Art Happens | Art Fund

Art Happens by Art Fund is the UK’s first crowdfunding platform designed especially for museums and galleries.  Chocolate Films has produced several crowd-funding short films to raise money with Art Happens.

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Female champions at at the Foundling Museum

Foundling Museum raised 186% of its initial goal with thanks to Art Fund and our film starring actress and writer Ruth Jones

Raising money for a local legend

For over 60 years Samson & Hercules was a nightclub and local landmark in Norwich. Statues of the mythical legends stood proudly outside its entrance. Then, in 2014, an amazing discovery was made. Inside the fibreglass version was a wooden statue of Samson from the 17th century.  Help A Hirsute Hero Through a mixture of archive footage along with commentary from local presenter (and Samson expert) Chris Bailey, we told the story of how a legend was rediscovered. The Museum of Norwich needed donations to preserve and exhibit Samson in a state-of-the-art display case. So, the purpose of this film was about raising awareness and funds. The target was set at £15,000, which they managed to exceed. 

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Shining a light on the legacy of Florence Nightingale

2020 marked the bicentenary of the birth of healthcare pioneer and female icon Florence Nightingale. It’s an anniversary that the Florence Nightingale Museum intends to celebrate by staging a new exhibition that will highlight her lasting legacy in nursing and public healthcare. As part of our collaboration with Art Fund UK, we created a film to support the Museum’s crowdfunding campaign to raise £15,000 on the Art Happens platform. This film tells potential donors the story of Florence Nightingale and her groundbreaking achievements through the words of Anne Marie Rafferty, the President of the Royal College of Nursing, and a variety of objects and photographs from her time.

Rescuing a forgotten Welsh Sculpture

Chocolate Films produced a fundraising appeal by Chapter Arts Centre to restore a forgotten sculpture. This is a bilingual (Welsh/English) fundraising film produced by Chocolate Films for Art Fund. The organisation sought to raise £18,000 in small donations to restore an iconic piece of sculpture by acclaimed artist Garth Evans. The piece had been moved from Cardiff to Leicestershire in 1972, where it was hidden and neglected for over forty years. The campaign was a great success and exceeded the target amount. For this project we filmed new footage in Cardiff and combined it with archive photographs of the work and audio interviews from the early 70s.

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Restoring Canaletto

Art Fund helped the Wallace Collection, an amazing museum in Central London, gain funds to restore two Canaletto paintings and their frames. The pictures are famous for their views of Venice and have been damaged over the years by layers of varnish and retouching, as well as the colours becoming subdued. The film was shot at the Wallace Collection in one day with one camera and following a Chocolate Films script, explaining the history of the paintings and why they are so important. The objective was to raise funds through crowdsourcing while the film explained what needs to be done and who would be doing it.

Saving a historic frame

One of the most treasured paintings in a famous collection owned by the great architect Sir John Soane is The Snake in the Grass by Sir Joshua Reynolds. It depicts a classical nymph possibly portrayed by Lady Hamilton (aka Admiral Nelson’s mistress). The painting’s original gilded frame is a significant work in its own right, as many historic paintings had their frames removed. However, that frame was in desperate need of restoration. We worked with Sir John Soane’s Museum to write the script, used archive material to tell the story behind the frame and provided a glimpse into how it would be restored. Art Fund‘s Art Happens project sets up crowdfunding campaigns across the country. This film was aimed at raise £15,000 to save the frame. Shortly after the campaign was launched a private donor came forward with £5,000, and the museum reached its target.



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Redressing the Pleasure Gardens

The Pleasure Gardens at the Museum of London  is described as ‘an immersive space inspired by the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens in its heyday’. The gallery includes twelve mannequins dressed in clothing and accessories from the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

Before any new piece of rare clothing (some of which can be up to 250 years old) can go on display, it will need to be conserved and have a custom-made mannequin produced. Our film took viewers behind the scenes to give would be donors an insight into how those pieces are cared for. The museum set a target of £10,000 and the campaign proved to be so successful they smashed that figure by 33 per cent.

