ABOUT PHENASCOPE FILMS

Phenascope Films is an independent film company created by Joshua Bransgrove in 2019. The companies aim, is to create films which bridge the gap between high-brow, art house cinema and the more low-brow entertainment, common with a less versed cinema goer. Both ends of this filmic scale are well revered by their intended audiences but seldomly do these two theatrical tribes venture outside of their respective styles. Phenascope intends to marry these two cinematic factions by creating films with beautiful and interesting camera work, as one might find in the art house realm, coupled with entertaining and unique stories that stray away from being overtly dramatic or meaningfully political but instead tell stories which have no agenda but to entertain.

Joshua Bransgrove. Founder of Phenascope Films.

PHENASCOPE FILMS HISTORY

Phenascope Films was created by the Director and 1st AD Joshua Bransgrove in 2019, during the build up to Bransgrove’s debut release ‘Organs of Business’, the fast paced and chaotic, British comedy. Following the success of the films release and it’s numerous national and international awards. Phenascope set about working on their next project ‘The Birdwatcher’.

Joshua Bransgrove once again teamed up with his long-time producer Ly-Ann Foster, to help find funding and to keep the project on track. After yet another successful Kickstarter campaign and major backing from private investors, the birdwatcher was green lit and sped into pre-production; but now under its official title ‘Forbidden Love on the Shores of Greece’. The film was set to be the companies largest project and they spared no expense. Phenascope, hired known industry professional to fill key rolls in the crew and shot a film that is both visually beautiful and thematically captivating.

With the film now complete, it’s being put into the 2023 festival circuit, where it has already won the Jury Prize and Best Actress at The Monkey Bread Tree Film Awards. Along with being nominated for Best Director, Best Cinematography and Best Editing. The film will continue to run in the circuit and hopefully pick up some more awards, as the year moves forward.

While Forbidden Love makes it’s way through the festivals, Phenascope Films are turning their attention to their next project, currently being written by Joshua Bransgrove. The film is set to be a suspenseful thriller noir with a thematic twist.

ORIGIN OF THE PHENASCOPE NAME

Phenascope Films derives its name from a mechanical device from the 1800 called the Phenakistascope. Invented in 1832 by Joseph Plateau, the Phenakistascope was one of the first example of a device capable of creating a moving image and thus is one of the originators of this industry that we know and love . It was a simple mechanism designed to be used with a mirror. The device was a circular disc on a spindle which could be held by the use of a handle. On one side of the disc, were various frames of a cartoon in motion, above which were small slits. The user would hold up the device in front of a mirror, with the images facing away from them. They would then proceed to spin the disc and look through the small slits, at the cartoons reflected in the mirror. This would show the cartoons, frame by frame, in quick succession, creating the illusion of movement. When creating the company, Bransgrove reworked the devices name to make it more consumable to the general public and thus Phenascope Films was born.