What a glorious day yesterday for filming in the stunning Yorkshire Dales!! 😎@bhavyachhabraaa and I were filming a short video for my friend Ex Sexton's @glencroftuk countrywear business, helping to explain their Clapdale Wool project. A brilliant day but so much footage now to edit together - watch this space!
As a Wakefield lad it's great to see the tv & film industry growing in my childhood city! Tonight was a networking event organised by the nascent Film Wakefield at the "Policelot" HQ; the company that supply lots of police-themed props, costumes and supporting artists for major productions including Adolesence (filmed just down the road), The Capture, and Silent Witness. If anyone needs any police themed sets or props for your films then Policelot are the ones to talk to!! 🚔👮♂️ Tonight's event was an excellent panel talk from locals and those with a close connection to the city who work in the industry, including the amazing actress Gaynor Faye.
(Full disclosure - I only took one photo tonight so most photos are ones I took at the same event last year!)
Some amazing films were on display last weekend in the short film competition at the Hebden Bridge Film Festival; some of the talent was just outstanding! The winner of both the audience award and the jury award for best film - the animated "Wuthering Hearts" (not a spelling mistake!) - was especially highly deserved I thought.
Thanks to @nftscymruwales & @channel4skills for a brilliant set of webinars on Unscripted TV over the last 2 weeks! 📺
As well talks on subjects such casting for factual entertainment, the use of AI, editing, pitching, and storytelling, it all culminated with a fascinating talk on Friday with Stephen Lambert (who's behind such iconic shows as The Traitors, Race Across the World, and Gogglebox with @studiolambert ).
And thanks Rhiannon for asking Stephen my question about whether we'll ever get a behind-the-scenes special of how they make Race Across The World - that'd be a really fascinating watch, so fingers crossed that happens...!🤞
A bit more NFTS training this week up in (mostly...) sunny Glasgow, learning the basics of colour grading. So much to take in, learn, and practice!
Thanks to our fab tutor @debzhattingh (plus Stuart Fyvie on day 1), @nfts.scotland , and our brilliant group (@montassir_samuel , @insidetheoutline , @mvr.4 , and Allan) for such a fantastic week! I highly recommend this course for any aspiring cinematographers or filmmakers - it's incredibly useful.
And the first thing I did when I got home? Calibrate my tv and monitors! 😂
(Photos 1-3 credits: @debzhattingh )
Having spent so much time around digital cameras over the years I've always wanted to learn about traditional film-based cameras, so I thought I'd spend a week down at NFTS Beaconsfield doing just that! 🎥🎞️
It was fascinating to learn about them, how they're used, and what are the different roles & responsibilities on set, and then to get hands on with and have extensive practice of loading and lacing so many different cameras - the ArriCam ST, Arriflex's 435, 235, and 16SR3, and Panavision's Millennium XL2 and Platinum. And then a tour of the huge Panavision rental house with all of their history 🎬
Thanks to Mike Hannan and Charlotte Scott-Gray for a fantastic week!
We've gone international!! It was an honour to attend the Madrid Film Awards this evening and to represent the kick-ass team behind the brilliant short film, Kidda, that had been nominated in the Best Student Short film category. Sadly we didn't win, but just to be nominated & shortlisted in a truly international festival (over 30 countries were represented - and then I lost count!) which even had a video message from the legend Sir Ian McKellen himself, is a phenomenal achievement.
Hats off to the entire team, especially to the film's creator & DoP Billy Haigh (@spoolrunning ) and director Fraser Jordan (@fraserfilming ). @bhavyachhabraaa@henrymurrayciarella@naylaloik@miss_miranda_jane@scottboothmedia@davidmjharris@senpai__yuri@the.talking.lens@davidkstefanov@rnowell.film
Here's to the next film!
A really interesting evening with some of the cast and crew of the recent Channel 4 drama, Dreamers, learning about how the show was put together and some of the backstage stories. It's great to see new onscreen and offscreen talent being given such fantastic opportunities to get into tv, and especially around the amazing city of Leeds! Thanks to @rts_yorkshire , @channel4skills , @ducksoupfilm & @northern_school for organising & hosting it!
It was a really great evening last night at the 'Squared Away' film competition, hosted in Halifax's spectacular Dean Clough Mills. 5 short films of 3 mins each, all made in under 3 weeks by teams of people who didn't know each other beforehand (many complete beginners). The quality of the films was truly superb! 👍
Thanks to Dawn and all the folk at @square_lens_alliance for putting on such a great event (and also allowing me to help judge the films!). And congratulations to all the filmmakers - especially to the team behind the winning film, "Scatter" 🏆👏
A fascinating afternoon touring the Production Park facilities in South Kirby today!
The studios here are regularly used by global music stars to rehearse their stadium tours and check their staging - Pink, Beyoncé, Foo Fighters, AC/DC, MeatLoaf, Coldplay and more! Who'd have thought that little old Wakefield where I grew up would regularly welcome such huge acts?! 😮
It was a fantastic afternoon yesterday at the inaugural London version of the HollyShorts film festival, catching up with friends and watching loads of fantastic & inspiring short films made by some talented filmmakers 🎬 And from short films to Hollywood features, today I stumbled across the filming of the remake of Schwarzenegger classic, The Running Man. Whilst all the other public are trying to spot any stars, I'm just geeking out looking at all the camera gear being used and watching how the set works 🤣
A couple of weeks late, but a here's few photos from a 'Hands On Basic Cinematography' course at @raindancefilmschool , with the fantastic tutor Zoran Veljkovic SAS. We learnt a huge amount of technical theory, had the chance to play with various camera gear including dollys, and practised how to light several different types of scenes and setups (including learning how to avoid reflections of the studio lights in glass objects). It was so good that I've signed up for the follow on course in a couple of weeks time!
