Aimee Spinks Photography Blog
Film | Screen Fighters | Actors | Performers2 Weeks 2 Make It WM 2011
Fellow tog Jak Flash and I recently decided to have a play around with some cinematography and we thought what better way to get our arses into gear than to enter a competition that gives us a very strict deadline.
And so we put together a team of 7 to enter the 2 Weeks 2 Make It WM music video competition. We were randomly paired with Leamington Spa based band, Valhalla Smith and were given 2 weeks to create a music video for their song, “Portion of Blame.”
Our team, named the Tricksters, comprised of:
- Myself as producer and DOP
- Jak Flash as Creative Director
- John Hill-Daniel as Director
- Anneliese Cherrington as Production Manager
- Leigh Nicholls as our main camera op (John, Jak, Adam and myself also filmed some parts)
- Adam Hale as our lighting and camera assistant
- Alex Peerman as our editor
Despite a shaky start and lots of hurdles, we managed to complete our video and submit it in time. The video, inspired by the lyrics, looks at the personification of guilt and how we often refuse to admit that the blame truly lies with ourselves. The shards of mirror that appear to kill each person the protagonist encounters, is representative of the damage he does to those around him with his inability to accept responsibility for his actions.
Although the end result isn’t quite the project we envisioned at the start, we are happy with what we have accomplished and we all feel we have learned a lot in the process. It was a pleasure working with the crew and band (who I will no doubt check out again at a gig as they are an amazing live band) as well as our fabulously talented actors Louis Murrall and Jo Ryan.
Please show your support by visiting the Public Voting Page and voting for our video.
Below are a selection of stills from the shoot:
All images ©Copyright Aimee Spinks 2011
The awards night will take place at the Herbert Gallery and Museum in Coventry on Thursday 16th with all public votes being counted up until then so please show your support!
Tags: 2 weeks 2 make it, 2weeks2makeit, Aimee Spinks, music video, portion of blame, valhalla smith
BBC’s ‘Doctors’
T’other week I had a delicious 5:30am start to get onto the set of BBC’s Doctors for 8 to shadow DOP, Ted Ames.
I met Ted whilst working on Matt Chambers’ (Dr. Daniel Granger, Doctors) short film, For the Love of Eli, the stills for which can be viewed here.
He invited me on set of Doctors to observe the logistics, creative and technical elements behind the low budget TV drama. The first thing that staggered me was the speed of shooting. Blocking and rehearsals were done in a matter of minutes before lighting was rigged up and a scene filmed.
It was my first time inside a purpose built studio set with more lights than people and removable panel walls making shooting in seemingly small rooms a whole lot easier. The aim of my visit was to learn as much as I could about the kit and processes in place on a busy commercial set and I made the most of my time talking to Ted, the camera crew and the sparks to learn what I could.
The 'Doctors,' crew
'Doctors,' DOP; Ted Ames
The lighting setups were very straight forward and mainly involved the deployment of 350 and 650 watt tungsten balanced Arri lights with a daylight gel alongside a Kino or two. Below are a few quick reference shots to the setup of one particular scene shot in Dr Carmichael’s office.
'Doctors,' lighting set-ups
'Doctors,' lighting set-ups
'Doctors,' lighting set-ups
As you can see, the interior is lit by a Kino about a metre away from where the cast would be (I was not permitted to photograph the artistes), and an Arri shooting through the glass window. Additional lights were setup around the office to illuminate any exterior areas that might make it into shot through the open door. This was primarily done with a few Arri’s bouncing the light to keep it soft and unobtrusive to the key scene.
What I loved about the studio was the fact that there were so many lights that nothing needed to be taken down between scene changes – additional lights were just brought in and the others were left standing. This saved so much time whereas on a set with more limited equipment, everything would have to be constantly set-up, taken down, moved and re-setup again and again. I would love to have those kinds of resources on projects – productivity would be through the roof and my creative ideas would know no bounds!
Dr. Carmichael's office
As well as the technical side of things, I also quizzed the crew on practical things like scheduling, expectations of product and budget on this kind of production. Being a perfectionist I hate releasing anything less than the best I can achieve (and then some) which although is great for maintaining high production values, can be detrimental to productions working to a tight schedule and small budget. As Scott put it: it’s better to hand over a completed script’s worth of work with a few small issues than a half-finished script of perfection – at least then you are keeping the client happy if not yourself!
