1)
In February I went to meet a student in London named Jenya, she studies fashion styling and is studying in the area. This was to be my first fashion shoot. Jenya had seen a post of mine on Facebook asking for actors, so she had got in contact with me to ask if i would be interested in collaborating in a fashion shoot video that specifically is for one of her styling briefs. I tested out 1 Arri 650w light in a room at uni as a 3/4 backlight at uni on a fake model with bounce light coming from a (dirty) white wall. I practiced opening and closing the barn doors to flag off spilled light. I also experimented with a Kino light as a quarter light, which acted as the key light, directly 180 degrees opposite the Arri light. The kino light was a lot less intense and could be dimmed creating a soft fill light whilst the Arri light produced a 3 dimensional strong rim light.
arri 650w 3/4 backlight
arri 650w 3/4 backlight and kino 1/4 key light
Moodboard - Jenya sent me images of other fashion photographers lighting that had been used in other shoots.
The images below were screen shots of part of my footage. I was filming with a Canon 5D mark iii f/4 24-105mm lens. I was without a shoulder mount so i hand held the camera for most of the shoot, i also used a tripod for some shots. The locations were in various rooms in one house in west London. The sun was almost down by the time i started shooting so artificial light was important. The bottom two images were shot in the same room where i had used one soft light inbetween the piano and door and one of the arri 650w in the opposite corner in the room, so just infront of the chair in the 3rd picture down. I had to have the light facing the white wall towards the ceiling to reduce the with a hand made scrim just in front to reduce the light intensity.
I feel overall i created a softly lit smooth aesthetic that didn't take any of the emphasis off the garments. I learned quickly on the job about having to make use of all angles that included underneith a glass roof, on top of cupboards from above, behind objects such as pianos and unique shapes such as carved out cabinet doors. For this shoot, a kino light would have created a more pleasant mood a long with a f/1.8 and a colder colored white balance.
watch here....
https://vimeo.com/88782782 password is chiswick
2)
I had been recommended for a photography student at Leeds college of art called Jessie Leong who wanted to do a fashion shoot for her project called challenging orientalism. She was collaborating with a fashion student called Sonia Sohal who was doing the styling. This was just a week after my first one so i was willing to improve on what i had just learnt. It was at a location at a Chinese restaurant called Maxi's Leeds.
Jessie had taken the equipment from Uni and i bought a long a f/1.8 lens but not my own lighting. Jessie was the photographer so she had bought a soft light and a flash light. After liaising with Jessie, we discussed that we would include the flashed of her camera, not because she wanted a 'making of' video, but an extra bit of material to add to her final project. There was no narrative but i was allowed to experiment however i wanted which gave me a lot of creative control. All of the camera work was handheld without a shoulder mount or a tripod. I sometimes leaned the camera onto a table or a chair to keep it still.
During the editing process, we went through a lot of different music, but after looking through the shots together we decided much of the footage show cased part of my Darren Aronofsky influence with a lot of the angles used and the colors. The type we were talking about using for the track had to enhance the title of challenging orientalism, but it still felt very much like an oriental shoot because of the location. Jessie and I discussed to further push this challenge, and the track we chose in the end really enforced the boundaries with the epic sounds of Massive Attack - Angles.
watch here.......
https://vimeo.com/89134169
3)
A friend of mine (Efriam Carlebach) and I had met up in the summer to create a short film about a poker player. He studies English at Oxford University Our influence of the story was based on a theorist called Walter Benjamin who wrote a book called The Arcade Project. Part of the story was about a Hungarian poker player who gambles millions in the 19th century. He always kept calm and plays elegantly with his hand in his jacket pocket to hide his emotions, this information eventually got revealed by his servant he was digging his hands into his chest so badly that he was bleeding and have blood in his fingers.
