Toolbank’s Legs 11

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Another year, another Toolbank campaign, and I’ve just uploaded this year’s introduction video:

The full loop video shown in stores this year is 25 minutes long with 9 fully featured products, as well as 72 additional products and prices. All of this produced in two currencies as usual:

Year on year the campaign has grown to include more and more products, most recently gaining a significant social media presence as well. To help with this I’ve been tasked with making social media video for almost every product in the campaign in both Sterling and Euros currencies. Due to stock availability and time constraints I film most, but not all of the footage, however I do edit it all adding the campaign graphics that I build each year. In total I’ve uploaded 155 Toolbank videos to YouTube this year!

This year the creative agency ‘Shine’ designed a cloche and dinner table setting style. So I decided the only way I could bring it life with a transitioning animation was to have the cloche lift, revealing the brand logo which then transitions to the video.  My wife kindly provided the butlers arm which I shot against my Chromakey screen. Thanks Chuck!

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Make some noise!

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Again Pulsar Instruments asked me to their Filey HQ to film their latest industry leading product.

Although it’s a long drive out there, the scenery is really great and it’s nice to get to the seaside once in a while, even if the seagulls noise sometimes stops the filming.

After an initial meeting to discuss the brief, the filming went without a hitch. The edit brought the whole project together and the archive sequence at the beginning helped to set the overall tone.

Lend Me Your Ears

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Caisley Eartags asked me to produce a video for the upcoming changes to Aberdeen Angus livestock eartagging and DNA sampling regulations. We used three different calves for the filming as we weren’t sure how they’d react to the tagging and the people standing around them. I made a widescreen and 4:3 version for use in a photo frame at exhibitions.

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Man-a-Live

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Ace Dance and Music from Birmingham asked me to film a promo for their current touring show – Mana. A word used in 24 languages. The show was being performed in the Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Leeds which is an amazing venue with a great lighting rig.

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I directed and shot the promo in the morning with assistance of Tom, and we stayed through to the evening performance to capture the 2 x 30 minute performances as well. During the morning I used the FS100 with my 11-16mm and 35mm lenses, which worked well in the sometimes very low light, used for this style of performance.
I shot several sequences in overcrank on the FS100 for a slow-motion effect which the dancers then watched on playback between takes.

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I’ve edited another version of the Promo with plenty of added VFX as a bit of fun:

Deputy PM in Prescot

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I was asked to film another VIP visit at the Glen Dimplex factory in Prescot.
This time I took my new assistant Tom who operated the second camera.

We had time at the end of the tour to film to shoot a short two header interview:

It’s all Greek to me

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We’re just back from 8 days in beautiful Athens, making another series of films for the University of Kent:

I also used the footage in several other films for IHC: an NGO based near Athens.

Our local fixer Alex was a huge help on this shoot and seemed constantly amazed by Howard’s knowledge of Greek culture and places.

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When in Rome…

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We’re barely back a week and the main Rome film is edited and signed off.

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We’ve also made a simpler, faster version for social media. This is using footage I shot specifically for this purpose while on location.

Proper Pasta

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On our first evening in Rome the two students we were featuring were having cooking lessons at a brilliant little restaurant in the heart of Trastevere, the original artisan home of Roman cookery. Arriving at Andreas restaurant we were giving a really lovely warm welcome by the man himself and his charming missus Erica.

They got down to the preparation quite quickly, so I did a quick white balance in both rooms and started shooting. We only needed to capture a few minutes of usable footage for the Kent University film that we were in Rome to make. But seeing all the fantastic colours, smiling faces and great smells made me think it was worthwhile gathering extra footage as I felt sure they’d like a better record of the evening’s proceedings.

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I got quite a bit of decent footage given the hectic nature of working in a small kitchen with 15 people. We ended the night with a few shots of his homemade Sicilian Limoncello. Oh and yes, the food was fantastic:

A finger on the pulse

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Pulsar Instruments plc have been manufacturing noise measurement equipment for 45 years. They asked me to produce a brief product demo video, which would be presented by the Managing Director of the company. The product is the new Nova range, a unique modular system which uses an OLED screen.
I hired a product turntable and travelled to their HQ in Filey on the Yorkshire coast for the shoot.

The client hired a small theatre next to their offices, and when filming on the stage with the main tabs (curtains) closed it acted as a decent studio for filming. I helped coach Sarah through her presentation and offered advice on the script as we went along.

Back in the edit suite I made an animation of the Pulsar logo and cut the video. I added a few finishing touches like luma-keying the black background to pure black, and including a music track. Here you go:

East Coast Instagrams

As well as making the two final show highlights packages, I’ve just completed a series of ten weekly YouTube highlights clips for the Sky TV series ‘All Aboard‘: