- Stephen Murphy -

Coward: Notes from the set

2012-01-26T18:22:00.002Z

So it's been a few days since we wrapped the initial shoot and what an incredible experience it was. Quite a learning curve too.

As it turns out the weather, and its impact upon the location, became the biggest influence on our visual approach. In typical movie making fashion when we wanted sun we got overcast weather and when we needed cloud we got blazing sun. Thankfully we had measures in place that allowed us to work with the weather we were given and make it work for our story and visual style. Key to this was the placement of the trench within the location. I was fortunate to have been involved at a very early stage in prep so I was able to have the set built so that for the majority of our work we would always be shooting into the Sun. This became absolutely crucial when we found ourselves in blazing sunshine for the first 3 days of the shoot. When the sun was out we used primarily natural light, occasionally using a 575 HMI cinepar bounced into Poly to fill in some eyes, and if i needed to replicate the look of sun in overcast conditions I brought in 2 x 12K HMI Cinepars as back light for the far background with 2 x 6K Cinepars as backlight for the foreground, occasionally using a Light amber gel to match the warmth of the low angle sun. In back light I usually kept the skin tones about a stop under key and in cloud I'd expose the skin tones at key.

For the overcast conditions I'd use a 12K cinepar bounced off of an 8x or 12x Ultrabounce as a 3/4 soft back light with a matching bounce from another 12K par as a 3/4 soft fill diagonally opposite the back light. I avoided a traditional "key" light for most of this project preferring instead to use natural light, working with a larger fill source to add a glint to the eyes of the cast. This source would usually give me enough spread to cover at least 4 to 5 cast members in a medium-wide shot spread across the width of the trench (approx 10-12 feet). In the morning, if the clouds hadn't quite lifted enough, I'd occasionally use a second 12K cinepar bounced into the deep background of the trench to lift the levels a little bit.

For the few scenes we had off the trench I once again relied primarily on natural light, again using a location allowing us to shoot into the sun for most of the day, which I would augment with a book light using a 4K or 6K cinepar bounced off an 8 x ultrabounce and through another 8 x with full grid cloth.

Our original visual style was inspired by an older style of coverage, using sustained master shots filled with cast, and background extras and a minimal amount of coverage. We had hoped to have each master shot on the dolly to allow us to develop from a mid to a medium or vice versa but the difficulty of tracking in the trench location forced us to adapt to a slightly different style. While we managed to incorporate a handful of simple dolly moves down in the trench, we eventually settled on a simpler approach, keeping the camera on sticks and using careful compositions, to sustain our coverage. For scenes above the Trench, in No mans land, the terrain was either completely sodden or totally frozen, forcing us to use an excavator to carve a path for our dolly track. Needless to say we planned those few moves carefully. Given the difficulties we encountered I'm quite proud of the fact that we never once resorted to handheld or Steadicam.

Most of the shoot was shot on wider lenses, the 35mm being our favourite, and at a stop usually around T5.6/8. The script starts in early morning light and gradually shifts through the day ending at night, so shooting on Fuji Eterna 500T with a 1 stop pull I was using a combination of Blue Grey filters for early morning, transitioning to 85 filters for the day, then towards 81EF filters for the evening and finally using a chocolate filter instead of an 85 for 1 scene off the trench set towards the end of the day. I had planned to rear net the lenses with Dior stockings but decided against that once I saw how much sunlight we would be up against in the advanced weather forecast. No diffusion was used. The 1 stop pull was to soften the colours and contrast and the plan is to use a light application of ENR in the DI to restore our blacks and desaturate colours a little further.

We always knew that filming inside the Trench itself, and to a lesser degree on No Mans Land, was going to be logistically difficult because of the terrain, the mud and the rain we were planning on introducing. What none of us anticipated fully was just how difficult and gruelling it would be to work in those conditions day after day. Even the most basic of tasks, like changing a mag or a lens, took twice as long simply because of the hostile environment. As a key part of our visual approach both the Director and I wanted to incorporate extreme weather conditions to show just how difficult it was for these men, out there for several years. Part of that meant working with movie rain, and because we used movie rain on the first day, ALL day, that meant from that point on we were working in 2 feet of water sitting on top of 2 feet of sodden liquid mud:-) Add a crew of 80 people stomping through that all day and you quickly find that your set has literally become a liquefied mess of mud, and in our particular case a very clay like mud that would literally stick to everything it splashed on.

I consider it a testament to the quality of the gear we were using that despite all these obstacles and all the mud, dirt and snow flying through the air the kit continued to perform flawlessly. I cannot imagine bringing any HD camera package into that environment and having it perform as well as our 35mm Package did, so for that I owe a big thank you to Panavision and Panalux.

Needless to say that in conditions like this, as a cinematographer, you are entirely dependent upon the experience of the camera, grip and electrical crew and thankfully the team I had with me performed minor miracles under lots of pressure always with a smile on their faces.

One of the pleasures of this particular project was working with one of the finest FX crews in the world, led by Steve Warner, who on our larger days was running a crew of approx 50 Fx technicians. Allowing me the option to rain/snow/frost/smoke several acres of land at anytime so in this case I used more smoke to control the light then grip gear, a luxury usually reserved only for larger budget features.

I've included some stills from the set to show the kind of conditions we were working in, I hope to have more lighting specific photos in a week or so and as soon as I have some material to post from the rushes I'll add them here.

Photos by Aideen McCarthy and Ed Moore.

Coward Begins

2012-01-12T19:43:00.003Z

2 days of Camera prep at Panavision have begun. Blocking rehearsals on Saturday. The shoot kicks off on Monday. Wish us luck...

Coward Pre-Production Part 1

2012-01-03T15:11:00.002Z

After a nice Christmas break with my family back home in Galway I'm back in London with 2 weeks to go before the "Coward" shoot begins.

I've been speaking with the director about this project for about 18 months on and off so we've had quite a while to talk about a visual approach for the story.

We wanted a more classical and painterly approach for this piece rather then the handheld/docu-realism approach thats been popular in more recent War features. We've talked a lot about David Lean's movies and how he used the width and depth of the anamorphic frame to stage scenes, using sustained master shots that develop into tighter coverage and generally minimising close ups. We've also talked about more contempory movies like Snow Falling on Cedars for its colour palette and it's visual treatment of the weather, as thats a key character in our story.

For my own research I've been looking at Robert Richardson's work on Snow Falling on Cedars for its quality of light and the use of contrast within the frame; William Fraker's work on the desert sequence in Close Encounters of the Third Kind; Owen Roizmans lush compositions in Wyatt Earp, and finally John Toll's work on The Thin Red Line and Captain Corelli's Mandolin.

