jonny Beck (jonnybeck.co.uk)
Would you like to see your short film with a live soundtrack? We are now accepting submissions for the next Making Tracks event at Rich Mix on 27th July 2013.
Making Tracks is a groundbreaking event at Rich Mix, funded by Arts Council England, that fuses live music with moving image and provides an interactive platform for new film talent. We will present a diverse programme of short films alongside brand new scores, which will be performed live on the night by The Cabinet of Living Cinema. Get a taster of the event with our promo video.
The Cabinet will use a wide range of instruments and objects to bring a fresh perspective to the films, adding a new dimension to the visuals and creating an invigorating live experience. Filmmakers hear their new score for the first time on the night and will receive a copyright-free recording of it after the event.
To qualify, your film must have a duration of less than 12 minutes, been made in the last two years, and be silent or still make sense when any existing soundtrack is removed. All genres are welcome but we find that animations, experimental film and dramas with no dialogue work particularly well.
To find out more and submit your film, please visit our submit page.
This weekend, Festival of Art & Music Evolution (F.A.M.E) brings art to the heart of Canary Wharf, transforming Motorship Stubnitz, Europe’s seaborne centre of culture, into a floating exhibition of ideas, music and performance. Hosted by Floating Forum, an off-shoot of Hackney’s community broadcaster Reel Rebels Radio, this “state of the nation, state of the globe” event combines today’s most influential artists, musicians and performers in a resounding wave of social commentary and political awareness.
As part of this, we are screening a selection of environment-themed shorts from our Whirlygig Cinema Au Naturel programme in the screening room on Thursday at 6.10pm and Friday at 12.15pm. It's free, so come down!
Next week is going to be very busy for us, as Spotlights and Making Tracks fall just days apart! Discover new filmmaking talent in unique settings where we put a special emphasis on the LIVE experience. Join us in East London venues to enjoy great short films, partake in Q&As, hear live scores and meet lots of interesting film folk.
On Tuesday 9th we move into our new home at Hackney Attic to introduce three inspiring filmmakers; Max Lincoln, Numra Siddiqui and Isla Ure at Spotlights, which is now a monthly event. We are especially excited to have Isla onboard, after Amanda Boyle had to sadly pull out of the line-up. Join us from 7pm for an evening of short films, talks, Q&As and networking, as each filmmaker gets half an hour to promote themselves! Take a look at the full programme.
Then, on Friday 12th we are hosting the 10th Making Tracks at Rich Mix, with a brand new programme of short films ready to be re-soundtracked by The Cabinet of Living Cinema. Get ready to open your eyes and ears and join the many of the filmmakers who will be hearing their new scores for the very first time. The programme will be followed up by a Q&A with the musicians and filmmakers, so that we can all find out what they thought of the experience. Full programme to be announced very soon!
Listen up! Next month our event series Spotlights will be moving to a new home at Hackney Attic in Hackney Picturehouse. This happened after our year-long residency at Trangallán sadly came to an abrupt end after the venue decided to discontinue its events programme.
We are very excited to be contributing to the Attic's vibrant programme of comedy, film, live music, dance and networking events. We will deliver the same format (three filmmakers plus Q&A) but will be able to accomodate more people and be situated right in the heart of Hackney.
Our first event at the Attic will take place on Tuesday 9th April, with all following Spotlights events occurring on the first Wednesday of every month. In April we will be welcoming filmmakers Amanda Boyle, Max Lincoln and Numra Siddiqui. Full programme.
We are pleased to announce that we are extending the submissions deadline for Making Tracks submissions by another week! So if you have a film that you would love to see with a brand new live score by the wonderful film soundtrack artists Cabinet of Living Cinema, please send it over by Friday 15th March.
Image - The Cabinet of Living Cinema perform live score to Sundeep Toor's 'Off Track' in October 2012.
This month we are delighted to launch WhirlyPicks - a new online Vimeo channel showcasing exciting new work by emerging film talent. This enables us to give a platform to even more filmmakers and help get their work seen by a wider audience. Each month we will present a new selection of films, so if you are a filmmaker and would like your work to be considered for next month, drop us a line!
First up for February we have films from Steve Conway, Michael Demetriou, Jared Fryer, David Higgs, Lainey Richardson, Numra Siddiqui, Isla Ure and Wirrow. Watch them here.
