Continuing Adventures...

Laying Traps

2012-01-25T13:03:00.000Z

The final cut of the Laying Traps promo. Nice cameos...
Nearly 200k views in Germany - well done Seany.
http://www.crippledblackphoenix.co.uk/

Wine & the City

2012-01-20T13:48:00.000Z

Fantastic views of London from the top of Millbank Tower on Tuesday - shooting a huge wine event for Santa Rita Estates. It was good to see Peter Richards MW & Tim Atkin MW again, having interviewed them at various events in the past, as well as Brian Croser, one of the world's leading wine experts and a gentleman.

It was a fascinating day and a huge success for Santa Rita. Thanks to Caroline & Terry, and cheers to Tom for the food!

Rise up & fight!

2012-01-10T15:31:00.000Z

Saturday - on the set of a promo shoot for Crippled Black Phoenix. The promo is for Laying Traps, a tune from their next album: (Mankind) The Crafty Ape.

The band are always collaborating with other artists, so our buddy Sean wrote them a short treatment for a promo film. We shot it in a day at an abandoned RAF camp in Oxford - what a fantastic location. The band set up in a crumbling gymnasium - we even got made-up to play members of a dead audience.

Dozens of CBP fans were invited to turn up as extras & between takes they were treated to a few tunes off the new album as the band ran through a sneak preview set.

DP Eben Bolter was massively cool to us, we shot on 5D's under his guidance and he showed us a few great tips & tricks. School every day.

Cool New Moves!

2011-12-21T16:47:00.002Z

Just been working on a new EPK film for the uber-talented folk at Aurora Orchestra.

The film is being used to promote their "New Moves" season of concerts in 2012, where they have teamed with an eclectic mix of collaborators in an effort to broaden the scope and appeal of the orchestra and its repertoire...pretty pleased with the film actually...I always really enjoy editing amazing music to some lovely visuals!

Hope you like it too....

Nick

Pharma fun in the Forest

2011-11-18T11:33:00.000Z

Shooting a promo for the SFE Event in Barcelona next March. It's a David Attenborough style moc-doc, searching for 'Pharmaceuticus Reps' - the pharma sales rep, 'finding itself at an evolutionary dead end'!
Thanks to Ian for the great work & hanging around in the cold! @eyeforpharma @ianvoicing

Bizarre shopping trip!

2011-11-16T15:37:00.000Z

...
For a promo shoot tomorrow with Ian Champion & eyeforpharma @ianvoicing @eyeforpharma

Recent iFone pic

2011-11-16T10:27:00.001Z

Popping to Copenhagen on Norwegian the other day to grab a short interview with Agnitio CEO, Morten Hjelmsoe, for Eyeforpharma. That's my Sudoku pencil...

Into the unknown...

2011-11-15T18:01:00.000Z

Filming at the Shard building site at London Bridge yesterday, looks like something out of Jack & the Beanstalk! I wonder what it looked like from above the clouds...

We were shooting a little promo for Decca Classics, with whom we're very proud to be working with! The piece was featuring Robert Hollingworth, who has 'reconstructed' a 16th Century piece of music by Gabrieli to be recorded and released in the future...

A lovely vintage!

2011-11-14T21:06:00.004Z

Just got the sign off today for our Wines of Germany film...I reckon its got legs!

Do you have the bottle?

2011-11-03T17:06:00.004Z

Paul and I spent a fragrant afternoon at a wine tasting event for Wines of Germany last week. It was a blind tasting of the finest Pinot Noir wines from around the world.

The hope for the event organisers was that the German wines would demonstrate their ability to compete with the better known producers. And lets just say, they went away extremely happy! Paul got some really lovely footage which is currently being edited into a short film of the event, by yours truly - which I will post / link to when its ready...

500 shots of Summer

2011-11-01T14:23:00.000Z

Well... just the one - shooting the trailer for The book of Summers, which will be released next year. We're really pleased with the result:

A Question of Taste

2011-10-26T20:28:00.006+01:00

Cafédirect asked us to cover a coffee matching event at L'atelier des Chefs last week- the idea behind the evening was to demonstrate that you can match a good cup of coffee with a delicious desert, in much the same way as you can match a main course with wine...turns out, they are bang on!