I'm shooting on Fuji Stock using their older Eterna 500T which I intend to PULL process 1 stop to soften the colour palette. We're shooting on Panavision Anamorphic lenses using their older HS series of lenses some of which even date back to David Leans projects. The lenses will be netted with some vintage Dior Black Silk stockings and finally in the DI I'll use a digital ENR process to add density to our blacks and enhance the texture of the film grain a little bit.

My initial camera/grip and lighting package for the shoot.

"Coward" Production Journal

2011-12-14T11:04:00.003Z

The "Coward" production team have started a blog to cover the production from this week forward. Expect plenty of updates and BTS pics especially as we get closer to production.

"Coward: a production journal"

CamerImage 2011

2011-12-03T12:24:00.005Z

Camerimage - a week of Goulash, Vodka and Cinematography. Best new kit at the show this year were the Alexa Studio, Kodak's new 50D Vision 3 stock and my favourite new Lighting/Grip toy this year the DOP choice grids.

Workshops galore from John Seale ASC, Daniel Pearl ASC, Roberto Schaefer ASC, Chris Probst, Martin Ruhe and Michael Seresin BSC.

Last Exit To Nowhere Competition

2011-11-22T14:47:00.005Z

Being the ultra fashion conscious geek that I am I have bought more then my fair share of T-shirts and Hoodies from Last Exit to Nowhere - they are incredibly well made clothes with beautiful designs. They make fantastic setwear (when we're not covered in layers of goretex) and invariably somone on the crew will recognize and appreciate the design of the shirts and ask where to buy them.

Now the team at Last Exit to Nowhere have given me a T-Shirt to give away to one of the lucky readers of this blog.

To win the T-shirt answer the following question:

"Who was the last Cinematographer to win back to back Oscars and for what Films did he win?"

The first answer in the comments section below wins. Dont forget to leave an email address so i can get in touch with you. UK/Europe entrants only please.

EDIT: Competition is now closed. Congrats to Johann who was the first back with the correct answer!

Deja Vu

2011-11-14T19:49:00.001Z

The Coward Unofficial Prep

2011-11-11T16:54:00.001Z

Unofficial prep for The Coward has begun.

T is for Tokophobia Poster

2011-11-07T13:01:00.003Z

T is for Tokophobia has been doing really well online, disturbing the bejeesus out of most everyone who watches it, and picking up lots of lovely comments about the Cinematography along the way. People love Super 16mm!

Heres a fantastic poster that Nathanael Marsh has done that perfectly captures the ambience of the film.

The Station Master Studio Shoot

2011-10-23T18:23:00.003+01:00

A few stills from the set of The Station Master

The Station Master Location Shoot

2011-10-19T15:07:00.002+01:00

Some stills from the location of The Station Master shoot.

Super Baltar Flare Tests

2011-10-14T18:04:00.004+01:00

For an upcoming project I'm using a set of Super Baltars, the lenses famously used on The Godfather and Birth, and today I shot some flare tests with them on an Arri Alexa. The set is an incomplete Baltar set uing a Kowa, the Japenese copy of the Super Baltar, to complete it at the wide end. The tests were shot at T4 with the camera rated at 800asa at 3200K recording in Rec709.

View the tests here

GhostPoet Nomination

2011-10-12T19:25:00.002+01:00

The GhostPoet - Survivor Music Video I shot earlier in the year for PassionRaw has been nominated at the UK Music Video Awards in the Best Urban Video (Budget) category! Well done team!

BTS Photos from Tokophobia

2011-10-05T20:58:00.001+01:00

A few BTS stills from the Tokophobia shoot...

T is for Tokophobia

2011-09-24T18:12:00.005+01:00

"T is for Tokophobia" is a short horror film I shot for the team behind "To My Mother and Father". The brief was very simple; use the Cinematography to disturb and unsettle the audience. We shot Super 16mm using Kodak 50D pushed 1 stop for extra contrast, saturation and grain. I wanted the images to feel a bit grungy, a bit like a grindhouse flick, but wanted to retain some sense of cleanliness in the walls. The location was tiled in pristine white tiles and we all felt that shooting in a bright environment in the middle of the day would add to the unsettling nature of the images. I used 2 x 2ft 4 tube kinoflos gelled with 1/4 plus green rigged as a toplight in the roof as a soft key and worked with the ambient daylight from the single bathroom window as a fill. Our primary visual approach was to never move the camera, keeping each shot as a lock off, deliberately using unconventional framing and cuts to again re-enforce the unsettling visual quality we were trying to achieve. Lenses were Zeiss superspeeds with no filtration, other then occasional ND, and we worked between a stop of T2 and T2.8 throughout the day.

The film has gone online on both Vimeo and the ABC's of Death website and it needs your vote!! Voting takes less then a minute!

http://26th.theabcsofdeath.com/t-is-for-tokophobia/?__requestid=4dc429acb264a3845d24

Portrait Lighting

2011-09-24T12:17:00.003+01:00

On a recent shoot I got to mix both hard and soft light for some portrait lighting which turned out quite well.

I used a 500w Jem Springball as a soft top/front keylight set at a 45 degree angle to the actress' face, mixed with a 150w Dedo light which was set at a low 45 degree angle, flagged just to hit her face, working both as an eyelight and as a hard fill light. Directly above her I had a Source 4 flagged to hit only the back of her head and the table in foreground. Behind her I had a pair of 2K's 45 degrees behind each shoulder working as a hard backlight. On the floor directly behind her I used another mixture of hard and soft light using an Image 80 as a soft backlight with a 150w Dedo as a hard kicker. Another 150w dedo set almost parallel to her left shoulder picked out a specific part of her dress. For the backdrop I used another 2K gelled with 101 yellow, and a pair of 150w dedo's cross lit some foreground props. A second Image 80 was in place alongside one of the 2K backlights to work for another actor but was never used for this portrait. A 1/2 Black Diffusion Fx filter was used on camera for some halation and cosmetic effect. This reference photo was taken using my Canon 40D but is quite close to the end result - apart from the angle that its taken at. When the final piece is posted online I'll add a link here for reference. The stings were shot on an Arri Alexa at 800ASA shooting at T2.8 with an ND6 and a 1/2 Black Diff. FX.

