Celebrity Big Brother (2016)

Last summer (2016) I had the privilege of working for Electric Robin and filming some of the profile VT’s for Celebrity Big Brother. We filmed these at Kentish Town Studios, which was a great space for us to film all our set ups without having to re-light every time. Sadly these studios have shut down.

I was involved in the ‘get in’ where we had to hang florescent lighting strips from the lighting grid and fix all the cabling neatly . Not an easy task as you can see in the photo below. To light the subject we used one panel light directly above them, as not to spill too much light on the black background.

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We also had to build a ‘green screen’ area where we would filming the contestants acting out various emotions… happy sad, angry etc. There was also a couple of large boxes that we filmed contestants in  dancing and basically larking about.(the slow mo sequences)

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The contestants in Celebrity Big Brother were Sam Fox, Marne Simpson, Lewis Bloor, Stephen Bear, Katie Waissel, Christopher Biggins, Renee Graziano, Grant Bovey, Frankie Grande, Aubrey O’Day and Chloe Khan.

The very first person we filmed was Stephen Bear, who eventually went on to win. He actually said to us ‘stick a £100 on me to win’!! after his interview. When filming the Marne Simpsons interview, if you watch the video, when  discussing the bit about a ‘certain part of her anatomy’, she looks away from the camera and smiles cheekily at me. It did make me chuckle.

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We filmed on the Arri Amira and Arri Alexa mini with a set of Canon Prime Lenses and filmed the slow mo sequences between 200 fps and 100 fps. For the interview we had one locked off and the second on a track.

I think the final videos look really good, another great effort from the Electric Robin Team.

Doritos commercial video shoot at the world famous George Lucas Stage at Elstree Studios

With all the football fever going around this summer with this year’s Fifa World Cup in Brazil I was involved in a commercial video shoot at the world famous George Lucas Stage at Elstree Studios, to film an advert for Doritos. The shoot was based on a penalty shoot out competition by 8 teams with three players. This was a knock out competition until two teams made the final. In the final the teams had to beat England’s Joe Hart.

The Shoot was organized by Endemol using Electric Robin to produce the video. This was probably one of the biggest shoots that I have been involved in with with over 50 people in the camera crew alone including Jib operators, steadycam, sound and lighting. I filmed on the Canon C300 and my task was to focus on the goalkeeper and you will see that my shot was used a few times in the final video.

elstree photoThe World famous George Lucas Stage at Elstree Studios

The Shoot out brought teams of mates from across the country for the ultimate test of their penalty spot skills – but to make sure the pressure didn’t get too much, teams had have help from the legendary Mariachi Doritos.  Bringing their own Mexican flavour to the game, the band dished up a host of distractions t the keeper had to face as he attempts to save each shot.

Elstree photo 2Yours truly operating the Canon C300

Joe Hart, who  faced the two final teams in the ultimate Mexican style showdown, said: “I’m really excited to be working on the Doritos Penalty Shootout, it’s a great opportunity to get your mates together and throw your sombrero into the ring if you think you can put one past me. You might have the Mariachi Doritos on your side but be warned, I’ve been practising”

Elstree photo 3The Teams line up before the penalty shoot out

The two teams that reached the final  stared alongside Hart in the new Doritos TV commercial, which  aired across the UK on 24th May.  The winning team that scored the most goals  also received the ‘Ultimate Mates Football Trip’, traveling by private jet to some of Europe’s most exciting cities, receiving VIP treatment at exclusive clubs and hotels.

Green Screen Video Production

I have just finished a video production for BMI Healthcare using a portable green screen, 2 metres by 1.5 metres. I filmed 7 people against this, in a meeting room at a conference center in London, where all of the interviewees were all present on that day. Green screen is an effective way to shoot interviews and enabled me to put the people in front of a unifying background. Using a selection of soft lights I was able to create a smooth even light on the green screen which made keying very easy. A cameraman I work with many years ago gave me a great tip when lighting for green screen, and that was to use green gel on the lights that you are lighting the green screen with, I have always done so ever since. I also used two backlights, normally I only use one, to give the subject more separation. In the edit I had to drop the intensity of the graphic background down and also use a Gaussian blur to make the subject more prominent.

BMI Vision stillThe interviewee on Green screen

LOOP - for edit - graphics 4The Green screen Background

 The client was very please with the result and will be sending out copies to all 14,000 staff. Another example of how effective video is, when trying to communicate with many people in a large organisation