2011 saw me filming a number of Sikh, Hindu and Muslim weddings for innovative film production company FilmAM Weddings. Stretching from London to Birmingham, during this period I was privileged enough to document some of the most amazing weddings these vibrant cultures had to offer. This video shows some of FilmAM‘s highlights for 2011.

For booking information visit filmamweddings.com

This is a preview from a Sukhi & Parma’s feature length wedding video that I camera operated on, produced by FilmAM Weddings. The wedding took place in July 2011 at Guru Nanak Gurdwara Temple, with the reception being held at Smethwick’s National Motorcycle Museum.

A fantastic day was had by all and I wish the happy couple all the best for their future adventures together. You can view the video by clicking the link below.

Sukhi & Parma’s Wedding

Production equipment included 1 Sony XDCam Camera & 2 Canon DSLR Cameras (1 of which was operated by myself), Canon 24mm F1.4L, Canon 50mm F1.2L, Canon 135mm F2.0L, Canon 24-70mm F2.8L, Canon Canon 70-200mm F2.8L IS II. Additional equipment included a Miller DS20 Fluid Head Video Tripods, Manfrotto Monopods, 15 Foot Crane, Glidetrack Camera Slider and a Glidecam steadicam system. Audio was captured using Rode Shotgun Microphones and a Zoom H4N Mobile Audio Recorders. This preivew of the feature length coverage was edited using Apple’s Final Cut Pro 7 software by FilmAM’s in-house editor.

My good friend Matthew Dearden has been involved with the inline skate scene for years now. The man behind the past 3 Chaz Sands Invitational events at Rampworx Skatepark, this year he held his very own event to coincide with the WRS‘s tour through Europe. He named the event the Laced Series and for it’s first year running, it was a BIG success!

Matt approached me a few weeks ago and asked if I’d be interested in making a short film to present some of the highlights of the event – obviously I agreed. A few days later Matt contacted me again, informing me that an unnamed sponsor had requested that the video be shown at midnight, during the after party of the event, which would give me just under 4 hours to log, edit, compress and show the video! It sounded like an amazing challenge, so again, I agreed.

The competition went relatively smoothly and as a result, I managed to complete my film before midnight. However, on arrival to the after party, the computer with which we were supposed to project the video with, was far too old and slow to show the footage! I tried everything to get it to work and ended up succeeding, only for the projector to break!

Despite all the hiccups at the after party, it was an amazing day, with amazing times had by all! I can’t wait for next years event!

At the end of every year, amidst all the Christmas spirit, family gatherings and tying up all the loose ends from the year, I find it near impossible to find the time to sit down and edit a new showreel. Because of this, I always end up creating one over January.

It’s always a tricky project for me as I always try to keep the video under 2 minutes in length, but as you can see from the 75 posts in this blog, there’s a lot of material to fit into those 2 minutes. As a result of this, my showreels keep getting more fast paced, with more and more material being ‘left on the proverbial cutting room floor’.

But at long last, here it is, the video that will follow me everywhere for the remaining 11 months of the year, my 2012 showreel…

Having completed the Ground Control film, I decided to have a little break from production and throw my hand to teaching for the closing weeks of 2011.

I was approached by West Kirby Residential School, inquiring into whether I’d be interested in running a 10 week film production workshop for an Arts Award programme they were running. The programme involved the students writing and performing a piece of experimental theatre, then filming the entire performance.

The students took to the rules of cinema like a duck to water, quickly gaining a grasp on university level material, learning the science behind how a camera works, the rules of film and camera operation techniques. Needless to say, I was extremely surprised by their intuitiveness and thirst for knowledge, and look forward to working on similar projects in the future.

I’ve been working on this film for over a year now! If you trawl through my blog entries you may find a lot about it from the early days of the project. This is an inline skate film for one of the biggest teams in the world! It’s considered to be one of the most eagerly anticipated skate films of all time and needless to say, it has been an honour to make!

Make sure to pick up a copy from your local skateshop when it’s available!

Last year I was approached by a recruitment company called Morgan Hunt. They had seen my film about Jenna Downing (click here) and wanted me to work on a video for the Dame Kelly Holmes Legacy Trust (click here). On viewing the results they asked me to create a promotional film for them in order to attract ambitious new talent towards a career with them.

The film was shot over 3 days, with 1 day of additional pickups. Spending so much time with the staff, I quickly realised that the message I was trying to get across with the video was the actual situation in the office, with everybody genuinely enjoying every day! The office was vibrant and fun to work in, and I ended up meeting a lot of very interesting people during the shoot. If you are considering a career change at any point, I would heavily consider Morgan Hunt as an option!

For more information see Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4.

Having completed production on the new Alfa Romeo MiTo viral, the result was drip fed to both an online audience and publicly at some of the UK’s largest sporting events. But finally, the entire story has been released for all to see!

For those who don’t know, I was hired as a rollerblade camera operator to follow Iwan Thomas as he attempted to race an Alfa Romeo MiTo over a 3.8 mile race through the centre of London.

I was recently contacted by my friend Stew Game to see if I was interested in creating an advert for Proline Skates, to be broadcast on Extreme Channel. It seemed like an interesting project and I was given a great deal of creative freedom by both Stew and Proline. The budget for the piece was fairly small, so to save costs I ended up using some archive footage from a creative piece I filmed whilst in university called ‘Lose Yourself’ and adding it to some new footage, shot in the same style.

To successfully get the effect I wanted, each rider had to wear a full body chroma suit and each scene was 4-way lit, so to completely illuminate the riders body. This made keying out the rider in post a great deal easier.

A huge thank you has to go to Rampworx Skatepark for yet again helping me out and providing an excellent location!

Yet another wedding with FilmAM saw both myself and Dan Parkes taking the helm to direct and camera operate. This family certainly knew how to party, which led to a very energetic feel to this promo edit, edited by FilmAM’s in-house editor Richard.