Jack Clemo Film Recce

We’re currently planning for a new project in conjunction with Exeter University.  It’s a 30 minute film to examine the works of famous Cornish Poet, Jack Clemo, who lived in the clay area of St Austell.  Jack lived an interesting life and is certainly a controversial character from the research we’ve done thus far.  The documentary will feature as part of a larger project that is being put together for a conference on May 31st-1st June, which will pull together some of the country’s top scholars & academics.

   

The film itself will feature readings of Clemo’s poems themselves by some Cornish celebrities as well as interviews with living people who knew him.  We’ll also visit his home village of Goonamarris and look at the Trethosa Chapel, that he frequently visited, which is still in beautiful pristine condition.

Clemo’s work is considered to be visionary and inspired by the rugged Cornish landscape even though he become deaf at the age of 19 and went blind 20 years later.  He died in 1994 aged 78. There is a small museum located in a dedicated Memorial Room at Trethosa Chapel, where he was both christened and married, featuring his life and works and which is run by volunteers. His literary papers, including manuscripts of prose and poetry works, are held by the University of Exeter.

Kernow King’s Cornwall – 40,000 views in 1 week

I’ve been following Kernow King since I saw his Pasty Diet video over a year ago. He’s a Cornish comedian hailing from Roche but now lives in Falmouth. He has over 30 videos on his Youtube channel and most of them are pretty funny, especially if you’re Cornish, however, there haven’t been any new videos for over a year…until now.  A mutual acquaintance kindly agreed to put us in touch with each-other, as I heard he was looking for a new video producer.  Two weeks later we have released our first collaboration and it’s been a roaring success with 2 more on the way.

 

We batted a few ideas back and forth via email and came up with a couple good ones for videos.  The first meeting I had with him we chatted in his van for about 10 minutes in a pub car park in Roche, then jumped out into the miserable Cornish weather (perfect for the subject of the film) and proceeded to film as much content as we could before he had to be home to pick his kids up from school.  There was no planning, writing, scripts or even assistants, just me, The King and a camera.  Two days later I had a 9minute edit uploaded to his Youtube which was released during ITV’s ‘Cornwall With Caroline Quentin’ was on air.  The reaction was immense with 16,000 views on Youtube in the first 24hrs!  Pirate FM, The Cornish Guardian & ITV news were already showing interest and comments we’re getting on Facebook are all positive.  A week later the video has had 40,000 views with many users demanding the second episode.

Roll on another week and we turn up to another location with no plans or script, just a basic idea of what we want to show.  Kernow King has fond memories about the secret 2nd location, so it was great fun filming him perform, even though the sideways rain off the Atlantic made keeping everything dry impossible!

We have one more episode in the series planned and mark my words – this one is going to be special! Stay tuned…

Lowepro Fastpack 350AW Quick Review

I’ve been using the Lowepro Fastpack Video 350AW bag now for a few weeks and I’m really liking it so far.  It has more than enough room for all of my main equipment when out shooting video.  The separation of compartments for audio and video is the thing I like the most about the bag.  It even has a handy compartment for a 17″ MacbookPro!  I can fit my Canon 550D body with 24-105mm f4 lens attached, Tokina 11-16mm, 50mm, 24mm, video light, GoPro, Rode Mic, LCDVF in the video compartment with a little room to spare, whilst in the top compartment you’ll find my Tascam DR40, audio cable pouch with Sennheiser radio mics, Headphones, cables & batteries.

When fully loaded this bag weighs a tonne.  It has waist & chest straps to help spread the load away from just your back though.  One of my only quibbles of the bag is that when it’s only your back you’re supposed to be able to sling it round off one shoulder for quick access to the camera.  I don’t find this is the case as the zip appears to open from the opposite side that is natural to me as a right-hander.  I’ve heard only people mention this in their reviews too and it’s slightly annoying.  Otherwise this bag is a great all-round solution to carrying kit on the move.

 

St Austell Brewery ‘End of Year’ Video

In the weeks running up to Christmas I did some video work for St Austell Brewery.  They wanted to create an animated video that showcased their achievements both internally and within the community in 2012.  I was commissioned to film 8 clips of various groups associated with the brewery holding up pints of Tribute in a toast to the audience.  It was a fun project which was filmed in about 2 and a half days.  There was a lot of driving as I had to be in Exeter & Westward Ho! in Devon on 2 separate days for 2 separate conferences, and also down to the Pandora Inn at Mylor on another day.

I decided to use the 10ft jib for most of the clips as this would give the clips a bit of life instead of a static or sliding shot.  For the shot at St Columb Distribution Centre I used the Glidecam.  The media designer at the brewery did a fantastic job putting the final animation together.  Have a look…