A selection of "foodie" bloggers were invited along to create deserts to match with some of Cafédirect's single origin coffees. The results were exceptionally tasty! Check out the little film we made of the evening and the gastronomic creations that resulted...

Cafédirect are also running a competition to win a cookery masterclass for anyone who can come up with a tasty coffee / desert combination...

just off to the kitchen...

19 Recipes in One day

2011-10-19T18:47:00.007+01:00

Didn't think food could taste this good. The chefs at Leiths Cookery School made it look easy and were a absolute pleasure to work with.

ASDA have commissioned us to showcase their Extra Special Christmas dishes with some helpful tips from the experts at Leiths.

Look out in Nov / Dec for some Extra Special Christmas recipe films. If we manage to get them all edited in time!

Brave Souls

2011-10-12T15:41:00.001+01:00

Thursday was filming at the Doncaster Platform 51 women's drop-in centre. We're putting together a promo for them to be shown at the City Women's Network event next month.

We heard some heartfelt and deeply harrowing stories that were humbling to the core. All I can say is a big thank you to Diane and Lou, as well as Emma the Project Worker for opening up so bravely.

I'm editing right now and I have, surprisingly, been deeply moved on more than one occasion.

Our duty now is to make a film that will encourage support in the organisation that will hopefully allow more women and girls in need of help to find support in the future.

http://www.platform51.org/

I love NY

2011-09-26T00:02:00.001+01:00

Dogs in bags, cats perched on heads. Pastrami on rye, baseball in the park, ice cream sandwiches and perhaps the best burger I've ever eaten. Having a fab Big Apple time.

Cheesy Hot Pants!

2011-09-19T00:10:00.003+01:00

Slip Sliding Away

2011-09-15T21:57:00.002+01:00

We had loads of fun today using Floatcam's new Dolly/Crane. Just adds so much quality to the shots.

A very big house in the country.

2011-08-15T11:11:00.000+01:00

We got a call from the lovely Jo at freud communications on Tuesday, it was a classic "Is this crazy idea even possible with such a short turnaround time? Only you guys can help!" type of call.

Naturally, everything is possible ;-)

Alex James has been a cheesemaker for over 10 years (I felt a dope when it seems everyone knew this but me). He's launching a range of new cheese products at ASDA in the next few weeks and they need some UGC style promos for the ASDA consumer site, plus an interview & B-roll for broadcast on the Gino & Mel TV show next week.

We rolled to Alex's farm in the Cotswolds and spent the day chatting about melting cubes & bread-shaped ketchup-flavoured slices, epic cheese made by silent monks & Alex's crazy tomato plants. It was a cool day, we had fun messing about with Alex and his kids and the shoot was smooth as a nice piece of Gruyere.

We shot the interview & B-roll on a Sony EX3 XD-CAM, and we took the 5D for the online stuff, it looks pretty. Delivery is today & tomorrow so we're slaving over a hot edit suite right now.

I'll hook up a link when we have a draft approved.

Hot Cross Bun

2011-08-03T13:01:00.003+01:00

Hey,

the, 'When God Was A Rabbit' trailer is now number 7 in the most viewed chart on Amazon! We're very pleased.

Overheard in the office...

2011-07-14T15:52:00.000+01:00

Nick: "Let's make a film!"
Jim: "We need to get more work!"
Paul: "Look at that cat!"
...

Still Re-defining Fairtrade!

2011-06-09T16:51:00.001+01:00

Lorna Thorpe guardian.co.uk

Cafédirect (almost our oldest client) has won the category of Social Impact in the Guardian Sustainable Business Awards 2011. The Guardian writers have done a lovely job of summarising the overall business model.

Here's a little animation announcing the award to their Youtubers.

Winning!

Aurora Orchestra in 1 Minute

2011-06-02T23:19:00.010+01:00

Had a handful of stills, a bit of footage and some help from Basil Brush to create a quick snapshot of the diverse work and outstanding performances that make the Aurora Orchestra so popular.

The short film was created to play at the Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards where the orchestra picked up the award in the ensemble category.

Congratulations!

4 Seasons in 1 Day

2011-06-01T15:41:00.005+01:00

Had a great day filming yesterday at Paul Merrett's restaurant The Victoria. Food and wine critics including Peter Richardson from Saturday Kitchen and Sarah Jane Evans, BBC Good Food were there to give their opinions on which wines from the Chilean winery, Cono Sur should be paired with which seasonal produce.

