Flying the Red on Jib

Here is a couple of photos from a shoot I did for a South West Screen funded drama called 'Ella'.

It was great to fly the Red One camera on my jib.

Cable dolly shoot

I have been working with Gavin Thurston this year, who has has these specialist camera rigs and has been training me up. Gavin has worked on various natural history programmes like BBC Planet Earth and has worked with Sir David Attenborough many times. I am honored to be learing new skills from such a master and I can now offer this special camera rig to my services.

Titan Bet.com "Shoot out in the sky" Jib shoot

I did an interesting job last week: For Titan Bet.com. Ten stories up in central London. Penalty shoot out between buildings with Graeme Le Saux shooting and Peter Shilton in goal.

Award for New Tallent in South west at Media Innovation Awards.

I recently won the New Talent award at the Media Innovation Awards!!

See the video of the event here:

http://www.mediainnovationawards.com/MIA_100-0.aspx

Note: Click onto page two of the videos to see it.

ONEDOTZERO New British Tallent Showcase!!

I was featured in the ONEDOTZERO New British Talent showcase 2009, which was showing at the London British Film Institute (BFI).

I had to present my film to a cinema of people a few times which was great!

See Links below

http://www.onedotzero.com/programme.php?id=379&event=31216

http://blog.pixelspectrum.net/inspiration/onedotzero-adventure-in-motion-%E2%80%93-new-british-talent-2009-j-star-09-extended-play-09/

New addition to jib

Been a while since I updated but here is a few things I have been up to:

Over the Christmas period I got a chance to build an addition to my Jib. It Now fits onto a modified golf buggy! This makes the jib much easier to move around between shots, so you can get many more shots in a fraction of the time it would normally take.

I got a chance to use it for a shoot for the Tate Modern. Pity it was a rainy day.

See photos:

Next project - Motion control rig

So here is the next big thing I am working on with Felix's Machines. It is called the Gantry robot and is a motion control rig I have access to. Very exciting times!

Commission - Music video

So here it is. My first proper commission to direct a music video for a successful Dubstep producer called Pinch.

Everything I have directed up until now has been off my own back (funded by my camera work). So this came as a welcome challenge.

After a few meetings with Rob (Pinch) I asked him lots of questions as to what he liked, was inspired by and what he was hoping to achieve etc etc. and all this combined with the serious budget restraint, I came up with a plan.

We kept the concept super simple and concentrated on making less look like more with our lighting techniques. Shot in two half days. This is the result.

http://www.youtube.com/tommansfield#p/a/u/0/42rJdkh4BY8

Another film - Filthy Pleasures

From the contacts i made doing the 'Gully Side' film, I got a call asking if I could help out some guys with the filming of a night club scene just round the corner at a club called Lakota.

At first I was thinking maybe not as there was no money in it and I would probably never see the footage I was helping to film (which I haven't).

But then I remembered I had been thinking of this funny idea for a short film, and to shoot it out side Lakota would be a perfect location!

So I called back the guys and made a proposal of a trade swap. I'll help them, if they help me.
They accepted my offer and we made this funny little film.

See it here:

http://www.youtube.com/tommansfield#p/a/u/1/J6QDlJJj5cI

I played it down at the Cube (local mini cinema) the other week, and got a great response, which was a rewarding experience.

A random film collaboration

So it was an absolutely beautiful sunny day, and Tom S had just come round. We were both at a loose end and thought we should take advantage of the amazing light and film something with my jib and his camera.

Then, as popping down to the shop for some milk, we bumped into another neighbor who had some ideas, and after a few phone calls, said we should meet him in the local park in about half an hour.

So we packed the gear to the car and made our way to the park. When we got there we met some people who said we should go to another park and set up for a little acapella rap in the center of St Pauls! We thought this was all a bit ghetto, but what the hell, its all for the comunity, they'll love it.

So we went and set up.

This was the result. Gully Side:

http://www.youtube.com/user/tomswindell#p/u/8/GMHy97bXTeo

Apparently the rapper 'Bugsy Number one' was supposed to be pretty good, but he only gave us one rap (which you can see in the link above) then left!

So all in all, we could have done it a bit better filming wise, but it was an interesting random film collaboration.

Another BBC shoot

The producers from 'The Restaurant' called me back for another shoot. This time down in Devon shooting a big period house.

