Big opportunities

In the time spent away from this blog, I had some incredible opportunities crop up for me.

The biggest one would have been the chance to have a short film of mine on a DVD which is being distributed internationally.

This chance came about because I am in contact with a production company about editing a feature film of there’s
later on in the year, and because they have another feature being released later in this year, they had a spot on their special features section of the DVD to feature an independent short film.

The film will remind many people of the famous horror film Carrie, as it follows very similar revenge guidelines.

If there is any interest to see it, you can check out the trailer on the HoodUp Films Facebook page. The film goes by the name of Anchors

Also, if anyone is interested behind the creative process of the film, then I will be creating another post about making the film, the challenges that were faced, and how I thought it turned out overall.

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The Inevitable Return

Around a year or so ago, I began this blog as a way to document my journey, express my thoughts, brag about my successes, and weep over my failures.

Well, thanks to my never ending quest for something to do (thanks ADHD) I eventually forgot about the blogging, and moved onto something else that I would eventually give up on (I think it was acquiring vintage lenses around the time)

But, as I will always eventually do, I came back to acquiring vintage lenses, and now have a growing collection.

And now, it’s time to return to the old blog, dust it off, and show it to the world with the new perspective that I have.

If you followed me before, and if (for some reason) you enjoyed my writings, then stay tuned. I’ll get some content out there soon enough.

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Fade

On Saturday, I managed to finally shoot my short film that I had been planning for about a year now, named “Fade”. To give a brief synopsis, the story is about a girl who has a necklace, which gives her the power to make things disappear with a touch (think the skittles advert, but with definitely a lot more doom and gloom). I had an incredible time shooting, and the talent coming out of the shoot was incredible, everybody did their part properly, and am happy to say that they seemed to take my requests seriously, listening to every word I had to say.

Also happy to say that I met an actress to do this, whom I had never met previously, and has a pretty extensive past in theatre and film. She was incredibly talented, and I hope to work with her in the future again.

It was a pretty ropey shoot, I must admit. A lot of equipment had to be made using what was around, and one of the shots got a bit risky (It involved me, tripod, camera and a 100 ft tower) but we got all that was needed. Overall, it was an incredible shoot, and I loved working with everyone on a proper set.

Video link to come soon, keep an eye out for it. Also go give Fade a like on Facebook, search for Fade Film, and get tweeting about it on Twitter using the hashtag #FadeFilm.

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A new project

A Universe Of Questions

In my previous post, which was nearly a month ago (doesn’t time fly) I mentioned a few things I had been doing since Christmas, and one of those was that I had started and nearly finished a project with my friend. Well, that project came to a close a while ago, and I would like to share it with all of my readers, and also explain a bit more about why we made it, and also a few tidbits from production.

The reason we created this film, was because of the Reed film competition. For those of you who don’t know about it, the Reed film competition encourages people to create a film that is no more than 3 minutes in length, and has to also be based around a certain theme that Reed decides. The theme this year was “The Question” so, my friend and I decided to name the film “A Universe Of Questions” and talk in the film about all the questions humans ask, and why they are so important. Now, I say my friend and I, but I cannot take a lot of the credit, as he was the one who wrote it, and generally brought the idea into the world. I just had a small bit of input, and then took care of the shooting and editing. He is a brilliant writer, and I would suggest you keep and eye out for more of his work, as there is a lot more to come from him.

The shooting for this film was hardly stressful, in fact was probably the easiest shoot I’ve done. The most difficult part about it, was that it was extremely cold, so I had to shell out for a pair of gloves (I’m not losing sleep over some Primark gloves though). it took the better part of 5 hours in Bath, so wasn’t too bad, and we also got a McDonald’s out of it, so overall it was a pretty easy shoot. We shot on a Canon 60D, with a 17-50mm f2.8, and a 50mm f1.8. To record the voiceover, we used a Tascam DR-60D, which I find is an amazing piece of kit.

Editing took a day or two, with minimal grading needing done, and only the sound levels being affected in the post process. Overall, this was a really easy shoot, but it was well planned in the run up to it, so everything was bound to turn out well. We really enjoyed making this film, and hope others will enjoy watching it.

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Been a while

It has been absolutely ages since I’ve written a post on here, so just to remind everyone that I’m still alive and relevant, I thought I might as well do a quick post to quickly wrap up what’s been going on in my life since Christmas, and then I plan to later on go into more detailed posts with each topic.

