Distribution Package

My Show Reel

Here is a recent show reel I made. I am going to make a new one shortly once my most recent work has been released.

Naked Veins Music Video

This is a music video I produced over a year ago now. I am in the pre-production stages of a new music video for the band at the moment, this time a more story driven video.

Research Bibliography

Books

Higham ,Charles (1970). Hollywood Cameramen: Sources of Light. London: Thames and Hudson Ltd. p7-175.

Laszlo, Andrew (2000). Every Frame a Rembrandt, Art and Practice of Cinematography. Boston, USA: Focal Press, Butterworth-Heinemann.

Rogers, Pauline (2000). Contemporary Cinematographers. Boston, USA: Focal Press, Butterworth-Heinemann.

Rogers, Pauline B. (2000). More Contemporary Cinematographers. Boston, USA: Focal Press, Butterworth-Heinemann. p1-199.

Salvato, Larry and Schaefer, Dennis (1984). Masters of Light. London: University of California Press Ltd.

Sutton, Damian (2009). Photography, Cinema, Memory. Minneapolis: The University of Minnesota Press. p1-135.

Films

All the Presidents Men, 1976, motion picture, Warner Bros, Director – Alan J. Pakula

Manhattan, 1979, motion picture, Director – Woody Allen

Annie Hall, 1977, motion picture, MGM, Director – Woody Allen

The Big Combo, 1955, motion picture, Director -  Joseph H Lewis

Children of Men, 2006, motion picture, Universal Pictures, Director – Alfonso Cuaron

Citizen Kane, 1941, motion picture, RKO Radio Pictures, Director – Orson Welles

End of the Road, 1970, motion picture, Director – Aram Avakian

Enter the Void, 2009, motion picture, ICI Films, Director – Gaspar Noe

The Godfather 1972, motion picture, Paramount, Director – Francis Ford Coppola

The Godfather Part II 1974, motion picture, Paramount, Director – Francis Ford Coppola

The Grapes of Wrath, 1940, motion picture, 20^th Century Fox, Director – John Ford

Gravity, 2013, motion picture, Director – Alfonso Cuaron

The Great Escape, 1963, motion picture, Director – John Sturges

Innocence, 2013, motion picture, Director – Hilary Brougher

Irreversible, 2002, motion picture, 120 Films, Director – Gaspar Noe

Klute,  1971, motion picture, Director – Alun J Pakula

Palmy Days, 1931, motion picture, Director – Edward Sutherland

Sin City, 2005, motion picture, Dimension Films, Director – Frank Miller/ Robert Rodriguez

Sleeper, 1973, motion picture, Director – Woody Allen

Spring Breakers, 2012, motion picture, Director – Harmony Korine

Stardust Memories, 1980, motion picture, Director – Woody Allen

Take the Money and Run, 1969, motion picture, Director – Woody Allen

My Reflective Account - Joseph Oldroyd

Reflective Account – Joseph Oldroyd

  My main practice within film is cinematography. I eventually want to be a Director of Photography for feature films, but before I get to this stage I need practice in all aspects of cinematography. In the past year I have really pushed myself with external projects, thus developing as much experience as possible.

  The past few months have been extremely busy for me, as many external projects/job offers have come in along side the pre-production and production of my graduate films.

  I work for a Corporate & Private events company called Flix’n’pix, as a camera operator. This is mostly to generate some money for new camera equipment, but I have also learnt a lot from working on these events by observing the practice of the two company owners, as they are very particular and caring over their kit.  This is a good trait to have as I now carry this attitude with me throughout filming.  I have also learnt how to handle clients and crowds. These events are often very busy, filled with family and friends, so it is important to constantly be polite and friendly, but at the same time get all of the shots that are needed. I used to be shy and reserved on bigger sets or with people I didn’t know but this has helped me over come this, and can take this attribute into my practice.

  I have also worked free-lance on other external projects. I have done a number of behind the scenes videos for a new company called Wreck My Dress, which is a collaboration including the highly regarded Manchester based production company Sitcom Soldiers, who specialise in music videos. These ‘behind the scenes’ videos led to me working along side them as a camera operator on a publicity stunt they did with Key 103 in February. I have also done two promotional videos for the Cassie Lomas Make-up Academy, owned by make-up artist Cassie Lomas, who has worked on celebrities such as Lady Gaga, Iggy Azalea and the Brits. I have made a good contact with Cassie and she has promised me more work in the future. I also recently worked for the BBC as a focus puller for steadi-cam, on a live broadcast of the 6 Nations Rugby match, Scotland v France. This was in preparation for the Commonwealth Games, in which I am being steadi-cam assistant/focus puller for 18 days in a row, in Scotland. This is all paid work, including paid hotel and food/travel expenses. I am looking forward to this, as I am sure I will learn a lot and try to get myself known in the industry, hopefully leading to even more work. I also have two paid music videos that are in pre-production at the moment.

