A STUDENT proud of his home town is making a short fantasy film in the area.
Dale Wharton, from Corwen, is in his final year at university and has chosen to use the stunning landscape of rural North Wales, particularly the Corwen and Bala areas, to shoot a short film called The Windé.
“We decided to film in this area because our film focuses a lot on the idea of freedom, and in order to show that we needed large open area of countryside with little or no buildings in view that could spoil the setting,” said Mr Wharton.
“We chose to film in Maerdy near Corwen and some extra scenes near Careau, near Sarnau and Bala.”
The 20-year-old student is currently studying Film and Video at Newport University and got into film by accident.
“When I was starting college I was looking for a course in design, which was my favourite subject at Ysgol Dinas Bran,” said Mr Wharton.
“The course I found at Yale College in Wrexham was focusing on design, photography and film.
“I had chosen for the design side originally, but after the first lecture in film I was hooked, we shot our own little news casts and I really enjoyed working on it,” he added.
The film is based on an iron age celtic village, about a boy called Brennin who is on a journey to achieve the title of manhood from the villagers and his father, Caddoc.
Brennin confines in the stories of legends, particularly the tale of The Windé; a protector to those in need-always overlooking, always lurking high above his prey.
The village becomes faced with a mysterious wild beast that has been terrorizing village crops and endangering the village people, which gives Brennin a chance to come of age and become a man.
“We decided to film this here due to the large areas of unspoilt countryside, tremendous local support and the value I hold for the area which is my home town,” said Mr Wharton.
“We are creating this short film in order to enter into the international film festival circuit in order to make our dreams of a feature length windé film possible,” he said.
Mr Wharton thanked his family and the crew for all their support and said the film is a real team effort.
“We have our director and writer, Gavin Woodward, who has been working tirelessly on getting the best possible story and the most enthusiastic actors out there,” said Mr Wharton
“And Leighton Cross our cinematographer has fallen in love with the scenery around Corwen and Bala.”
Other team members include, Matthew Brown, sound design; Richard Patty, editor; Stephen Roberts, producing and Tom Leaman who drew all of the sketches.
Mr Wharton’s family Stuart, Gill and Emily have also contributed to the film and Graham and Angela Lewis near Corwen allowed the team to film on their land.
Mr Wharton would like to thank the people of Corwen and Bala who have supported the film and if anyone is interested in sponsoring The Windé, visit www.sponsume.com/project/winde