We are excited to announce that from April Spotlights will be a monthly film night, with events taking place every second Tuesday of EVERY month! This will give even more up-and-coming filmmakers a chance to stand up and showcase their work, reflect on their careers so far and take questions from the audience.
If you are a filmmaker and would like to take part later in the year, we'd love to hear from you. You need to have a body of work to fill nearly half an hour, leaving 5-10 minutes to talk. Lots of shorter films are preferred over showing one longer film, but all genres are welcome!
Photograph - Kate Taylor speaks at Spotlights for London Short Film Festival, January 2013. Taken by Paige Gresty.
Making Tracks on 12th January not only stood as one of our most ambitious and successful events so far, but also signified the end of an outreach programme that we have been running. Over the last few weeks, teenagers in Tower Hamlets (our venue Rich Mix's local borough) have had the chance to learn about composing and performing music for film in a series of workshops funded by Arts Council England.
The youngsters, aged 13-19, are members of the weekly Music Space project run by CM, a youth and community music organisation funded by LBTH ‘A’ Team Arts that provides creative music making opportunities for people of all backgrounds. We took over three of their regular sessions to introduce them to various scoring and composition techniques and help them to develop their own new scores for short films. The workshops were led by Catherine Ring and Andrew Gorman from The Cabinet of Living Cinema.
On 12th January, the group had the chance to perform their new scores on stage in front of our lovely two-hundred strong crowd, who gave them the warmest reception and made them feel truly welcome. They played soundtracks to two films - Sundeep Toor's Off Track and Max Lincoln's The Chair. We were thoroughly impressed with their professionalism and felt proud to showcase their talents.
Catherine Ring says, “It was brilliant to see the students inspired by film to explore improvisation, having had little or no experience of it beforehand. The journey they took from beginning to end was inspiring.”
Watch a video of the performance and read a review of the whole event.
Photos: (left) Students from CM Music Space perform at Making Tracks (credit - Helen Nias, (right) Andrew Gorman and Catherine Ring teach a workshop (credit - K. Steed)
We are all about promoting new talent here at Whirlygig Cinema, and this doesn't stop at film. We always seek out exceptional graphic designers and illustrators to create our artwork and event promo, and so far we have enjoyed the talents of Simon Fitzmaurice and Chris Nieri. We are showcasing their designs for Whirlygig Cinema in our gallery; check out Simon and Chris' work.
Sadly we have had to bid farewell to Simon who has been designing for us since 2011, but are delighted to welcome Grace Coombes to the brood. Grace graduated in 2011 from the University of Brighton with a BA (hons) in illustration. She now lives in Cornwall working on a selection of projects and commissions. She has already designed a poster for the next Spotlights - see above!
What an amazing start to the year! Last week we play a huge part in the London Short Film Festival which celebrated its tenth anniversary this year. We spent four nights screening films and chatting to filmmakers in events Spotlights and Making Tracks.
For Spotlights on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we welcomed nine filmmakers behind the films that have won Best Film at the festival since it started out and gave them a chance to showcase and talk about their films in front of a very responsive audience. We enjoyed a very diverse film selection, with genres spanning animation and comedy through to documentaries and gritty dramas, and we had an amazing time meeting the talented people who made them! Each filmmaker showed a selection of their work, including the film that won Best Film, and then took questions from the audience and our lovely hosts Carla Mackinnon and Kate Taylor.
Our friends at Culture and Anarchy have written a great piece about Wednesday's Spotlights and you can see photos of the event for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, courtesy of Katie Steed and Paige Gresty. You can also listen to a podcast by Greg Oddoye featuring recordings of Chris Allen, David Liddell and Jes Benstock.
Making Tracks was a whole different kettle of fish, where we showcased short films alongside live soundtracks performed by The Cabinet of Living Cinema. Rob Parkinson, the band's foley expert, had the chance to show off his skills as he provided live sound effects for the films using objects (mostly found in a skip) ranging from bubblewrap to a nut crackers. It's the first time I've seen a musician eat his instrument live on stage! The night was a massive success with a turnout of nearly 200 and a very enthusiastic audience. Speaking of kettles and fish - wouldn't THAT make a good sound effect?!
Read Stuart Wright's review of the night and see photos courtesy of Helen Nias.