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Toolbank on TV

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Toolbank are now running their TV adverts in the UK promoting their yearly Christmas campaign.

In the summer, as usual, I produced the sales video with Andy from Toolbank and also shot the studio segments in Leeds with Dark Horse.

Now the 16 finished adverts are made and on air. Here’s a couple of examples:

I shot the workshop footage as well as the white studio shoot.

Dark Horse looked after the post production (with technical input from yours truly) and airtime was managed by John at Dark Horse.

Sharing is Caring

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Leaving Leeds just after 4am and arriving by the Thames at Embankment at 9.02 for a 9.30am start at the headquarters of Care International. A hectic start to the day, but it turned out really well…

I was asked to shoot a series of greenscreen interviews for a TV commercial promoting lendwithcare.org.
It’s a really interesting charity website where you can often get your donation money back!

I won’t explain how it works, it’s best if you have a look for yourself. Here’s the advert:

UPDATE – 20,000 views on YouTube so far!

Muchen Kutchen

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kutchenhausSquareiMedia asked us to shoot a TV commercial for their client, Kutchenhaus.

So Vic and I headed out to the Trafford Centre in Manchester with a car full of kit. We filmed on Nikon and Canon DSLRs, mine was connected to my usual 22 inch location monitor. Every shot was moving in some way either tracking, jibbing or both and all shot with shallow depth of field focus pulls.

 

Some shots were very tricky to pull off, but the end result looks great:

Never work with Children? Bah!

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We’ve just finished four nights at Magna – the children’s science park in Rotherham. It’s based in an old foundry, 350 metres long, 3 floors, painted black inside with very atmospheric low lighting. Bert Agency in Manchester kindly asked me to shoot the commercial for their client, so together with Vic McCullagh on lighting we took on the challenge.

After a screen test session a few months ago, the final actors were chosen, the lead part taken by Finlay:

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The Science park has four zones, Earth, Air, Fire and Water (as well as a nice Cafe). Bert had a storyboard to work from, and I suggested additional areas to film in each zone to make the most of our time there. Safety was of the utmost concern, we were working in the dark a lot of the time, as well as being surrounded by water, flames, and dozens of child extras and their families.

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The gloves are on… Vic means business

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Finlay hosing the camera in ‘Water Zone’

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I rigged the camera on the Jib, and behind a sheet of perspex, held up by magic arms.
It worked great, but I couldn’t keep my feet dry.

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The turbine in ‘Air Zone’ recreates a hurricane,
and I’m sat in the middle of it…

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Getting additional setups. Funny.

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After the second burger, he was full.

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Duncan and the Chris’s from Bert

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Fully operational mini JCBs in ‘Earth Zone’ = NOISY!

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The commercial ends with Finlay sleeping in the back of the car on the way home… Shhh!