  My ultimate aim is to be working on feature films, but I have a long way to go yet. Once I leave university I plan to work free-lance on as many events/projects as possible, to earn money to live off, and also to fund my short films, and build up a reputation this way. Many famous DPs work their way up by starting like I am, then moving from music videos to commercials, and then some make it to feature films.

  I have been researching the art of cinematography thoroughly over the past few months, reading articles and watching interviews with top DPs in the business. I found it very interesting to see the varied opinions and tastes that these DPs have, but yet they all seem to agree about two things. One being that the main goal of the cinematography is to aid the story/director’s vision in the best possible way, and another is how important lighting is. One of the main influences in my work comes from a cinematographer who is seen in many people’s eyes as the best ever, Gordon Willis. Willis shot films such as Manhattan (Woody Allen, 1979) and The Godfather (Coppola, 1972), changing the art of cinematography forever. Another, more contemporary cinematographer which I am majorly influenced by is Benoit Debie. Debie shot Harmony Korine’s latest feature Spring breakers (Harmony Korine, 2013), and Enter the Void (Gaspar Noe, 2009), which both have strikingly vibrant visuals and colour schemes. Like Willis, Debie uses colours and lighting to set the overall mood/look to a film, ultimately shaping the way that the audience feels about a scene. This is something I have taken into my practice, as when I read a script now I categorise the aim of the scene, and from this decide how the scene should ultimately look.

  Problem solving is constantly present on set. Especially on the low budget films/videos that I work on, and I feel that I am good at overcoming these problems. Time is a constant strain, so therefore I have had to learn to work fast and efficiently. When working as a camera assistant, it is crucial to be able to think fast and ways around things, to take a weight off the DP’s shoulders. A good 1^st AC should be doing the job without having to be told what to do by the DP. This means checking batteries for charge, having lenses to hand and most importantly understanding the look that the Director of Photography is trying to create, and aiding his vision in the best possible way. Over the past 2 years I have been a 1^st AC on many shoots. I am now much more efficient than I was when I started, as I am much more technical and experienced. I am a kinesthetic learner, meaning that I learn best from working practically, so getting as much experience on set as I can improves my practice greatly. Being an Assistant also allows me to observe how other people work. It is also a good chance to get to grips with new equipment, for example I hired a Canon C300 for one of my graduate films, and because I had been around it before it was much easier to get used to. I also hired a Profoto Pro-daylight HMI that I had used on sets before so therefore I had knowledge on whether it was capable of functioning well enough for the purpose I had in mind. Working in film creates lots of problems, both technical and artistic. There are often disagreements on how to shoot a certain scene or shot, and it is up to the crew to come to a conclusion on this, sometimes having to compromise for the macro perspective of the film. I have learnt that cinematography isn’t the most important aspect of a film, instead, the camera is a tool used to put someone’s vision on the big screen. This means that sometimes I have to compromise on certain shots that I want if the director doesn’t feel that it would aid the story.

  I have improved on my organisational skills a lot since starting University. I have seen first hand that lots of work needs to be put into the projects to get the results wanted. Once I have read the script of a film and broke down the scenes into how they should visually look, I then start to research how I could best create these visuals. I look at the technical and creative side, watching certain films or scenes from films that created a similar look to what I want, and then researching the best technology/kit (within my budget) to achieve this look.

  There were many techniques used on Holloway’s Garden that I had not had experience with before, and therefore had to do thorough research in order to pull it off. One of the most challenging of these was the green screen. For the research film we briefly used the chroma-key method, but this was sprung on me last minute and therefore I did not have chance to do my research. The lighting was wrong thus the green screen did not work correctly. As I had lots of time to prepare this time round, I did my research on the correct way to light the subject and the green screen itself, but I also went into the studio and practiced these methods. The tutor in the green screen studio was very helpful and gave me tips on how to use the green screen properly. As we needed a full body shot for the fairies, the lighting method is slightly different and more difficult than normal, so therefore I had to practice this a number of times until I got it right. The tests that we have done so far look good so I am hoping the hard work will pay off in the final film.

