Wednesday 27 March 2013

A Country Station

My latest film A Country Station is a work in progress. I shot this film at Harden railway station. I'd been down there previously and noticed a huge spillage of grain on the railway tracks which was attracting a large amount of birds. Most of this seed was gone but the birds were still there but a lot fewer in number. The station is still in use but was very quiet and mostly unvisited by people. I went down to do some filming around mid afternoon and then once again close to dusk. The evening before I observed a full moon rising over the hill and I was lucky enough to position my camera and score a wonderful moon rise on film! I also had been on the lookout for a country link train to come barrelling through the station and scatter the birds - but it was not to be. I did manage to film 2 loco's creeping along to park for the night at the station. I had to speed this footage up greatly, but I do like the night time lens flare of the train's headlights. I gave my raw footage to my great friend and colleague Geoff Peel. Geoff has a very good 'eye' and a very different editing style to me, and he has promised to have a crack at editing my footage. I'll be very interested to see what Geoff comes up with. Once again the music is by Kevin Macleod. I know his music is much used by short film makers but it is such a windfall to have music of such a high standard available, and his tune 'Windswept' is just a lovely fit to the footage. Hope you enjoy A COUNTRY STATION.

Tuesday 19 March 2013

New Seasons Robes

I made New Seasons Robes for my club's one minute comp. I had shot all of my scenes in the car and operating the roller door earlier and had set up the green screen on the front of my house, and unfortunately my actor couldn't make it. So at short notice I stepped in and played the roll of GOD also. I've acted before but never opposite myself - now I know how Kirk Douglas feels ! But honestly it was a hoot. Cars would drive past and see this crazy God apparition on our front veranda.. Our neighbours must be wondering about me! Once again Caroly Starr was the D.O.P and she did a fine job. My green screen was a bit scratchy but I'm learning.This was another entry in the one minute comp and overall I'm very happy with the final film.

Saturday 2 March 2013

WD-40

This is actually my latest film. We made it recently in Hamilton at Mark and Laura Owens place. I dragged my trailer over there and we shot it off the cuff in just an hour or so - in the gutter in front of Marks house. I cut it that afternoon and showed it that same night at the Newcastle Video Makers club's Letters and Numbers theme competition where it scored 2nd place to Ian Huish's 32. It was a very hot day filming and Mark and Laura were very helpful in making what turned out to be quite a fun little film. For the music I used Kevin Macleod's Radio Martini . I've used Kevin's music lots of times and he is a brilliant composer and I really appreciate having access to his stuff, good music adds such a lot to a film.