Paul Merrett provided some delicious seasonal favourites from the simple English strawberry with Cornish clotted cream to the most sumptuous grilled aspargus, grown in Norfolk. Lovely restaurant, great food and a really good bunch of people. I totally recommend a visit!

Back in the Dominican Republic

2011-04-14T16:05:00.005+01:00

We've just returned from a trip to the Dominican Republic for Green & Blacks and Paul and I had a truly incredible experience.

Rather than stay in hotels we stayed with families in the small town of La Laguna situated in the North. Consequently we lived as the locals did; without running water, flushing toilet facilities and most of the time electricity. We ate, worked and socialised together. The food was simple and often plucked from the nearest tree. To shower after a hard day's work in the heat we used a bucket and as little water as possible as it's in scarce supply.

We managed to capture some great images and footage so look out for more stills and films in the next few weeks!

Back from the DR

2011-04-12T15:38:00.000+01:00

Jim & I returned from santo Domingo yesterday after our 2 week trip with Green & Black's & Raleigh International. I'm feeling shredded today, but we returned relatively unharmed from the cacao jungles with, imvho, some of our best footage & photography.

This was our kit list:

2 x Canon 5-D MkII's
Sony HVR Z7
Red Rock Micro Rig
Tascam DR-100
Sennheiser Mic
MacBookPro
LaCie Rugged - 1TB
A suitcase full of batteries.

Pics soon...

SXFantastic Trailer: LITTLE DEATHS

2011-03-21T22:58:00.000Z

Full trailer for Sean's Little Deaths. Going down well at SXSW so far...

2011-03-03T10:47:00.004Z

Hey, check out Penny's new role.

(photograph by me).

Kind Words

2011-03-02T01:06:00.006Z

A little experiment from wordle - this is a word cloud of this blog:

http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/3235011/Stanton_Media

Seeing is Believing

2011-02-21T12:52:00.007Z

Just finished the edit for a "behind the scenes" film we shot at the end of last year for The Aurora Orchestra.

Aurora commissioned Composer Nico Muhly to write an original piece for them and Nico came up with an extraordinary piece of music using an electric violin. Not being a massive classical music buff myself, I'm not necessarily qualified to pass judgement - all I know is, when we were filming the performance, it sent shivers down my spine...

Down to the well...

2011-02-15T17:24:00.007Z

We spent the whole day on Saturday filming the induction day for the 2010 recruits for the Green & Black's Community Development Programme. We'll be traveling with Raleigh, who are running the project, to the Dominican Republic in a few weeks time to document the project, a gravity well, built in the farming community of CONACADO, the cocoa co-operative that G&B's work with.

The Lucky winners above are (l-r) Jesting Jamie, Orange Olly, Enthusiastic Elizabeth, Modest Max & Brilliant Bruno.

Jim & I have actually been to visit CONACADO in the DR before with Cafédirect a couple of years ago, had a great trip, there is a funny video of Jim practicing Spanish somewhere... Perhaps we'll hook up again with our friend Abel, who was our escort last time and a founder of the Co-operative. A very respected man.

2011-02-11T14:36:00.000Z

A still from the new trailer of Little Deaths, Sean's next film, which is premiering at this year's South By Southwest.

Look closely and you'll see my two esteemed colleagues looking slightly worse for wear... well, looking like they're dealing with regular Sunday morning hangovers ;-)

'An important message about the arts' - an animated video by artist Davi...

2011-02-01T19:20:00.000Z

John Barry RIP

2011-01-31T11:17:00.006Z

Really sorry to hear that John Barry has died. He was responsible for some of the most iconic and in my opinion, best film soundtracks in the history of cinema. My personal favourite is the main theme from the much underrated Lazenby Bond film O.H.M.S.S.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5OCxwZI7YA

Genius.

Who Dat?

2011-01-19T08:49:00.005Z

Just found this short animation we put together for the Super Bowl last year. It was shown on TV in the U.S. to raise funds and help re-build New Orleans after Katrina. Bit of a rush-job, so no time to cut a professional VO in. How good is Nick's accent though!

Click to Watch

London: Taken by Storm!

