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…


 

Hub Awards 2012 Filming

The business community in Cornwall is a thriving one which is evident from the fantastic array of talent on show at this year’s Hub Awards 2012.  The 5th annual event took place at the Atlantic Hotel in Newquay where 5 awards were up for grabs on the night, including: Best New Business, Best Online Strategy, Entrepreneur of the Year, Employee of the Year and Hub Contributor of the Year.

   

We were again commissioned to film the awards ceremony and the general atmosphere of the night.  Tom from Paramore Productions helped out to make sure everything was covered.  We produced an Intro film with an Olympics theme that was projected onto a 100″ screen.  The film seemed to go down well with rapturous applause and laughter.  Later in the evening Great Britain Para-athlete, Melissa Reid, delivered a great inspirational talk which had many parallels with Cornish Business – thoughts like going with your gut instinct come to mind.  We filmed low-light GV on Canon 550D’s handheld with 50mm 1.8’s and recorded the awards ceremony on a Sony VG20 from the back of the room.  We also setup a softbox light kit for the interview area which looks pretty nice I’m my opinion.  See for yourself…

Congratulations to Cake Top Characters for winning Best New Business, Cassie Lawrence for winning Entrepreneur of the Year, Watergate Bay Hotel/Fifteen Cornwall for winning Best Online Strategy, Hannah Jewell for winning Employee of the Year and Mark Smith for winning Hub Contributor of the Year.

 

 

Filming For J V Energen

We’re currently working on a promotional film for JVEnergen, an anaerobic digestion energy plant utilising waste food products to generate gas & electric for the national grid.  The plant is located next to the town of Poundbury, a new urban development by the Duchy of Cornwall in Dorchester.  The video is to be used to explain the various on-site processes of getting the waste products from the land to the national grid by means of Anaerobic Digestion, by using state of the art equipment never seen before in the UK.

   

We traveled up to Dorchester at 6am and arrived at 9am for a full day’s shoot.  We were given a tour by one of the farmers and then set about following each step of the process with our cameras, filming interviews with the staff as we went.  The time seemed to fly by and we didn’t even finish filming until dark.  It was an interesting day, I even feel like I learned something!