Step2TV "New Talent Interview" Q&A...

A couple of weeks ago I was approached by www.step2collabo.tv to be a part of their "New Talent Interview" blog series. They sent me the questions, I provided my answers, and they're now up on the website:

http://www.step2collabo.tv/profiles/blogs/new-talent-interview-nick

The Q&A itself centers around The Inevitable Decomposition of Zombie Man (which is included on the page).

Back To The 80s completed...

The epic primary school leaver's musical "Back to the 80s" was completed today, weighing in at an epic 2 hours and 19 minutes.

Similar to Hereford's Got Talent, it was a challenging project what with trying to get the sound as best as you could (e.g. fighting against the large differences in dialogue and music volume), and shooting from far away from the stage, and in addition with this project having a long running time the final render had to be compressed in order to fit on the DVD. Plus being single camera you have nothing to cut away to - so the actual filming in such a situation takes a lot of concentration to keep the frame as steady as possible, while also providing some movement and a range of shots - all without cut aways. It is tough, it can limit you, but it can also work.

Even with technical issues, and the set-up not being a filmmaker's ideal position from which to film, it came out well and I hope those involved enjoy being able to see it again and relive their onstage epic.

Back To The 80s...

The other day I got a last-minute call to do a shoot & edit job on a project called Back To The 80s - a musical put on by Year 6 students from three primary schools (Year 6 being the final year of primary school before you enter Year 7 and High School).

So I was back in the main theatre at the Hereford Courtyard Theatre, where I'd only been a few weeks prior doing a shoot & edit on Hereford's Got Talent, and I'm now off to edit the whole thing together.

Compared to my Year 6 leaver's shindig, now fifteen years ago (blimey!), it was a big old affair. Our gig was a random show that we put on (mostly left to our own devices) ... I can barely remember it, but I was reminded that I was part of a duo doing corny jokes and funny voices, and then we all got book tokens. Times change I guess, but then again I went to a quite small primary school - and our year was a mere 9 people.

Onwards to the edit!

Hereford’s Got Talent (2010)…

This was a charity talent show – inspired by the likes of Britain’s Got Talent, and The X-Factor – with the DVD creation & sale side of things handled by The Naked Creative (www.thenc.co.uk), who got in contact with me to do a ‘single camera shoot & edit’ job on the project.


Designed to be straight forward coverage of the evening’s events (a range of budding rock bands, dancers and singers from local primary and secondary schools), the project still presented its own challenges. Being a single camera shoot it is imperative that you maintain smooth camerawork throughout – quite simply because you cannot cut away to another viewpoint in the edit – but you can’t just set the camera on a tripod and film a flat shot for an hour. You’ve got to smoothly add movement and a range of shots to the camerawork as the performance takes place.


Ideally you’d have two cameras (or even three if you wanted to indulge yourself) to cover everything, but projects like this are never a walk in the park and rarely provide filmmaking luxury. Fortunately over the years I have gained valuable experience at a variety of these kind of events, that allows me to react in the moment (with little-to-no prior preparation) as unexpected things happen – and provide smooth, visually attractive coverage throughout.

"Hereford's Got Talent" web clip...

Scoot yourself over here - http://www.thenc.co.uk/ - and click on the graphic for the show (bottom left - or via this link - http://www.thenc.co.uk/gottalentl.html) to view a web clip of the winner's performance from the charity event which I filmed on Sunday evening at the Hereford Courtyard Theatre (I'll be editing it together in-full in the coming days).

I have to say all the performers on the night were all very brave to stand up in front of that audience on the main stage and do what they did, and the audience themselves certainly had a lot of fun that night - so all-in-all, very positive.

Update...

Completed the edit on Just War today; I'll be handing over the final file tomorrow. It feels good to get another project 'signed & sealed' so-to-speak, and I feel rather positive about it. I think it, along with the third Zombie Man, is my best editing work to date.

In other news, I mentioned a few posts back that I was to do some filming on Sunday night - well that filming session went well. It was for a charity talent show called "Hereford's Got Talent", featuring a selection of the county's youth getting up on stage and showing us their musical talents. It took place in the main theatre at the Hereford Courtyard Theatre (the same place Gaia & Genesis was screened last month, albeit in a different theatre there), and I've now just got to cut the whole thing together and put it onto a DVD, that'll then go on to be sold to raise further money for the charities the night was in aid of.

There should be a web clip going online soon, so when I have the link I'll post it.

Anyway, that's you lot updated ... I'm trying to get myself back into my notes for this script I've been talking about (and planning) in spare time for a couple of months now, and perhaps with Just War finished off I can invest a bit more time in the old writing, you know?