Directing films at Stonehenge

I love photographing and filming weddings, they are just such magical and memorable days - not only for the happy couple, but for me too!

Before I started filming and photographing weddings in 2010, my background was in documentary and promotional film production - for companies like National Trust and the German Tourist Office. I still produce and direct promotional films for various local and national companies and January 2015 saw a memorable film project for me at the World Heritage Site of Stonehenge.

Stonehenge is one of our favourite places to visit as a family and this Christmas our 3 year old Oscar got his first LEGO® and we've not stopped playing with it since - so when I was asked by English Heritage Education and LEGO® Education to direct a film about their new Discovery Visit at Stonehenge, I was over the moon!

And here are the films that I directed. I hope you enjoy watching them!


Myths & Legends Discovery Visit, at Stonehenge from Jamie McDine on Vimeo.

LEGO® Education and English Heritage Education present the new "Myths and Legends" Discovery Visit at Stonehenge. The session led by English Heritage staff and volunteers, helps bring the history to life for this group of Year 6 pupils from the Mead Community Primary School - exploring the stones, learning about myths and legends, and creating their own stories using LEGO Education StoryStarter.


Myths & Legends Discovery Visit, Stonehenge Animations from Jamie McDine on Vimeo.

Film produced and directed by Jamie McDine: ivisualise.co.uk
Book your visit now 0370 333 0606
Start your story here: english-heritage.org.uk/education/stonehenge

Discovering history and the Wiltshire landscape through film

As a film director, it’s really enjoyable to see your work on the big screen at festivals, or on tv, but for me there is something even more special about sharing your skills with young people and inspiring them to produce a film for the first time. The Virtual Landscapes project gave both the group of 11-14 year olds from Westbury and myself the opportunity to explore the local Wiltshire landscape and learn about our social history, as we visited the military badges carved into the chalk hills at Fovant, near Shaftesbury.

After a steep climb on a sunny Winters day, and with a few poor choices of footwear, we reached the badges and the summit of the Iron Age hill fort, having experienced the same conditions as the soldiers who created the badges exactly 100 years ago. Exploring the site with archaeologist Rachel Foster, supported by Youth Development Coordinator Sandra Samuel, and being chased by some friendly cows at the top of the slope, the history was brought to life for us all and the ideas for film and animation were starting to flow. 

In the following 8 weeks we had film, photography and animation workshop sessions, supported by the youth workers, at Westbury Youth Centre, with a total of 18 young people engaging in the project – the 5 core members all currently putting the finishing touches to their well-earned Bronze Arts Awards project folders.

One of the highlights for me was a photography workshop we did with the group of girls, who all wanted to wear moustaches, to look more like the soldiers that created the badges. They were all incredibly quick in picking up the technical skills of using the camera and studio light, and loved posing for the camera, creating a variety of different mouth shapes in each photo so that they could create their own cartoon characters and animate them to talk in subsequent sessions. They then put themselves in the shoes of the soldiers and produced some beautiful lyrics, imagining how they would feel – and the result is a wonderful combination of film, animation, poetry and history, which I can’t wait for you all to see (or for those of you that clicked the play button before reading the text, I hope you enjoyed it)!

It has been wonderful to lead this Heritage Lottery Fund Young Roots project with Westbury Youth Centre and Wiltshire Council and I have a feeling there will be more films and animations to come out of Westbury in the near future, as there are some very talented and creative young people that now have the bug for film production!

These films were produced by young people at Westbury Youth Centre. The group visited the badges at Fovant, near Salisbury, with archaeologist Rachel Foster, to learn about the history of the location, climb to the top of the Iron Age hillfort and experience the badges from close-up.

Virtual Landscapes is a Heritage Lottery Fund Young Roots project, initiated and funded by Wiltshire Council and coordinated by Ageas Salisbury International Arts Festival. The film was produced and developed at workshop sessions at Westbury Youth Centre, supported by Youth Development workers. and mentored by director Jamie McDine.

The young people that produced this film are also completing their Bronze Art Award as a result of this project.