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:

Weedfree Winners

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Weedfree2Weedfree1Weedfree4Weedfree5After winning the Sustainable Innovation in Export Award at the Golden Bridge event, Weedfree asked us to produce a couple of films for them. The first was a video press release for social media showcasing their latest award. And secondly they take all their staff to Tenerife for a short break and wanted to show a film to inform and encourage the team in the year ahead.

We visited the Weedfree headquarters in Yorkshire to interview the bosses, as well as shoot a few additional setups near train tracks and on quad vehicles. Once back at base I rebuilt their logo in 3D to create an animated opening. Editing was pretty straightforward thanks to Final Cut X and here are the results:

Trafalgar Triumphs

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GoldenBridge2013_2I’m in London again with Howard from Red Lobster filming the ceremony for the 2013 Golden Bridge Awards. This year we we’re asked to film the event for both the British Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and the Belgian-Luxemborg Chamber of  Commerce.

This meant visiting London and Brussels to film presentations of the shortlisted companies, making two films to show at the event for the assembled dignitaries.

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After filming the event on the FS100 I edited a video for each chamber, which showcased the presentations and awards from their parts of the evening. The first two thirds of the videos below are close to what was shown at the event before the awards were given.


Keep the Faith

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The Faith Through A Lens photography competition has been running since 2010. I was approached by Congregational and General Insurance in 2011 to film the award ceremony in Bradford. The next year the awards moved to London and another video production company was used,  but I was delighted to be asked to film this years event again.

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This time I was able to film the judging panel who met at Microsoft HQ a month before the ceremony. I made a short film on the history of the event as well as interviews with the esteemed panel of judges. This short was shown at the ceremony to give the people attending a feel for the event and explain the thought processes behind the judging.

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I filmed the event with three cameras. A GoPro suspended in the ceiling, my FS100 and an EX1 operated by BobMcGowan. I’d worked with Bob a few times in Liverpool filming at the Essar Oil Refinery and it was great to do so again. Then after the event I produced this finished film:

SoftBrick

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Today was my second day of filming for SoftBrick, the UK’s biggest manufacturer of soft play equipment for children’s play centres. Using my FS100 and 11mm ultra wide lens I’ve been able to film inside these huge and amazingly complex structures that they’ve created. Also also worth mentioning that the low light capabilities of the camera are a massive help as some areas are designed to be really dark and atmospheric.

The first day of filming was at Bubbles World of Play in Liverpool, followed by filming at the factory in Manchester. Today I visited a huge, newly opened play centre in Northampton – The Riverside Hub. These venues are amazing, I wish there was something like them in Leeds as I’d love to take my two year old along. I’ve also used the GoPro to shoot factory timelapse and I had the opportunity to use the full length mode of my 4 metre jib, which doesn’t often happen as it’s too long for most venues.

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Softbrick are using various edited videos to show at trade conferences across the EU. These videos are mute and create a seamless loop when played back on a solid state media player.

Below is a typical section of an exhibition loop.

Putting words on your mouth

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The guys at IdeasBynet are always asking me for something a little out of the ordinary. This time we were making a TV commercial to promote their rebrand, something fresh and fun with loads of character.

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This was shot in their photo studio, lit with two 1.2kw MSRs through my diffuser frames and Dedos as backlighting. The performers were two staff members and one semi-pro actress. They were holding sticks with cardboard sheet and tracking markers drawn on. The shoot was fairly simple, the only difficulty was ensuring that the actors didn’t move their mouths too much behind the cardboard and that they didn’t turn their heads too much or their mouths would be visible.

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The post production process was obviously quite complex as you’d expect…

-Get the voice performances edited and signed off by the client.
-Edit the actor’s background footage to match the voice recording.
-Save each dialogue line as individual Quicktime files.
-Motion track the individual mouths for each file.
-Edit the mouth movement images to match the voice recording.
-Apply the mouth images edits with the motion tracking to the ordinal background files.
-Put it all back together in Final Cut Pro.
-Apply colour corrections, add strobing/weaving effect.

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I’m really happy with the end result:

Park It Mister!

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The lovely folks at Stress Free Parking asked me for a quick turn around video to demonstrate the new valet parking at their Luton Airport facility. After agreeing an initial filming outline, I arrived on the Friday – one of the hottest days of the year and the shoot went better than planned.

Once I’d made a rough cut the clients provided graphics in the style of their newest website branding.
By Monday lunchtime the video was signed off and uploaded to YouTube. Super Fast!

York Work

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Steve PoppleAntique Restoration is a well established and respected business in the city of York.

Recently the team have learned new skills to help create bespoke furniture for their new venture – Man of Art.

After a days shooting at the York workshop earlier in the year, today I returned for a morning of additional filming.

 

After completing the first draft of both films, we knew that we should wait until they had built a new showroom and tidied up their stores then return to film at the new locations. The first shoot was on a snowy day, fortunately the workshop is heated! So returning in June was a very different experience, anyway the additional half day provided all the footage we needed.

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I also suggested that I could create a longer, looping video that could play in the workshop window to encourage passing trade. This loop video plays from a tiny media player and looks great in HD on a large flatscreen TV.

I’m really happy with the finished videos, written, directed, shot and edited by yours truly: