Joys Journey

Recently I helped film a two minute film for a colleague, this is a small documentary on her life from a small town to a big city. To get some shots we both had to sit on the wet dirty ground but as you can see from the shots below it was worth getting as they are well framed and has good depth of field. 

This shoot was filmed on a Cannon 1100 DLSR, this shoot was filmed using a steaicam this made the car shots more smooth and with less jerking. Even though this was shot on a wet damp day we still managed to get what we wanted. The shoot could only happen on this day so it was now or never.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2IvcUxpeh4&feature=youtu.be

The Hemp Project

One project I got commissioned to film on was a Hemp project. Here Professor Tom Wooly asked myself and a crew to film a concrete hemp process which is a way to insulate a home or buildings and is friendly to the environment. This shoot was filmed on two cannon DLSR cameras. This was a camera catching the hemp crete going into the wall and another camera caught the hemp and concrete going into the processing machine. 

35mm

35 mm is a short noir film, my role here was sound to record the sound I had to do it through the camera this meant connecting the boom microphone to the camera via XLR cable, all the levels had to be monitor by camera operator on the view screen. I was continusely listening to the sound via headphones and listening for any unwanted noises which could not be picked up by the human ear.

If you would like to watch 35mm click the link below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvsi7T0X03g&feature=youtu.be

5 Minutes With George Lowden

5 Minutes With George Lowden was a two camera shoot with 2 cannon DLSR 550 D, shot on location at his office. My role here was sound during the shoot it was my role to capture crisp clean sound of the whole interview but nothing comes with out problems. During the shoot there was people laughing and phones going of but as this was live to tape I couldn't stop recording. I wasn't able to control the situation as we were in an office space and we had to work around other people. I was also aware that we had a short time frame in which to film as George had another person coming in on that day. I recorded sound on a digital zoom recorder using a tie clip microphone.

In this project I also edited it. I had to find questions which lead on from each other, the whole footage filmed was 10 minutes but I had to edit it down to 5 minutes, with this time frame I had to make sure that the questions I used had a beginning, middle and end that told the story of his life.

If you would like to watch 5 Minutes With George Lowden click the link below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nqb8whYoGjo

Suburban Psycho

Suburban Psycho was the first film I got to edit in my career from the very start I was in deep contact with the writer to see where the inspiration came from. The films inspiration came from Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window, as an editor I admire the films twists and turns and how each characters personality comes to light through just watching them and I love the first shot of in Rear Window where the camera pans round the different buildings to see the neighbours and you instantly get to know them. I also admire how through individual shots you instantly know that the main character who is played by James Stewart is a photographer who has had a bad accident.

As this was my first editing role I came across many difficult challenges but as this was my first time it was also many others first time on camera. From watching the rushes there was some unusable footage with thumbs and booms in shot and some shots generally out of focus. To overcome this problem I tried enlarging some shots to get rid of thumb but this distorted the image and it was unusable. This meant that the storyline had to change and I had to think of my feet for the edit to work. The storyline was meant to end with Elsie being taken away for the murder of Kate and all her assumptions being right against Elsie and John's foolishness but I personally feel that I changed the ending to suit a more Hitchcock ending with the twist and turns as John really did have an affair with Elise.

If you would like to watch Suburban Psycho click the link below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBayTPvYShg

Come Fry With Me

What more unique to Belfast than the Ulster Fry. On this documentary my roles where editor and sound, I recorded on a zoom digital recorder and shooting in different locations meant a whole lot of different problems. In brights café sound was a problem as the air ventilation had a loud humming sound which was disturbing to over come this I had to ask for it to be turned down but I couldn't get it turned much as others were working around us to minimise the atmos i used a Sennheiser microphone with a wind breaker attached.

The next location was situated in St George's Market where we interview Sandra who claims to have the best Ulster fry in Belfast, I captured the atmosphere of the market and there was no real problem here. I had to ask the interviewee and interviewer to speak up a bit as the atmosphere was over powering.

The post production on Come Fry With Me was relatively easy during this I had to colour correct the footage and arrange the levels of sound, as editor it was my job to make the documentary come to life I had to make decisions with the director about which pieces of the interview would make the final cut after I showed the ruff cut to the director I then knew what to take out and put in, for example in the final cut I had to add more cut aways through the interview segments.

If you would like to watch Come Fry With Me click the link below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4W-KC48e00

Five minutes with Paul Hamilton

I interviewed Paul Hamilton who is an former member of the IRA. He talked about his experiences and how he is helping former prisoners today cope with the effects of the troubles. The camera was positioned over my shoulder so the audience would get a sense I was there asking the questions but that my interviewee was the centre of attention, this was shot with one camera on a Cannon 550D, with limited equipment available this was the best outcome I achieved as I had originally planned a two camera shoot.