Permalink to Wilderness Recharge
Wilderness Recharge
At the end of October life was getting a little bit hectic so we made a last minute decision to recharge our internal batteries with a short wilderness trip to Sweden. We hired a canoe and made the most of being outside.
We had worried the lakes would be frozen over but it was positively tropical for this time of year! It was warm(ish) for the whole trip. No rain but constantly cloudy with lots of fog which made taking photos a bit of an issue because the light was so dull. The only sign of life was one squirrel, 2 beaver lodges and lots of poo. It felt like the whole place was on hibernation.
We’d been told we may hear the howls of wolves at night so we listened but all our clanging about during the day no doubt scared them off. During our 5 days camping we got to paddle, chop wood, make fires and toast marshmellows so now my soul has definitely been recharged with a warm smokey glow.
We had a GoPro HERO camera with us so I’m just stitching together a little footage. Will let you know when it’s ready.
Permalink to My Three Favourite Vimeo Filmmakers
My Three Favourite Vimeo Filmmakers
I love vimeo. I can spend hours searching for new and inspiring videos to watch. I’m always on the look out for interesting outdoor adventure type films. On YouTube there’s plenty of rock anthemed extreme sport videos (I’m sure there’s a few on Vimeo too) but the vibe on Vimeo is generally a lot more creative. My favourite are those that reflect a type of lifestyle. Less petrol head and more camp fires and marshmellows.
There’s a lot of very creative talent that i’m sure I haven’t even spotted yet but here’s my current top 3 filmmakers on vimeo. In no particular order…
Permalink to Filming at the Howies Coed Y Benin Enduro
Filming at the Howies Coed Y Benin Enduro
Last Sunday I was happy to be filming at the Howies Coed Y Benin Enduro. The event is a non-competitive endurance challenge for mountain bikers. Pedals were rotating, people were sweating and afterwards we had beer and hot tubs! Patrick had entered the race and I planned to drive a round the course filming the bikers as they passed. I’ll be editing together a promo video for the event using a mixture of GoPro and DSLR footage but here’s a few screenshots to give you a taste of the day. Patrick’s also written up a brilliant blog post providing an insight from a riders perspective.
*UPDATE* You can now watch the finished Coed Y Brenin Video – just click the link.
Bike fettling before the race
Team Pickle GoPro footage
Muddy feet at the feeding station
Permalink to Perfect Alps Singletrack
Perfect Alps Singletrack, Editing together a little GoPro mtb footage.
Perfect Alps Singletrack
Perfect Alps Singletrack, Editing together a little GoPro mtb footage.
Permalink to Raleigh India Expedition Overview
Raleigh India Expedition Overview
I’ve been back from the Raleigh India Expedition for a few months and I’ve been a busy bee producing their marketing department a number of videos to use on their website. They can be really useful to show potential volunteers what a Raleigh expedition can be like and also act as a great reminder for those that have been.
I’m a big fan of Raleigh having joined them myself as a venturer to Belize at the age of 18. If you haven’t heard of them they are a leading youth and education charity providing expeditions for young people from all walks of life, nationalities and ages to be all they can be, helping them develop new skills, friendships and volunteer to make a genuine difference to communities and environments across the world.
I took part on the summer 2010 expedition to India as videographer and loved the whole experience. I’ve produced 4 films in total. A Music Video produced on the fly whilst out in India, an Adventure Phase summary and the two videos below. All footage was shot on our Panasonic GH1.
An overview of the whole Raleigh India Expedition from the Country Director.
An overview of a Raleigh India Environment Phase where a group of 16 volunteers built a 1.5km solar panel fence to protect a village settlement from encroaching elephants.
For more info about Raleigh India visit raleighinternational.org
Permalink to My Videography Kit List for India
My Videography Kit List for India
I will very shortly be on my travels to India as a videographer with Raleigh International. I’ll be away over the summer for over 10 weeks and will no doubt face a number of physical, technological and emotional challenges. Eeeeek! It will be monsoon season for a start and I’m not entirely sure what to expect.
To help me embrace everything India has to offer I’ve invested in a few new bits of camera gear. First and foremost a new camera. I recently purchased the Panasonic Lumix GH1 a video DSLR which I hope will offer plenty of versatility whilst being super light weight. I struggled to decide whether to purchase a DSLR shoulder mount or a steadicam to compliment my camera and contrary to popular opinion I’ve plumped for the steadicam and more specifically the Black Bird Stabiliser after reading many positive reviews. Scarily it still hasn’t arrived in the post yet and I have very little experience using camera stabalisers so that will definitely be a steep learning curve.
I’m also a little concerned about how I will charge up my batteries and back-up my footage since I will primarily be living in tents either in a remote Indian village or in the middle of a national park. I’ve been told I’ll have access to car chargers and I suppose
Permalink to A Mountain biking Film: Lee Quarry
A Mountain biking Film: Lee Quarry
Services provided
- Filming
- Post Production
About the project
Having admired the video capability of HDSLR’s for a while we recently bought ourselves one to test out. We particularly like their light weight and ability for shallow depth of field and after a little research we opted for the Panasonic Lumix GH1. This video was our first practice. We followed a mountain biker cycling at Lee Quarry where we tried to make the most of the large berms and post-industrial landscape.
Shortly after publishing Ragle Bikes spotted the video as asked if we could create them an edit with their own logo. Of course we said no problem.
