Projects & Testimonials
The Four Feathers
“As the military advisor on the Four Feathers, I asked John Whitby who I knew from his background, was ex-British Army, to help with the training of over 300 Moroccan SAs with Marching, Rifle Drills, and preparing them in readiness to form the Battle Square for the up and coming battle.
John did a great job with the training of the Moroccans, who were playing British soldiers, and throwing himself into the job that was asked of him. He was incredibly reliable and very knowledgeable.
The result of the battle looked amazing on camera.”
- Henry Camilleri, Military Advisor
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OVERLORD
“I have had the privilege of working with John on numerous projects, dating back to Band of Brothers, and my latest project with him was Overlord, in which he assisted me with the training of the SAs who were playing the German soldiers.
He has always shown extreme professionalism and knowledge of the subject, and his work with featured actors and background has been priceless.
I personally would choose John to work on any project with me in the future.”
- Freddie Joe Farnsworth, Military Advisor, Devil Dog Ltd
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Masters of the air
“UK Military Veteran John Whitby has worked on several major Warriors Global productions as a supporting actor, which included The Band of Brothers, Sam's Circus, Alexander, and he was part of the military advisory team on Masters of the Air, where he was involved in 4 of the military bootcamps. I have always found him to be knowledgeable, fit, and highly motivated in our efforts to train actors worldwide to credibly depict genuine soldiers of different nationalities and capabilities. He is also very knowledgeable in military history and has been quite valuable in both training and staging complex scenes involving military actions. He brings a can-do reliability and excellent problem-solving skills to every production.”
- Capt. Dale Dye USMC (Ret)
CEO and Senior Advisor
Warrior Global
“I met John Whitby in 2021 while in training for ‘Masters of the Air’. John was one of our military advisors in bootcamp and through out production. Each morning he led a march of our three squadrons from our barracks to our lessons. John was very approachable and extremely helpful with advice, not only on technical details (everything from posture, to the correct names and titles of various aspects of the USAAF) but also on the camaraderie and forming the extremely strong bond we’d have with our cast mates. During PT, he would push us and show us how to approach the task at hand with the respect due. On our last day of bootcamp we were trained on 50 cal machine guns, which was for many of us, the first time we had been around guns. I was put into John’s group, and having never fired a weapon before, he was extremely patient, and encouraging. When I encountered a stoppage, he immediately diagnosed the issue, and helped me identify the problem for myself, so in future i’d be able to effectively assess the situation on my own, in the most efficient way, which proved massively beneficial throughout production. After bootcamp, John made sure he was easy to contact at all times, and was on set so if I had any further questions or inquiries I knew exactly who to turn to. He has a clear and deep understanding of not only the British armed forces (his own experience), but also of many other forces, their history, and their tradition. I saw him use his knowledge in American and German.
It was great working with John, and the environment he brought to set, and I look forward to working with him again on other military based productions.”
-Spike White
2nd Lt Charles A. Via
Masters of the Air
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FOXHOLE
“I had the pleasure of working with John as the military advisor on our short film, Foxhole. His expertise was instrumental in ensuring the authenticity of every scene, from planning to execution. His attention to detail and understanding of medical and military protocol were invaluable, enhancing the realism of the film and making my job as a director much smoother. Additionally, John continued that commitment to realism in his role as an actor in the film, which really helped elevate the scene he was a part of.”
- Tom Brittany - Director
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WHISPERS OF FREEDOM
“John contacted me in my capacity as director during the pre-production phase, noting that he had comes across Whispers of Freedom and had a personal interest in participating in the project - he had served time in the British Army in Berlin during the late 1980s. This brought invaluable benefits to the production. Beyond possessing the expected military knowledge with regards to the equipment and weapons (of the time and location, being 1980s East Germany) John - having experienced life on the ground in Cold War Berlin - provided the granular sensibilities and wasted no time in installing these into the actors and extras on set.
John flew to Guernsey, Channel Islands where we were shooting the most pivotal and climactic moment of the film - the attempted escape across the Berlin Wall’s infamous death strip. We had recreated the former death strip at a functioning water treatment plant. Having arrived on set - we were shooting two evenings until the early hours in the morning - John immediately threw himself into the task of rapidly training up the actors and extras on set. I had previously liaised with John as to what the scene required, and what we were aiming to capture from an emotional and cinematic perspective - and he quickly began working with the key actors and extras. John took them aside and began by conducting a safety briefing - stressing the correct way of holding and carrying their weapons while out of shot, before going into detail in outlining the means of carrying their weapons, firing, and how they ought to run, walk and generally move, in a historically accurate fashion for a typical East German Border Guard.
John is not only incredibly knowledgeable, but has huge presence. His resolute ability to diligently work with several key actors and extras (and other crew) saved us a huge amount of time on the location - which enabled us to be wrapped and completed at the water utility site ahead of our 2am deadline, each night.
I am very pleased we jumped at the opportunity to have John join us on production. He is passionate about multistory history and film, and has extensive experience in fusing both to successful effect. I look forward to working with him on future productions.”
- Brandon Ashplant, Director