2012 is here!!!!

So it’s 2012 and part of my New Years resolutions is to be more active on blogging and Twitter so here we are .
2011 was a BIG year for me including shoots for Temper Trap, Chuckle Brothers, Jessie J and many more.
I am now also represented by The Crewing Company which is hopefully a big step in the right direction in getting new exciting work and they are a lovely company to be represented by.
James Kar and I collaborated on our first music video together – ‘Strange Fruit’.  The video was a resounding success and saw a lot of positive feedback from the online community and the Behind-The-Scenes video got an incredibly warm response and was nominated for ‘Best BTS Video’ at the fstoppers BTS Video Competition…check it out below.

Luckily, my filming this year has taken me across the world.  I completed a five day shoot in the USA which consisted of taking a road trip from Manhattan up to some beautiful landscapes in up-state New York.  Quite an incredible adventure.  A commercial with The London Creative had me whisked away to Marbella for 5 days shooting in a beautiful 4* hotel overlooking an incredible mountain scape.  That shoot also happened to give birth to what is now known as ‘The Devilish Flaming Cointreau’ (a flaming drink drunk by many at the wrap party)

The year topped itself off nicely with quick-fire commercials with the Chuckle Brothers and then further shoots with Jessie J and Jason Derulo followed by a charity project with my good friend Mark Jackson for Macmillan Cancer Support.
Around the Christmas period I was very privileged to be a volunteer for Crisis at Christmas (a nationwide charity caring for the homeless). Although this has nothing to do with filming I thought I would add this in as it truly made me appreciate the privileged life that I lead as a film-maker and as a person.  Giving my time was a truly rewarding and humbling experience, so much so that I attended several extra days of volunteering and am certain that I will do the same next year.  The experience was further rewarding as one of the guests (the term used for the homeless people) bought in an incredible Super8mm film camera (that he had found along with another camera and long lens in a bin) and was particularly intrigued as to what it was and how it worked.  It was a truly great experience sharing what I knew about the camera and talking with him about what each dial meant and teaching him the fundamentals of film-making.  We had a conversation for an hour over a cup of tea about what he could do with the camera and although he probably saw it as a simple lesson in film-making, it turned out to be one of my most rewarding and moving times of the week.  I would fully advise volunteering to anybody around the christmas period for 2012 and beyond.
So what’s new for 2012?????? Well let’s hope very good things
Curtis and Kars’ (our tentatively named film production company) new BTS video for some recent Grolsch commercials has seen some awesome reviews and the video has already chalked up more than 7’000 hits and counting.  With an average rating of 4.9/5 from over 100 ratings we have big hopes for it getting shortlisted at the fstoppers awards for ‘Best BTS Video’ too!!!!  If you haven’t already seen it please check it out as we love to share any work that we do with the film-making community.
Our competition entry can be found here but if you want to check it out directly you’ll find it below.

And below you can see the final results….

So looks like I’m starting 2012 off with a bang and to keep the ball rolling over the next few weeks I intend to post a lot more about projects I’ve been working on.
HAPPY NEW YEAR