About Me

Welcome to a blog about a film-maker, one who could be described as a story teller with an experimental approach to technology.

Hello, my name is James Tomkinson and this is my microscopic slice of the world wide web which should give an idea of what I do.

I think we can agree that people make films in a number of different genres. Mine is drama, a human story of either fact or fiction recreated in a gripping performance. Although that isn’t a dictionary definition it is what I write and capture either ‘in camera’ or on-stage.

An interest in building things has stayed with me throughout my younger years. I have to admit my DIY skills could use a little polishing yet that didn’t stop me from designing and refining the designs for my stereoscopic 3D rig since 2010 the results of which are on my YouTube channel.

Feel free to have a look around.

Friday 26 April 2013

Small Spaces


#0010

Small Spaces

While working on a recent project there were a number of problems that needed addressing. All of which involved doing the most I could with the minimal amount of gear.
Why the gear restrictions? Well sometimes you could work on a filming project where the location simply doesn’t have the physical space for a crew and an endless amount of equipment. I these situations it is best to have the minimal amount of crew and equipment otherwise everyone is going to be tripping over each other and that how people get hurt and equipment gets broken.

 Shooting a promotional video. Note the lack of equipment, or more rather the lack of space for equipment.

I would have liked to be able to use both my reflectors, sound recording gear and shoulder rig on this shoot, but in a small space that simply isn’t possible. It was therefore necessary to make the best use I could of the cameras exposure, shutter speed and aperture settings to create either the right lighting for the video or to create and exposure that could be corrected in post-production. Making use of the cameras ‘cine colour mode’ helps as well. This makes the recoded video appear less saturated. This allows for greater colour correction flexibility in post-production.

Filming products through a glass cabinet.

Here is another reason why using bright lighting equipment would have been unsuitable for this shoot. Glass is a highly reflective surface, which means that if you shine a light at it the light is simply going to bounce off and cause a nasty reflection.
Working on shoots like these involves forward thinking. It’s easy to think of just slinging all your gear in a bag and then seeing what you use when you get there, however doing a bit of forward thinking means that you don’t have to drag excessive amounts of equipment around with you.