 I also experimented with underwater filming. Underwater filming is a specialist area of filmmaking, which is very difficult to perfect. Although my underwater shoot was very simple, consisting of just a few shots and a couple of seconds of film time, it proved to be very difficult. We used Levenshume Swimming Baths for this shoot, where they kindly allowed us to turn the house lights off, and use 1 800w redhead to shine directly through the water, giving shards of light into the water, which was the look I originally wanted but thought this may not be possible in a public swimming baths. We then laid black cloth across the wall of the pool, behind the subject to disguise where we were, and weighed them down with weights. I used my own Canon 6D DSLR for this shoot, in a waterproof case, which proved very difficult to use. I had to set all the in camera settings before placing it into the case, including the focus and aperture, and then guess the focus point once in the water as I was unable to see the screen through the case. When we started filming we quickly found out that our actress was a weak swimmer, although she told us otherwise in her audition, so therefore we were unable to get the exact shots we initially wanted. Instead I managed to capture decent snippets of footage that we can chop up and add into a sequence. Although this shoot did not go to plan, there are still some shots worthy of making the final film and it was a good experience for me to learn from.

  For Elliot’s film, Peasants (working title) I had to be very organized. I was hiring a large amount of equipment from Calumet, and also had to organize an official police officer to be in the film. He agreed to have a small role in the film as long as his badge number was not visible, and he checked with his boss to make sure this was ok, which it was. The problem was that we had to film whilst he was working; therefore I found a location suitable for the scene in Swinton where he works, so that if he got a call he would be close by. I was very stressed on the day of shooting this scene because I knew that so much could go wrong. Elliot and I went to the location extra early to plan out all of the shots. We just about managed to get the footage we needed, but the quality of it suffered because of the lack of time. I also managed to hire a steadi-cam at a cheap rate for two shots in the film. These shots were very specific and would not have had the same effect if I had done them handheld so therefore it was important to hire this piece of equipment.

  I have tried to be experimental and innovative in my time at University, particularly in my final films where I have used many different styles and techniques, consisting of cranes, steadi-cam, underwater filming, green screen, and industry standard cameras. I have used the time to explore and develop my own style, practicing and testing an array of different styles until I found my own. Through the study of cinematography theory, I have much more knowledge and understanding on how to tell these stories in the best possible way, through lighting and how a character is portrayed on screen.

Bibliography

Manhattan, 1979, motion picture, Director – Woody Allen

Enter the Void, 2009, motion picture, ICI Films, Director – Gaspar Noe

The Godfather 1972, motion picture, Paramount, Director – Francis Ford Coppola

Spring Breakers, 2012, motion picture, Director – Harmony Korine

CV

  This is my Professional & Employability CV which I plan to send off to production companies in the near future:

Music Score - Peasants

  A close friend & musician, Will Connell offered to do an original score to the film. He has never done a film score before but has lots of experience making music of many genres. He has been playing guitar since he was 4 years old and loves to make music. He is currently producing music under two aliases, Slutch (Alternative Rock), and Atom Counter (Electronic). This was just what Elliot was after as he wanted the score to be a mix between acoustic/electric guitars and electronic beats. I am looking forward to seeing what Will can muster up and think it will aid the film tremendously.

Below are some example's of Will's solo music:

https://soundcloud.com/slutchuk

https://soundcloud.com/atom-counter

Will has also kindly allowed me to use one of his tracks for me showreel. The track is called 'Drift' and is Pink Floyd inspired.

https://soundcloud.com/slutchuk/today-drift-pants-era-my-way

Berlinale Film Festival

  I recently travelled to Berlin, for the Berlin Film Festival. It was a University organised trip, although some people decided to book separately. I wanted to go through Uni as they were organising trips to different locations, one of which being the Babelsberg Film Studio, located just outside the city.

  On the first day we went on a tour of Berlin, which I found the most interesting part of the whole trip. The tour guide was very good, and it was her last day working as a tour guide after being there for four years. She is currently writing a book about the History of Berlin. We was popular buildings and attractions such as the Reichstag and Brandenburg Gate, but also to other interesting places such as the Jewish Memorial, and Hitlers Bunker (we could not get into the bunker but she showed us where is was).

  The trip to Babelsberg was very interesting. Recent films such as Tarantino's Inglorious Basterds and Wes Anderson's Grand Budafest Hotel were filmed at these studios, so I was very exited to see how it all works. The tour started by being given a brief history on the studio's, as they were around at the same time as Hitler, and then we were shown the large studio spaces, where they build all of the sets, and finally we were shown the props and costumes building, which was the most interesting part, as they had the largest set of props in the world, thus winning a Guinness world record for the collection.