EDIT: The finished commercial is now up http://www.stephen-murphy.com/corelV4.html

Cameras Old and New

2011-09-04T18:48:00.006+01:00

This week I went from Super 16mm to SI-2K and next week its back to the F3 again and the Panasonic HPX 300. Everytime I use film I am reminded just how far behind HD cameras are in their design let alone the pictures they produce.

The Cinematographer

2011-08-22T15:51:00.001+01:00

F3 & Ki Pro Mini in action - K5600 Joker Bugs

2011-08-21T20:38:00.004+01:00

First day of the shoot went very well. The Ki Pro mini/F3 combo worked well. Even more impressive was the K5600 Joker bugs I was using. I had seen these demo'd at LCA during the year but this was the first chance I had to use them with their Springball and Softtube attachments. Very flexible kit and a really beautiful quality of light all in a very small package. I expect I'll be using these a lot in the future. I also used a 4x4 DOP choice grid - Absolutely loved it - check out their site at www.dopchoice.com - would like these on all my jobs from now on please :-)

Somewhere in there is an F3

2011-08-18T16:14:00.004+01:00

Another F3 job, this time the second block of the Shakespeare/RSC project I shot earlier in the year. This is the F3 outfitted with the Ki Pro Mini to take advantage of the higher data rate recording that this combo offers - it all fits together quite nicely apart, from the excesive cabling that seems to be part and parcel of most HD shoots nowadays:-)

Robin Hood trailer online

2011-08-17T10:23:00.004+01:00

The Heart of Robin Hood Trailer has gone online!
A few weeks after everyone signed off on the project the client decided they wanted to regrade the trailer to resemble the look of their newly designed poster campaign. Needless to say the trailer presented here is the original DP/Director approved grade.

Rough and ready F3 Dynamic Range tests Part 2 (of 2)

2011-07-22T17:47:00.003+01:00

And ince again from the bottom up these images are:
18% Greycard exposed Normaly, 1 stop over exposed, 2 stops overexposed.

Like I said not exactly benchmark tests but interesting nonetheless.

Rough and ready F3 Dynamic Range tests Part 1 (of 2)

2011-07-22T17:29:00.007+01:00

I did a VERY quick test of the Sony F3 today specifically to see how quickly it would loose detail in the blacks when shooting in it's F35 Like rec 709 mode. The 18% greyscale was lit to T4 at 400asa or 0db on the F3 in rec 709 mode at a 180 degree shutter angle 25 fps in 1920x1080 mode. Lens was a 35mm Zeiss CP2. Like I said this was a very quick test but I thought it was interesting to see.

These images are from the bottom up:
18% greycard 1 stop underexposed, 2 stops underexposed, 3 stops underexposed, 4 stops underexposed, 5 stops underexposed.

Sony F3 On Ice

2011-07-04T11:14:00.005+01:00

Finished a cool corporate for Crossroads Films last week shooting various branded cars driving on an Icerink! Shot on the Sony F3 once again using the Arri Alura 18-80 mm Zoom (lovely glass), with some inserts on a Canon 7D. Everything was lit with a pair of 5K Balloons and some old follow spots.

Robin Hood/RSC Commercial

2011-06-17T10:02:00.005+01:00

Shot a lovely commercial yesterday for the RSC's upcoming production of Robin Hood, once again collaborating with Director Chris McGill of DustHouse. Shooting on a RED MX with Mk3 Superspeeds, a #2 BlackPromist and a #1 Jade Filter, and some very beautiful available light. Grade will happen at Technicolor in a few weeks.

"Mrs. Peppercorn's Magical Reading Room" Online

2011-05-28T10:23:00.004+01:00

The full version of Mrs. Peppercorn has now gone online at Vimeo http://vimeo.com/21425643

Please watch and share with your friends!

DirtDevils Win

2011-05-21T13:59:00.002+01:00

The Dirt Devils commercial I shot earlier in the year has won a Bronze award at the Roses Awards in Manchester and won "Ad of the Week" on best Ads on TV. Well done team!!

Marble Yoda

2011-04-24T13:43:00.000+01:00

My Zbrush self education continues...

Freelancers and Taxes

2011-04-18T10:52:00.003+01:00

I wouldn't normally push this sort of thing but I've been using FreeAgent to work out my tax bill this year and it's been soooooooo helpful that I'm pushing it to every freelancer I know. It was recommended to me by several DP's and a Focus Puller and I'm glad I finally listened to them. Sign up using this link and you get 10% off. Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Janusz Kaminski Interview

2011-04-17T15:41:00.002+01:00

Here's a wonderful interview from 2009 with one of my favourite Cinematographers, Janusz Kaminski.
http://www.berlinale-talentcampus.de/campus/program/telelecture/568
His feelings about the nature of collaborating with Directors pretty much mirror my own.

Ghost Poet "Survive It" Music Promo

2011-04-17T12:12:00.002+01:00

The music promo I shot for Passion Raw and the directors collective UNKNOWN has gone online and has already been mentioned on PromoNews and TheFader. You can see a clip on my website here http://stephen-murphy.com/ghostpoetpageV4.html

Shot on RED Mx using Ultraprimes and Classic Soft Filters. Steadicam by Thoms English.

BSC "Behind the Camera" Series

2011-04-07T12:09:00.002+01:00

For anyone even remotely interested in the history of Cinematography the BSC have finally started to upload the classic series "Behind The Camera". The first videos are linked below, with the rest of the series to follow (I hope!).

http://vimeo.com/21032262

http://vimeo.com/22053067

http://vimeo.com/22053639

http://vimeo.com/22054478

Enjoy!

A busy start to the year...

2011-03-07T11:15:00.003Z

Lots going on at the moment, primarily corporate and promo work. One of those corporates involves a mixture of documentary and live event capture so Im using multiple 5D's for the doco work and have brought in the Sony F3 for the Live events. The F3 is a really interesting little camera and I was quite impressed with the results.

And on an altogether different note we've all finally signed off on Mrs. Peppercorn. The premiere is in BAFTA on March 29th!

Some new Work online

2011-02-02T20:15:00.002Z

I've just uploaded the work I did last year with Nate Camponi and Chief, "Pickle" and the Dirt Devil "Rug" commercial.
http://www.stephen-murphy.com/picklepageV4.html
and http://www.stephen-murphy.com/dirtdevilspageV4.html

Kodachrome Fades—Out: But the Afterglow Lingers

2011-01-31T10:39:00.001Z

Kodachrome Fades—Out: But the Afterglow Lingers

Matech Reborn

2011-01-26T11:02:00.007Z

The trailer for the shoot I did 2nd Unit on in Le Mans last year has gone online. Check it out in Full frame HD below . Main unit Director/DP was Ed Moore (who also did a great job cutting the trailer!)

