Yes Your Honour

Recently my uncle became a District Judge and he commissioned me to produce some photographs to go up in his office. The brief was: black and white, themed, framed and tasteful. These are the images I produced, he was really happy with them.

A few thoughts on the final films...

I am really happy with the final version of Lights. I think that with the really tight time constraints we pulled it off extremely well. I am pleased with how I worked as DOP and Colourist, I learnt a lot from the role that I plan to take on to my future projects. If I were to film lights again I would definitely spend longer on the focusing for the outside shots and perhaps use a lens with a bigger focusing ring.

For on of our first attempts at a drama I am really impressed with how well everyone worked and I think we should all be proud of what we achieved.

I am quite happy with what I achieved for The Replacement but I do not think it is my strongest work. I am really disappointed with my lighting and wish I had thought to have used some diffusers. But it was my first shoot and I could have done worse. I don't think the best shots were used in the final cut, I did quite a few tracking shots that I was proud of but they couldn't make the final piece as they were not imperative to the storyline and 5 minutes isn't very long to tell a story in. I think I did a good job with the colour correction as the final footage looks miles better than the original stuff even though that was my fault in the first place. Overall I am pleased with the final film but I do not think it is my best work to date and I think I definitely could have done better.

On the whole I am really happy with both films and I think I have done quite well in my roles of DOP and Colourist. However I did really miss being director, something I never thought I would say! I definitely would like to direct in the next set of projects. I am really excited about the next projects and I am pretty excited to get stuck in to my idea... there will be more on that to come...

The Onsie Show

I thoroughly enjoyed being floor manager for 'The Onsie Show'. I loved having the head set on, it made me feel really important. I had fun learning all the hand movements to signal to the presenters what is happening. I liked looking after the guests and presenters, considering the fact that I knew most of them it was easy to chat with them. Even though there were a few hiccups I think overall we worked well as a team and I'd like to think that I was an integral part of it. I am looking forward to watching the final piece back.

Colour Grading

I was really excited to get stuck into some colour grading as it had interested me for a while and I was not disappointed by it! For The Replacement I was mainly doing a colour correction as I needed to rectify the mistake I had made in production. Then I was just tweaking some of the levels to add a little more contrast and make the colours 'pop'.

I found this a really satisfying job, I liked being able to see and compare the before and after colours! I was quite impressed with what I had achieved. I believe that this colour grade has improved the look of the film a lot and along with the cinematic aspect ratio it looks a great deal more cinematic.

Lights called for much more of a grade than The Replacement did. At first I found it quite tricky to achieve the 'inky' look that both the director and I envisaged. I played with the colours for ages, getting closer and closer to the look I desired and eventually nailed it! I am really happy with the final grade especially as it was my first attempt! The rest of the team liked it too which was great to hear.

Above you can see a screen shot of the colour grading, also a before and after grade image.

I have spent ages getting my portfolio together for hand in, hopefully it is good enough. It's nearly time to head home for some work experience at Envy Post Production House, I can't wait!

Post Production

I wasn't involved much in the initial edit of Replacement but I was pleased with what they had done with it. I would have liked some more of the 'adventurous' shots to have been used in full but I understand that we were tight on time with trying to fit in so much story in to 5 minutes. I am going to be doing the colour grading on this piece and I am really looking forward to getting stuck in to this! I made a bit of a boo-boo with the camera set up, I didn't realise the person before me had changed the 'standard' setting and had upped the saturation so the colours looked pretty horrendous but I am confident that I will be able to fix it.

I played a bigger part in the edit of Lights, I really like being part of the whole filmmaking process. It was quite tough being able to cut down the length of the film but it was worth it in the end. I am really looking forward to colour grading this piece as it calls for a really stylistic grade! I can't wait to see the final films!

Cafe Live

Tonight I filmed Cafe Live with Jamie, Mike and Dan at Gylly Beach Cafe. We filmed some ska bands performing. I really enjoyed doing something a bit different and the bands were really good which was a plus. I had to keep reminding myself that I was holding a camera and I could not tap my feet! I'm looking forward to seeing what Jamie does with the footage.

Me and My Bro

This weekend I helped out on another 5 minute drama called Me and My Bro by Christine Pigott. I took stills of behind the scenes, transported actors and equipment and was just generally on hand to give help when needed. I really enjoyed taking a back seat and being able to observe a film crew in operation. I think this was a beneficial experience for me, I believe I was able to grasp a good understanding on how a good team works.

Lights, Camera, Action...

The filming for lights went really well. They were mainly evening shoots and with this a whole manner of problems arose, lighting being the biggest. The best tool I had to help with the low light was the 5D with a 50mm 1.8 lens! How it can pick up so much detail astounds me still. The only downside was the focusing, the depth of field was so small and the focusing ring on the lens was really small too, it made my job very tricky I must say.

For the illuminated street scene I used the wally dolly with two lengths of tracks, it provides such a smooth gliding final outcome, it was perfect for the shot.

I didn't have to get in as many strange places for this film but I did have to climb inside a cupboard and have the door slammed on me!

I enjoyed the park shoot even if it was very cold and we had a lot to get through! We were able to be really creative with the camera angles and tracks.

The inside set for Lights was truly incredible. It worked out how I had imagined it and looked fantastic on camera.

Overall I am really pleased with my performance as DOP on this film, although there is always room for improvement I believe I worked to the best of my ability and I learnt a lot through this experience.

mmm... chocolate

I have recently been working with Nicky Grant chocolatier taking photographs for their website and we are also in discussion about some promotional and instructional videos too. Their chocolate is to die for which makes them even more fun to work with!

...and Action!

Images taken by Natasha Mitson

This weekend we filmed and wrapped Replacement! It was so much fun and I am really proud of what we all managed to achieve. I feel this experience has benefitted me hugely, I have had to push my camera skills to the limit and it has been a great learning curve. One part I am not very happy with is the lighting, I knew it was going to be tricky as I have never really done lighting for filming before and in hindsight I should have used defusers so that the shadows were not as prominent.

The whole crew was in for a shock when it came to filming the part where Richard was dripped on from the ceiling. However, it was not a drip but more like a waterfall, Alice (Director) and Simona (Producer) had planned together to empty 2 bottles of water on to his head, it was quite amusing to say the least.

I use the Spider Dolly lots on this shoot and Matt who was helping out was my grip on a couple of the shots, this made it a lot easier. By the end of the shoot I had got a lot better at tracking shots while tilt/panning and focusing.

I got to use my new shoulder mount quite a bit while shooting for this production and I really liked it. It makes handheld shots so much steadier.

One of the funniest parts of filming was when I had to clamber into a full bath with a 5D! As you can see in the picture above it was slightly nervous! I was happy with the outcome, it worked really well. I can't wait to see the edit!