Aristaeus

Over the last few years many people will have heard me say that I will ‘soon’ be filming a self-penned short film in Latvia. Various things have caused it to be delayed but I am happy to be able to say that the flights have been booked shooting will begin on August 18th. It will be an experimental, visually driven piece exploring themes of memory and personal mythology containing both live-action and stop-motion elements. My fingers are crossed that the summer weather in Latvia will be better than the UK!

The all new Xobo Design film

It has been over a year since I worked on the first Xobo film, Les Trois Objets. I enjoyed the experience so much that I jumped at the chance to make another zany pixilation animation. After a fun but demanding shoot last week in the basement of Fanny’s cafe in Hanover I am about to start editing. I am very proud of what we were able to achieve in such a short time and I am grateful to Stephan for letting my imagination run away with me again!

A neat piece of kit

I am the kind of shooter who likes and needs to travel light. I also like to keep setup times to a minimum. The Pocket Rig from Turkish company Edelkrone solves two problems in one really tiny package. Firstly it has a fold out gun stock style support which when combined with a viewfinder such as my Z-finder pro provides a very steady support for run and gun/handheld shooting. Secondly it has a pair of industry standard rods which fold out so you can attach a follow-focus and matte box when on a tripod.
     
The pocket rig really can live happily attached to my camera giving me instant stability wherever I am without having to carry a separate bag for a rig. The first thing that struck me on unpacking it was how good the build quality is. It is made out of 100% machined aluminium from what I can tell and the gun stock support is very strong despite being quite thin. Edelkrone gives you a Lifetime warranty too which is quite reassuring.

As a fan of the old-school transformer toys when I was a kid, I love the way this thing twists and locks Megatron-style to fulfil it’s different roles. The only problem I have found with it is that the its ‘foot’ is quite narrow which makes attaching it securely to my manfrotto quick release quite problematic. A minor design flaw.
One word of warning is that you will need to pay import tax, a point neatly tucked away in the small print on the Edelkrone website.

Urban Exploration – Paddington

   

Some photos by Spencer Childs

As some of you will know my father sadly died just before Christmas. As is probably quite common after losing someone, we have since been going through boxes of old photos. Here are some I picked out. There are many, many more.

                   

Xobo Shop

A few photos i took for Xobo Design to showcase their pop-up shop in Kensington.

           

     

     

New Year - New Reel

I have had a couple of months of editing and not taking on much new work but now I have finished my new show reel and I’m ready for new creative challenges in 2012.