2011-01-18T09:12:00.005Z

Hey, just noticed that our 'Team Primal' (A.K.A. 'Storm'), free-running films have had thousands of hits on Youtube. Have a butchers for yourself and let us know what you think.

Click Here To Watch

Rabbit

2011-01-14T16:23:00.004Z

Headline's 'When God Was a Rabbit' book teaser has officially launched!

Stanton Media produced the promo - you can view it here on Headline's Youtube channel.

Sarah Winman's brilliant debut, 'When God was a Rabbit' is released in March this year

Chocolate Island

2010-12-29T14:55:00.011Z

São Tomé, also known by the locals as 'Chocolate Island' produces some of the best Cocoa in the world. Cafédirect has recently launched a single origin drinking chocolate from the island. We've put together this short animation to help spread the word.

Chocolate's Best Kept Secret

its Magic!

2010-12-07T17:00:00.004Z

Just a quick snippet of tech-related news...we are trying out a new bit of Apple gadgetry, the Magic Trackpad. We actually got this little beauty for free from Apple, following on from a catalogue of mistakes they made trying to sort out a new MacPro we just took delivery of...anyway, that is a whole other story....

So, we received this little aluminum pad a couple of days ago and hooked it up (via bluetooth)...Jim is curently using it with Motion (while he cooks up a little animation we are working on for Cafédirect - look out for that when its done...) and so far he seems to love it!

Haven't had a go myself yet - but it takes advantage of multitouch technology and allows you to pretty much do away with the trusty old mouse! - will it catch on? time will tell - but its already made a good impression with one of our number...

RIP

2010-11-30T17:07:00.000Z

Leslie Nielsen & The Kersch.

When God Was A Rabbit

2010-11-17T16:45:00.003Z

We've been working on this for a little while now, and due to the nature of the business we have not really been able to talk too much about this project. We were contacted by Headline Publishing earlier this year, and we're very proud that our promo film for the forthcoming book, When God Was A Rabbit, by Sarah Winman went live on Amazon today.

The book is wonderful, and bound to be a monster. We hope that our tiny part will help it become a success.

The Voice.

2010-11-17T15:40:00.006Z

Had the pleasure of working with Tim Pigott-Smith last week. He recorded the voice over for our (almost finished) surgical training film which Jim and I shot in Ethiopia last year.

We had a 3 hour long recording session where Tim read the script - flawlessly I might add -replacing the temporary track laid down by yours truly...it never ceases to amaze me the gravitas a great voice over can add to a film.

The trip to Ethiopia was amazing and now having the final film come together with such a great vocal element is very satisfying indeed.

Little Deaths

2010-11-17T15:29:00.001Z

We just finished animating the titles for the forthcoming UK horror film, Little Deaths. Sean Hogan, the Director was 'well pleased'.

:-)

Fright Fest 2010

2010-08-27T00:16:00.004+01:00

Just finished the title sequence for FrightFest...Creepy!

stormy weather

2010-08-24T13:11:00.001+01:00

Weird call last week, we were asked to shoot some PR shots for a new client. Mattesons have sponsored Storm Freerun, a group of London-based Parkour & freerunners, and they wanted some images of them alongside a pair of glamour models, as well as 5 tutorial films showing off some simple techniques.

We had a really good day, started early at the skate park on the South Bank where we fired off a few shots. Then we headed over to a stairwell near the iMax which is a popular practicing spot for freerunners, who were there buzzing around all day, happy to meet a few of their heroes form Storm). We pinged off a few more shots and shot the tutorial films.

We shot with a 3 camera setup, shooting 75fps on the Z7, which produced some fantastic results! After a few test shots of Nick belting around in the garden in the rain, I was happy that we had a project that was worth breaking out the slo-mo for!

As well as the old FX-1 for backup, we shot on our new baby, a Canon 5D. It's our first time shooting 1080p in anger on the 5D and the results are niiize! We are very, very impressed. Have a look...

Graduation.

2010-08-06T11:54:00.000+01:00

This week we've been filming this year's graduating chef's from the Jamie Oliver Fifteen Foundation. We set up a white infinity cove studio on a spare floor of the Westland Place Restaurant and asked each chef a few questions (some poignant, some messing around).

We got some touching, varied & funny responses that should cut together into a great little piece that will be shown at the graduation ceremony, we're looking forward to it....