We had arranged locations in Leeds due to accessibility to equipment from Leeds college of art. 3 locations would be used in total, the poker scene itself at the Belgrame music gall, a scene where Alex, the main character has an anxiety episode, and the third venue would be the entrance to the poker scene venue where i filmed at Hyde Park Picture House. It has an underground, edgy sort of look to the side of the building which suited the theme of the film in my mind.
In total there was 12 of us that worked on this project. Myself, Effi Carlebach - script writer/director, Effis girlfriend Tilly - Executive producer/bar tender, Tom Stephens - Sound operator/Grip, Jess henderson - Make up artist, 4 actors: main poker player - Alex Main, 3 other poker players - Yoav Raphael, Luke Fowler and Josh Isaacs (none of them are actors, Alex came up from London) and finally two actresses - Ines Oliviera and Alice Boulton-Breeze.
It was shot over two days, Sat & Sun 1-2nd March. Saturday would be filmed at the Belgrave and Picture House whilst the Sunday was the bathroom scene shot in Headingley. I excelled in a variety of different skills with this project. I scouted for locations, some were better than others. I recruited all the actors and actresses, i created the props such as the poker table. I sorted cabs/lifts to arrange 11 of us to get to and home from the Belgrave music hall. I had to provide alcoholic beverages, glasses and cigarettes, as well as cards and poker chips for props. I had to buy and replace a new light bulb in the bathroom location at my friends house along with arranging to get to and from the location.
The room I was using in the Belgrave was a mess so we took time cleaning it up and re arranging part of the room removing a lot of the furniture. I set up 3 arri 650w lights, two directly behind of the bar to the left and right. One appearing just outside the window of the room. Whilst the third light was pointing towards the direction of the table but not too much that it looked unrealistic. I switched on as much of the practical lighting in the room as possible, there were lamps scattered around which helped create the mood. The over head lighting was quite dark and very reddish which still added a more sombre atmosphere. It wasn't possible to get any footage with the 24-105mm f/4 lens i could only shoot with the 24mm f/1.8, which i got used to pretty quickly as i think it was the first time i've used a fixed lens.
I tested my camera skills using a track and dolly for shouts around the table (the positioning of the over head lights and the table meant i couldn't have the track going around the whole table which would have been more effective) and shoulder mount. I was very thankful i had collaborated with Efriam because he was directing which meant i could concentrate on the camera angles and what i was capturing whilst he was directing the actors and actresses. We were able to get more out of the acting and performances as well as the shots.
Due to a lack of time after taking so long to set up and a palaver with one of the managers, we had to rush a tiny bit, which was annoying because i'd wished afterwards that i had got more close ups and more action shots of the poker game itself.
We all went out in the night to celebrate, which made filming the bathroom scene on Sunday very difficult. We all overslept, which meant Effi couldn't stay long during filming because of his coach back down to Oxford. This made my job a little more difficult because i had to direct Alex and explain to him what me and Effi wanted whilst also concentrating on capturing the shot. I replaced the broken light with a working one, but it wasn't as bright as i was expecting. Nor was it a cold color temperature that i was expecting either. I was caught up in being stubborn with not wanting to open the curtains either because of the day light, i didn't take a proper minute to analyse the situation, and that the footage is too dark. I wanted various zooms and different exaggerated angled shots to convey expression that i couldnt show with the f1.8 fixed zoom lens, so i had to use the f/4 24-105mm which left my images looking very dark. I will have to correct this in post production.
The opening shots that was filmed outside the picture house I'd used the street lights. There was a light by the door that the f/1.8 lens picked out enough of the light to not have to used anything artificial. The car's headlights added enough light to the frame but not too much to distract the identical shape of Alex's body and the front bumper of another car.
I have made a rough cut of the opening sequence with a link below.....
https://vimeo.com/89790473
password is opening
4)
I was asked by a Graphic Design student at Leeds college of art to help film their competition brief for D&AD. She, Greta Madline, was creating an installation in a studio in Bradford and the competition was about her. She had two engineers who were creating obstacles out of cardboard and wood for a knock on effect installation. Part of it had already been filmed before i joined the guys at the studio, so i just carried on from where the previous cameraman had left off.
