East Yorkshire Wedding Videos

I have recently started an event/wedding video service with my fellow film graduate Adam Hill working in the East Yorkshire area. Here's a short preview of our first wedding video which has turned out great and things can only get better. If you're interested in having a video of an event you're holding made with the care and aesthetics found in film production get in touch on here or find my Chris Ulliott Photography page on Facebook.


Nathan and Rhiann Wedding Trailer from Adam Hill on Vimeo.

Jamie Gray Music video

Over the weekend just passed I was asked to help out on my first music video. The video is being made by my good friend Tom Lee for a local artist named Jamie Gray. I was given the role of second camera as Tom who is also a keen cinematographer was on first. This really suited me though as it allowed me much more creative freedom through out the shoot, I could look for new and interesting compositions to accompany his shots. I also filmed all of the glide track shots through out the video, which was my first really good practice with this bit of kit.

Friday (11 November 2011)

On Friday we filmed just Jamie on his own in a local music venue called The New Adelphi. This was a dramatic low-key lighting shoot which worked pretty well, lots of silhouettes and moving light sources. I used my glide track to get my favourite shot of the day, Jamie's fingers playing the keys on his keyboard as I tracked along with them, all as Tom waved a portable LED light around in time with the music. 

Me and Tom filming Jamie

Saturday

On Saturday I was directed to a modern warehouse and when I went inside a large room had been converted in to a miniature war ground by set designer Olivia Young. The sort of thing you might expect at an indoor paint balling arena with two improvised barriers at each end and scattered debris throughout. We filmed two teams of four men dressed up as urban soldiers fighting each other with toy weapons and as you can imagine it soon became a hectic shoot. Sticky darts to the face, marbles flying and lots of minor injuries. We got through it all though in good time and with no real harm to equipment or cast. On this day most of the action was set up for the primary camera and it was harder for me to find usable shots, I filmed a lot of handheld footage of the fighting and I did get some nice glide track shots of all the soldiers playing dead at the end.

Me preparing to film some of the soldiers

Improvised barrier and soldiers

Me using my glide track shooter as a shoulder rig

Sunday

On Sunday we filmed the two gangs with some 'real looking' weapons in their individual bases along with lots of running shots from their bases to the battle. All of these shots where filmed either outside or in derelict buildings so we only had natural light and a small portable LED box to work with. Once again I put my glide track to good use with some nice tracking establishing shots of the gangs. The rest of the shoot was me running around like a mad man using my glide track as a shoulder rig. Considering the abundant amount of distractions present we managed to get finished in good time once again, which was a bonus as the sun was slowly becoming less camera shy as the day rolled by. Once again my favourite shot was whilst using my glide track (obviously still surprised at how professional this piece of kit makes your work look). This time tracking forward into the shot as one of the gangs leave their base.

Me and Tom discussing an establishing shot on the glide track  

Me using the glide track as a shoulder rig

  

The weekend as a whole went very successfully and I loved having the opportunity to film something totally different. Each day brought a new set of challenges especially in relation to lighting and camera movements. Best of all I finally got to put all my new equipment to good use and it's all looking like a good investment.

A behind the scenes edit from the shoot made by my long time collaborator and one of the gang members Adam Hill, will be uploaded hopefully by the end of the day so keep coming back to this post if it's not on here yet! Also at some point in the near future I will be compiling a show reel of my own footage from the shoot so keep looking out for that as well as the finished music video itself which I will hopefully be able show you next month.

Update

Behind the scenes video by Adam Hill.

James E. Gray - Chaos Concerto (behind the scenes) from Adam Hill on Vimeo.

Tuna Shake Baby

A few months back I helped work on the short film Tuna Shake Baby written and directed by my friend Adam Hill (contact him here) We've worked on a couple of films together and I plan on working on a lot more with him over the next few years. The film showed to a good reaction at Hull Truck Theatre during it's first screening. Let me know what you think.


Tuna Shake Baby from Nish Hill on Vimeo.

Degree show Photos ( I know they're a little late)

Here are the photographs from our degree show held at Fruit Bar in Hull on the 2nd June 2011. As you can see we got a pretty decent turnout and to our pleasant surprise we got an amazing reaction from the audience. It was a brilliant night and I couldn't have asked for a better conclusion to our course. You can see below that we were a small class and therefore a small crew and the results we achieved, to quote our external examiner, were beyond all expectations. What's next for us all? I do not know,  excited would be an understatement.

Future Classics (The class) - Me, Michael Hirst, Shona Singleton, Tom Lee, Olivia Young, Adam Hill

Me and my beautiful girl Shelley

Control Station

The Screen

The Audience 

Audience and displays on the back wall

Also check out this good review of the evening and films.

Independent Review of the night!!!!!!!

(All photos taken by Tom Lee on his Canon 60D)

Unrest Screenshots

Here are some screen shots from the short film Unrest directed by Adam Hill. In this project I shared the cinematographer credit with Tom Lee, dividing the role by interior and exterior shots. Adam decided to use two cinematographers to emphasize the different states of reality. Tom filmed the interior shots which are the main protagonist's subconscious and I filmed the exterior shots which  provide the basis for the story through establishing shots and flashbacks. I don't want to give the story away just yet, I'm not sure how secretive Adam the director wants to be. However upon receiving the footage yesterday I've decided to put up a few screen shots for you to take a look at.

These screenshots are straight from the original footage before any kind of colour correction and I'm quite pleased with the way they have turned out, I just hope Adam can put together a decent edit. I'm going out filming the last bits today so wish me luck!