Jeff Cronenweth ASC Interview

2011-01-15T16:39:00.003Z

There's a super interview with Cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth ASC about his work on The Social Network over at Scott Feinberg.com

Scott_Feinberg_Jeff_Cronenweth_Interview

Please take a listen.

Happy Christmas!

2010-12-24T10:42:00.000Z

Have a great Christmas everyone. See you in 2011.
S

In Dublin with the Arri Alexa

2010-12-08T14:36:00.005Z

Just back from a few days in Dublin shooting with the Arri Alexa and a RED MX as part of a feature Documentary on Indie Music around the world. We used the RED MX to shoot some timelapse of Dublin city at sunset and the Alexa was used to shoot some performance of the band Vampire Weekend at the O2 centre.
Loved the Arri Alexa. Very well designed camera body with the best EVF i have ever seen, better even then the red Bomb evf I saw earlier in the year. The camera gave very nice pictures with a lovely roll off to white in the highlights. The most film-like results I've seen from a digital camera. Still not 35mm but very nice all the same. Dublin was cold btw. -5 on the rib boat we took up the river Liffey :-)

Peppercorn Poster

2010-11-18T23:07:00.004Z

Just back from a commercial in Dublin shooting on the 5D for director Alan Friel again, this time with Jumper productions.
In my Inbox was the poster for Mrs Peppercorn!

Rug Commercial

2010-11-08T10:16:00.003Z

Popped back up to Manchester to work with "Pickle" Director Nate Camponi again on a commercial for Chief last week. I didn't have time to take any pictures but luckily Nate has written a photo blog about the shoot over on his site http://dontbeadirector.tumblr.com/post/1431872323/rug
Shooting again on RED in 16x9 Quad HD with Cooke S4's with some classic softs. Very simple concept based around a very funny visual gag. For the cast I used 2 x 1.2K HMI Cinpars pushing through 2 frames of Full Grid and a Double unbleached muslin for a very soft frontal Key, slightly offset from the lens with some 575w pars to light the background.
When we switched to the product shot I lost the unbleached muslin so the highlights would remain clean of any colour, added a few frames of 8 x 4 poly with a 575 bounced into them for some additional highlights and to help describe the products form. Finished off by a Source 4 flagged into a window shape for the background. Really simple approach that worked really well.

Another win for To my mother and Father

2010-11-08T10:13:00.001Z

To My Mother and Father wins the Golden Grape for The Best Experimental Short Film of the Year at Manisa Short Film Festival!
www.manisaaltinuzum.com

Mother Father Festival Win

2010-10-04T21:15:00.001+01:00

"To My Mother and Father" has won the "Sick Bastard Award" for the most disturbing short film at the HP Lovecraft Festival in the US!!

To My Mother and Father More Festival news

2010-09-20T22:34:00.003+01:00

To My mother and Father has now been accepted into yet another two high profile festivals, Court Metrange in France and the H.P. Lovecraft Festival in the USA.

I've added a clip from the project to my newly redesigned website!

To My Mother and Father Cinematography

2010-09-06T15:53:00.005+01:00

Originally titled "The Mask" we shot over 3 days last November using 1 location and 1 interior set. The director Can Evrenol had given me a few reference images to work from but our primary influence was one of photographer Gregory Crewdson's images "Untitled (woman stain)" from his Twilight exhibition.

Due to some of the content in the script it was agreed from the outset that the main bedroom, where the bulk of the script takes place, would need to be built as a set on stage. The few other shots leading up to that point would be shot in one single location.

Although ambitious in content the budget was quite tight. I had suggested shooting on the Sony EX-3 and had worked out a modest Tungsten package that would suit our needs on the soundstage. For our day for dusk scenes I simply worked with natural light, augmenting close ups with some daylight balanced kinos.

For the Stage interior I needed two different lighting setups; the first to represent interior dusk with no lights on, the second to represent the same time of day with bedroom lights on. At a certain point in the script Lightning was called for and that would play during the "lights on" setup.

Knowing we had a substantial amount of coverage to get through in a limted time period, most of which involved kids, prosthetics and animatronics I wanted a simple lighting plan that would allow me to turn around relatively quickly and keep the production moving. With that in mind we hung a 20 x 20 unbleached muslin over the small set and pushed a 5K Fresnel through it to give me an overall soft toplight. Depending on which scene it was I either gelled it with Full CTB for the lights off look or 1/4 CTO for the lights on look.

From the single window I had 2 x Blondes gelled with 1/2 CTB bouncing off of several pieces of 8ft x 4ft Poly, further diffused by the double net curtain I asked the art department to dress the window frame with.

For the Lights on look I added another 2 x 2Ks to the unbleached bounce and moved them around the walls of the set to push a little bit more light in whatever direction was needed.

For closeups I brought in two 4ft Kinos, diffused and tubed to match whatever colour temp I was working with, and flew them over head to match what the unbleached muslin was doing for me. Skintones were kept approx 1 - 2 stops under key.

For the Lightning we used a 10K Fresnel gelled with Lee 089 Moss Green and used an old school set of shutters!

Practicals were all low wattage bulbs dimmed for extra warmth.

I've included my original Lighting plot, which changed slightly on the day, and some BTS stills to give you an idea of what our bounced rig looked like.

On the camera side of things I was using the Gamma Cine 3 curve in the Ex-3 along with a combination of Smoque and Low Con filters. I kept the camera rated at 500asa and shot at T4 for most of the shoot.

To My Mother and Father Premiere & Frame Grabs

2010-09-06T15:10:00.005+01:00

To My Mother and Father had it's premiere at Frightfest last week and played to a fantastic crowd in the Empire Screen 1 at Leicester Square. In the week that followed we got word that its also been accepted in Sitges, Spain and Fantastic Fest, Texas - two of the biggest genre festivals in the world.

At the time I didnt want to blog about the shoot in case I spoiled some of the story details but I've included some detail about the Cinematography in the post to follow that should avoid any spoliers.

Above are some frame grabs and some footage should be live on my site before the end of the week.

random photos

2010-08-17T13:55:00.003+01:00

Just some random photos I've taken over the past few weeks, some film, some digital.

Le Mans 2010

2010-06-16T12:36:00.002+01:00

Just back from shooting 2nd Unit on a high end corporate in Le Mans for the Matech Ford GT team. Working with the main unit Director/DP Ed Moore (http://www.edmooredop.com) I was shooting on RED with the Optimo 12:1 zoom with a 1.4 x extender. With access all areas passes I was literally standing 10 feet away from the cars at times. An amazing experience.