The task was a completely new challenge to me. I had to help portray a cheated system into a long effect without letting the change of camera shots be a distraction to the installation. We used string to help the parts move without getting our hands in the way of the shots. Before i had started, Greta had painted the walls white and many of her objects turquoise because thats her favourite colour. I spent two weekends in Bradford helping set and up and film. It was good because the team of us all believed in the project and it was exciting to capture the next object see how it would turn out.
5)
A friend of mind on Vis Com at Leeds college of art works for an event company called Loco where he does the visuals at night clubs and house parties. He recommended me to them when they asked for a videographer to shoot their promotional video. I met with the manager and we discussed what ideas he had in mind and how i could film it. He had a friend that fitted the character of the story and he met us as well. The idea of for a character to wake up in bed after a night out all hungover, get up and dress into a suit and make his way over to a houseparty, and essentially will kick off the house party once he brings a 'gift'. The story is to give an insight to the viewer that Loco are more than just an event that throw nights out that will lead onto other stories within Loco.
The shoot lasted 3 separate days for 3 different locations. I was given the role of being as creative as i wanted. I met with the actor at the house party (sober) to discuss what we were going to film and how. It was difficult conditions with the house party being so dark and no streetlights apart from a camp fire, whilst on the inside, it was extremely packed and sweaty which steamed up the lens. I was shooting from 1-7am and surprisingly so the time went quickly. However, I don't think i'd be up for doing a house party again, i felt very much on my own, even though i was following the actor around trying to film him.
The story itself starts with this character in bed with a girl, so the following week we went to his bedroom and filmed him waking up with a girl in his bed. The audience isn't to know whether it was from the night before, or it's a teaser for the night to come. He gets up, dresses into the suit he was wearing the night before, and picks up a drum symbol because that was the gift for the houseparty. Flashes of the house party will pop up as the actor walks around his room picking up his clothes.
I was directing the whole scene and was able to pick up confidence by asking the actor to express himself in certain ways and if i wasn't happy with a shot or action, i would openly say. We were able to build an understanding which really helped both his performance and mine. I didn't have any of my own lighting, so i had to improvise. I turned the lights on in his bedroom, and when we were by his front door, the room was dark because of the position of the sun being behind his house. I cheated by opening the door to allow more daylight in.
A third day of shooting consisted of a driver driving us around to film the actor on his skateboard making his way to a friends house to drop off the symbol, which he will later pick up at the house party. Luckily the day was sunny so we managed to get driven round to many locations around Hyde Park and really experiment. We used a GoPro camera on the skateboard but it kept falling off, so we decided to pack that up because we didn't want to break it. Because of the good amount of sun i was able to use f/4 24-105mm lens and it was outside so i didn't need to use my own lighting.
6)
Jessie Leong, who i worked on my second fashion shoot with, asked me to film another fashion project with her and Sonia as she liked the style of our first film we did together. Jessie is still challenging orientalism but using different models and different locations. This time, the locations aren't so oriental, however, the make up is oriental stylized. Once i get editing, we have already discussed using an oriental track over this film to bring back the orientalism.
We filmed at a Library on Commercial street in Town, Leeds, and we also filmed a Mix Karaoke in Leeds to. The library was bright enough not to use lighting. Even though Jessie wanted to use me because she liked my style last time, I wanted to incorporate a change of style slightly with tripod shots. Jessie had a symmetrical image in mind with the venue, so I attempted a Wes Anderson type of cinematic style. The Mix Karaoke venue was a lot darker but with really interesting colored neon lighting that could only be picked up by a f/1.8 lens 50mm, and even tho it was fixed zoom, fairly narrow, I had to attempt to keep my distance even in smaller rooms. Unlike the first shoot i did for Jessie where i used only handheld shots, I took advantage of the tripod this time round to capture a smoother image.
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