Since Christmas I have:

-Gotten new kit, it’s all amazing

-Worked on stuff with DNA Arts

-Started and nearly finished a project with a very good friend of mine

-Started picking up on After Effects

-Created an animated logo for Parvus (my production company if you didn’t already know)

-Shot my first ever gig

-Just generally existed

If you think that you would stick around to read more detail on those topics, please do! I will welcome input and criticism on each post, so please comment what you think! It feels good to be back

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My favourite photo

Not a post on film today, and will be a lot shorter than most of my previous writings, but today I just wanted to share with all of you a photo I took a while ago, which is without a doubt my favourite piece of photography that I have done.

Yep, that’s it. Not overly incredible, nothing that will make thousands in a gallery, but I really like this particular photo. I didn’t plan to take this photo that day either, it was just something that happened. I was walking to work one misty morning, when I saw a cyclist riding up the cycle path with a light flashing on and off. Perfectly centred, I felt it was an incredible image, that deserved to be captured. I enjoy everything about this photo, and I hope people reading this do as well.

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Nearly holiday time!

As Christmas approaches, many people have already booked their time off work, some people reading this may be still in school or college, so you lot are already set for your Christmas holiday, but I would like to pose a question to anyone reading this, what exactly do you plan to do in your allotted time off? Just something I’m generally curious about, as it’s nice to hear about what people are doing over the Holidays.

For example, I’m going to binge watch Arrow, do more blog posts and develop some more scripts, as well as seeing family and all the traditional crap.

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A slight absence

To start things off, I know I haven’t done a post in a while. If anyone actually read and enjoyed my blog, my apologies for that. The reason for this is that I have been a tad pre-occupied with multiple things going on in my life currently, mainly work and other film projects that have took up all of my time. My life has consisted of waking up early, editing, going to work at DNA Arts, going to Somer Valley FM to film, getting back in the evening, editing some more, then bed again. Sounds fun right? I know someone can agree with me!

I’m hoping to start writing here again, but I guess I should move on and speak more about what I’ve been up to. As I mentioned above, I’ve been doing a lot for a radio station called Somer Valley FM. I’ve been having a great time down there, everyone at the studio are amazing people, I’ve had a lot of fun getting to know them, interviewing them, and learning a bit more about how the whole broadcasting works, and it’s been fantastic. The edit is nearing completion, and when the Station Manager is happy about it, it will be released so all the lovely people on the internet can have a watch, and as people on the internet do, judge me heavily for my work. Be kind!

I’ve also been in contact with an actress lately to start production on a short film that I’ve had planned for a long time now, but never got around to shooting, due to talent (or lack of to be more precise). Anyway, I’ve found someone, she’s incredibly brilliant, perfectly suited for this role, and I should be hauling her down from London in the New Year to shoot this short. It’s called Fade Away, and I’ll be posting teasers for it, so keep an eye out.

Moving on to what’s been going on with my full time job, DNA Arts, well, our workshops come to a close on Monday, honestly we haven’t had much success with previous workshops, but we’re hoping to have a great finale on Monday, we then shut down for Christmas on Friday, which means two weeks off! Afterwards it’s back to it, hitting harder then ever, to push events and hopefully a Festival to the people of Radstock, Twerton and Snowhill. It’s been decided that there will be no more workshops, because as I mentioned, they weren’t exactly popular, but we will definitely find other ways to entertain the masses.

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A new piece of equipment/Sigma 17-50 F2.8 Lens review

After debating for a few weeks on what lens I would add to my collection, and it then coming down to two incredible lenses, I decided on the Sigma 17-50 f2.8 IS lens over the Canon 17-40 f4 L series lens. Now, some people may read this and think “hang on, why would you choose a Sigma over an L series lens??!!” and I’m going to give a decent review on the lens and that may change the mind of some people.

^ Don’t I look brilliant? Anyway, on to the lens. One of the main reasons I chose this lens over the Canon L series lens is the Image Stabilisation provided, which the L series doesn’t have. Obviously being a Videographer, having IS on a lens helps out a lot, especially if you find yourself in a situation where you may have to freehand it.

Another reason is the lower F stop, with the L series lens going as high as F4 and the Sigma going as high as F2.8, which helps out a lot more in low light conditions, such as a Carnival, which I shot the other week!

The lens is absolutely fantastic all round, so far I haven’t found any faults with it. It’s got a nice weight to it, feels very sturdy when holding it. Has a very good focal range on it, with a nice high F stop. The Image Stabilisation works great, shake is barely noticeable when zoomed right in to 50mm. Honestly I really enjoy this lens, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who is looking for an all-rounder lens!

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