New Video: 60 second smartphone photography tutorial 'Long exposures'

Smartphone Video: Schiphol to Amsterdam in 90 seconds.

Last year (2017), my cousin Steve sent me some phone footage he shot on a visit to the Netherlands. He shot views from his train ride from Schiphol airport in to Amsterdam Central station on his Iphone. Steve shot this using the 8mm app which I think does gives it a somewhat filmic quality.

Steve asked me if if I could put the clips together in some way, so I did. Here's the edit I put together...

From time to time I sometimes dabble in making my own soundtrack music and this is one of those such occasions. The 'music' here was made using Mixcraft software.

Smartphone Video: "The Signs of Midlife Crisis'

I've been playing around with my smartphone a lot recently shooting video and taking photos etc. My phone is a Samsung S7; so not the latest greatest thing, but not too shabby either. I decided to make a little short film aiming to just use the phone entirely to shoot, edit and then upload to YouTube.

I used the Samsung built in camera app to shoot and then bought KineMaster app to edit this together. I spent quite a while trying out several different editing apps, but KineMaster turned out to be the one I was happiest with. I might write more on the subject of smartphone film-making as time goes by as I think I'll be trying out more of this.

Working on Headspace Animations

For anybody reading this and wondering what I've mostly been doing this last year ... Well I've been working full-time as a freelancer at Nexus Studios in Shoreditch, helping to composite a lot of these beautiful animated short films for the Headspace mobile app. These films are mostly created as content to be seen by users within the Headspace app, but also quite a few of these are being published on the official Headspace YouTube channel now; so I feel it's OK to share a link to one of my favorite ones here ...

Test Video GH4 footage near Cliffe Pools, Kent.

Just some test footage shot this weekend with GH4 camera, Lumix 30-100mm lense and Tiffen VariND filter.

New Video: IFRS 17

Here is a new corporate video I've just delivered for the IFRS Foundation. This film introduces the new IFRS 17 financial standards being introduced in the insurance sector.

New Video: Simon's Cat Logic,'Territory'

Here's a new video I've just made (directing/shooting/editing) for Simon's Cat Ltd. This episode looks into Territory.

New Video: Simon's Cat Logic,'Playtime'

Here's a new video I've just made (directing/shooting/editing) for Simon's Cat Ltd. This episode looks into Playtime.

New Video: Simon's Cat Care 'Looking After Kittens'

This is the second episode in a series of 'Cat Care with Nicky' web videos that I'm directing for the Simon's Cat channel. Over the years I've been shooting and editing a lot of the 'extra' video content for the Simon's Cat YouTube channel.

New Video: IFRS Developing Financial Standards

Here's a new corporate explainer video I made recently for the IFRS (That's International Financial Reporting Standards.) Keen readers will remember that last year I made this video for the same organization too.

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 Logic 'Body Language'

Here's a new video I've just made (directing/shooting/editing) for Simon's Cat Ltd. This episode looks into Cat Body Language.

New Video: Simon's Cat Care 'Kittens'

Here's a new video I've just made (directing/shooting/editing) for Simon's Cat Ltd. This is the first episode in a new informative web series all about looking after cats.

New Video: Simon's Cat Logic 'Water'

Here's the latest episode in the series 'Simon's Cat Logic' I have been putting together (directing/shooting/editing) for Simon's Cat Ltd.

New Video: Simon's Cat BTS 'Art Direction'

Here's the third in a series of short 'Behind the Scenes' videos I was asked to make for the Simon's Cat YouTube channel. In this episode Art Director Isobel Stenhouse describes her approach to bringing colour to the Simon's Cat (animated) world for the first time.

New Experimental Video: 'SnowTunes'

Here's that snow footage again. This time I've added some experimental 'noodling' to it. All sorts of After Effects fun here; tracking the snowflakes then using AE scripting to drive the animation and create the 'musical' sound track. There's a little bit of coding here generating the tones from the tracking co-ordinates.

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.

New Video: 'Making 3D Letters'

Many posts ago here I wrote about making some simple 3D letters from card. Well, I've now made a video showing how this is done in more detail.

The video demonstrates how to use Adobe Illustrator to create the letter templates, then the cutting, scoring, folding and gluing process.

I hope some readers and viewers of the video find it useful.

'Snowmotion' @96fps

Well it doesn't snow very often here in the London suburbs. So when it does happen, I shoot a little test film. Take a little break from your busy day and enjoy ... 'Snowmotion'. Shot with Panasonic GH4 camera, Lumix 35-100mm f2.8 lens, 1920x1080 @ 96 fps.