You can't fail to have seen the growing interest in cycling in recent years... indeed the Tour De Yorkshire has only just finished for another year... and that grew out of the amazing support the Tour De France gathered when it came to Yorkshire in 2014. However where you park your bike has become a little more challenging... if you want to find it there when you return from your coffee!
A recent phone call from Greg Villalobos reminded me that with imagination and some talent solutions to problems present themselves. A video producer, designer and BAFTA winner Greg was interested in a friend's problem of where to store her bike in a house without a garage... typical of many city dwellers. That his friend was a talented sportswoman and therefore rode a highly valuable bike made the problem a little more challenging then simply leaving the bike outside against the fence!
I'd first met Greg a couple of years ago.. it was easy to identify him as the rider of the Triumph motorbike which everybody was admiring from the windows... he was the only one in the room with a crash helmet!
Later he asked if I could help him create images for a website Gregory North, as his bike rack designs were gathering interest and sales enquiries from those who had seen his friend's example.
A clean, simple design, hand crafted in plywood we discussed the type of client this would appeal to.... and decided the white block walls of the studio would work well... so out came the drill and in a couple of minutes we had beautifully engineered bikes hanging from the studio walls... simple!
And the recent call from Greg... well that was about a technical issue he was having with a new project... unfortunately he's not just a nice guy but also one of those infuriatingly creative individuals who sees something that interests and inspires him and he jumps straight in... as was shown by the recent award from The Motorcycle Film Festival for his short documentary film on The Coast to Coast Trail.
“I used to play the working men’s club round here…” not
quite what you expect your childhood hero to say…particularly as I’d spent many afternoons lying on the living room floor after school watching
Johnny Ball explain some amazing science…
I’ve often said that commercial photography is a license to
access all areas…particularly those which perhaps without a camera in hand
you’d struggle to see…say behind the scenes of a location television commercial shot by
Dene Films for HELP LINK and starring Johnny Ball… another one of the thousands (yes, that’s right…0000’s!!) they have
produced.
So being asked to shoot a “stills package” for a commercial
was an amazing opportunity to see exactly how a large crew works together...and
I do mean a large crew, as unlike many photoshoots where “3’s a crowd” with
even a small television commercial there’s quite a crowd!
It was only really clear just how many people are involved
when they all managed to squeeze into our studio (and here’s a reminder of what the studio could look like) to shoot some “green screen”
images for later compositing! As the fleet of vans the crew travelled in "occupied" the carpark behind the studio it was amusing to see the shocked look on our usually unflappable security!
Earlier in the day we had taken over a small quiet cul-de-sac in a housing
estate, found by a location scout…with house exteriors dressed and prepared…which effectively “detained” the homeowners inside for the
duration…though they could be seen peeking through upstairs windows all day!
My role had no requirement to direct events…unlike a commercial location photoshoot…so it was great to watch and record the whole process…the
professionalism of the “talent” Johnny Ball, who was just as funny as I
remembered…both on and off camera…and the combined efforts of the Director Mark Lediard and all the crew to make the shoot a creative and technically successful.
This despite
the sun deciding to play “hide and seek” which made continuity between set-ups
a little too exciting at times…and here it was interesting to see the use of
large scrims (diffusion material stretched across frames used to soften the
direct harsh light…I know, I know...but yes we had some...several of the crew and myself had the sunburn to prove it later in the day! ) to help balance later scenes shot under harsh cloudless sunshine with the earlier soft, cloudy
light.
There was also a cheeky appearance from the Director's Canon 7D, apparently great for scouting shot angles before rigging the expensive Arri pro camera... easier and lighter to carry up ladders to check the viewpoint!
The day ended at our studio, where the crew used our “green
screen” to shoot Johnny apparently interacting with the on screen graphics…and
I shot some portraits for the web site. It was interesting to see how the Director of Photography, Si Bell and lighting grip Richard Haigh chose to light the shot…using KinoFlow and our own
studio bounce boards to achieve “key light” and “fill” all from the same single
source…you re-learn something everyday!
So to see what the final result looks like … and no you will not spot me… there are definitely no "close-ups" of me…anywhere…!
