New Promo Video for the Carpet Design Awards 2016

This is the online video I've just delivered to help promote the Carpet Design Awards 2016. The annual event takes place in Hanover Germany each January and is a showcase for all the best in contemporary carpet design. I directed, made the motion graphics and edited this promo video. The video includes video footage from the previous show which I didn't shoot.

The production was made for Hali Publications Ltd., the same firm I delivered the 'Ottoman Art' exhibition film for last year.

New Book Promo Video for Simon's Cat

Today is the launch of Simon Tofield's new cartoon book 'Off To The Vet.'
I shot and cut this promotional/interview video for Simon's Cat Ltd. and the publisher Canongate Books.

I've been working on quite a few more 'corporate' video projects over the last couple of months, but most of these are 'secret' things that can't be shared. It's nice that the video work I make for Simon's Cat at least gets a decent airing. I wish Simon and his team continuing success.

Thomas & Friends YouTube Content: New Zealand

Here's another episode of the online series put together by Spider Eye for Hit Entertainment. In this episode Thomas travels to New Zealand.

I made the motion graphics title sequence (first 20 seconds) for this web series.  On this particular episode got to colour-in all the New Zealand backgrounds too.

New product video for Nevion: 'Flashlink'

The product video I made recently for Nevion has just appeared on their YouTube channel. (see video embedded above.) Nevion Flashlink is an optical transfer system for sending multiple signals from one location to another in real-time.

The client had the script written already, and I sourced the US male voice-over for them. For this video I built a simplified model of the product in Cinema 4D, then combined this with text and graphics I put-together in After Effects. Turnaround time for this kind of video is usually around three weeks.

The Nevion team will be at the IBC show in Amsterdam this week, I wish them a successful and fruitful time at the exhibition.

Using C4D

 

I've been using Maxon Cinema 4D for many of the corporate/web videos I've been making since I bought the software last year. I tend to make pretty simple 3D stuff to incorporate into these projects; learning just a little more about it each time I get to use it. I seem to be more interested in making 'graphical' work with it rather than photo-realistic stuff.

My Past Year in Videos

About this time last year, the directors of TANDEM Films decided to call it a day and announced the closure of the company. So having worked at the studio for twelve years, I was out in the world looking for work ...

As a family man and mortgagee I had to find an income somehow from my skills and experiences, so I started offering my services on a freelance basis to anyone who might value them. Job offers didn't exactly flood in, so I decided to start making calls, sending out emails and see if I could start generating some work.

So over the last year I have been somehow been finding video projects to make. Some of the fruits of this labour can be seen here...

July 2014

Simon's Cat 'Off To The Vet: a behind the scenes glimpse. 01:56
A promotional 'Behind The Scenes' film featuring Simon Tofield storyboarding his new film project 'Off to The Vet'

August 2014

Simon's Cat 'Off To The Vet: Story Inspiration. 02:16
A promotional film featuring Simon Tofield and his new film project 'Off to The Vet'

September 2014

FusePump, BuyNow Explained 02:00
An 'explainer' film for FusePump to show how their BuyNow web marketing product works.

October 2014

Arte Ottomana 1450-1600 08:45
An 8 minute documentary for Hali Publishing to accompany an exhibition of Ottoman era artworks showing at the Palazzo Lomellino gallery in Genoa. (Italian with Enflish over-titles).

November 2014

Simon's Cat 'Off To The Vet: Vet Visit'
A promotional documentary for Simon's Cat Ltd. documenting a visit to the Cats Protection Charity Headquarters by Simon's Cat creator Simon Tofield.

December 2014

Thomas & Friends YouTube content (intro only). 0:20
I made the 20 seconds motion graphics introduction now being used by Hit! Entertainment to brand all of their Thomas & Friends YouTube video content. Produced by Spider Eye.

January 2015
Sofreh: The The Art of Persian Celebration. 8:00
I made a motion graphics 'slide show' to play at the London book launch of a very special art book by author Maryam Khosrowshahi and Hali Publishing. (The video shows much of the book content and can't be viewed here.)

February 2015

Vanderpump & Sykes Solicitors 6:00
A longer 8 minute version of this motion graphics film plays on a continual loop at the headquarters of this legal firm.

March 2015

Phonebook.club 1:23

April 2015

Nevion Product videos 4 x 1:40
I made 4 product videos for this tech company producing studio equipment for the broadcast industry. .

May 2015
Currently unrelaeased app. demo video 1:20
More Photoshop background artwork made for Thomas & Friends.

June 2015
Some After Effects compositing work for an old TANDEM colleague...

So if anybody out there is remotely interested, that's most of what I've been doing for the year since TANDEM closed down.

Simon Draws 'Squirrels'

Here's a newly-released episode in the Simon Draws series of videos I put-together for the Simon's Cat YouTube channel.

We recorded Simon Tofield talking whilst he's drawing to make these entertaining tutorial-style videos. Simon draws these digitally using a Wacom tablet and Adobe Flash software. We captured his drawing performance directly using the Quicktime 'Screen Capture' option.

The audio was recorded simultaneously using my Tascam DR07 mk II recorder and Rode VideomicPro microphone. The editing on these videos is pretty minimal; we combine the best takes and put these together on one 'page', then round the episodes off to a neat three minutes each. Although we use 'best takes' and cut-out unnecessary pauses, we don't speed-up the drawing footage, so these really do show what a talented artist Simon Tofield is.