Laos

2010-06-05T23:24:00.003+01:00

I hate blogs that begin "I've been so busy I haven't had time to post..." or some-such, so I'll spare it.

Emma and I went to Laos for 2 weeks plus a few days in Thailand either side. We flew to BKK, spent a few hot days drinking on a rooftop bar in Banglamphu, listening to the Nuremberg-esque red shirted street preachers on the loud-hailer all day and night (and playing Queen!?).

Caught a sleeper train up to Nong Kai where we stopped for a few drinks nights before crossing the border into Laos. We spent 3 or 4 nights each in Vientiane, Vang Vieng and Luang Prabang. We tried to do everything one is supposed to do in those places. We were expecting Laos to be a little further off the beaten track than it is, the reality is that they are very well set up for the tourist trail, better than a lot of SE Asian countries at least. It's still largely geared towards the global traveller scene, we found new adventures every single day, and easily avoided some of the newer resort-type hotels. The guesthouses are beautiful and proud, and every place we stayed in uniquely reflected the owner's character. We met wonderful people on the way, both static and traveling friends. When you're out in the world it's a pretty safe bet that most people you meet are looking for the same things as you. A wonderful adventure, we'll be back one day.

Here are some photos...

Trouble brewing in Bangkok...

All aboard? The Night Train!

The hottest chili of all times!

Young monks messing about

A nice temple

er... dinner?

Mucking around underground

Mountain biking

The cows coming home

Trying to read the signs

Hmong night market

"Some people say daydreaming's for the lazy minded fools..."

Elephant Riders

Tuppence a bag

Bangkok in one

Mmm. Hard to leave this behind...

Barcelona

2010-06-04T16:23:00.003+01:00

Laconfusió!

Filming for the First Conferences SFE event. Inter Milan stayed in our hotel (it was the Champions League semi-final v Barca)- saw Sneijder & Samuel hanging in the foyer!

This shot is just a mix-up in the bathroom...

2010-04-06T16:25:00.004+01:00

Some more Pics from Jersey!

Jersey Royals

2010-04-06T15:59:00.009+01:00

Nick and I arrived back in London last Thursday evening from our trip with Jamie Oliver's latest Fifteen apprentices - exhausted!

The 2 day trip was packed with visits to small holder farmers located all over the beautiful island.

We got to sample the most delicious produce from gorgeously fresh seafood to Jersey milk courtesy of the famous Jersey cattle and of course the first spring-woken Jersey Royals!

Films of the trip should start arriving on Fifteen's Youtube site soon.

Sacred Boston

2010-03-25T17:04:00.004Z

Just returned from a short filming trip in Boston. There's something very cool about Boston that I can't quite put my finger on. Maybe it's my obsession with Lehane's Kenzie & Gennaro detective series to which Boston provides the backdrop, always a bonus to be in the place that the book you're reading is set, or maybe it's the abundance of cool bars like the Beehive. (if you get a chance order a Shortrib, Farmhouse Cheddar & Fontina Grilled Cheese sandwich - worth the trip alone). Not to mention the history, the friendly people, the obsession with baseball, the fact that it has seasons and weather similar to ours. Whatever it is, everytime I visit I like it just that little bit more.

Vombies!

2010-03-10T11:30:00.000Z

More to follow...

Berlin

2010-03-05T22:56:00.004Z

Just got back from filming Europe's biggest pharma e-marketing summit EFP.

This is the view from the hotel which overlooks the Deutscher Dom. It was snowing but don't think you can quite make that out from the picture.

Can't wait to go back and spend some more time exploring.

In production

2010-03-04T16:31:00.008Z

Nick & I have just spent a couple of days on a film set. We're shooting some 'behind the scenes' EPK stuff for a new horror anthology called Little Deaths Our old war buddy Sean Hogan is directing the 2nd of the 3 episodes in the anthology, 'House & Home'. The first & third films are called 'Bitch', written & directed by Simon Rumley and 'Mutant Tool', written & directed by Andrew Parkinson.

Tuesday evening we joined them on a night shoot over near Enfield, where dog handlers were on hand to control the 'actors'. Filming seemed to be going fairly smoothly and apart from the bloody temperature, everyone was happy at the wrap for the day.