Scene blocking
All in all it was a good day and I feel like I learned a lot, particularly in regards to the logistical side of things. My thanks go to Ted for inviting me along and putting up with my endless questions and to the crew for a good laugh because let’s face it; we’re never too old to draw a pair of tits in a notebook!
Tags: BBC, Doctors, DOP, Shadowing, Ted Ames, TV
Standard Works: The Perfect Industrial Location
The more I edit the stills and footage for Vigilante, the more impressed I am with the location. Standard Works Jewellers is a 4 storey building located in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter, 5 minutes’ walk from the train station. For anyone looking for an industrial looking location for film or stills – this is the property to check out. It’s let by estate agents Nattrass Giles who were kind enough to agree to let me shoot Vigilante there.
The basement is a vast open space with fantastic features including a walk-in safe with heavy duty door, multiple rows of concrete pillars, metal conveyor belt type shaft down from the ground floor to allow for the easy transfer of materials between floors and high windows to allow fragments of natural light in.
Below are a couple of shots from the Vigilante project taken in the basement to give you an idea:
Copyright Aimee Spinks 2011
Copyright Aimee Spinks 2011
The ground floor also has a section of pillars which were perfect for this shot:
Copyright Aimee Spinks 2011
It also holds a spiral staircase, upper windows looking onto level one as well as fantastic huge windows and lots of open space:
Copyright Aimee Spinks 2011
Copyright Aimee Spinks 2011
Copyright Aimee Spinks 2011
Upstairs on level one, we used one room as Tao Lee’s ‘living room’ as well as shooting down through one of the windows looking back down onto the ground floor and using a couple of the rooms to show Karen stalking through the building in search of her prey:
Copyright Aimee Spinks 2011
Copyright Aimee Spinks 2011
Copyright Aimee Spinks 2011
The upper level is comprised of two enormous rooms spanning a large L-Shape curve and was used to create a timelapse piece as well as acting as Lee’s ‘bedroom.’
Copyright Aimee Spinks 2011
There were so many more features to the building that unfortunately we didn’t have the time to shoot but would be fantastic for anybody looking to rent the building out for stills or film work.
The final storyboard is comprised of 360 stills sequenced together to create a 6minute short film. The only thing remaining is the composition of the music for the piece which is being taken on by contemporary composer, Matt Walch. Once the film is finished I’ll upload it to my website and you should hopefully get an even better idea as to the fabulous opportunities available at this location.
Anyone interested in the building should contact Nattrass Giles on 0121 333 3363
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Test Shooting: Day for Night
Hi all!
With a request from actress, Angela Peters, to create a portfolio of cinematic images with a dark action based feel, I trundled the kit down to Moseley Bog (a beautiful nature reserve where Tolkien took inspiration for the Shire in his books, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings) to have my first bash at shooting day for night.
It’s a pretty straight forward process. Simply set the aperture and shutter speed to underexpose the environment to the degree you like and then adjust the flash light until the subject is lit as desired. As the exposure for the ambient light is fixed, any changes to the exposure of the subject should be made by altering the light outputs, not by altering the camera settings.
Fellow tog, Lucas Brodowicz assisted with the lighting, and tricker friend, Jay McCormick, was our stand in model for our brief test shoot.
We shot for about an hour and a half using 2 lights on spill dishes at about 4pm in the afternoon. I’m not sure how I feel about the shots – I would have prefered to shoot on snoots however the light wasn’t reaching the photocells to trigger both flash heads and with my Twinlink radio triggers getting repaired I was forced to shoot with a cable. Once my triggers are back in tow I’d like to try out lighting the scene again using snoots instead.
Anywho, here are a few shots taken t’other day. Nothing has been edited on the main images to give you an accurate idea as the lighting we were playing with.
Copyright Aimee Spinks 2011
Copyright Aimee Spinks 2011
Copyright Aimee Spinks 2011
Tags: Day for Night, film photography, portfolio photography
Fake Newspaper Printing: Props for Photography and Film
So just where on Earth does one get a fake newspaper printed to use as prop?
