I'm forever Blogging Bubbles

Hi there all,

Serious note! Your blog writer here is getting married, in Portugal, when the flights are expensive over school holidays. Ok, Maybe I should leave this blog as a professional piece? Maybe I should concentrate on Production values, the hottest new tech to buy, discuss the industries serious professionals. Or maybe I should tell you about the drunken behaviour of some of TV industries top bods at Production Base’s Freelancer of the Year awards. 

 Presented by Matt Allright who has the unenviable task of presenting with Anne Robinson on BBC’s Watchdog. She is terrifying. She can look into the soul of any ‘weakest link’ contestant and melt their beating heart and make dam sure they never wear that floral blouse EVER again! 

I digress. Matt led us through the categories, gave some industry insight and described the changing nature of TV and what the award nominees maybe doing in the future.

The winners can be seen here and we wish them all luck. I think I may have looked like the freelancer of the year as I was congratulated a few times on my award (which I was never even nominated for.) One gentleman was so insistent that I was Runner of the year, ‘Phil Wallis’ he couldn’t accept no for an answer. After a few more beers and banter I gladly accepted my accolade from anyone wishing it upon me. Phil, If your reading, Congratulations on being a terribly handsome fella.

Doppelgänger? You decide! (p.s Im not the Duck or Mouse!)

Also congratulations to Tai and his cast and crew of ‘The Unglamorous Life of These’Guys. Their new production ‘The Douche and the Happiness. See the video here. The cast is made of our production crew and cast from some previous productions.

Very, Very exciting news now followers. (Well, for Camberwell Studio staff it is!)

Our lovely fish, James and May (named after James May and his ‘Things you need to know series) have a lovely new tank. We all watched on as they were set free in their new, fluorescent world. Complete with heater, statues, gravel and alot more water. We wish them luck in their new home. Chances are they have forgotten their old bowl already!

A Word from our sponsor (well advocate anyway) A friend of Camberwell Studios, Louis Odenoye who runs Stormont Studios. He deals with alot of artists looking to make a music video. We also send him all of our clients looking to do voiceovers and dubbing in conjunction with their shoots. 

Please continue to join our mailing list, ‘like’ us on Facebook and tweet with us on Twitter.

www.camberwellstudios.co.uk
www.facebook.com/camberwellstudios
http://twitter.com/#!/FilmStudiosUK

Until next time...

Sam P. - Studio ManagerSam.parkinson@camberwellstudios.co.uk

Brave New Blog

Hi there,

This week I have been racking my brains to offer you faithful readers a deeper glimpse of Studio life, the stresses and strains of 12 hour music promo days, tantrums, binges, badger balloons, green screen tech info and an exciting new prize soon to be announced. We welcome Lindsey to the Camberwell Studios team. An American Student working as an intern. Lindsey would love to make it in Hollywood and is looking to develop her skills in both production and marketing.

Our office staff have all been trying the American Accent to make her feel at home but at some point, our accents, lie between Scotland, Newcastle, Boston and Russia. Poor attempts all round. Her English accent is great though. Much better than all of ours put together. Our office consists of: A Russian, a Hungarian, Vietnamese, Danish-Hungarian gypsy Jew, a Jamaican and a cockney wide boy. We are definitely multi-cultural!

So.. I walk into our kitchen the other day, a rocking looking dude is there making a tea for himself, long hair, grunge beard. All in black, bit beardy. It may well be another roadie, dropping in kit for band shoot in Studio 1.

As usual, I started to ramble on about something.  The weather probably....

‘’Where you based then mate? London? Don’t cycle in then do you?’’ ...’’yeah, I had a right nightmare coming through Elephant and Castle roundabout..........!’’  

‘’Sam.. (said a voice behind me!)

 I turned round.....

.....It was Mike Goodwin, our Studio 1 Rock Promo client. 

‘’let me introduce you...This is Adrian Smith... from Iron Maiden’’ ...

Black adorned roadie extends his firm grip into my hand. I am aghast. He will not have cycled in, he would not have braved the rain. He does not need the tube. He definitely won’t be cycling on the Elephant and castle roundabout at 7am. He won’t be happy that I described his beard as grungy. Not only is this not an acceptable noun. It is not something he will ever have been associated with. (Grunge is American and is probably derived from Maidens great work!)

Iron Maiden have released 35 albums and sold more than 75 million worldwide. 

Here Adrian is, with our resident editor who seems to have a knack for getting into celebrity pictures. 

Pure and simple, Legend. Even more so to see a slightly soggy Adrian Smith, hood-up, coming back from our local shop near the end of the shooting day. We wish him, Mike Goodwin and the rest of the band the best of luck in their future projects.

Also this week saw a Dominic Littlewood checking our crevasses for shoddy workmanship or rip-off plumbers! (see previous work Cowboy Builders)

 Luckily our lean-to is built to the highest standards and we didn’t get ripped off. Dominic was working with Flame TV for a new series exposing a range of benefit fraudsters. These individuals were claiming money for disabilities then being caught on CCTV skiing, wrestling on working out in the gym. Naughty Fraudsters!

