Unit Stills Photographer Manchester
Wider Than The Sky Short Film - Unit Stills Photographer
Wider Than The Sky Film
Wider Than The Sky is a short film written & produced by Janie Price - aka Bird and directed by Phil Taylor. The film was shot over several days on location in Morecambe and Manchester, with studio days for the puppet animation scenes. Production was by EMU films.
Wider Than The Sky is a film about “the extraordinary power of our imagination. Schoolgirl Jenny’s father has been diagnosed with cancer. To help herself cope, this creative child plays out her present predicament by making a series of scenes for a shoe box theatre into which she escapes. One day a chance encounter with a seemingly ordinary cafe owner provides the catalyst for a truly magical happening…”
You can see the trailer here
EMU Films
I was contacted by Jim Mooney, one of the producers at EMU Films to be a Unit Stills Photographer Manchester for the project. A film shot back home in Morecambe? How could I say no!? I spent a couple of days on location as a Unit Stills Photographer Manchester for this brilliant project. My diary was otherwise busy, so I couldn’t make the Manchester days sadly. But…I got Morecambe! In the sun! So I packed my cameras and my factor 50 for the location shoot. The unit base for the EMU Films shoot was The Globe in Overton, just outside Morecambe. It was brilliant being back on set again. I say again - I used to direct and produce TV Commercials in my past life (before going back to stills) and it was great to see some old faces laughing and joking as the crew vehicles parked up ready to start the day.
Wider Than The Sky Cast
There are three main characters in the short film - four if you include the Uber-talented Paul Kondras’ beautiful classic Volvo 240. Paul was Production Designer, and did a brilliant job of distressing my favourite cafe in Morecambe!
Mum is played by Alexandra Moen, a well-known actor for such TV as Hotel Babylon, Dickensian and Fortitude. Daughter is played by Willow Bell - a great character actor, and credited with playing Millie Tate in Emmerdale. The magician is Mike Farrell - aka Magic Mikey, a brilliant close up magician and children’s entertainer.
There is a dedicated page too, for the crew of the film. See here.
Wider Than The Sky Film poster
I took the photograph to be used as the official film poster for the short film. I had an open brief to interpret the film title into one photograph, with a 4:3 crop - no cinema format here. The car was the star for the poster, so I photographed it with a 24mm lens on a (still awesome!) Nikon D810 camera. The location was the ever-gorgeous Sunderland Point - across the estuary on the Lancaster side of the main location. You’ll note that I photographed Alexandra and Willow separately, cut them out and relit them, then retouched out the camera rig from inside the car and placed the two actors in position. The main photo was then further retouched to remove signage and the slightly ugly foreground. The final job was to add a final colour grade to match the film’s desaturated look. Et voila!
Here are some of the BTS stills from the shoot…
Unit Stills Photographer Manchester
I really enjoyed my time as Unit Stills Photographer Manchester for the project. It was great going back to my ‘old job’ but watching someone directing and producing a film like this. As a Unit Stills Photographer Manchester I was busy, but managed a few moments to just enjoy the location, and being home again.
