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 87 reviews
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Idrissa sailor KoromaIdrissa sailor Koroma
00:36 26 Sep 24
HeisenbergHeisenberg
17:35 13 Jul 24
My children attended their film making workshops. What a great time they had! The crew members were fantastic, especially Bea, who has got excellent attitude towards children and tons of patience. I really recommend them, if you are looking for some quality workshops for your children.
Belinda CupidBelinda Cupid
15:49 08 Jul 24
I work at Cystic Fibrosis Trust and we are delighted with the animation Chocolate Films created for us. It met the brief and has helped us to explain our activities to current and future partners. Chocolate Films were a pleasure to work with and we appreciated their flexibility in working to a very tight timescale.
Katy TippingKaty Tipping
13:04 08 Jul 24
Great working with Chocolate Films and the team for our new program. Nikita was a great point of content and we had a blast at the filming studio with everyone. Thank you everyone for your work on this project!
Chloe McCarthyChloe McCarthy
11:59 12 Jun 24
We commissioned Chocolate films to complete a BTS film as a promotional film for our Level 4 foundation course. We were out on location with our own 3 short films with our most senior students, and we needed an extra crew to capture all that was happening on set. They were thoughtful, efficient and proactive. Capturing some great interviews and BTS (thanks Elton!), weaving it into a great promotional film for us. Lucia steered the project beautifully from start to finish (thanks Nikita too). We’ve worked with Chocolate films before and would happily do so in the future. Chloe – London Screen Academy
Tai CampbellTai Campbell
13:03 29 May 24
I filmed a green screen production using sound and it came out great. Lucia and Nikka are lovely and happy to help, the facilities are exactly what I needed (there’s also a make-up room) and it was easy to get to.
Kerri AthertonKerri Atherton
14:11 15 May 24
Chocolate films produced a fun promotional video for us as part of our 80th anniversary. They were professional with clear communication, and the project was delivered to time.
Samantha ChetwoodSamantha Chetwood
09:34 03 May 24
The video content creation workshop offered by Chocolate Films was incredibly useful, packed full of handy tips on how to create compelling videos with the minimum equipment and time! The space is great and the team were welcoming, generous with their knowledge and clearly enthusiastic about what they do.
HUGE round of applause for the Chocolate Films team! We attended their ‘Using Video for Business’ Workshop, which they so kindly offered free of charge for local businesses in the Wandsworth area. Hosted at their lovely new Nine Elms studio space, we had a great morning of learning, chatting over tea and coffee. They are a really delightful and organised company that we hope to work with going forward, and we would love to see the team at one of our cookery classes one day! Ax
Victoria NicholsonVictoria Nicholson
11:16 01 May 24
I joined other small business owners, founders and entrepreneurs for a morning workshop on how to create content, shoot and edit footage. The studio was so welcoming and the team gave some fantastic advice whether it was your first foray into film making or had been trying for a while but stuck with certain elements. The workshop was fun, enjoyable and informative with a good balance between information and hands on practice. They made something quite complex seem very accessable. The teams enthusiasm for their craft is infectious.
Marie de ChampchesnelMarie de Champchesnel
11:11 01 May 24
I had the pleasure to be invited to a workshop at Chocolate Films which was delivered to a high standard from start to finish. The facilitators were highly knowledgeable, friendly and very approachable and took time to answer any questions we had. Thank you for a great experience!
Asma SharapovaAsma Sharapova
10:56 01 May 24
I attended a workshop with Chocolate Films and was very impressed with their professionalism, knowledge and expertise. They packed so much invaluable information into the session and they were all super friendly and approachable.
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