Xube - About Us - Personnel

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Directors Jeremy Henderson and Richard Woolfenden established Xube after working as freelancers in film and IT in the mid-to-late 1990s. The aim was to build a company that could utilise emergent digital technology to create high quality content. Jeremy and Richard met when they were secondary school teachers in East London in the early 1990s. They left teaching in 1996 and formed a filmmaking partnership. This led directly to the creation of Xube in January 2001.

Xube works with talented freelancers who lend every project new insights and skills. In April 2005 we took on a new Production Assistant, Ben Hooton, who is rapidly becoming a vital member of the company.

Jeremy Henderson

Jeremy Henderson, Director

Former life: History teacher, East London

Passions: Film, history, education, politics and cars

Teaching for five years in East London meant a steep learning curve for me. I’m very glad I had those experiences, but not surprisingly I didn’t learn how to make films teaching history, and when I left teaching I knew another steepish learning curve was coming my way. Fortunately, I could share this new exciting burden of information with Richard, but I could no longer live with my technophobia. We walked into filmmaking at a fascinating moment as digital video and non-linear editing on computers were all taking off. So learning curve number three was to learn how to use a computer - probably the steepest of the lot.

Once we’d served our apprenticeship, forming Xube suddenly seemed incredibly obvious and so began a real career in the intoxicating world of the moving image. I enjoy all aspects of the production process but it is the shoot that gives me the biggest thrill. Whether I’m directing a crew to get that perfect shot or questioning an initially nervous interviewee I know that true happiness can only exist once the camera starts rolling – well something like that anyway.

Hopefully, I’ll get a chance to convey my serious enthusiasm to you some day.

Personnel

Richard Woolfenden, Director

Former life: English and Drama teacher, East London

Passions: Film, theatre, music, education, politics and new technology

It is very rare that anyone asks me why I left teaching. People just assume that any sane person gets out as soon as they can. Which is quite sad in a way because I left teaching after having an admittedly short (four years), but exhilarating time. I just had so many other things I wanted to do with my life and that meant film.

The early years working with Jeremy as Flick Films (see History) were fun and experimental times. We began by filming our friends and quickly moved onto making our first fiction short films and early corporate videos. Our experiences with shooting on 16mm and 35mm film formats with professional crew and actors were incredible and have proven to be vital stepping stones that led to the formation of Xube.

In 1996, when I set out on this journey, DV (digital video) technology was a very new format that many filmmakers were beginning to experiment with. These were exciting times. I signed up to the digital revolution, bought the t-shirt and we invested in an early DV classic, the Sony VX-1000 mini-DV camera. (We have still got it but it’s collecting dust on the office shelves).

I’m excited about the development of new technology in media production. High Definition (HD) is going to expand the creative potential of programme makers in ways that we can’t predict. Here’s to an eXUBErant future.

Richard Woolfenden