When people talk about 'looks' it generally goes down one of two routes, either period based in the sense of 'I want that 70's look' or lens based as in 'give me that Cooke look'. The first of these is a complex request that involves all departments that come together to create a colour pallet, … Continue reading Does the lens choice make a ‘look’
Well with VR you can put your head wherever you want but how does this set of limitless possibilities reflect on the role of DoP? And with everything in shot, do you need a DoP at all? Surely our role as DoP is to take an extract from the construct in front of us that … Continue reading Head in the clouds with VR?
Well it seems a while since I posted on the completion of principle photography for 'The Lighthouse' so I thought I'd update you on it's progress. It was officially released in July 2016 by 'Soda', the distributor and being a Welsh story it enjoyed a good theatrical run in Wales. It showed in cinemas across … Continue reading ‘The Lighthouse’
Unless you have a lot of time and are prepared to come to blows. Any member of the camera team will willingly sell their grandmother if it helps prove a point about one lens being better than another. It’s like the football of cinematographers, we all side with a make or generation of lens and … Continue reading Never discuss politics, religion or lenses
it just reduces the risk of monumental cock ups. It’s not a popular opinion but I believe it to be true. I’m always surprised when people talk about a problem they had on a shoot and then to impress on how bad it was they finish with “…and they are so experienced”. The disastrous event … Continue reading Experience doesn’t buy you perfection,
I only ask as a client recently asked me to shoot a short narrative film for Vision Express. Great, I thought, it’s always nice to shoot drama. They said, ‘it’s for projection, and it’s going to be projected big, oh and we need to shoot in a 7:1 aspect ratio’. These are easy words to … Continue reading Who gets to say what is big?
Yes I know the title might lead you in the direction of a Gordon Willis Godfather extravaganza of peering into the darkness but surprisingly for me it's not to do with light (first time for everything as light and shade is my party piece, don't expect to get away quickly if you ever bring up … Continue reading Joining the Dark Side
It's funny how everything goes in cycles. For the first 9 months of this year I had hardly any trails or promos, maybe one every couple of months. Then in September BBC WorldWide asked me to shoot one in Norway for their channel BBC BRIT and since then it's not stopped! I've just completed shooting … Continue reading A rush of promos
So when a client, and it has to be said, on a somewhat dodgy phone line said we want you to film some dancers in back light I thought 'well I can do that, not too tricky'. I was just filming a spot for BBC World wide to promote Bake Off which was a heavily … Continue reading Black light experiments
Well, I'm sure there is a small on-line group out there who do this exact thing but I have to confess to never having tried. I've always gone straight for the hammer, boring I hear you say but I stick to my guns and reply that a hammer is better than a jelly when it … Continue reading Would you hammer a nail in with a jelly?
