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Best of British

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Here’s something I made recently, filmed at the Glen Dimplex Home Appliances factory in Liverpool.

I did quick recce and the client’s only real concern was that we had to keep disruption to a minimum.

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The production line switched to making our specific colour and design when we needed to start filming, and we only had the parts to produce five of our ovens, so I had to film it as fast as I could.

There was some daylight in the factory as well as fluorescents and some other discharge lighting. But the strong key lighting in the video is from a 1.25kw and a 2.5kw Arri MSR.

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I filmed it all using my trusty Hague Multi-Jib on a Heavy Duty Manfrotto tripod, and that’s on a Vinten tripod dolly so I can wheel it around the location on my own if I need to.

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The clients were watching my 22 inch location monitor via wireless HDMI.

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In FCPX I used the ‘Epic’ look from Luster Grade on an adjustment layer. And I’ve done a few colour corrections under the adjustment layer to balance between shots.

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Toolbank 2015

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Another year, another record breaking Toolbank ‘Real Deals for You’ campaign: The Christmas Collection.

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This year’s design included present boxes wrapped in shiny foil, which I built as 3D models in Cinema 4D.

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Then creating various coloured versions as looping quicktime files, converting them into particle effects in Motion and making them fly towards camera. Also I built custom box transitions in Motion with full rigging into Final Cut Pro X. This meant I could change the direction and colour of the box wipe transition using just a simple pull down inside FCPX.

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After three days of workshop filming back in April, I started putting the main campaign video together, which at over 30 minutes long is versioned in two currencies – Sterling and Euros.

We also filmed over 60 Social Media product demos which are presented ‘to camera’ by Andy or Nigel from Toolbank. These get embedding in the product pages on the Real Deals website

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Then, in August I filmed the TV commercial at Prime Studios in Leeds. This time filmed as a chromakey.

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Using my new JVC LS300 I fed an SDI picture to my 23 inch location monitor, and also streamed a Wi-Fi video feed to a laptop for timecode logging. Our great pal Vic McCullagh was on hand to light the set and provide his unique perspective on proceedings.

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Love that guy!

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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:

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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.

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