A new longer trailer for Mrs. Peppercorn has appeared on the official website www.mrspeppercornthemovie.com featuring a lot more footage, it looks amazing! - check it out and see what you think!

Mrs. Peppercorn Round 3

2010-06-01T17:30:00.005+01:00

Mrs. Peppercorn wrapped its last block of photography this past weekend, shooting in studios and on Location in Manchester once again. Post production is now well underway with Editor Mark Talbot-Butler (Exam) at the helm and I'm expecting to attend the DI in a few months time.

Dorito's King of ad's Contest Entry

2010-04-27T22:51:00.004+01:00

Last week I shot a contest entry for the Dorito's King of ad's competition for Director Aideen McCarthy and it's now gone online on Vimeo here http://www.vimeo.com/11230754. A really simple concept that was both easy to execute and visually striking to boot. Shot on the Sony EX-1 we used a model in front of a 8 x 4ft frame filled with Diffusion, with a different colour palette representing each of the 3 different Doritos flavour crisps.
The background was lit with 2 x Blondes, double diffused, and the Model was lit by a single blonde with some light diffusion at a high 45 degree angle just to the right of camera. For the silhouette shots we just used the 2 x blondes through the background. It turned out extremely well and I'm really proud of what we achieved with next to no money.

The Making of "Fifth Street"

2010-04-27T10:18:00.004+01:00

It's a few years late but the making of "Fifth Street" has finally gone online featuring lots of behind the scenes footage and a new interview with David Roddham. Well worth the wait!! Please take a look and tell your friends!!
http://www.vimeo.com/11191593

Lisboa Shortz

2010-04-02T14:06:00.003+01:00

The Formorian was screened in Lisbon by the Lisboa Shortz team this week and both myself and Aideen were flown over as their guests to give a short Q&A about the movie. Lisbon is a fantastic city full of beautiful architecture and wonderful textures and I'd highly recommend a visit if you ever get a chance.

To My Mother and Father Grade

2010-04-01T19:36:00.003+01:00

Today we finally put the finishing touches to "To My Mother and Father" with a Grade on the Nucoda Film Master at Hat Factory. The Film is due to screen at the BFI at the end of April and begins its festival run shortly thereafter.

Mrs. Peppercorn BTS Photos More Round 2

2010-03-29T12:38:00.003+01:00

Mrs. Peppercorn BTS Photos Round 2

2010-03-29T12:34:00.003+01:00

Mrs. Peppercorn's Magical Reading Room Additional Photography

2010-03-27T14:40:00.004Z

This week I'm back in Manchester shooting the second block of photography for Mrs. Peppercorn's Magical Reading Room. Thankfully the weather isn't quite as cold as it was the last time:-)
Following on from the style we set during the first block of photography I've continued to use a combination of 500w chinaballs and 5K fresnels with ultrabounces for a soft 3/4 top/frontlight. Stay tuned for some behind the scenes photos.

The BSC Show (best in show)

2010-03-22T11:20:00.003Z

Some of my favourite things at the BSC show this past weekend.
- The Cooke S5 lenses are a thing of beauty.
- The Cooke Panchros are the best compact lenses I have ever seen (pictured here on a Canon DSLR)
- Moviecam (yes that says Moviecam) have a great Focus Tracking device that will ber very useful on very long lenses.
- The Airfloater from grip solutions is brilliant for a handheld look on a fixed platform. I used it with a platinum and a 3:1 zoom and it worked a treat!
- And finally the working prototype of the Arri Alexa was fantastic. Really simple and intuitive menu system. Built as solidly as any of Arris cameras with everything laid out brilliantly. Well done Arri. The first HD camera ive seen that actualy looks like it belongs on a film set and it gives pretty pictures too.

Great to see Fuji demoing their Vivid 500T and great to hear talk of another Vivid stock coming later in the year.

This years show was interesting because there was a definite sense of people being sick of HD and in particular 3D, even though there was plenty of 3D and HD on show it was interesting to see such a heavy pressence from Hawk and Panavision with new additions to the range of ther respective anamorphic lenses. Nice to see so many 1.3x squeeze lenses on Super 16mm cameras as well. Plenty of talk about Aaton Penelope and 2 perf too. Film is certainly not dead.

Absolute on Vimeo

2010-03-16T10:15:00.001Z

Absolute has gone online on Vimeo. You can check it out here http://vimeo.com/9985021

The Director/DP relationship

2010-03-02T15:52:00.002Z

Here's a link to a nice little article about successful Director/DP relationships in Hollywood. I'd have liked to have seen Kaminski/Spielberg and Richardson/Stone included but it's a nice article regardless.
http://www.dgaquarterly.org/BACKISSUES/Fall2009/CollaboratorsDirectorsandDPs.aspx

Mrs. Peppercorn BTS Photos

2010-02-21T17:44:00.004Z

Mrs. Peppercorn Teaser Trailer Online

2010-02-21T00:42:00.003Z

The title says it all. A Teaser Trailer for Mrs. Peppercorn's Magical Reading Room is online at Vimeo now. http://vimeo.com/9608227

Mrs Peppercorns Magical Reading Room Night 3

2010-02-08T15:16:00.004Z

Our third and final night shoot got off to a bad start when the 4K Tungsten balloon blew a bulb as it was being setup. The shattered bulb punctured a hole in the balloon and tripped out the electronics taking the balloon out of action for the night. So that meant using the small lighting package I had left to try and replicate the quality of light from the balloon light while shooting in a more contained area. Using 2 5K Fresnels and 2 Ultrabounces helped give me a similar soft overhead/fontal key light and covered enough space to let us shoot a reasonable wide provided we were careful about our angles. A book light made from a corrected 1.2K cinepar bounced into 2 x 8ft x 4ft polyboards helped extend that shooting area and I continued to use chinaballs with 500w bulbs for a keylight on coverage. We shot at T2 and again i kept the skintones overexposed by about a stop on our close ups. We reconvene next month to shoot our two interiors, one on a sound stage and one in a very old library. It goes without saying that this was a team effort and required a lot of hard work from a lot of people, in extremely cold temperatures so well done to all involved.

