Last year, Islanders Stu Fisher, Dave Waight and Alex Katsikides from Skinny Mammoth Media were commissioned to travel the world to film a documentary.
It was their first full-length documentary – taking them to Barcelona, Amsterdam and London – and as well as shooting all the footage, they also produced the music within the film. The results (watch below) were fantastic and the guys say they enjoyed the whole process so much that they wanted to carry on once they’d completed it.
The birth of Isle Create
Cue Isle Create, a beautifully produced series of short films celebrating the wonderful range of artistic talent on the Isle of Wight.
The team have so far released four short films (watch below) and we hear there are more on the way.
Spotlight on talent
OnTheWight spoke with Stu about motivation behind the series. He said,
“We didn’t want to make a full length film necessarily, more little, bite-sized snapshots into people’s minds.
“We realised that we knew an awful lot of incredibly talented people that did various creative things but had never, in all the years that we’d known them, asked them why they did it! Or why they did it here, for that matter.”
Stu went on to say,
“We didn’t quite know what sort of format it would be or what would be the best way of presenting it, so we came up with a series of questions- some serious, some silly, some outright ridiculous- to get people talking about themselves and see what comes out.”
The series launched with a feature on carpenter Ollie Bennett (also known for his part in the Vegan delights of Tansy’s Pantry)
After Ollie, up next was film-score composer, Luke Johnson (former Hugo Frusslinky band member).
Body piercer, Sarah Murphy followed.
With musician, singer, song writer, Paul Armfield the latest film.
Scratching the surface and seeing what’s underneath
Stu explained they’re still fluid on what comes out of the series, he said,
“As soon as Ollie Bennett started telling us about how he got into carpentry through his father asking him to make his coffin, we realised that this was the direction it needed to go!
“We’re still fairly fluid about what form it might turn into and we’re not trying to fight it or steer it, we’re just really enjoying scratching the surface and seeing what’s underneath!”
L-R Alex, Dave and Stu
A magic like no other
Explaining more about what came out from the filming, Stu said,
“It seems like when you ask big questions you get big answers. It’s been really interesting hearing people’s reflections on the Island too.
“This place seems to have a magic to it that not many other places have. We’ve all chosen it to be our home for a reason, but those reasons are all very different.”
Thought provoking
He went on to add,
“It’s been great hearing people’s thoughts and it seems that in many cases, it’s the first time they’ve ever really thought deeply about some of these questions.
“It’s great, too, to put a spotlight on those that people may not know, or know from a distance and to remove the time and budget constraints by doing it for free has allowed us to make something really honest and, hopefully, beautiful.”
Original music soundtrack
It’s not just the questions and filming the team are responsible for, they also do the backing music as well.
Stu explained that “every backing track is slightly different, so that it swells and drops to correspond with what is being said”.
We reckon Skinny Mammoth have done an incredible job so far and we can’t wait to see the next set of films. Stay glued to their YouTube Channel or Facebook Page for the latest updates.
This is the feature-length documentary that started it all …
