Yalright.
So its been another busy few months of blood, sweat and post-production. But its all been worth it, because over the next few weeks I will be uploading the next lot of finished projects from this semester. Get in.
The first of these projects is actually a triple bill of something a little different - 'The Terry Caffrey' Project. This collection of short films was created for my 'collaborative brief' at the university of Salford. Unlike the previous project 'The Magician' which favoured an individual approach, this project required me to team up with others on the MA to deliver work for a visiting client.
In light of this, I was sourced by a team working in Children's TV production who needed a camera operator and post-producer for a collection of short adaptations of Children's poems by Terry Caffrey.
This project was especially enlightening because it required me to think outside the box, approaching an entirely new audience (children up to 10 years old) and also working alongside a new director and creative team to deliver 3 very different pieces.
The first of these videos 'Counting Buttons' was inspired by the recent span of heartwarming advertisments such as John Lewis and Thompson. We aimed to capture this style using smooth camera work, slow edits and soft music.
The second of these videos 'Bums' was a bit more challenging, as it was aimed at the youngest age group (3-4 year olds) I had to experiment in order to find a way to make the footage more exciting, so I opted to create the postcard aesthetic, adding a sense of fun to an otherwise dry edit of animal shots. (I also learnt working with animals is not for the faint of heart or those sensitive to smell).
Finally, we created 'No Time for Breakfast', this shoot was especially fun as we readily accepted the childrens input into what they thought best suited the story. This piece also served as the first time I experimented with sound design using pro-tools, as we felt the sound effects needed enhancing in order to emphasise the playful cartoon style.
When I was first drafted for this project, I felt the need to work towards a younger audience was slightly out of the comfort zone of my previous work. However, by collaborating with the excellent creative team and providing my own technical input, we had a great deal of fun making this collection and delighted Terry with what he calls 'his own visual legacy'. Plus, i got to experiment with graphics and sound design, pushing my own skills into areas outside of typical cutting that I hope to expand on in the future.
Thanks for reading guys.
More to come soon.
Special thanks to Meg Nicholson, Zoe Charleson and Emma Laycock for providing me with the brilliant foundation to work with on this project, and for Terry himself for letting us make this collection possible.