Unfortunately as I arrived to set up, it started to rain, and did not let up for pretty much eight hours solid! A wet days shoot slowed down progress a lot, but we still managed to get some decent shots, with the help of some creative rain protection rigging.

Other jib jobs

So as the summer passed I did quite a few other jib jobs for various short films and corporate promotional videos.

Have a look at some of them here, or you can look at more jobs and photos here:

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/tommansfieldmedia








A grand designs style shoot, rising up from behind a flowering rhodidendrum bush to reveal a grand period building.










A shoot for a period drama, involving grand old buildings, horses, a period costumes.












A South west screen funded film involving a river, a boat and period costumes.
Shot on: EX3, Pro 35mm, zeiss super speed primes
Film: Undertow









A corporate job for Modern world recording studios shoot. Jibbing over very expensive sound equipment in a tight confined space with no problems.










A shoot of a mono-log play for local production company.

Jib for BBC

I got a call from the BBC after my friend recommended me, asking if I could do a shoot from them for a TV series called The Restaurant, airng at prime time on BBC2!

It was great! I had my own assistant and a 40 grand HD camera on the end of my crane.

The shoot went well, with no hitches.

Aardman Jib shoot

So I got a call from my editor friend asking if I could help him with some 'Grand Designs' style shots for an documentary Aardman were making about the making of their new building in Bristol.

New Jib - New film

So now I had completed my new jib, it was time to give it a proper test. This was around spring time and I had noticed how beautiful the bluebells were looking, and knew they grew in the woods, so I went looking for a location, and found a beauty!

Then, later that day, I was introduced to Ed in a local pub, when I said to some friends that I wanted to test out my new camera crane, (Jib) and I had a location in mind.

After juggling between our availability's and the weather, we decided to just go for it before the bluebells disappeared altogether.

This was the result:


http://www.youtube.com/tommansfield#p/u/2/hy364P7bIXY

Another global You Tube Feature!

Yes! Another global You Tube feature!

We got well over 260.000 views in one week!

See it here:

http://www.youtube.com/tomswindell#p/u/8/m_Ajg1G3vik

thanks You Tube!

My third film - Felix's Machines

I discovered Felix's Machines on You Tube some time around Christmas last year. His machines were amazing, but I thought the way in which he had captured them didn't do justice to what they deserve.

I strait away got visions of filming his machines in a similar style to my typewriter film, so I got in contact with Felix, showed him my previous work, and a collaboration was born, the result was this:


http://www.youtube.com/tommansfield#p/u/4/GqRPtxdBMqo

Winning a film comp

Around the the end of the summer I found out about a film competition where the challenge was to make a film about skateboarding in forty hours from begging to end, in a group of three.

This looked like loads of fun, and as I have a background in skateboarding, I called up some friends and the challenge was on.

This is what we made:

http://www.youtube.com/tommansfield#p/u/3/mTVYRHYUQdk

This was a collaboration with Louis Gane and Matt (Boyo) Williams for a competition where we had forty hours to make a skate video from beginning to end.

I had a lot of fun making it, and it turned out nicely because we won first place! Despite running out of light to film the finishing sequence.

"Team Kez took the Jib-Vid crown, as well as the Best Editing and Most Creative awards, with this entry starring Boyo sleep-skating his way through Bristol."

Whole new jib

As it was getting to the end of the year, the weather was getting colder, nights longer, and I was generally getting less work, i decided it was time to go back to the work shop and make a whole new jib.

I wanted to have a jib that could easily take any camera and was really sturdy. So I started developing, designing and researching how I was going to do this.

I looked at the Jimmy Jib triangle and Cam mate for inspiration, then found a manufacture who could supply the materials, and professionals to weld it all together.

It took a few months, and a lot more time and effort than I will go into here, but the final result was a brilliant jib, very strong, light and versatile!

New hot head (pan & tilt system)

So as I started to do more jib and tracking jobs, I decided it was time to up grade my equipment as my current jib could only take small cameras like a Sony Z1.

I did some research and found a heavy duty hot head (pan and tilt system) that could take any camera. So I invested in the Camera Turret PT24.

When it arrived. I modified it to fit onto my jib arm and tested it out on a short community production. It was great!

You can see shots of it in action here:

http://www.youtube.com/tommansfield#p/a/f/1/rfkO97PcpgU

Note: look at about 8 mins in to see some of the best shots.