The SlideShot Camera Slider System

Towards the end of 2014, we were contacted by Graham Moffatt from SlideShot in Preston who invited us to road test his camera slider. At Gorgeous Media we already use camera sliders - they look fairly unimpressive - essentially just a rail along which you can run your camera. However, the results always amaze me. A slider enables you to keep that camera moving which is a technique used all the time in film and drama these days.

 Graham's slider incorporates the design technology of Franke Bearings - a German company which produces precision bearings. Now then, I am no engineer - I don't pretend to understand bearings. However, I do know a smooth camera slider system when I get my hands on one, and this system is something else! Prior to using the SlideShot, I had worked with a 50cm and 1 metre camera glider. However, I found that they both had limitations due mainly to their stickiness. I film a lot of events, documentaries and weddings where I have to move quickly and think on my feet: The sliders I was used to working with often stick mid slide which means that you have to do three or four or five takes to get the shot you want. I had developed my own technique and worked out that with just the right amount of pressure/resistance, I could achieve a good slide. However, it's never certain with these gliders - they also tend to be a bit rickety and I always have to go on location with them with a screwdriver and allen key in my pocket (which can be dangerous if you bend in the wrong direction!).

Anyway, with the SlideShot, I didn't come across these problems at all. This is a really solid, sturdy piece of kit - don't let the narrowness of the rail deceive - it is really solid. The bearings just slide they never stick. I think that the bearings work in a different way because they just seem to fit the rail really snuggly - hence there is no wobble-room whatsoever. The benefits of this SlideShot's slide-y-ness are manifold. I found that within no time I was able to concentrate on sliding and panning at the same time - it gives me the confidence to try more complex shots which I wouldn't do with my old system because all my effort go into stopping the jitter. This ease of movement means that I can nail a slide shot in as few as 2 takes (I always do 2 takes as standard anyway). This gives me more time on set to get more quality shots. Time is all important in this game, and the SlideShot is definitely king!

This is a product still under development - Graham is developing new legs and is interested to develop his product to suit the camera operator - that's brilliant. Seriously though, I'd recommend this product to filmmakers everywhere. If you've already got a slider system, get this one and make the other one your first reserve. If you've never had a slider system before, treat yourself - it'll be worth it. Maybe I am a nerd: I make no apology for that - I just couldn't believe it when I had my first go with the SlideShot - you just have to tilt the rail and the carriage slides...beautifully - to a film-maker it really is poetry in motion. Below is a film I make on Morecambe Stone Jetty - it probably took half an hour to film with no more than 2 shots per take. Have a look at the SlideShot site - http://www.slideshot.co.uk

Saved - Music Video

Now then.  Here we are.  2015 already.  Who'd have thought.  How can the Millennium be 15 years ago?  I thought I'd just update you about a few things we were  doing towards the end of last year.  Firstly, our music video.  We produced the film, "Saved" for local artist Dean Buckingham who is signed with Swedish Record Production Company, Sweden Got Soul.

Dean had already had a video produced for this song but just couldn't get on with it, so he was on a mission to find a company who could come up with a simple concept to put a face to the song.  We had several production meetings beforehand to come up with a format that Dean felt most comfortable with.  And the result is what you see below.  We decided that we would work between two locations - the studio and the Quay/Millennium Bridge in Lancaster.  We wanted to film the exterior shots at night.  However night shooting obviously is a challenge to make the shot look dark even though it is lit... and also how to light it at all.  Our solution was to buy three very powerful torches and create a three point lighting set up.  It was all very Heath Robinson, but it works a treat.  Our key and fill lights were covered with grease proof paper to diffuse the light.

Now then, the song is slow and smoochy.  We knew that we needed a visual style which complimented the style of the song and our solution was to slow down the footage of the night shots. This is an interesting technique and takes quite a bit of practise on the part of the performer - Dean had to sing the song at double speed so that we could then slow it back down so that when it played in real time it appeared to be slow motion.  This posed a challenge for Dean as the song is fairly loaded with words anyway!

The strength of Gorgeous Media is our ability to respond to a range of briefs - be it documentary, music video, animation, wedding film.  That's what keeps us fresh, gives us creative energy and it's much, much more fun than just being a one trick pony.