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Book your free consultation

The producers at Chocolate Films are available to talk through your project at a time that suits you. They’ll make sure they really understand your organisation and what you’re looking to achieve with video content. Following the discussion, they will send over a detailed proposal for the work you’re looking to commission.

What our clients say

Chocolate Films
5.0
Based on 74 reviews
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Alice KirklandAlice Kirkland
14:01 21 Dec 23
I had the pleasure of working with Chocolate Films for a corporate video campaign. From the offset, the team were professional, engaging, and quick to communicate. Rachel and Lucia worked with our vision and helped turn it into a reality, offering suggestions and expertise to help bring the story to life to a highly creative and timely manner.The video created a real buzz within the organisation and the feedback received has been fantastic. I would highly recommend Chocolate and look forward to working with them again in the future.
Stephen WheatleyStephen Wheatley
16:50 03 Nov 23
Make Listening Safe Campaign UK is an initiative of The World Health Organisation aimed at increasing the awareness of avoidable risks to hearing in those between 10 and 40 years of age, launched at an in person event in London on 1st November 2023.We needed the launch to be filmed and were lucky enough to be introduced to Chocolate Films who provided the crew and the equipment required.Our events team have informed me that the crew were a delight to work with and were very helpful.We were very impressed with the quality of the footage and were very surprised when we received it so quickly after the event, so we could edit it and get it out on to social media in a timely fashion.We have no hesitation in recommending Chocolate Films.Thank you for making the filming such a pain free experience.Stephen Wheatley | Chair – MLSC UK |
Stella HungerStella Hunger
18:15 01 Nov 23
I was lucky enough to work with Nikita and Chocolate Films on a photo shoot. They were extremely professional, accommodating, organized and generally lovely. We definitely plan on working with them in the future! Thank you for everything, Nikita!
Vanessa RushtonVanessa Rushton
12:59 25 Oct 23
Great provider – always happy to help and deliver what’s needed quickly and cost effectively
Laura CliffLaura Cliff
09:49 12 Oct 23
I worked with Chocolate films to produce a voice over for a film translated into Welsh. Nikki and Lucia were professional, friendly and understood the brief. They ensured all deadlines were met and the work was produced to a really high quality.
Rachael CresswellRachael Cresswell
09:03 05 Oct 23
A friendly group of professional, talented film-makers who created some brilliant videos for us. Anna and Han were a pleasure to work with and were available to discuss the project whenever we needed it. The entire process was slick and efficient from start to finish – I would definitely recommend Chocolate Films for any film project.
Nick HarmerNick Harmer
14:26 21 Jun 23
A very professional team with flexibility and great understanding of the craft. The pre-production was straight forward but the dedication from the team on the day to capture lots of high quality footage of the event was admirable.The final outcomes were well edited and the revisions process was painless and fast. I highly recommend Chocolate Films for event and interview videography.
joe plimmerjoe plimmer
11:21 25 Apr 23
A pleasure to collaborate with such a wonderful company that nurtures talent the right way
Anoushka FreemanAnoushka Freeman
17:27 13 Jan 23
We couldn’t recommend Chocolate Films highly enough! The team had a thorough attention to detail, communicated each phase of the production clearly, and were extremely friendly and patient with time delays gathering necessary media items on our side.
A Google User
A Google User
17:27 13 Jan 23
We couldn’t recommend Chocolate Films highly enough! The team had a thorough attention to detail, communicated each phase of the production clearly, and were extremely friendly and patient with time delays gathering necessary media items on our side.
Emma HalesEmma Hales
16:57 11 Jan 23
Worked with this fantastic company On a vaccine hesitancy video. The company were professional from start to finish, very understanding and patient with the young people involved in making the video and truly brought their ideas to life! Highly recommended!
Social MediaSocial Media
13:27 29 Dec 22
It was a pleasure for Museum of London to work on one of our most exciting wrap up films of the year with Chocolate Films. Anna, Phil and the whole team were helpful, accommodating and flexible through a tricky brief and shoot. Definitely recommend! Jaanuja
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