'Tango Dancers' film for Mr. Plastimime

Here's the fifth webisode of the Behind The Scenes series I've been shooting/editing at TANDEM in support of Daniel Greaves' Mr. Plastimime project.

Making GREY AREA 'Animation Tests'

Here's the fourth webisode of the Making Grey Area series of short documentaries I've been shooting/editing/directing for TANDEM Films. In this clip we see animator Steve Edge shooting some of the first stop-motion animation tests for Daniel Greaves' new film.

Making GREY AREA 'Mime Artist Shoot'

Here's the third webisode in the Making Grey Area series I'm making for TANDEM films. In this episode mime artist Stuart Luis came into the TANDEM studio; the footage recorded in this session will provide valuable reference material for director Dan Greaves and his animation team.

Making GREY AREA 'Model Making'

Here's the second webisode in the Making Grey Area series I'm making for TANDEM films. In this episode we see animator Steve Edge creating a puppet to be used for stop-frame animation.

I shot this on my Canon 600D camera and edited it on an iMac using Adobe CS6 (Premiere and After Effects). The last shot of the model features a rather pleasing circular camera track; this was shot using a DIY tabletop camera dolly I made last weekend.

Making GREY AREA 'First Sketches'

In my day job at TANDEM films, I've been asked to make some BTS (Behind The Scenes) videos following the production of Grey Area; the next animated short film from Oscar-winning Director Daniel Greaves. We've decided to create some short online episodes giving our web followers some bite-sized glimpses into the production stages as they happen.

I've worked on Dan's films before, but it's been nice to be asked this time to help document and publicise this one as it happens. The Making GREY AREA films will be published to the TANDEM Vimeo site and be shared via the Grey Area Facebook page.



The first of the Making GREY AREA films is called 'First Sketches' and has just been published. It's a little 1 minute film showing Dan Greaves at work sketching some of his early character designs.

I shot this on my Canon 600D camera and edited it on an iMac using Adobe CS6 (Premiere and After Effects). The music is a haunting piece of tango called Gretchen's Tango by Ergo Phizmiz. It goes really well with the mood and subject matter of Dan's film and I can recommend a visit to Ergo's website to discover more of his work.

Train Spotted!

Our man on the spot captured the moment a steam train sped through Enfield Chase station this morning.

Technicolor Cinestyle for Canon DSLRs

I was out shooting some tests with the new Canon 600D DSLR camera this weekend. I'm pitching on a project with an idea to use both the stills and HD movies functions of this camera combined.



I shot the movie tests using the recently-announced Technicolor CineStyle colour profile.

CineStyle is available as a free download for the Canon DSLR users. You install the software to your camera using the Canon Photo Professional software as one of your preference profiles, then shoot your movies using this setting. The results are dull-looking and initially unimpressive; but the theory is that with this setting, there will be much-increased dynamic range retained in the images. The idea here is to shoot the best most versatile footage, then use the increased range to grade it later in post to achieve the desired look.

Here's one of my early test shots. This clip shows (with lots of YouTube compression of course) a clip shot with the Technicolor CineStyle profile... dull and grey looking. The clip was then brought into Adobe After Effects CS3 for some saturation and curves.



Initial tests are positive, I'll hopefully be able to post some further examples and more findings here soon. I've only had this camera since Friday, but I'm hugely impressed with what it can do already.