It's All About Story...

We all love a good story don't we? A few weeks ago we filmed Kerry and Tom's wedding at the Netherwood Hotel in Grange-over-Sands. Autumn weddings are always good to film - lovely colours and often good light. Actually, I think that from a purely aesthetic point of view, the one season NOT to get married is the summer: Hard sunlight, worn out looking nature, and still the potential of rain. Anyway, Tim and Kerry's wedding was lovely - Kerry's Dad had written a corker of a Father-of-the-Bride's speech which left me with an overflow of editing decisions to make - it was so rich with anecdotes and stories, as well as his own personal emotions about the day. He started off by saying that he was not used to public speaking, but you would not have know that at all. A truthful, touching speech which left Jonny and I touched too! And, refreshingly, none of the speeches lapsed into the bog standard jokes from google (although we did see on slipped in!). For filmmaking purposes (so fairly selfish reasons really!), these are the best days - the days where you feel that you find something out about the people you are spending the day with.

 And then we filmed the guest messages too. I think we shall probably start making this a bigger feature of our work. Twenty years ago, I am sure people would have shied away from the camera. However, these days we are all presenters! So what we see is people giving their hearts and souls in their messages - messages which will stand the test of time (technology allowing!). What I have noticed is that it is actually the guests who can give a commentary of the day which really does make it a record of a moment in time which will never be repeated. You'll see what I mean if you watch the trailer below. I like the film, but my favourite bit is where Tom's mum and dad just say, "we love you". Simple truths are the most powerful and often go unsaid. I think that last Saturday's wedding has given me the embryo of an idea of something new for the Gorgeous Media Wedding Film. Watch this space to watch it develop!  

The Answer is Blowing in the Wind...

This week we are up at Lancaster University to film the wind turbine.  We are producing a small documentary for the Green Gown Awards later this month.  The University has been nominated for an award under the "Carbon Reduction" category.  I can see the turbine from all of the windows in my house and I think it is very elegant.  I do know however that wind energy does seem to divide opinion.  Anyway, this film has got me going up to Hazlerigg on sunny days to film the turbine.  I think that because it stands alone on the hill it has a very dramatic effect on the landscape - possibly more so than if there was a group of them.  I like filming it - there is a real poetry in its motion.  The film will show what I mean, I am sure.

Last year, we made a documentary about Lancaster University's Travel Plan.  That was really interesting too - it shows what can be done when an organisation has the courage to implement policies which won't necessarily give an immediate return but which over years seems to have really paid off.

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Meet the Normans at Lancaster Castle

Last weekend we fancied setting ourselves a weekend challenge, so we packed up our kit and went off to spend the day at Lancaster Castle where the Norman re-enactment group Historia Normannis were staging battles and busting myths about 12th Century history which have probably grown out an over-romantic Hollywood film industry.

Janine interviewing an overheating knight at Lancaster Castle

The day was hot and the courtyard at Lancaster Castle was a complete sun and heat trap.  However, we were not put off, although I think I did get a bit grumpy every now and again.  I have found out before when working with re-enactment societies that they just really enjoy talking about there particular re-enactment period.  This group was just the same!  They were really happy to talk away, and brought the history of that period to life.  However, I did ask one Norman to explain what the women would have been doing whilst the knights were all off fighting and being heroic - she told me that they would have stopped at home and done the cooking and washing.  I was not terribly convinced by this so checked it out further - apparently some women could have held quite a lot of power - especially when the men were off on crusades - some held keys to castles which made them REALLY powerful!  Now, that is more like it!

There were probably about 20 knights demonstrating combat through tourneys but also practising outside the Castle.  Having looked back at the footage, their fights were fierce!  I am sure that some of them are probably still feeling the effects of their fights a week later.  We talked to Chris who told us that he actually makes his own chain (it's not chain mail because 'mail' is French for 'chain' so you are in fact just saying 'chain chain' which is a bit daft... a bit like koala bear...).  I checked, and apparently in the 1100's England only had a population of about 2 million.  It's a bit amazing that they managed to find each other to fight in the first place.  2 million doesn't sound like many at all to me.