  After visiting Babelsberg Studios, we went straight to the box office to get tickets for a French Comedy film called Dans La Cour - translation 'In the Courtyard. This was a premier, so their was a red carpet, and the cast and crew were there. I had never been to a premier of this calibre so it was an exiting experience. I did not know what to expect from the film as I had never heard of it, or any of the crew, but I was pleasantly surprised. I really enjoyed the film, it was hilarious, forcing me to laugh out loud, which is really difficult to do with a foreign language film. I will be sure to watch it again once it is released onto DVD. Unluckily, this was the only film I got to see whilst I was in Berlin as we were only there for two days, but the experience was fantastic and I look forward to going to Berlin again in the near future, hopefully next time for a little longer.

PEASANTS - RESEARCH

  For this short film, I decided to take a completely different approach to cinematography. As apposed to the smooth tripod work I planned to shoot with the fantasy film, with this I wanted to shoot it almost completely handheld. When I read the script, in my opinion the story was shouting out for gritty, imperfect cinematography, to fit the storyline. This is a style which I am very familiar with, and I style that I personally prefer, so it was good to be working on a story that would really benefit from this style. I planned to have lots of handheld movements, and shoot through doorways, windows, cracks in walls etc, to generate this voyueristic feel. For the research film, I decided to go for a more slapstick cinematography style, as me and Elliot felt that this fit the story at the time, but it did not work as well as we thought, also, the script for the grad film has much more subtle comedy, and a lot darker, and more drama driven.

  I started my research by looking at a cinematographer that I was formerly familiar with, being one of my favour DPs, Benoit Debie. Debie started his feature film career in France, where he shot a groundbreaking film Irreversible (Gaspar Noe, 2002). This film is known for its brave cinematography, consisting of really long takes and little editing. Instead Debie decided to follow the action, instead of cutting stereotypically and this made the film feel more real, which is what Gaspar Noe wanted along side his gritty/dark script.

  Debie's style is getting more and more recognisable, and he has created his own, unique look which I admire. His most recent work was for Harmony Korine's Springbreakers, which in my opinion is his best work. For my film Peasants I wish to use similar camera movements, but with a completely different colour palette to Springbreakers, which was very rich, vivid and vibrant, and instead go for a washed out, cold, de-saturated look.

  When researching colour schemes, the way Ben Kingsley's character, Don in Sexy Beast (Jonathan Glazer, 2000) is lit throughout the film sprung to mind, as inspiration for how to light the Interviewer, who is seen as the Villain of the film. There is a specific scene that I would make this very present, and it is the first time that the Interviewer is seen in the film, and me and Elliot wanted to make him look as intimidating as possible through both the lighting, and how I shot it. 

  Another inspiration for the way the Interviewer would be shot was Don Corleone in The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972). As Gordon Willis top lit Brando so that black pools covered his eyes, making him seem more daunting. This was the first time that this lighting method had been used in Hollywood. 

  I was heavily influenced by Ben Wheatley's films for the overall look of this film, especially his first feature, Down Terrace (which was made on a budget or 6 grand). Down Terrace (Ben Wheatley, 2009) was an inspiration for Peasants, in particular, for the scenes set in Joe & Pete's Squat. The lighting is very natural, using lots of daylight and little tungsten lighting. As the characters in my short film are in a squat, there is no electricity, therefore all the scenes in this location use daylight. I wanted to light each character slightly differently. The interviewer being lit low key, with one half of his face dark, and Joe to be lit High key as he is the protagonist, and the hero(ish) of the film. This mostly came down to the blocking and where I positioned the actors on set. 

HOLLOWAYS GARDEN - RESEARCH

  While in the pre-production stages of the short fantasy film, I carried out lots of research into the best ways to portray the story on screen. I looked at lots of fantasy films, including the works of Guillermo del Toro (Pans Labyrinth, The Devils Backbone, Cronos). Pans Labyrinth was a big inspiration for me when researching for Holloways Garden, they are similar in many ways, for example both are dark fantasies aimed at an older audience, and both have Labyrinth scenes. Although I took inspiration from this film, it was important that it didn't look too similar, especially the Labyrinth scenes, as I wanted to add my own personal style into the aesthetics. Pans Labyrinth is a brilliant example of what can be achieved without a heavy use of special effects, and how you can create tension through seeing little and using sound design to an advantage.

