Dinner For Two

Dinner for Two is a Short film about a young woman making dinner for her parter with a creepy twist at the end! 

Once we had our script we created a story board, with references from Chef for the cooking portions of the film and some references from Reservoir Dogs for the cheek cutting scene. Me and the Director (Lewis Pashley)  devised our shot list, we tried to keep it relatively simple as neither of us were very experienced (this was our first time shooting 16mm!) I wanted to keep the camera stationary when shooting the scenes in the real world and moving when shooting the stylised flash back scene. This is a very easy way to create a visual contrast between two different time periods.

The film was born from a university project at the beginning of which we were given a haiku. From this Haiku we devised a story that our script writer developed into a 3 minuet story. this way of creating an idea was ideal for the situation we were in, the possibilities endless but no one decicive enough to make a decision!  

Heres a shot from the flash back sequence, my favourite shot from the film because of the movement that we managed to create with the dolly. The idea was to use the movement in the foreground to accentuate the sideways movement of the dolly, also not having a clear view of the model in the background until we were looking from the perspective of our actress to show her interest in him. 

Northbound - My Graduation film

I am the DOP of a graduation film, I have been studying at UCA Farnham for 2 and a bit years now and in my final year I have had the opportunity to shoot the largest project I have ever shot!

Synopsis

On new years eve, Amy decides in a sudden moment to walk off the set of a local new years event she was co-hosting, and heading indiscriminately "up north". Blake, her younger brother who has settled into a house with his boyfriend Kevin, must drop everything in that moment to go find out where she's gone. Through his journey up north chasing after Amy, following her trail, the wave of angry calls from his boyfriend and his sense of connection to his sister, Blake comes to discover that perhaps he also needed to run away and ignore the superficial goals of what bring him happiness that he's settled into in recent years.

I want to shoot this project with S16mm lenses on digital, I have access to a fantastic set of Carl Zeiss Distagon super speeds, I think that the ARRI AMIRA will be the best camera body for the job, this will be rented from a rental house. I want to approach this shoot in a documentary style to create natural and evocative images that connect the viewer with the characters on screen as well as bring my own voice into the camera language as I will be operating. I have taken great inspiration from the mindsets that Terrence Malick and Emanuel Lubezki take when shooting together, this film will benefit greatly if we can tap into a similar train of thought.

One of my main worries is being able to bring in enough light as most of the scenes are in the dead of night. I am looking at effective and unobtrusive ways of bringing up ambience as well as lighting areas so that characters can move freely within the space. Safe to say that we will be using lots of bounce and small LEDs hidden in roofs to bring up important areas!

Thats Me!

Oliver Craig - Director of Photography

I’m grateful for the chance to work on a project with a wonderful crew and to have the confidence of our director. We have been working closely together to plan how we want to translate our visions for this film; it has been a great and enlightening experience. I want to bring honesty to Northbound through my work with the camera and lights, I want to be able to capture and translate the emotions that this story holds onto the screen. To achieve this I want to shoot in a way that will allow the actors to convey the story in a natural and unobstructed fashion, this means having the right equipment and the budget for that equipment. I have DP’d a number of short films at university as well as working with the NFTS and other productions as a member of the camera or lighting teams. I am excited to tell the story of Northbound and work with our team to create a great piece of cinema.

Please consider supporting this film as it would mean the world to me for this project to be realised at its full potential.

A short about sibling loyalty and finding freedom. | Check out 'Northbound - Short Film' on Indiegogo.

Canon AF35M Review

The Canon AF35M was the first fully automatic compact camera, originally launched in 1979 impressing the market with its inclusivity in the form of a 'compact' 35 mm camera with an innovative auto focus, auto exposure and pop up flash. Sporting a 38 mm F/2.8 lens and electric film winding it was a hit with armature photographers and holiday goers due to its main advertised aspects being its full automation and ease of use.

The camera is incredibly easy to use as soon as you learn that (much like modern cameras) focus can be set with a half press of the shutter and the composition can be changed before the picture is taken. The film loading is relatively simple and there is not much else that can be changed on the camera apart from a timer and the rewind film button. As well as this the camera has a manual ASA setting so the camera can be manipulated mid roll to achieve different exposures and techniques. 

To me this camera was wonderful to use, I adore simple no nonsense compact 35 mm cameras and this fit the bill perfectly. by taking away many of the manual controls the user has a different connection with the camera and focuses more on their surroundings, for some people this is an asset but for others this may be a hinderance as they enjoy having more control over the outcome of an image. Nevertheless this camera allowed me to interact with subjects more and made me feel a lot more free to take a picture that was not 100% perfect. 