Mrs Peppercorns Magical Reading Room Night 2

2010-02-07T14:02:00.003Z

Shooting Interiors/Exteriors tonight. I'm using the 4K Tungsten Balloon outside the street and a selection of Kinoflos and chinaballs inside to balance the Interiors. Shooting at T2 with the same filter combination of Black Frost 1/2, Smoque 1 and Whiskey 1. Most of our close up coverage is on a 50mm or an 85mm with a chinaball, wrapped in F4 diffusion, sitting just above camera. The 4K Balloon is a godsend - its a beautiful quality of light, and after its initial set up its very quick to reposition.

Mrs Peppercorns Magical Reading Room Night 1

2010-02-06T13:33:00.005Z

Shooting Night Exteriors in sub zero temperatures on our first night for Mrs Peppercorns Magical Reading Room.
I'm shooting on a RED one, Build 21, with Zeiss Super Speeds, using a 1/2 Black Frost, a Smogue 1 and a Whiskey 1. I'm rating the camera at 320 asa and 5000Kelvin for a rich warm look. We're shooting in 4.5K Widescreen mode for a 2.40:1 aspect ratio. For some high speed shots we shot at 50fps in 3K 2:1 mode.
Night exteriors were lit entirely with a single 4K Tungsten balloon, occasionally augmented with a 1K chinaball dimmed for extra warmth and I'm shooting at T1.3

Douglas Slocombe BAFTA tribute

2010-02-02T14:44:00.003Z

BAFTA have put online some coverage from their tribute to Douglas Slocombe, whose incredible work on the Indiana Jones trilogy, particularly the opening sequence for Temple of Doom, is still some of my all time favourite cinematography. Click here to view.

American Cinematographers Readers Poll

2010-02-02T11:58:00.004Z

American Cinematographer magazine is updating its Best Shot Films Poll and is looking for subscribers to the magazine to cast their votes for the best shot films between 1998 - 2008. For what its worth this is how i voted:

- "Saving Private Ryan" (1998) - DP Janusz Kaminski, 35mm

- "The Thin Red Line" (1998) - DP John Toll ASC, Anamorphic 35mm

- "The Insider' (1998) - DP Dante Spinotti ASC, Super 35mm

- "Snow falling on Cedars" (1999) - DP Robert Richardson ASC, Anamorphic 35mm

- "Sleepy Hollow" (1999) - DP Emmanuel Lubezki ASC, 35mm

- "Fight Club" (1999) - DP Jeff Cronenweth ASC, Super 35mm

- "Road to Perdition" (2002) - DP Conrad Hall ASC, Super 35mm

- "Birth" (2004) - DP Harris Savides ASC, 35mm

- "Munich" (2005) - DP Janusz Kaminski, Super 35mm

- "The Dark Knight" (2008) - DP Wally Pfister ASC, Anamorphic 35mm and Imax.

Interestingly all of these were shot without a D.I :-) 1998-1999 was a small golden era for Cinematography.
If you're interested in seeing the previous Poll then click here to see the Best Shot Films 1894 - 1949 and 1950 -1997.

Later this week I travel to Manchester to shoot Mrs. Peppercorns Magical Reading Room for Mike Le Han, shooting on the RED camera over 4 nights with a 5th day in studio next Month. I'll be blogging from the set as best I can so stay tuned:-)

"Fifth Street" - Now available to watch on Vimeo

2010-01-11T22:37:00.003Z

"Fifth Street", the award winning short film I photographed for Director David Roddham, has gone online in its entirety on Vimeo. You can see it here http://vimeo.com/8671292 - please take a few minutes to watch it and tell your friends!

Widescreen Snow

2010-01-06T16:15:00.002Z

Happy New Year

2010-01-06T07:43:00.003Z

Clawing at the eyes of God (aka "The Mask")

2009-11-30T12:35:00.003Z

I just finished shooting a short film for director Can Evrenol currently titled "Clawing at the eyes of God" (aka "The Mask). A great little horror short with lots of cool animatronic and prosthetic effects, and lots of goo! Lovely crew, lovely cast and the best catering ive had on a short film in a long long time:) I'll post some frame grabs and lighting plots after the project is finished but for now i'll leave you with this BTS teaser image taken on my Canon 40D at the same asa/shutterspeed/tstop combo as i was shooting on the production - 500asa -1/50th - T4.

Closing Doors at London United Festival

2009-11-13T10:59:00.004Z

"Closing Doors" has been accepted into the London United Film Festival (voted one of the 25 Coolest Film Festivals by MovieMaker Magazine) screening on December 5th at the Prince Charles Cinema.

Carl Carni Video hits MTV base Charts

2009-11-02T18:48:00.003Z

The Carl Carni single On 2 Me that I shot earlier in the year has made it into the top 10 at the MTV base charts. http://www.mtv.co.uk/channels/mtv-base/chart

How to get into the camera department?

2009-11-02T12:27:00.003Z

I get emails from people asking me this all the time, and while i try to answer all of them invariably some slip through the email haze. I've been meaning to post some sort of general advice article for awhile now but if truth be told I've been too lazy/too busy/playing too much xbox. Luckily enough Art Adams, a brilliant and very generous DOP based in San Fran has posted something very similar, the link to which I present here. It's great advice so if you're a student listen up and drop Mr Adams a thank you mail when you make it to the big time.

http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/aadams/story/so_you_want_to_work_with_cameras/

"Dust" in Cork

2009-10-22T12:32:00.003+01:00

"Dust" has been accepted into the Cork International Film Festival '09!

Freelancer of the Year Nomination

2009-10-16T23:27:00.002+01:00

I've just been nominated for the Outstanding Freelancer award at Productionbase's Freelancer of the year Awards!

Alicante

2009-09-29T13:08:00.005+01:00

Back from a short trip in Alicante shooting a 3 day corporate. Some snaps of the Salt flats in the area at Sunrise, shot on my canon 40D and my iPhone. The panoramic photostitch was shot at midday after a very heavy rainfall the night before.

Absolute Poster and new Website

2009-09-15T15:37:00.003+01:00

Londonmarkfilms have a gorgeous new poster to promote the launch of Absolute along with a new revamped website take a look at http://www.londonmarkfilms.com

Gordon Willis to receive Oscar

2009-09-13T10:52:00.002+01:00

One of my heroes, Gordon Willis ASC, will receive an Honorary Academy Award statuette on November 14th in Los Angeles as part of the inaugural Govenors Awards ceremony. It's about time!

