External Projects and Experiences

Steve McQueen - Q&A

At the very start of the year, I was very lucky to be given the opportunity to attend a private meeting with the critically acclaimed director and artist Steve McQueen. This was probably the most influential moment of my year as he taught me the values of his work. I could see how his personality seeps into his films, 12 Years a Slave (2013), Shame (2011), and Hunger (2008). Steve McQueen was a straight to the point, no bullsh*t kind of guy and I really admired that. He also explained that there is no secret formula to filmmaking, to him, it's a matter of going and doing. 

RNCM - Music Event

Myself and a few others were asked to record a composer's night at The Royal Northern College of Music. We recorded 11 pieces performed by a live orchestra. I was filming the close ups which was particularly challenging as I had to seek the action before it happened. Tricky at first but I found myself getting into the rhythm as the night went along.

Tim Baxter - Cinematography lab

Tim Baxter came in to show us all his gear, his work and answer any questions we might have about cinematography. A particular highlight of mine was seeing the vintage Russian anamorphic lenses that Tim used. He explained to me that he had joined a few anamorphic groups on Facebook to learn more about the rare lenses and where to buy them. 

https://m.imdb.com/name/nm7412948/

Visit to Procam

Two weeks later the cinematography lab went on a field trip to Procam Manchester. The guys at Procam set up a showcase of their camera equipment for hire. On display were top end cinema cameras such as the ARRI AMIRA, ARRI ALEXA MINI, and ARRI ALEXA PLUS. There was also a set of COOKE S4 MINI prime lenses. It was exciting to be able to play around with all this equipment as it is a dream of mine to shoot on that level of camera gear. 

Shane MacGowan Smile - Music Video

A client I have worked with in the past contacted me with regards to a music video him and his band wanted. We emailed and Skype called discussing the idea. We shot the music video in a famous pub in Belfast known as The Crown Bar. The most difficult task was editing the music video together as it required a lot of time and attention that I was struggling to have over the christmas break. I am proud of this video as it even got a mention in The Irish News. 

- News Article

Workshops from James Bridger, Samm Haillay and Rachel Durance

Three separate workshops running fortnightly with talks of valuable information about getting into and surviving the film industry. James Bridger was a gaffer for tv shows such as Game of Thrones, Samm Haillay is a producer who’s films has had many nominations such as BAFTA Award for Best Short Film and editor Rachel Durance who assistant edited Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014).

Kodak and nahemi 16mm Competition

We were given a brief by nahemi and Kodak to create a 30 second advert demonstrating the importance of a product from choices of three companies, however, the advert had to been shot entirely on 16mm film. The University supplied us with film cartridges, developing and scanning. The only hurdle was to source a 16mm film camera. I talked directly to Manchester based rental house and secured a list of kit, including an Arriflex 416 and Zeiss CP2 Primes. All of which the rental house let me rent for free. This was an exciting project that allowed my team and I to gain experience in shooting on celluloid film. This advert got selected and screened in Regent Street Cinema, London.

If you look hard enough you can see us in the top left.

Rotterdam International Film Festival and Robert Schwentke

My second visit to IFFR. I saw plenty of exciting films and installations including Harvest 3000, 2 short film screenings and sleepcinemahotel. I also got the opportunity to attend a talk by the german director Robert Schwentke. He has made such films as The Time Traveler's Wife (2009), RED (2010), and Insurgent (2015). Robert Schwentke was in IFFR to discuss his new film The Captain (2017). Interestingly this film was an homage to japanese war cinema. This talk caught me by surprise as I was not expecting Robert Schwentke to be so intrigued by cinema. I left this talk wondering how many filmmakers who have been sucked in by Hollywood are still massive followers of cinema.

You Do You

I worked with two other course members to create a video triptych on the theme of natural beauty. This was one of the first times I had worked with models and I found it difficult to communicate to articulate with the models and did not want to appear amateurish. I am happy I work on this as I now feel more confident I can work with actors and models.

We uploaded the videos on Instagram and can be viewed HERE

Visit to Panalux

Our course had another field trip this time to Panalux studios to learn more about lighting and make connections with the staff. This was exciting as we got to play with industry standard lighting such as an Arri Skypanel and Kino flows. What particularly stood out to me was the lighting that Panalux were developing themselves. They have made a light panel to neatly and discreetly fit office ceiling panels. The lights were allowed to be dimmed and the colour temperature to be altered to your need. 

MSA film festival trailer

As part of the MSA Production company that our course established and for the film festival running at HOME MCR on 7th June I was a part of a small team that made a trailer for the festival. We were pushed for time but managed to get a high production quality looking trailer made to reflect our standard of work.