When planning the Vigilante Project I had just this problem. I had written my own articles across a 12 page spread and just needed to find a printer able to print onto newsprint. This proved to be a rather difficult feat and resulted in me spending about 4 hours calling a myriad of printing companies including newspaper presses and novelty gift companies who offer spoof newspapers for printing.
The problem with the former is that to get something printed you need to have a print run of at least a few thousand copies. The latter provided template pages and only allowed you to contribute a certain amount of your own work and wouldn’t let you print off several pages in an attempt to create at least half a newspaper.
In the end I stumbled across the Newspaper Club which offers bespoke newspaper printing on small runs at low cost. I simply sent them the art work I had mocked up using their easy to follow instructions for formatting, written on their website. In about 7 days I received 5 black and white copies of my fake, 12 page newspaper at the low cost of £35. Their customer service was fantastic, and knowing the slightly unconventional articles I had written and layout I required along with my very tight deadline, were able to offer all the advice and help I needed with a speedy and friendly response.
I cannot recommend them enough for photographers and filmmakers looking to print prop newspapers that need bespoke artwork and articles. You aren’t tied to templates (though they are available if you need help in laying out your newswpaper) which was great for me as I needed certain pages printed upside down and all over the place to allow for different usage. The quality of the print was exactly what I was after and made for some very realistic newspapers!
Below are some of the shots I took of the newspapers for the Vigilante project:
Copyright Aimee Spinks 2011
Copyright Aimee Spinks 2011
Copyright Aimee Spinks 2011
Copyright Aimee Spinks 2011
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Vigilante Sneak Peak!
Well it’s been a mad few months prepping for, shooting and editing the stills for Rob Ho‘s Vigilante stills production, but finally all 115 final stills have been edited and are now waiting to be sequenced alongside a further 240 shots taken for a timelapse for the short film.
The project follows Rob’s character, Tao Lee, and documents his internal struggle with the overwhelming guilt and blind rage he experiences when realising the truth of what he has become after the death of his 4-year old son, Archie.
The aim of the project was to shoot stills in a way that could not only stand alone as an almost comic-strip-esque story telling but also be able to be sequenced together to form a short film. I have shot the stills and hope to edit the short in such a way that it does not simply resemble a slideshow to music but actually feel in some instances like footage.
Composer, Matt Walch, is creating a score to the short and together we are hoping to create an audio-visual narrative that explores the psychological states of the characters rather than being too literal and descriptive.
The short will be a while in coming yet and I’m hoping to release everything together so you may have to sit tight for the whole shoot, however here is a sneaky peak of some of my favourite shots:
Copyright Aimee Spinks 2011
Copyright Aimee Spinks 2011
Copyright Aimee Spinks 2011
Copyright Aimee Spinks 2011
Tags: Aimee Spinks Photography, Rob Ho, Vigilante
Rotunda Shoot
Last week I did a couple of shoots in one of the penthouse suites of Birmingham’s Rotunda. The first was my first male nude, followed by a female lingerie shoot. Emma Tullett was both assistant to the first shoot and gorgeous model for the second and along with make-up artist Jen Brown we had a terrific day shooting.
I’m not shooting much in the way of fashion these days as I’m focusing my attention on film and production work, however it was nice to apply my approach to cinematic stills to fashion. I wanted to experiment with natural lighting as I am always shooting with my studio flash to create very dark and dramatic imagery so it was nice to achieve something more bright and natural. However I did want to try out more cinematic ways of framing and feel that I have finally found a way to enjoy fashion photography more fully – create a narrative!
All through university, before I discovered I wanted to work in the film industry, I spent a lot of my time focusing on fashion as it seemed to be the most obvious route to take for commercial photography. Though my technical skills flourished through my attempts I was never satisfied. I found I was working more and more with actors and performers but still couldn’t seem to change from the typical poses, expressions and eye contact the models gave the camera. It wasn’t until working as a stills photographer on several short films I released I didn’t want my models posing for the camera to show of their figure – I wanted them posing for the story.
You can see all the finished images from my shoot with Emma in my portfolio under fashion however here are a couple of my favourite shots plus two extras!
