Private Project

The Whistler

After Arthur struggles to find the words for his letter he’s sending to his missing brother, he finds an unlikely helping hand. He notices the birds are copying his whistles and with his newly made whistle language together they finish the letter. But will his brother reply this time?

  • Ollie Burden
    Director
  • Ollie Burden
    Writer
  • Casper-Dakota Nurse-Baker
    Producer
  • Keira-Joan Alexander
    Producer
  • Ollie Burden
    Key Cast
    "Arthur"
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Runtime:
    14 minutes 44 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    October 1, 2023
  • Production Budget:
    5,000 GBP
  • Country of Origin:
    United Kingdom
  • Country of Filming:
    United Kingdom
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Ollie Burden

Ollie is a director, writer and actor based in London, specialising in storytelling. After graduating in 2022 from London Screen Academy where he worked on his craft as a keen director and writer making multiple short films he directed his first professional short “The One Who Peed”. From there he went on to direct a narrative based Christmas advert for “Fara Charity” where he met his cinematographer Adam Pringle and has since finished his latest project “The Whistler” for Brass Monkey Pictures.

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Director Statement

“I think we’ve all felt as though when we whistled near birds the birds were whistling back and it might have even felt as though they were speaking. I really wanted to dive into this idea and through the beauty of film make the impossible possible. It was important though that the character had a reason why he wanted to communicate with the birds and this was that his brother had gone from his life which made him search for a replacement, thus the birds were almost like a new friend. It also tied in very nicely with this idea that Arthur wasn’t very verbal and chose only really to speak through writing or whistling, possibly due to him only ever truly opening up with his missing brother.”