There was a lot of pre-production that went into this green screen shoot. The Production Co was trying to establish what equipment to shoot on. The BBC have an approved camera list which applies to most other broadcasters. This was a great learning curve into what camera work for green screen.

From conversations and general research, including a testing session around the booking, they went for JVC's Pro HD camera which is best suited HDV chroma keying applications. Its native resolution chips combined with progressive instead of interlaced scanning were used with their chroma-keying in this instance. JVC's Pro HD range offers the ability to pull a 4:2:2 uncompressed signal live from the camera allowing you to key without having to go through HDV compression. We generally use progressive for our online webvideos but for broadcasting it is best to refer to the broadcasters requirements.

As a lighter and more colourful subject we welcome Back 2 Sides TV with their excellent and somewhat warped, Ballooniverse. A collection of Balloon animals and characters intricately made and composited into a luscious and fascinating world for a new Children’s TV series. Unfortunately we had to turn our heating down in case these balloons deflated. UK readers will understand why this is bad. My lonely follower in Dubai will not.

Also new this week we have been developing our new and exciting prize for the studios. Details are hush hush but it will be a great opportunity for aspiring film-makers. Stay tuned for more details!

See us at Production base Freelancer of the year awards where we will be talking to Freelancers and Professionals alike. Last time our Music Video producer here at the studios, Tai, made lots of friends and contacts, ended up in a bar with a whole host of freelancers and industry professionals, and generally provided a high level of Camberwell Studios customer service that night.

I, however, got tired and went home! I promise to serve as a better representative in the networking capacity this time around!

Please continue to join our mailing list, ‘like’ us on Facebook and tweet with us on Twitter.

www.camberwellstudios.co.uk

www.facebook.com/camberwellstudios

http://twitter.com/#!/FilmStudiosUK

Until next time...

Sam P. - Studio Manager

Sam.parkinson@camberwellstudios.co.uk

Jingle Blogs

Hi  Guys,

Xmas is nearly upon us and our space heaters have been working overtime to keep artists and crew xamssy toasty in Studio 1. The hardest working of the crew and the danciest dancers ensure they stay warm. So pull up your winter socks and get working! (or dancing, below!)

We have been all working on our Camberwell Studios Xmas Video this week.  Reindeers, Angels on trolleys, xmas carols, funny hats and the boss dressed up as Santa. (That really was the highlight) Please stay tuned for more info and a chance to see the whole Camberwell Studios team making silly fools of themselves. Don’t worry. Santa has a present for all of you. In the form of a very ,very generous special offer indeed.  You’ll have to wait until after Xmas to find out though. No peeking at your pressies!

Talking of pressies we have all been reading some very engrossing and thought provoking books left to us by Macmillan Publishers after their shoot. Remember the ‘Dear Zoo, children’s books by Rod Campbell? (see pic) 

Gone are the pop up elements of old. Replaced now by digital  animal noises that were created by the team at Macmillan. Great to hear the live versions from some of the crew. Most notably the monkey noise. Very, very convincing. A lovely team who still had that childish element at heart although very professional.

From animals in books to animals in beds. If our studio infinity coved walls could talk. What would they have seen? They would have been looking down upon a full ‘naughty' scene demonstrating the science of making love. Using high tech, ifra-red cameras the documentary was totally in the name of science and will be shown on Channel 4 (unsurprisingly) in the new year. Keep your eyes peeled or hidden (depending on your age!)

We at Camberwell Studios have been developing several sections of our website:

FAQ’s seen here. The FAQs deal with the majority of requests including kit and crew deliveries and logistics. Tech support and info and some of the more weird and wonderful requests we get. 'Is there room to feed our reindeer?' Yes. There is!

 We pride ourselves on making sure our clients are really well looked after and the right elements are in place to support the project. We take customer service very seriously and our testimonials show a varied group of clients and productions so please take the time to see our testimonials page and check out their work. This blog, Twitter and Facebook are growing examples of the community we are building and conversations we start about tech updates, production news and after- booking care we provide. Testimonials seen here!

This week saw a test pilot for a gameshow created in Studio 1. A show in which the unknowing contestant is shown clips of their lives and asked question supplied by friends and family. Details are hush hush and we wish them the best of luck in the future. The creative team behind this particular shoot were responsible for the new Nokia Lumia mobile phone release seen here. It looks amazing and took 6 months to plan. Using 20 cinema projects , The DJ DeadMau5, and a huge building to display a beautiful 3D projection. 

If any potential clients wish to make a pilot we can ensure our Studio 1 is perfectly set-up for flexible positioning of lights, camera, projections etc. Our lights are easily rigged and on stands and our team here will be on hand to support all creative elements. Please see our rates page for more details. 

 This particular shoot in Studio 1 was handled by some runners that we regularly use to assist in large projects. Tommy, who has now worked on 2x shoots has really excelled and picked up can handle lots of production aspects from running, lighting set-up and client liason. We ensure our runners have experience or a good head on their shoulders.

Please continue to join our mailing list, ‘like’ us on Facebook and tweet with us on Twitter.
www.camberwellstudios.co.uk
www.facebook.com/camberwellstudios
http://twitter.com/#!/FilmStudiosUK

Until next time...

Sam P. - Studio Manager

Sam.parkinson@camberwellstudios.co.uk