Yesterday we were at a closed set over in Mill Hill. One of the crucial final scenes was being filmed and the poor lead actress Kate was clearly involved in some harrowing scenes. We had a nice chat to her afterwards and spoke to Simon and the DoP Milton Kam, who is shooting all the films on a Red One. They gave us their thoughts on the fully digital workflow and were generally really happy about the picture and performance.

So, we should have some cool goodies for EPK webisodes & a BTS documentary for the DVD release. Will post again when we visit Sean's set - expecting more harrowed actresses there...

Pics from the top -

On-set in London,

Gravy,

A dog and a Red One,

Simon,

Kate

Cadbury Boost

2010-02-23T16:03:00.000Z

We had another call from the folks at Cadbury the other night. Could we get down to the Gold Coast bar in Brixton and film distinguished guests from Ghana at the launch of the new Swap Songs TV ad campaign?

It's a campaign where Cadbury are asking people to swap any regular purchase to the Fairtrade equivalent (not sure everyone understood the concept thoroughly, one portly gentleman told us he would swap a crate of beer he had in his boot for chocolate bars!).

Anyhoo, the idea is that you let them know what you have swapped on the Cadbury website and you can download a free album of British song re-recorded by Ghanaian artists. Pretty cool.

So we had a busy night, interviewing the attendees (including Harriet Lamb - the 3rd time we've had the pleasure in as many weeks!). It was a fun night, we got some nice photos & soundbites for a little promo to help the campaign along. Had a sip (a sip, mind) of a Ghanaian brewskie, and we were given a little gift as a thank-you on the night - 4.5KG of Fairtrade Dairy Milk bars!!

Well, hopefully our consumption helped to do a tiny bit of good in the world(!). As I think I've said before, it's nice to see the big boys beginning to embrace ethical trade...

Phipps Photoshoot

2010-02-08T12:03:00.000Z

Just looking at the stills from last week's photoshoot at Phipps PR, the agency responsible for G&B and other premium brands - stumbled across this test shot of Paul. What a handsome chap!

Saints go marching in

2010-02-08T10:28:00.000Z

Friday was a crazy day. We got a call from our old friend and colleague Zachary on Thursday night. He's working for a pretty cool biz in NY and he called to see if we were interested in doing some 'pro bono' work for a potential client of his, Global Green.

Could we get a simple 30sec promo completed and shown on air in the run up to Super Sunday in the States in less than 24hrs?

Yup.

Big wheels turning

2010-02-02T17:42:00.000Z

We got a call from Cadbury's at 3pm yesterday - "can you get down to City Hall to film en event by 6?".

So we raced into town where we got some coverage & stills of a BITC sustainable marketing event - the current Cadbury's Chief Exec, Todd Stitzer. He was speaking to guests on the day before the Cadbury's shareholders vote on the Kraft takeover.

Todd came across as a gentleman, passionate about sustainability in business and joking calmly about the vote today.

Other speakers were from M&S & Unilever, and the general discussion was on the subject of ethical & sustainable marketing - fairly run of the mill stuff for those that already work in the ethical sector. "... for our children, and our children's children..." etc.

Naturally, having visited farmers benefiting from Fairtrade many times, it would be easy for us to glaze over when listening to it being described in metropolitan surroundings. However it's still exciting to think that "we're dealing with a very critical and crucial time" as James Brown once said. We're at a real crossroads here...

So, it's good to see that the huge great mechanical wheels of corporate industry are slowly turning towards the realisation that ethical and 'sustainable' business will one day be the norm, not just some cheap marketing trick.

P

Evidently M&S have saved 400m carrier bags since they began charging $$ for them, less than a year ago! That's according to a Powerpoint slide :-) Nice!

I'm Blogging!

2010-02-02T17:40:00.000Z

Considering the area I work in, its quite surprising that I've only really ever blogged a couple of times before on our old blog..

Now we are using blogger.com - perhaps I'll be more inspired to blog my mind more often...?

we shall see...

New blog

2009-12-02T14:35:00.000Z

To save Paul's tattered and worn fingers for more work-oriented projects, we have re-located our blog to this blogspot. Now all 3 of us can all enjoy the process of sharing our tales of suspense and intrigue in the video production world.

...and Paul can get on with some work.

The old blog can be found here.

Updates soon...