When it comes to the lens there is a lot to be desired. looking at the pictures on this article you can see distortion towards the edges, haziness and loss of detail. Towards the centre of the lens the detail and sharpness become better and have a pretty standard look to them. One of the redeeming features of the lens is the super fast F/2.8 aperture which facilitates a more point and shoot nature to the camera by allowing the shutter speed to freeze movement more easily. The lens is not the best thing about this camera but does create a sense of where its origins are, if you enjoy a more rugged look to you images then this is the camera for you. Personally I think the quality of the lens takes away from the usability of the images.

Many people complain that the camera is very loud and for them this eliminates street shooting because the camera becomes very conspicuous after taking a shot. For me this was not a problem at all, I was shooting in and around Bristol so the busy streets and ambient noise were loud enough to cover most of the noise the camera made. Another common qualm that also features in other reviews of the AF35M talk about its size, as it is quite large for a compact camera and definitely wont fit into a pocket. This means it is a little harder to carry around when not in use although mine came with a case that had a belt loop so I carried it around on my hip, this is a very underrated method of carrying compact cameras I might add.

This camera was ahead of its time on release and has earned a place in many compact photographer's hearts. I think there is little more you can ask for in a compact camera from 1979, it has a great nostalgic feel and good build quality. The camera however is not of great quality yet adds to the nostalgic feeling of the camera.

Specifications

• Lens: Canon 38mm, f/2.8
• Film speed settings: 25-400 ISO, set manually
• Shutter and aperture: automatic; EV 6 (f/2.8 at 1/8 sec) – 17 (f/16 at 1/500 sec)
• Focus range: unknown
• Manual loading, automatic advancing and rewinding of film
• Built-in pop-up flash, recharge time: 5-7 seconds
• Electronic self-timer
• Power: 2 AA batteries for everything

conscious-Flow

I have recently been shooting a lot with small point and shoot 35mm cameras. Whilst this has been fun I have been forgoing control of my images in the way I wanted. I wasn't too pleased with the results I was getting with my Mju ii so I picked up my canon 500N put my sigma 30mm 1.4 art on and headed out. Shooting like this was quite emancipating and relaxing. I had more control over my images which made me think about them more. Whilst shooting I was more aware of everything in the frame of my viewfinder, the focusing and size of the camera slowed me and my process down where before all I needed to do was push the shutter. This time my spacial awareness, looking at backgrounds, placement of the subject, leading lines, framing rules, subject expression and if the image would be appealing. I am happy with the images and the control I had over creating them. I think this allowed me to shoot images that were more in line with what I wanted rather than leaving focus or exposure to chance with automatic systems. please look at the images and let me know what you think.

conscious flow

'End To End' Photo Album Release

With a good friend I drove from Land's End to John O'Groats, these Images are a compilation of the pictures I took while away.

End To End.

'Budapest 2016' Photo Album Release

I went to Budapest for a week and captured the city on my Ricoh GRV.  

Budapest.

Pentax Espio 738 Review

First introduced in 1995 by Pentax the 738 was part of the Espio IQZoom series. made in china with its brothers the 736S and G it was full of useful features that a compact user would need when shooting in any scenario. The automatic functions of the camera coupled with it's fairly sharp lens made it a very standard compact .

This camera is perfect for street shooting on a bright day, anything with low light will need a tripod. The auto focusing is fairly quick and accurate and the lens produces sharp images, the camera is small and quite the companion. The design of the camera is debated but I think it embodies it's robustness in its bold 90s edges and curves, it fits the hand quite comfortably and is heavy enough to give you something to stabilise. Using this camera is a breeze, the automatic features take good care of the exposure and allow you to focus on the situation and what shot you want to get. "The absolute standard of mid 90's compact put into one camera" is more of a miracle than a mundane statement, the 90's and before were prime times for the compact camera as they evolved and managed to capture the photographer's attention in addition to the target audience, family. Photographers saw great things in the small bodies of these cameras, and good job they did because I bloody love them. 

The 738 wasn't and isn't a camera that stands out from the crowd, the lens isn't amazing, it's not small enough to fit in your pocket and the zoom feature on the lens will destroy any picture you take while using it. A few more gripes I have with the camera is that every time it is turned on the flash will be set to automatic and the camera leans on it's flash quite heavily when on auto. The rear door of the camera has a tendency to snap off, I unfortunately discovered this after ordering a replacement from ebay only to find that it was already broken on arrival, typical!

