A recent trip to Greece saw us working with survivors of human trafficking. Meeting the girls was a real privilege and hearing their stories first hand was incredible. I wanted to capture as much about the person as possible and the standard interview shoot I just didn’t think would work. We shot at dusk for her story, and at dawn for her story of restoration and hope since coming into the care of the charity. I came away from the trip feeling amazed at how these girls are still so happy – when they have previously faced slavery of the most brutal kind for years. I have a lot of respect for them.

Shot on a Canon Eos 7d with a zacuto shoulder mount & weight I was really happy with the final outcome. I used a canon 35mm 1.4 which is quickly becoming one of my favourite lenses to shoot with. Bringing the footage into Magic Bullet Looks for the final grade and with a sound design provided by Dave Tymo – the final project came out pretty well.

And the aspiring film makers rejoyce. Canon have just anonunced their follow up from the 5d Mark II with a design more taylored to video makers in the Canon 5d Mark III. In a nutshell, it’s a simaller device but with the added benefit of being able to shoot at more options of frame rate & size and with the all importent built in audio monitering, allowing for the device to become truly portable.

So here’s the importent updated specs for videographers:

Recording Sizes: 1920 x 1080 (Full HD), 1280 x 720 and 640 x 480

Frame Rates:
[1920 x 1080]: 30 fps / 25 fps / 24 fps
[1280 x 720]: 60 fps / 50 fps
[640 x 480]: 30 fps / 25 fps

Also – the camera now allows for continuous record time, something that the 7d and 5d both wouldn’t allow. Read the full press release here

Written and directed by Ben Briand, this film really blew me away. With a really emotive narrative matched with strong scripting and an especially good acting perfomance from Ewan Leslie - the film really draws you in and the 10minutes fly by. If short films could be close to perfection, this is one of them and has rightly picked up several awards along the way including Voted Best Narrative on Vimeo by it’s users. Enjoy