New Toys at IBC

2009-09-12T12:30:00.004+01:00

So it's IBC time again and this year has seen the unveiling of lots of interesting new gear.
First off RED have unveiled their prototype of the EPIC and it looks really good. It looks like they've been listening to a lot of reel industry feedback and have come up with a far more ergonomic and rugged camera body and viewfinder. They've also announced that they're developing an Optical viewfinder for the EPIC and that's the really good news. I haven't yet seen an EVF that comes anywhere near the quality of an optical viewfinder so combine that with the potential image quality of the EPIC and you'd have a really good camera. No footage from EPIC yet but I'm sure we'll see something soon. They also released Build 21 for their RED one cameras this week giving you 4.5K instead of 4K - I'll say this for RED they are very good at giving value for money for their customers - well done guys.

Next up ARRI has unveiled their new family of high end Digital cameras, and its the A-OV Plus that interests me the most - 3.5K sensor, 4:3 for Anamorphic photography, 800 asa, 1 - 60fps, built in LCS and of course and Optical viewfinder all housed in a rugged well designed body reminiscent of a 416 body. Not available until late next year this is the HD camera that, on paper at least, excites me the most.

Just prior to IBC Canon unveiled its 7D with an 18MP APS-C Cmos chip and shooting 24 and 25 FPS. Delivering beautiful, albeit heavily compressed, HD footage at 24/25fps from a small DSLR this is a great camera. Shame it doesn't have the VistaVision size chip that the 5DMK2 has - although perhaps they're saving that for the next version of the flagship 1Ds.

And finally the most exciting kit released this week was from Cooke, as they unveiled their new range of lenses, the Cooke Series 5 lenses - apparently slightly sharper then the Cooke S4's but with the same contrast and focus fall off BUT at T1.4 instead of T2, and with built in illuminated (and dimmable) focus markings, these look like gorgeous lenses. The Cooke S4's are my favourite spherical lenses in the world so I'll be using the S5's as soon as they become available. Cooke if you could just release a set of Anamorphics based on the S5's i think i might have to marry you.

Two Blondes and a Redhead

2009-09-12T00:17:00.005+01:00

I've spent the last few weeks working on a series of music promos directed by Aideen McCarthy and Ricardo Sai, for the Mountview Academy of Arts. Shooting primarily on a Sony Ex-1 with an ultra limited budget this was an exercise in being creative within some serious limitations. There were no trucks, no catering, no Dolly, we didnt even have Flags or frames of diffusion to shape the light, just a couple of blondes, redheads and a few dedos. And yet even with those limitations we managed to surprise ourselves and come up with some pretty creative and visually interesting work. I'm sure there's a lesson in there somewhere:-) I've attached some frame grabs taken on my iphone.

Talent of the Future

2009-08-13T20:31:00.004+01:00

I've been listed by the Talent of the Future group as one of the top upcoming Cinematographers to Look out for!
And Aideen (McCarthy) has made their Top Ten list of upcoming talent!!

It's a Trap...

2009-08-07T19:41:00.002+01:00

Something I sculpted in Zbrush just for fun.

Formorian and Widow on LoveFilm.com

2009-08-07T11:57:00.003+01:00

Both The Formorian and The Widow have been added to LoveFilm.com so please check them out and cast your vote!
The Formorian on LoveFilm
The Widow on LoveFilm

Absolute Finished

2009-08-04T20:06:00.002+01:00

We finished the grade for Absolute in Technicolor today and it looks fantastic. The RED footage held up really well on the big screen so i was very glad we tried it out on this production. It was interesting to see how the camera rendered certain colours compared to film but im very pleased with the results and would happily shoot on it again in the future. For me the real highlight was the Optimo 24-290 zoom and seeing how well it retained sharpness and contrast at the long end of it's range. I'll definitely be using that again in the future!

Absolute-ly

2009-07-26T11:51:00.002+01:00

The Absolute BTS video has been viewed over 10,000 times since its launch just a week ago!
I'm off to Technicolor tomorrow to do the final grade so the movie is coming close to completion.

"Absolute" Behind the Scenes Interviews

2009-07-20T10:48:00.004+01:00

Ed Thomas was commissioned to produce a Behind the Scenes featurette on the making of Absolute and here it is. Ed shot this on his Canon 5D MK2 and did a beautiful job. It really captures the atmosphere of the set. You can watch it in HD on Vimeo here
http://vimeo.com/5666748

Notting Hill Festival

2009-07-03T16:39:00.003+01:00

So both "Closing Doors" and "Greg and the Luck Factory" have been accepted into the Notting Hill Fest!!
"Greg" is playing on Weds July 15th at 7pm and "Closing Doors" is playing once a day at various times from Sat July 11th to Thursday July 16th.

"Absolute" Trailer online

2009-06-20T10:48:00.001+01:00

The trailer for "Absolute" is online at vimeo here http://www.vimeo.com/groups/thedirectorofphotography/videos/5237187
Even though its ungraded it looks stunning and I'm really pleased with how the RED handled everything.

"Greg and the Luck Factory" on my reel

2009-06-19T17:37:00.003+01:00

So Greg and the Luck factory has just been finished and I've put a 90 second clip from it online on my portfolio page, you can check it out here http://www.stephen-murphy.com/gregandtheluckfactoryV3.html

Festival Updates and awards

2009-06-19T17:31:00.003+01:00

Finished shooting the Nissan commercial last Tuesday with a lovely crew - even managed to get a farmers tan during it:-)
The photo attached is from our low-loader set up.

"Closing Doors" has been accepted into the Notting Hill Festival in London; it screens July 14th.

"Tart" has won another award - this time Mairtin de Barra picked up the award for Best Original Screenplay at the Oporto International short Film Festival so congrats Mairtin!

"Tart" at the Galway Fleadh 09

2009-06-11T13:43:00.002+01:00

"Tart" has been accepted into competition at the prestigious Galway Film Fleadh this year!

HD Camera Comparison Guide

2009-06-11T13:35:00.003+01:00

Yesterday afternoon I did a phone interview for the HD camera comparison guide, a new CD thats coming out in the US. The interviewer, Mitchell Reichler, asked some great questions and I managed to blather on for a full hour; thank goodness for editing:-)
I think the final CD will have interviews with quite a few Indie DP's so it should be interesting.

"Absolute" More Frame Grabs

2009-06-10T17:43:00.004+01:00

Some frame grabs from the Night Int. Apartment. In the BTS photo you can see the lighting in place for the night interior. The 575W HMI is lighting the background of one of the close ups while im shooting the dusk scene. I've also included a quick snap of the RED monitor with False colour overlay to give you an idea of how blue it looked during the night interior scene. I didnt really have time to take any photos of the lighting setups on this job but we had some excellent set photgraphers so if any other intersting lighting photos get sent me way ill post them here.