That being said I would really recommend this camera to anyone who is shooting street photography and hasn't picked up a compact yet, it is an entry into the wonderful world of 35 mm compact. A completely different way to shoot street that will change the way you go about taking candid pictures.  

I love this little camera, being one of my first 35 mm compacts found in a charity shop for around £5, I thought it was going to be disappointing. To my surprise this wasn't the case, after a test roll I began to understand how to manipulate the back-lit feature and different modes that the camera offered to get the photographs I wanted from it. A lot of compact cameras that use 35 mm are almost like a Chinese puzzle box, you need to find it's sweet spot and expose it. The 738 was quite a simple one to work out, due to the lowest aperture being 4.8 it's only viable shooting in good sunlight and the zoom is never to be used. 

Specifications

• Lens: Pentax power zoom 38-70mm f/4.8-8.5
• Film speed settings: DX- coded with ISO rating 25-1600
• Shutter: automatic; 1/320 - 1/3 sec. Bulb. 
• Focus: 0.6m - infinity. infared active autofocusing with lock focus. 
• Manual loading, automatic advancing and rewinding of film
• Built-in flash, recharge time: 5 seconds
• Electronic self-timer
• Power: One CR 123 A 

Write here...

26- What I want from a podcast

Train to cardiff.

Shot on a disposable camera from boots.

Recently I have been listening to Filler podcast by the talented Harry Hitchens and Matt shore (@fillerpodcast on twitter). They talk to many very popular figures from within the youtube community as well as professionals in the industry, usually based in a coffee shop in london. The episodes are an hour long and consist of the featured person talking about themselves, what inspires them and how they got where they are. As much as I like listening to these people I have a subtle yet immediate rejection of the subjects and the somewhat superficial way in which the people on the podcast talk about what they do. I want to hear more talk about the work and what it means to them, I want to hear more about their deeper connection to photography or film making, I guess I'm saying filler isn't my perfect podcast and despite it's many good aspects it seems more focused on the artistic industry without focusing on the art. It is about the people and the people aren't what interests me. Much the same can be said about some of the most influential film directors in history, I'm not interested in them, I'm interested in what they make. Its like asking Orson Welles how he met Anthony Perkins rather than what the message behind the Trial actually was.

I guess I'm looking for the art and not the artist, it sort of gets my cynically riled up that these people who are in the public eye aren't the visionaries that I want them to be. It's showing me a gap in the market and I'm telling myself 'fill it'. I have the dreams of making a film interest podcast where theories and exposition are readily discussed, much like french new wave directors I believe that the director should be in control of every single aspect of the film. Most prolifically for french new wave was the mies en scene of a production but auteur directors like Wes Anderson and Richard Ayoade have taken it to a whole new level when they are intrinsically invested in every little part of the film. These are the directors I look towards when I look at film, they make film into an art form, as soon as a film is a piece of art I am stimulated by it ten fold. 

My dream podcast wouldn't be with someone likeFrancine Stock or Mark Kermode or someone who anyone knows, it would be a structured talk with someone who just bloody loves the gears that turn behind the screen, in the directors head, in our own heads. A podcast about film for filmmakers, for artists, for theorists and for anyone who is interested in digging up the meanings behind art. 

25- Still Alive WITH BIG IDEAS

It has been 8 months since I said I would post a picture every day over summer, I am proud of how long it went on for until I inevitably stopped. I think that, although I was passionate about it when it started, I sort of shot myself in the foot from the get go. A picture every day isn't going to help me improve, its just going to teach me how to cut as many corners in photography as possible. This is the complete opposite of what I plan on doing with art for the rest of my life since I have great ambition to earn a living by creating it. I want there to be integrity to my pictures, that someone can see by looking at them. I think a new summer plan needs to be made, one that caters to my want for thought and time. Things that spring to mind are photo essays or a photo book of summer featuring the best pictures.  

Updates:

Recently I got in contact with a local music venue in Bristol and managed to get into the photo pit for The Bristol Ska and Mod Festival. This was the fist time I had ever done an event like this that wasn't for my friends and was in quite an official sense. I was excited when I arrived a few hours before the public, there was lots of people dressed in black cargo trousers and black t-shirts setting up equipment and dragging barriers into place. I managed to explore the place before any of the areas were sectioned off, it is located in what i was told to be an old rail shed near the Bristol harbor. This meant lots of large spaces interspersed with some smaller areas that were re-purposed as green rooms and VIP bars, along with the old windows and a lack of people I found a bar filled with retro vintage furniture and the contrast to what the room was usually used for, serving performers and being filled with noise. I found it quite calming to be snooping around, my shadow covering the large statement pieces of furniture as I walked past the large arch windows, it was peaceful and calm. If I went up to the same room only a few hours later I imagine it would have been bustling and noisy, claustrophobic almost.

