ZCars GSX-R Mini Minus & Carbon ’72 Mini 20XE

Ever since I saw these Minis at London 2 Brighton 2011 I was in total awe, from the crazy but awesome Zcars GSX-R engine install to the Carbon cladded Vauxhall engined mini. There are so many things you can do with a Mini and these two examples are two of the best!

A big thank you goes out to the owners Andy and Dougie who allowed me the pleasure of shooting their Minis as well as being patient enough for the editing to be completed.

Shot with:

Canon 60d
Sigma 30mm
Tokina 11-16mm
Giottos 8351B
Glidetrack Shooter SD
Flycam Nano

Edited in:

FCP
AE

Music:

Nero - Innocence

My friend’s wedding… video

Congratulations again to my friend Jonathan and his beautiful bride Polly. This was the first wedding I had the pleasure of filming and editing, hopefully the first of many!

It was a pretty nerve-racking video to shoot and edit as I guess I was responsible for documenting a special day for the couple that had taken over a year to prepare and countless hours of preparation. Safe to say that they liked it and I'm so happy they did and still do.

Congratulations to Mr & Mrs Coupeé... CHEERS!

From Nikon to Canon

It's been a while since I've posted but I guess it's for a good reason. Since finishing the last video and finishing up teaching at college (for now) I've landed a new job which I've been at for the last 6 months and changed from Nikon to Canon. I loved teaching but I needed a bit more cash to live and found a great job that allows me to use my product design skills as well as my newly acquired video skills, which in turn helped fund a new camera.

It was a pretty successful transition from the Nikon D5000 to the Canon 60D, I learned the basics on the Nikon then just totally expanded them on Canon. The Canon allowed far more control over the HD video feature full HD and great sound (even though I picked up a Zoom H1). Then I went on a little accessories spree and picked up a whole load of lens and adpators.

With work being busy it is now very difficult to find the time for personal projects but before I got the Canon I did do another club video with an awesome video production company called PlusOne.

Knebworth Mini & VW Show 2011 Video

Last week I attended another Mini show but this time with a difference... this one also involved VW's! I'm always quite excited about this one as I don't normally attend other car shows, after this one I feel it's a must! This video was made in approximately 14-16 hours or so, mainly because I was trying out different techniques (some of which I thought was only possible with After Effects) but after a lot of Illustrator templates, Photoshop fades and a lot of Final Cut Pro tweening I feel I'm now happy with the result.

The video and it's effects were mainly inspired by the opening race the 1966 movie Grand Prix:

When I first saw this (ashamedly on youtube) I was just taken aback by the creative cinematography and the clever editing. It was also nice to find out that the opening credits were created by Saul Bass to whom someone I pay a lot of respect. Past the opening title sequence and first race scene I loved the 3 tiled editing transitions and thought to give them a go with a funky beat and that's how this next video came along. I really enjoyed making this video but then again I enjoy all car related media thats created, hopefully I've captured the essence of this show with its laid back-ness of the VW crew and the proud Mini owners but I do have to confess that a lot of the footage is VW based... as I always see a lot of Minis and wanted to try something different. Anyhoo, enjoy!

Music - "Pick Up The Pieces" by Average White Band

What have I been upto?

It's been a very long time since I last posted. Which is both a good thing and a bad thing. A good thing in the way that I've been just working at the day job as well as keeping busy with small projects, mostly video. Which I am thoroughly enjoying and I feel like I've found an angle that I want to continue to grow and be super wicked awesome at.

To bring you guys up to speed I was approached by a good friend to jump in on an event that he will be putting on along with his company Tri3tar the event called 'Diamond in the rough' - In a nutshell it will be the first all Filipino MMA event in England. He (Ryan) asked me if I wanted in on some of the video projects that needed doing... so I thought why not!

Here is one of the interviews I made with one of the fighters:

I also managed to put together their first trailer:

I also have the pleasure of joining a new company PlusOne to which we will be (at first) be videographing and photographing events across the UK. At the moment we're following the talented DJ Complexion. Here is the first shoot in Derby's NoNo08 club:

I've also been freelancing and have been doing some work for a Virtual Office Solutions company, which has included graphic work, photography as well as some videography. Once the projects have been completed I'll post a link.

Finally... I've also put together a little video related to my other passion... MINIS! Not the BMW kind but the original classic Mini. Don't get it twisted! I've done a 3 other Mini related videos and hope that this video raises the bar for myself to constantly evolve and constantly push my creativity. The video is of the London 2 Brighton 2011 Mini Run/Show

Photos and Video updates – 365 Project & Bingley Hall 2011

It has been a while, before Christmas even. So I thought I'd better blog what I've been up to. The main thing I have been concentrating on is my 365 reasons for me to smile project on Flickr.

I guess it's just something to keep me creatively active everyday. Mainly consists of things that stick to my own rules:

Nice and simples.

The other thing I have just completed is the latest car related video. This was taken at Bingley Hall 2011:

It's been getting pretty good responses from people that have already viewed it online and in the past 3 days it has already reached 399 views. Lovely jubbly!

DIY DSLR Video Light – Rolson LED Camping Light

So I should be shooting a video for a friend of mine this Saturday at a club he DJ's at up north. Only problem is the Nikon doesn't exactly have good low level lighting video capturing capabilities, it needs some extra light to make use of the 720p.

I figured I couldn't afford an LED video light (just yet!) so I browsed over the internet to see if I could buy something that may do the same job for cheaper. I found a Rolson 72 LED Camping light on Amazon for £6.35 inc postage. I did what any other DIYer would do, I bought two, one to play with and one to keep. Now how did I attach the LED light to the camera? Like this:

I know it's a little crude, but it does the job and that's the main thing. I just used a busted camera shoe flash and some string and tied it all together, I even tried some wrapped up foam to see how it diffused the light. I've given it a test and it's not bad, it feels a little Blair Witch though as the LED doesn't throw light around too well as it more directs the light to one spot. As soon as I've taken some decent video I'll blog the results, but for now enjoy the DIYness.

After Effects – Typography Test

I really want to get more into Adobe After Effects so I decided to try a quick tutorial. The animation shows some simple text through an animated camera in 3D space. I probably have to work a little more on the timing, but I think it's a good first attempt. Next step is to import some Illustrator images and see if I can make those look cool!

TRON – Lawn Bowls

Well after the tutorial by Pariah Studios I literally haven't stopped experimenting in Cinema 4D. I have also recently been following the works of James White at Signalnoise.com and was instantly inspired by his amazing Tron Legacy posters. So I thought I'd combine the tutorial I previously done and use inspiration from Mr White and create a Tron scene, but with a little difference. I thought it would just be random if in the world of Tron you had some old timers just playing lawn bowls, so I decided to create a scene.

It was pretty fun to do but took a long time getting the reflections and textures right. I'm probably going to expand on the theme and create other random objects that would live in the Tron 'world' so to speak.

More Reflections & GI in Cinema 4D

Still reeling from a previous tutorial I decided to continue to experiment as I've never really played around with reflections and Global Illumination in Cinema 4D. So much fun!