This is my 4th year producing the videos for this ever-growing awards ceremony. I filmed the judging at BBC Broadcasting House in London in October. And again in November, when Tom joined me for the ceremony.
As usual, I edited two short video that were played at the ceremony, and then I made the final film encompassing the entire 2015 awards process.
I’ve taken delivery of a new JVC LS300 cinema camera.
While shooting in HD, UHD or 4k it offers the unique ability to fine tune the sensor scan to any available lens system. It uses a large native APC sensor, but the camera can adapt to other lens systems that cover less area on the sensor while still maintaining 4k resolution.
The wide range of codecs on offer produce high quality chroma sampling for superb quality chroma key and colour correction capabilities.
I’ve added 3 additional high capacity batteries, a set of native Panasonic MFT 12-35 f2.8 and 35-100 f2.8 lenses offering a field of view equivalent to 24-70 and 70-200. I can still shoot on all my existing glass, but the Panasonic lenses offer image stabilisation under manual or automatic control in a very lightweight package. You can never have too many lenses I reckon.
The result so far are superb. the colour rendition is amazing and the resolution when shooting scaled down to HD is way beyond anything I’ve used before.
Recently I spent a day filming in Manchester and Sheffield for the US/UK video production company WebsEdge. Here’s the finished film:
Together with Tom on second camera we filmed at various Medical Labs and an interview in Manchester, as well as additional interviews in Sheffield. The Sony A7s matched very nicely with the JVC LS300. Both cameras filmed at 30fps for US distribution and the end results look great.
A long term project for Northern Gas Networks has finally been published online.
Commemorating our gas holders from Northern Gas Networks on Vimeo.
Over 18 months of production and over a dozen site visits, resulted in the finished 15 minute film.
The response has been amazing. Thanks to everyone involved!
Another year, another record breaking Toolbank ‘Real Deals for You’ campaign: The Christmas Collection.
This year’s design included present boxes wrapped in shiny foil, which I built as 3D models in Cinema 4D.
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.
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
Then, in August I filmed the TV commercial at Prime Studios in Leeds. This time filmed as a chromakey.
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.
Love that guy!
A regular client that I can’t blog about very often, is ACC – The Aged Care Channel. The work that I do for them is often confidential, and protected by their copyright. Occasionally however, they post short public excerpts of their training films, like this example on providing a 5 Star Service:
Back in May I filmed for four days in and around Aylesbury, with the lovely team from ACC. I supply my camera kit, lighting and additional sound kit. We work with a variety of freelance directors, Tony on sound and the production team from ACC HQ. Once we wrapped I returned home and started editing the film for both the UK and Australia, where the two versions have slight regional difference regarding terminology and care guidelines.
I delivered the 20 minute edit as a ProRes master and ACC UK play it into their live monthly programme, which is simulcast to their subscriber around the world via their own dedicated delivery system.
Another client that I can’t blog about too much: Kirklees Adoption Service.
As well as the confidential work I do with them, I also look after the filming of their training conferences.
It’s straightforward stuff for us, because we have all the right kit and decades of experience. I supply a few cameras and operators then I edit the powerpoint into the presentation and it’s delivered to Kirklees intranet.
Occasionally, the subject matter can be seen publicly such as this presentation at a recent conference in Sheffield:
Another regular client – UMPF PR asked me to make a quick awards submission video for them:
Filmed in their soon-to-be new office in The Calls in Leeds, Amy did a great job in front of the camera (not the first time I’ve filmed her), then with the addition of a few graphics and sound effects we were done.
Building Preservation experts Brick-Tie asked me to help create content for their industry leading blog.
Filmed over two days this video shows one aspect of the clever reparation work that they can do so save a building from potential collapse.
I filmed Bryan’s PTCs on my faithful EX1, the time-lapses were filmed on my waterproof site cameras, and I used a GoPro in a waterproof housing for the working shots, the more unusual angles, and walk arounds.
Beacon Medaes manufacture medical gas outlets and distribution systems. They were keen to to show how much simpler the installation and maintenance of their systems is compared to others.
I used my own voice in the initial edits purely as a guide, but the client decide to keep my voice in the final version.