Tama UK 50th Celebration
This one holds a special place in my creative journey. It was my first big paying gig and I was also my first company experience. Prior to this I hade’t worked with a company, just people and simple briefs. To be honest I had no idea how the video world worked.
All I had was my Canon 7D MK2, 70-200, 55-250 and a fisheye lens. No gimbal, no APSC or mirrorlessand not even the knolage to use Premeir or anything like that. Luckily I could borrow a Canon M50 MK2 which shot 4K and had the sense adapter that I needed in order to use my lenses on it. The gimbal came the penultimate night before the gig via the WEX’s next day delivery, and I don’t think I could have done this gig without it.
This experience is a prime example of the tools that are on YouTube and what translates from photo to video. Having no idea what I was doing for the video side, I went in with a vision, made sure to get enough content, and produced a pretty good video for instagram.
Any way, here’s Tama UK’s 50th celebration video.
INTO Music Benny Greb Clinic
Working with Jake from INOT Music was one of the best working environments I could have asked for. Not only for this gig I was producing for a drum shop (with is already pretty cool) but I was producing a product for someone who makes the job feel worth it. I spent the afternoon of the gig gathering clips of the shop, setup and merch which was a main focus point of the video. we were asked not to film the show with was fine and this is where the pictures come in to help move the time line along to the evening, where I shot the meet and greet, gathering atmosphere and personality within the clips with portray the overall great vibes of the night.
Zack Grooves at Drum Shop
This gig was basically a hangout with cool drummers and people. Zack was coming over for a Clinic tour and Andy (Drum Shop) was happy to accommodate us. The video was shot for the shop (as well as the photos) to go up on it’s website/blog. last year I missed this event so I really wanted to preform for Andy so that he could use the pictures over time. We showed up for the set up before Zack arrived to brows the shop and to set my own gear up. There was also an impromptu Drum Shed Podcast interview with Zack with needed lighting and setting up for that separate video, so I made sure to use the time well. This is probably my favourite video, I haven’t got a specific reason why, I just really like the vibe and production.
Everything Yes at The Jazz Cafe
Working This gig came from a personal connection with Zack. We’ve been friends for years and I was wanting to shoot the band when they came to the Jazz Cafe. This would be the second year shooting them on their UK tour and seen as the boys were happy with the results from last time, they were all happy to have me along for the ride. The Jazz Cafe is always a tricky place to shoot, low light, no pit / space to move and limited angles. However this venue is a joy to shoot because of the people and atmosphere. Everyone is lovely, the band is lovely and the evening went well. Annoyingly there was more set up shots rather than playing shots, probably because I was focused on the photos and worrying about where I was going to be. But oh well the video came out prey cool.
Settings at the Brix
This was a different type of gig for me. Settings is a collaborative show which focuses on electronic music. This was taking place in a club in Brixton (hence the name) which ment low or next to no light and what I would have thought to be a tight space. fortunately this was on a Thursday, so it wasn’t as packed as I feared but still plenty of people. I used the lack of light to my advantage buy using it to highlight what I was filming such as the lights on the gear and the lights scanning over the crowd and musicians. overall pretty cool gig Max (my contact) was more than acomodateing and the rest of the performers were great people too.