The music track was composed specifically for these by Russell Pay a.k.a 'Shrooty'.

'Needlecraft' FGM Awareness Short Film Released (Updated)

During most of my twelve year stint at TANDEM Films (2002-2014) I worked on many television commercials and promo films in the service of all manner of products and services. I often worked on ads for breakfast cereals, fruit-based drinks, travel websites and even once a TV-based dating service, but towards the end of my time there, an altogether different project came in...

Female Genital Mutiliation (FGM) could perhaps be on of the most difficult and complex issues of any that one could ever imagine making a short film about. Ruth Beni of Animage Films had previously made several pioneering short films using animation to bring attention to important social issues and campaigns. Ruth's idea was to make a film that principally could be shown to school-age children to raise the issue of FGM, promote awareness and further discussion as well as provide links to supportive agencies working in the area. One of the main areas of concern was the extent to which the practice of FGM can happen within 'diaspora' communities, even after migrating from the countries where the practice is known to be most prevalent.

Ruth had worked with TANDEM Films before and approached Director Daniel Greaves to help put-together the short film. Dan pulled-together a small team at TANDEM to work on the project, and I was fortunate enough to be called-on to animate,composite and edit the piece.

Ruth and Daniel especially wanted to achieve a 'hand-stitched' aesthetic for the film. So in as much as would be possible they wanted to create the work using 'practical' (hand-made) techniques. A small team of embroiderers and artworkers were called-on to craft most of the artwork. Stop-motion animator Tobias Fouracre came in to animate as much as possible in-camera using traditional techniques. There was also a live-action shoot required too, bringing-in DOP Simon Paul to light and shoot.

Due to the many complexities of making such a film, the production period was fairly extended and there has been quite a few months passed before the film could be released, but I'm pleased to say that 'Needlecraft' has finally been officially published online.

Although it's been almost a year since the TANDEM Studio has closed its doors, I hope at least this work we did there will go on to to have at least some ongoing positive influence in the world at large ...

And now Ruth Beni has posted a short making-of video about the 'Needlecraft' project on her Animage Vimeo page. I think this shows quite nicely the craft and effort that went into this production.

New Video for Vanderpump & Sykes Solicitors

Well a couple of posts ago, I showed some still frames from a new motion graphics video I delivered for Vanderpump & Sykes Solicitors.

I've now added some stock music (from Tunefruit.com) and got this down to a snappier two minutes in this new edit. The video is designed to play on a loop and run silently on a large screen at the firm's head office.

The video is mostly animated type with some simple 3D elements too. I completed the project using Cinema4D and After Effects.

These days I'm making a lot of short promos and web videos directly for all kinds of clients. Please see www.chrisgavin.com to find out more.

Here are a few stills from the video too...

New Title Sequence for Thomas & Friends YouTube Content

On the BBC Radio 4 Today programme this morning, the 70th anniversary of Reverend W. Awdry creating the first of his 'Railway Series' stories for children was featured.

Growing-up as a child of the '70s, and something of a train-nerd, I loved these books, especially the rich and detailed illustrations. Long after I'd 'grown-up', Thomas the Tank Engine (and his friends) came to television and then became something of a merchandizing phenomenon too.

And now Thomas comes to the interwebs. Commissioned by Hit Entertainment and Produced by Spider Eye Ltd. , a new series of 'comic book' episodes is now arriving at platform YouTube.

I'm pleased to say I was asked to make the title sequence for this series (The first 20 seconds!) back in December and am now engaged in some background artworking for a few of the later episodes too. The first of the new webisodes 'Thomas Goes to New York' is online now, so I'm sharing a link to it here.

My bit is the motion graphics title sequence up until 0:20. Happy Birthday Thomas (& Friends).

Four New Product Videos for Nevion

I'm proud to now reveal the four product videos I have just made for new client Nevion which the company have just published on their YouTube channel. It was also great to be working again with my old colleague Philip Pepper as my Agent/Producer on these.

Nevion produces tech equipment for the TV & Broadcast industry. Nevion's innovative systems are used by content broadcasters worldwide to transport media streams from one location to another and to ensure the quality and reliability of such links.

I was asked to make four product videos highlighting key features for three hardware products and one software product in the Nevion range.

First up, here's the Nevion Sublime X2 Router for switching audio and video signals in tight situations...

For these videos the client had already written the Voice-Over Script. I sourced suitable VO recordings, and meanwhile set-about storyboarding the visuals for each video.

This is the TNS4200 Monitoring Probe for ensuring the quality of video streams...

I presented the client with a fairly thorough storyboard for each video within the first four days of each production to enable discussion and feedback.

This is the NX4600 Media Gateway for encoding and decoding media streams across IP networks...

This is the VideoIPath software solution for monitoring and controlling video networks including Nevion's hardware and 3rd party products too...

I particularly enjoyed making these videos and always love the challenge of presenting complex or highly technical subject matter with maximum precision and clarity.

The Nevion team are showing their products from their booth at the NAB Show for the TV industry in Las Vegas this week. I wish them an enjoyable and productive time at the show.