Anyway, our filming challenge - we just wanted to produce a short taster of what was happening at the Castle and get it produced in a day - it was like a 24 hour challenge I suppose - we were doing it to keep us sharp - there's always something to learn in those situations.  For example, I just wish we had filmed the fight scenes in a higher frame rate and not occasionally left the cameras in auto wb mode - I know they are small factors, but ones that I shall think about more next time.

The film is good.  Pleased with the results and we'd relish the opportunity to go back in on a quieter day and do some film work in the prison wings - I imagine all sorts of interesting lighting states and it would be just good to let people have a look at things that are so rarely open to members of the public.

Our next challenge is to do a bit of hyper lapsing (if it ever stops raining!) so watch this space.  In the meantime watch this film - it's fab.

Be THE Best Man You Can - Block Buster Trailer Release

Well, we have one more sleep until the world of wedding films is changed forever.  It's been an exciting few weeks.  You see, we had this idea... a tried and tested idea that we wanted to share only we didn't quite know how.  And then we remembered that as filmmakers we have more power than most to communicate an idea, so we picked up our cameras and that's what we did.  We reckon that there are loads of blokes who get asked to be Best Mans at their best friends' weddings who are absolutely terrified.  Blokes who would much rather spend the day handing our the odd Order of Service and supping with the other groomsmen.  However, with the mantle of Best Man falls a huge responsibility:  Everyone expects/demands that they be THE most hilarious person of the day... The Best Man's job is to present a speech which sets the tone for the rest of the day.  Give a perfect speech and the day is theirs... Then there is the flip side.  Give a mediocre, awkward or worse still inappropriate speech and all is lost.

Then we got thinking - why don't we offer a service to film the Best Man's speech before the day?  How cool is that?  We might be about to save Best Mans up and down the country.

imagine if you made your Best Man's speech in the style of The Godfather...

As filmmakers, if you don't learn something out of every film you make, then you probably are not doing it right.  This film trailer we have made has taken us all over Lancaster and Morecambe.  We have set ourselves challenges to make film sets out of people's garages and dining rooms, using basic makeup and costumes and it's been fun.

The best bit of filming?  It's when you are producing something with a group of like-minded people who get so hooked up on the shot that you are producing that you all forget to eat, you cease to feel the cold, you enter a zone which is just somewhere else.  When you are all in the zone, that's the best bit.  Our Gorgeous Media Team have found that zone.  Filmmaking is also about producing an edit that you are desperate for others to pull apart so that you can make it better.  This project has been fun and a challenge - we have challenged ourselves to make a film which doesn't compromise on quality.  I hope that we can make similar films for clients.

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Be THE Best Man You Can - Blockbuster Trailer

Here's a press release for our latest project!  The trailer's about to burst onto the scene this Friday.  The World is waiting with bated breath...

Local film production company, Gorgeous Media, has developed a brand new, very exciting product for the wedding film market.

On Friday 18th July, they will launch their idea with the trailer - "Be THE Best Man You Can". "The Best Man Speech film idea is very simple," explained Gorgeous Media’s Jonathan Patchett. "If you are expected to be a Best Man and the thought of standing up and doing a speech is giving you sweaty palms and sleepless nights, Gorgeous Media can ease the pressure by producing a film of your speech in advance, to be shown on the wedding day." Both Jonathan and Owen Warren have already tried and tested the concept, having already produced and presented Best Man Speech films themselves. "My Best Man's Speech film went down a storm," said filmmaker Owen. "We interviewed friends and family, added dance routines, special effects and even explosions! It was a complete surprise for the bride and groom."

Owen and Jonathan said that their respective films stole their friends' wedding days. "When you attend a lot of weddings,” said Jonathan, “you do become very aware of the same internet jokes being churned out. Best Man Speech expectations run very high, and we just want to give Best Men everywhere a bespoke, personalised, quirky film alternative". Gorgeous Media hopes that their new service will complement their increasingly sought-after wedding films. To find out more, check out their hilarious Best Man trailer at gorgeousmedia.co.uk or go to the Gorgeous Media Facebook page.

Production team members - Jemma, Owen, Janine and Jonny