"Absolute" Frame Grabs

2009-06-10T17:09:00.004+01:00

These frame grabs were taken from RED Alert. In RED alert i opened the RAW files, increased the contrast and saturation by 1 point each and exported 4K Tiffs. These were taken into photoshop, cropped to 2.40 and resized to 8 bit jpegs for web use, but it'll give you some idea:-)

"Absolute" Lighting Plots

2009-06-10T17:03:00.002+01:00

These were the Lighting Plots i did for the interiors.

"Absolute" shoot

2009-06-10T16:56:00.004+01:00

"Absolute" wrapped on Monday night and I’m happy to report that the experience was a very pleasant one, thanks primarily to a fantastic crew headed by Director Mark Dawson and Producer Matthew Patnick.
It had been over a year since I last shot with the infamous RED camera, which its fair to say was an underwhelming experience for me (I blogged about it at the time – check the archives) but I'd been keping an eye on the development of the camera since then, particularly the improved firmware updates and crucialy the 3rd party accessories, and I was keen to try it out on another job. This time around the experience was a lot better. Our camera package came from 24/7 in London and was outfitted with the usual asortment of Element Technica AKS to really make the camera production friendly on a fast moving drama shoot like this.
We were shooting build 17 – the last time I shot it was build 15 – so visualy and performance wise the results were almost chalk and cheese. We had no problems with the camera or, more crucialy, the hard drives and I’m very pleased with the pictures it produced. We shot using a combnination of Ultra Primes and the Optimo 24 – 290 Zoom and I used a Smoque filter for the entire shoot along with a combination of a Harrison Blue/Grey and some CC Blue filters for certain sequences. I had hoped to smoke all the interiors but we were restricted to using smoke at only one location so I decided to shoot with the Smogue filters instead for the sake of consistancy.
The project was essentialy a two hander set predominantly in 2 locations, an interior bar and an interior/exterior apartment with a large ext balcony.
The Int/Ext apartment/balcony was shot at T2 using the Ultraprimes, primarily the 16mm and 24mm for masters and then jumping up to the 135mm for coverage.
The Int Bar was shot exclusively on the Optimo zoom at T2.8 usually using the wide end (24mm) for our masters and then jumping in to 290mm for our coverage. We rarely used any medium focal length lenses.
The night interior apartment was lit predominantly with daylight kinoflos gelled with full plus green and a 575 HMI fresnel with a Full grid Chimera for modeling on our close ups. The dusk interior apartment was lit with natural light, using several 4 x 8 flags for negative fill. For coverage I again used a 575 fresnel through a chimera for modeling.
In the Interior Bar sequence we used some 2.5K HMI cinepars and some 1.2K HMI cinepars gelled with Straw Tint to backlight the bar, using Tungsten bulbs in all the practical fixtures in shot. Our coverage was lit using a 4x4 kino, again gelled with straw tint as a key light with negative fill on the opposite side of the face and a 575 Fresnel through a Chimera for a soft ¾ backlight from the same side of the face as the key light. The overall backlight from the 2.5’s and 1.2’s was then flagged to work as a hard kicker/rim light for the shadow side of the face.
I was working with the RED set at 320 asa and 5600 K, shooting 2:1 redcode 36 for a 240:1 crop, monitoring using REC 709 with no look profile applied. I had tested a look profile that another DP had designed to mimic a real world 250 asa setting but to be honest I prefered how the images looked without it. I set my meters to 320 asa and lit using those as I would have on any other film or HD shoot and the results I got were superb. I did occasionaly glance at the view RAW and False colour overlay mode but to be honest I found those so hard to evaluate while working at the speed we needed to work at that I found them to be of little help to me – the false colour mode was usually several shades of blue anyway which im pretty sure is technicaly a bad thing:-)
I was operating myself on this project and I found the viewfinder pretty good – it took me a little while to get used to it but as far as electronic viewfinders go its one of the best – although everytime I looked through the pentafinder to line up a shot I remembered what I was missing with an optical viewfinder:-)
So having finally had a positive real world experience with the RED I’d now be quite happy to use it on other productions. It still isn’t 35mm film – still isn’t close IMO but id happily rate it above most of the other HD formats out there and in certain circumstances would choose it over Super16mm depending on what texture and visual style we were going for. I still hate the RED marketing/hype machine but I do like that they’ve been listening to feedback and responding quickly with updates and improvements. I’m still tempted to buy, but still on the fence, and I think Epic, when it comes out will be of even greater interest. I'll add some frame grabs and BTS photos in another post and you can see more production photos at the Directors website www.londonmarkfilms.com
My crew was:
Focus Puller: Iwen Reynolds
Clapper Loader: Rene Willis
DIT: Andrew Trewartha
Dolly Grip: James Ray
Gaffer: Frank Usher

"Absolute" Prep

2009-06-05T21:52:00.004+01:00

So the last week has been a flurry of prep meetings, tech reccies and location scouts for "Absolute" shooting Saturday to Monday, and my next project, a 4 day commercial for Nissan the weekend after.
One of the locations for Absoulte changed during the course of the week and we now have an apartment with a spectacular view of London, so to take advantage of that view at both Dusk and night time I decided to switch from Anamorphic to Spherical lenses so we could gain an extra stop of light in that location and see a little bit more of the city lights in the background. For our other Interior scenes I'll use the Optimo 11:1 for coverage to work with a more compressed field of view and a shallower depth of field then I'd usually have in spherical photography.
Both 24/7 and Panalux have come on board to provide our kit; thats Iwen Reynolds, my Focus Puller preping the 11:1 & RED combo above - thank goodness there's no handheld:-)

More Photos

2009-05-26T12:24:00.004+01:00

At the Hampstead Heath Fair this past weekend. Shot on My Canon 40D with post work in Photoshop.

"Absolute" Prep

2009-05-20T11:48:00.002+01:00

I'm shooting a short film called "Absolute" in early June for Director Mark Dawson of Londonmark films. The budget wasn't going to stretch to Film so I decided it would be a good chance to test the RED camera again, and this time I'll be shooting with Hawk Anamorphics and using build 18. I've been impressed with how much progress the camera has made since i last shot with it over a year ago so im looking forward to using it this time round.

I'm on Twitter

2009-05-19T20:43:00.003+01:00

Why anyone would want to follow me on Twitter I don't know but due to popular demand (yeah right!) I've signed up:-)
You can find my profile here.