Copyright Aimee Spinks 2011
Copyright Aimee Spinks 2011
Copyright Aimee Spinks Photography 2011
Copyright Aimee Spinks 2011
Tags: Aimee Spinks Photography, Emma Tullett, Fashion, Lingerie, Rotunda
Shock Horror Magazine
T’other day I got a copy of issue 3 of Dean Boor’s “Shock Horror” magazine through the post. Shock Horror is a bi-monthly independent UK based Horror Magazine, made by fans for fans and recently featured a double page spread of actress and martial artist Zara Phythian. I’m happy to report some of my photos from the Stanley House shoot with Zara got in though not images previously released on the site.
In celebration of my first published work in a while here’s one of the images that made it in along with a couple of other previously unreleased shots!
One of the images for Shock Horror Magazine
Copyright Aimee Spinks 2011
Copyright Aimee Spinks 2011
Tags: Aimee Spinks Photography, Andy Lister, Shock Horror Magazine, Stanley House, Zara Phythian
Snow!
Since moving to Birmingham and leaving friends back up north I’ve promised to put up photos of the local area. So when the snow came tumbling down I decided to head out and take some snaps.
I don’t profess to be a landscape photographer nor one who particularly likes relying on natural light for shots so these feel more like personal snaps than any serious attempt at professional imagery. I have however taken the opportunity to experiment with different post processing techniques.
Heading out with the camera, Andrew and I thought that this would be as good a time as any to check out Moseley Bog; the very same bog in fact where the literary genius that is Tolkien, visited for inspiration for his book, The Lord of the Rings . Unfortunately we didn’t spend as much time as we would have liked exploring due to the toe numbing cold that was seeping into my wellies, however I did manage to snap this couple strolling off ahead of us under an early moon.
© Copyright Aimee Spinks 2010
Here I’ve had a second dabble at split toning, using red for the shadows and an aqua blue for the highlights. This is probably my favourite of the four. My second favourite is the photo below though it’s probably the subject more than the photo itself which makes me like it. Let me present my partner, Andrew, who is always suffering my requests for him to model for me:
© Copyright Aimee Spinks 2010
All I played around with on this shot were saturation levels. I tend to go for strong, fairly vibrant colouring in my work so it was nice to see how much a desaturation jobbie would affect this shot. I don’t particularly like the next two but I that’s probably because I’m not a huge fan of HDR photography. Don’t get me wrong, HDR can look amazing, but it is done to death and I don’t feel that it has worked particularly well for these scenes. The first shot I kept fairly desaturated and then did the opposite for the final photo to see the differences.
© Copyright Aimee Spinks 2010
© Copyright Aimee Spinks 2010
So these are just a few snaps I’ve briefly played around with. It’s a shame some of the files of other shots corrupted as the street looked absolutely beautiful.
Aside from taking a stroll in the snow, I’ve spent the last week working on a couple of short films and trailers that I am looking forward to sharing on my site, however I’m still waiting for the go ahead from the directors/producers. Hopefully I’ll be able to release them soon!
In the meantime, everybody have a wonderful Christmas and I’ll see you in the New Year!
Tags: moseley, snow
Vigilante: Pre-Production
Martial Artist and independent film producer, Rob Ho, is currently in pre-production with his second feature film, Vigilante, and last Saturday I went along to document a screenfighting workshop held in Bristol to look for emerging talent!
It was a good turnout with participants from both acting and martial arts backgrounds coming from across the country to train with Sifu Rob Ho and Simu Zara Phythian.
© Copyright Aimee Spinks 2010
It was a great day and I wanted so much to get involved – how I miss my martial arts and acting days!
Anyone interested in getting involved in the film (cast or crew) should send in a headshot and CV to Rob via: casting@vigilantethemovie.co.uk
As well as the film itself, I am currently working with Rob on a conceptual body of work relating to the theme of Vigilantism and I can’t wait to start shooting for it early next year! Symbolism and metaphor will convey the narrative through a mix of cinematic stills, time lapses and possibly even some filming to create what we hope will be a unique and powerful project.
I can’t wait!
Tags: Aimee Spinks, Birmingham, Bristol, cinema, cinematic, Film, Movie, Photography, Pre-production, Rob Ho, Screenfighting, stunts, Vigilante, Zara Phythian