New Video: Simon's Cat BTS 'Music by Stuart Hancock'

Here's another short 'Behind the Scenes' video I made for the Simon's Cat channel. In this episode, we meet Stuart Hancock, the composer who created the score for the film 'Off to the Vet'.

New Video: Simon's Cat BTS 'Clean-up Animation'

Here's the second in a series of short 'Behind the Scenes' videos I was asked to make for the Simon's Cat YouTube channel. In this episode animator Setareh Seto describes her approach to the clean-up work.

New Video: Simon's Cat BTS 'Rough Animation'

Here's the first in a series of short 'Behind the Scenes' videos I was asked to make for the Simon's Cat YouTube channel. In this episode animator Laura Nailor describes her approach to the rough animation work.

'Bear Hunt' Behind the Scenes

Channel 4 have released a lovely 'Making Of' film about our work on "We're Going on a Bear Hunt" at Lupus Films. I'm really proud to have been a part of this whole thing. There's even a shot of me chatting to the book's original illustrator Helen Oxenbury as we were putting together the snow storm sequence ... 1:39-1:45 ; )

TfL Promo Behind The Scenes Video

Here's a sweet little 'Making Of' documentary that Gemma Hogg put together for the Transport for London team whilst we were working on their 'Start Your Own Journey' promo film. The above video features interviews with TANDEM producer Emma Burch, and the two Directors, Tobias Fouracre and some other guy...

'The Score' film for Mr. Plastimime

This Behind the Scenes film shows the recording session of the musical score for the new film by Daniel Greaves. This is the seventh short video I've shot/edited in the Making Mr. Plastimime series. I shot this footage in the Slovak Radio auditorium a couple of weeks ago during the 5 hour recording session with the Bratislava Symphony Orchestra.

This was certainly one of the most enjoyable days work I've had in a long while. It was really inspirational to be down amongst these incredible musicians and also up in the control room to witness the scoring/recording process first-hand.

The edit for this four and a half minute video took a few days, because I used a separate audio recorded to capture the orchestra sound (for better quality) and had a lot of footage to sync. up in post.

'Hat Trick' film for Mr. Plastimime

Here's the sixth webisode of the Behind The Scenes series I've been shooting/editing at TANDEM in support of Daniel Greaves' Mr. Plastimime project. In this episode, after a discussion with the director, we see how animator Steve Edge creates a scene in stop-motion animation.

Making Simon's Cat: earrings

I've just completed work on another video for Simon's Cat Ltd. Making Simon's Cat: Earrings went on line today on the Simon's Cat Extra channel. This is a short 'behind the scenes' style film showing the production of some rather special silver Simon's cat earrings.

The film follows the story of the manufacturing process from initial design, through sculpting and casting and on to the final checking and presentation of the final product. It's notable that these earrings are hand-made and cast from silver, all in the UK. The earrings along with other Simon's Cat products can be purchased online at the official webshop.

For this film the manufacturing footage was all shot by the jewellery designer Christopher Milton Stevens. The film features Simon Tofield and Laura Nailor and music is from Sam Clunie at stockmusicsite.com

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.

TANDEM Vimeo Channel Launch

TANDEM Films (the studio I mostly work for) has just joined Vimeo. The first couple of films up are some behind the scenes 'making of' time-lapses I shot/edited back in the day...