After my exploring was complete I found myself in a small hut with a few of the artist liaisons, we talked about Bristol and what it was like to be in the music industry in this water penetrated city. It was really great to have an intelligent and passionate conversation with a real person really working in a creative industry, not exactly on the same scale as when I was runner on a feature film but the comparison is still there to be made. It opened my mind to the struggle and how rewarding it can be to even be an unknown in a creative industry. All that's on many young peoples minds is the audience and fame to be blunt, and I am not exempt from this, I want to be a large part of the film industry when I am older. Now I have a new appreciation for the struggle to get there, the day to day, making calls, sorting venues, organizing people, all of this seems to have romantic connotations to me. The poor runner who is constantly emailing and striving to get that next break and to meet the right person, it seems to me that to be in a position like that is rewarding, giving the person a sense of purpose in their life, they are going to give it all to get the next job and do what the are truly passionate about. I want to be in this position some day.

The rest of my life is ahead of me, its all there far into the unknown, but I think the best position I can be in is to be passionate and hard working. I'm ready for that, I'm ready to start my life right now and get to uni so I can start learning what I need to know. I can't wait to have a awful flat somewhere in London and live with people who are hungry for more. People inspire me in all that I do, they are beautiful and the most complex study that life is going to offer.

In the pipe line

I own a few different compact 35mm cameras and have a real passion for using them to capture my life in a candid and interesting way, I might do a review on some of them and start a review series on the different cameras I own. big ideas for a little man.

kind regards,

Olly 

24- nice 1

It's been a while, supplies are running low, we're on out last packet of sherbet lemons and only have our English charm to keep us going.

Anyway's, I'm going to London this week to see friends. It has been months since I've seen them face to face which is becoming a much more common dynamic between people these days due to our ability to connect with anyone on the planet with a phone or a computer. There are obviously some major differences between seeing friends from far away and friends that you would see every day and I think that is the exoticism of  far away friends. Your time is limited so you want to make the most of it, this usually means you almost always find something exciting to do or find even the mundane things exciting. This in contrast to the close friend type activities and feelings being a lot less exciting but then I feel a very different type of emotion towards closer friends. It's deeper and more caring (there are also a few people that i feel the same about who are far away but anomalies are always taken out of the main statistics right). So I am very excited but also bad at making conclusions.

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Thom.

23- Pigsty Cinema

A few days ago I was invited to a make shift cinema down a bumpy dirt road, it had previously been a pigsty but is now completely unrecognizable. It was filled with regal cinema memorabilia as well as authentic folding seats and ticket booths.  We watched a film called still life that starred Eddie Marsan who was a council worker looking for relatives of people found dead and alone. After a very touching and well crafted 92 minuets I talk at length with the cinema's owner and had an incredibly interesting conversation about the history of his creation.

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TPH meeting.

22-Time spent in stasis

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Old hall.

I feel as though its quite important to enter a form of stasis in your life from time to time,
this meaning a time where you are not going anywhere and are doing nothing. This is encapsulated in the philosophy that it is good to try something at least once. 

21- Light

Cinema trip to see an awful film...

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Corckskrew.

20-Town

we explored Cambridge n it was fun.

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Clouds.

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p street.

19-New

New people, new places and new pictures... great!

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Jos.

18-traveling

I feel like I'm just going to be showing you old photographs for a while...sorry

Olivia Marie Chalk.

This is quite a special shoot to me, it was the very first shoot I did to begin my photography A level and I'm extremely proud of it.

15-Summer

So summer has officially begun for me, im gonna try and do some fun things, I promise.

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Delfino square.

13-Recycle

The last week of school is continuing on. Now here we can see the reason I didn't start this project earlier, there are no interesting pictures of today, nothing I'm proud of in anyway. so here's some more beach pictures.

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peaks.

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Cameron.

12-Back

Returning to school was a little bit of a tiring transition. I did manage to give blood in the afternoon which is something that is important for everyone to consider.

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texture.

11-NA

Very few photo opportunities today as it was another chill out and try and do as little as possible kind of days.

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pea2.