  I realised that the Labyrinth scene would be very difficult to pull off with such low budget, as we could not build a plausible set with the money/time we had. Therefore we came up with the idea that the audience see little, only Victoria as she holds the lantern and walks around the Labyrinth, and then the rest would be built into the sound design, ie hearing her voice echo to trick the scale of the labyrinth and make her feel more alone, and hearing monsters and other scary sounds. We are using Victoria's mind as a way of getting round this, as we will generate different fears in the different stages of the Labyrinth, putting the audience in the shoe's of Victoria, as they will be guessing what is around them as much as Victoria. Again, sound design will play a big part in this.

  http://vimeo.com/43912784

This short film is a prefect example of what can be achieved through lighting and sound design on a low budget. The film is clearly done in a studio, we aim to do a similar thing with the labyrinth scenes in Holloways Garden.

  As I had never filmed underwater before, I did some research to figure out the best way to do it on a low budget, and watched lots of different films/videos that have underwater sequences to work out how I wanted the sequence to look. I watched the XX - Chained music video, and loved how the bubbles looked and how the shards of light cut through the water.

  It was suggested that I use a GoPro camera for this shoot as they are simple to use and waterproof, but I do not like the aesthetic that a GoPro produces, and it would not fit with the rest of the film, therefore I used my Canon 6D, which I had used for the rest of the film, and used an underwater case. It is possible for DSLR cameras to over heat when underwater and in a cheap case such as the one I used, so therefore we did not have much filming time as I did not want to risk it.

  I needed a way to light Victoria in the labyrinth, that would move with her, as a static light would ruin the illusion of the lantern giving the light. and it would also reveal the surroundings which we did not want to do. I researched ways in doing this, and the best way on a cheap budget was to use a Chinese lantern, with a tungsten bulb inside, and then walk alongside the camera with this light, thus giving the illusion of the lantern giving the light. I also bought a dimmer kit to attach to the bulb, meaning that I could manually dim the bulb whilst filming, emulating the flicker of the lantern.

 

Rehearsals & Test shoots

  We went down to the studio space in Levenshume to do some rehersals, and test shoots at the same time. My main goal here was to test the lantern in the studio to check if it worked the way I wanted it to. Here are some stills from the lighting tests...

  Here are some stills from the Rehearsals...

Hartheim - Music Video

  I spent my bank holiday sunday working on a music video for indie band 'Hartheim' for their song 'Welcome to Hartheim'. The crew were very familiar to me, consisting of Jack Bottomley as Director, Paddy McGowan as DOP and Sooz Hynes producing. The crew was small for this shoot, and I was Assisting Paddy with camera and lighting. The lighting setup was quite complex, but once it was perfected we only had small adjustments from shot to shot so wasn't too much hard work. There was a lot to get through but we managed it, just 1 hour over our schedule (which is rare).

Kodak Commercial

  I took part in a student competition entry for Kodak, which consisted of creating a 30 second commercial for Butlins, using 16mm film only. Luckily my University (MMU) backed out project, allowing us to hire equipment including an SR3 Rig and a set of Ziess Super speed lenses. I was lighting gaffer on the project, and there was some tricky lighting set-ups to pull off, especially as non of us had ever worked with 16mm film before.

  The project director was Steve Pilling, and his idea with the project was to project the feel of Butlins, but without showing Butlins itself. The idea was specific towards the themed weekends that they put on, being it 60's, 70's Disco, or 80's weekend, and the idea that these people who go on these holidays go back to their jobs with part of the holiday still with them. For example, a girl who has returned from the 70's weekend is working in a supermarket at the checkouts, with her disco shoe's still on.

  The image above was taken from the first scene that we filmed. It was shot in Chorlton in a store but as we could only manage to hire the space for an hour, early morning when it was dark outside, we had to emulate daylight spilling into the market. We did this by putting two HMI lights outside shining in, through diffusion frames to that the light spread, then had a kino as fill and used a pocket par as a backlight.

Working with 16mm was a really good experience and I learnt a lot on this shoot. It teaches disapline and organisation because you are limited on film reel and it costs so much money so therefore you are forced to 

Underwater Shoot (Holloways Garden)

  On saturday we filmed the underwater sequence for the ending of the film. We filmed at Levenshume Swimming Pool, in pool 2 where we had an hours slot, from 1pm until 2pm. I used my Canon 6D, with a waterproof case. The case was difficult to use, and I could not change any of the settings, or focus, after putting my camera into it, therefore I had to pre set everything, including the focus, and then guess the distance once under the water, as it was difficult to see the screen as well. We had to sign forms to use the pool, but the staff were very friendly and helpful. They allowed us to turn the house lights on and then I added 1 redhead which I aimed directly into the pool.

  This simple lighting setup looked really good on camera. I had to keep the shots dark so that it was not evident where we were filming. Beth put black cloth onto the wall of the pool as well to cover up the side of the pool which helped. The actually shooting was very difficult but I managed to get some decent footage which should be able to be cut up and integrated into the film.