This Day filming in Kilkenny, Ireland

I was given the opportunity to be an AC on a short film being produced in Ireland. This was an incredible chance to make connections with like minded people in the country I am from and could have lead to possible future projects. However, I had to give this up in order to complete one of my graduate films. This was a bummer and I do slightly regret missing this but I know I did the right thing. I made an effort to be apologetic and sincere in letting the producer know so that she could one day come back and ask again. 

What's next?

I have already made plans with a client to create a advertisement for their book. This is something I have done in the past before and I am excited to get working with it. The client has asked to mostly use archive footage of Las Vegas as that this the setting of the novel. 

Online spaces promoting myself

Navigate above to my Home page that contains my Creative CV and Showreel or Click Here.

Distribution Materials for In Bloom (2018)

A blossom flourishes, withers and is then reborn. A personal insight into the recovery of a young girl who sustained life-altering injuries in the Manchester Arena Attack in May 2017. The filmmakers explore the ways in which the incident has affected Hannah’s life and her positivity towards her physical and emotional recovery.

Crew:

• Producer & Director: Jess Mone
• Cinematographer: Angus Graham
• Editor & Sound: Hannah Vigus

Social Media:

• Facebook
• Instagram

Reflections

Since I bought my Sony A6300 two summers ago I have had a keen interest in figuring out the best camera settings that work for me. Experimenting with different colour spaces within the camera broadened my understanding of log formats such as Slog2 and Slog3. Though many tests, I found Slog2 to work in most scenarios and Slog3 was only beneficial in low light, however, Slog3 is one stop of dynamic range less than that of Slog2. This decision led me to focusing on using Slog2 on my footage. I find that shooting 2 stops over-exposed makes the most of dynamic range, colours and correct exposure of skin tones while also diminishing the amount of digital noise. My camera is the most significant equipment I need to project my ideas into my medium so I believe it is essential to know it inside out.

I wish to extend my knowledge of working with multiple cameras. I am satisfied to exceptional use with my Sony A6300, Canon DSLRs, Blackmagic Cinema Camera and the Ursa Mini Pro. I have only started this year working with Arri and that was a film camera so I guess you could say I had been thrown in the deep end. My goal is to be able to walk onto any film set and be confident in using their camera of choice whether it’s my camera or the top of the industry. I may not be the one operating the camera but I want to be aware of it’s strengths and weaknesses.

For the last year I have set aside a huge amount of effort into sharpening my skills with DaVinci Resolve. The latest two tricks that I have started implementing into my grading is use of a colour card and handling log footage more effectively. From the AV Store at university, we were able to rent out a colour calibration card. When you grab a shoot of the whole card having set up all your lighting and camera settings as desired, you can utilise a feature in Resolve which will read the colour values of the card in your footage and transfer them into how they originally looked in person. The card is basically a short cut to accurately “correcting” your footage to how it should look. I have Protan Colour Blindness so this method of colour grading helps me grade my footage with better confidence. When I used to grade my footage, I would throw on a simple Technical LUT to convert Slog2 into Rec. 709. Resolve is a node based editor and if any of the footage had surpassed the whites and/or blacks, then the information could not be retrieved in a later node. To bypass this, you must use one of Resolve’s built-in plugins called Color Space Transform. By using the plugin on either end of your grade you can preserve the correct level of dynamic range.

I wish to keep developing my comprehension of DaVinci Resolve as I am aware of the vast capabilities that Resolve can add to your project. With more knowledge through research and practice, I will be able to utilise Resolve to it’s full potential. I am going to use courses on Lynda.com while it is still free and experiment downloading raw files from camera manufacturing websites like Arri to test out colour grading.

My strategy for employment is to aim for a job as a videographer as it will allow a steady income while being able to do what I love. If this does not work out for me and I am struggling, I will look towards rental houses as I will gain valuable information on how to use industry standard equipment. I do wish to work as a cinematographer on short films and hopefully obtain roles on industry work which will help gain work experience, however, these cannot come reliably enough to sustain a graduate career path. 

With regards to marketing my graduation films, I know that In Bloom has the potential to earn some traction with film festival circuits and in particular with the degree show. I believe I should make this most of this by printing out business cards and placing them next to the exhibition. This way I will be able to direct any interest to my website which includes my creative CV and showreel.

Speaking of the degree show, I am working with Jess and Hannah to set up an exhibition which expands on the narrative of our In Bloom documentary. We will be displaying dairy entries, clothing and other items relevant to Hannah Mone’s recovery of what happened on the 22nd May 2017.