Music video, corporate video, video video its a video show yo

So, you've probably guessed the main topic is cabbage. I mean video. Yup yup.

It seems like a lot of my efforts since my last post have been using this medium, and we've had a few exciting projects on the go.

First and foremost...as promised in the last post BEHOLD!...the Secret Genius live video in all its glory:

Now, seeing as this video was shot with literally just me, my camera and then a whole heap of editing, I'm quite pleased with the final version. I am also quite pleased with my editing skills seeing as each take was at a different tempo and I had to manually drag each take in time with the track on the timeline in Final Cut Pro...some of you may be able to notice slight timing delays but all in all I am happy with it and so are they, and as this ultimately as a business - this is the most important thing. Smiling clients...like this > :)

Now the next video is a little promo we shot with our mate Dave from Birmingham.

Here he is.

We met him, out of all the strangest places, in a place called House of Baby. Basically, a high-end Mothercare just up the road. I say 'Mothercare' when in fact their product range and personal service is indeed second to none and they come highly recommended. For all the baby shiz niz anyways.

I'm hoping that comment may score me a free pram one day...

So...look at me getting sidetracked. Me mate Dave...

He runs a company called GraffitiArtist.com...and yes...that is also the website. Quite genius you may say. We thought so...

Well, it all started about 7 months ago when we met him while exhibiting a virtual studio at zee Baby house. We had a chat, I took a few pics of him (below) and it turns out he's a bit of a legend and digged my style.

He'd always wanted to try time-lapse, and we had an empty barn wall outside our studio. Great things were destined to happen!

We recorded his spray up. Turns out he's talented too, immensely! Watch this:

CLICK ME

I also had a meeting with Urban Graphics based in Bedford and may be working with them on some large  corporate and urban development projects. Watch this space!

I find the business taking off, but time is starting to become an issue. I find my days and hours limited with less free time to spend with those I care about. If it sounds like I'm complaining, I am not. I feel truly blessed to be involved in such creative industries. They draw me in every day. And I'm doing something I love for a living. BUT. And it's a big butt (heh heh). I think my biggest challenge is going to be keeping others in my life happy and understanding the fact that two-d is beginning to take over my world. A business like this one is all about reputation. It will carry you through to bigger and better clients, it will help you climb those ladders. It got me to here and so far, it's working. It will not make you popular to friends, girlfriends, and family when they want the time you find it so increasingly difficult to share. And even when you are with them, the phones going off, the keyboards texting away, the macs pinging away as new emails land.

Busy is he.

Yup.

dD

Music Video

The week end and the lead up to it has been busy! As well as having four sessions and two viewings this week end Saturday and Sunday, on Thursday we spoke to a guy about updating our website. We like the look of some of the stuff he has showed us he's going to do, so keep you eyes pealed on the two-d website as some exciting changes coming soon...

On Friday I shot a promotional video for a band called Secret Genius from the Beds area. They're mainly a covers band but also have their own material. They range in ages and backgrounds. I arrived at the recording studio and unloaded my kit. My primary focus was going to be lighting. It was important that being confined to a smaller space, lighting was going to be key. I would always argue, primarily being a photographer - that lighting is the SINGLE most important thing at any gig, especially when covering something so creative and passionate as a band. Second to remembering to bring you camera anyway! The lighting has to reflect the energy and character of not only the personalities in the band, but their music as well.

I knew there were 5 members and so had to keep in mind we'd need to be able to 'see' them all, whether they were key in the shot or just in the background. I hadn't managed to locate any continuous lighting and had to make do with the lamps on my photography lights (Bowen 500's). Although continuous lighting would have been ideal, the subtle light of the amps in these heads actually worked a treat in the end. I was lucky enough the roof lights were blue and gave off an ambient glow of their own.

I'll post a version of the video once the band give it the ok, and its finished.

Cheers for now,

Dan

Manchester Photography Studio

The last couple of weeks have been very busy here at two-d studios.

We closed the studio for a few days to drive up to Manchester to set up shop at my business partner sisters house to photograph a set of their friends. The journey there was not a great start! We set off about noon-ish and didn't get there until 5.45pm....mission! A journey that usually takes a couple of hours, took most of the day.

The flat where we would be shooting was amazing though. The view during the daylight was immense, and any Manchester United fans out there would have admired it very much indeed.

Dave had sorted the hotel for us and I remember having a chat with him mum before we left. 

"He's delighted he got such a bargain on the hotel room. Only about £20 each per night?"

Alarm bells. I paid more than that for hostel accommodation when I travelled the world! 

Gutted!

We also found something in the sink straight out of a Stephen King novel. I won't go into details. I'm not normally this snobbish about accommodation. During my travels and three years at University I have slept in some bizarre and very uncomfortable places. However, this room was blatantly a cupboard disguised as a room and the clientele of the hotel consisted mainly of drunken Northerners. Realistically, we needed to get sleep if we were going to provide good quality imagery to the clients over the next few days.

Our HUGE thanks go out to Pete and Andrea (David's sister and her husband) for letting us kip at their flat. It was a big invasion on their home with both of us and all our gear, but very VERY much appreciated!

The family units photographed all ranged in ages and occupants, from very young babies to just a mother and her ten year old daughter. We are still waiting to hear back regarding how well financially the business will benefit from orders placed, but the feedback from the pictures designed was overwhelmingly positive. Plus, it was worth it just for this view after the sun had gone down.

We also had the pleasure of meeting Fred from the company BetFred. My business partner David had done some work for them while on work experience from University, and managed to arrange a meeting for us with the director of marketing. It looks like some work will be coming our way from them, which is a very exciting prospect indeed as they're one of the biggest gaming companies in the UK and sponsor some big races such as The Cheltenham Races. They also have some large sponsorship deals all across the sporting world, so we are very excited at this opportunity.

That was last week, and this week we have found ourselves catching up with bits around the studio and placing orders - back to real world! Today (Saturday) we set up our virtual studio at House Of Baby - one of our corporate relationships. It looks like we'll be selling some vouchers of their shelves and have one of their owners coming in tomorrow for a shoot with his two little girls and other half. I've been setting up virtual studios there as long as I can remember, since I set up the business on my own just over a year ago. Because of other commitments its been hard to get int here and exhibit as regularly as we used to. It was good to be in there today to see some old friendly faces and get back into older, familiar territory. We met quite a few expecting mums and dads, and look forward to hopefully welcoming them into two-d studios over the next few months as their families increase +1.