I haven’t updated my blog in a while so wanted to catch up with some of the videos I have been working on over the past few weeks.
Last week was pretty busy with the Army Rugby Union holding the Semi Finals in both it’s Community Cup & Premiership competitions on the Tuesday & Thursday. I filmed all four games and produced highlight packages for the Army website, getting some good footage from some entertaining games. Highlights included a resounding win for 28 Engr Regt in the Community Cup Semi Final, including a Hat-trick from Garry Windle, highlights can be found here:
The second Premiership Semi Final pitted 23 Pioneer Regt vs 17 Port & Maritime in an all RLC affair. Both sides included some Army 7s stars which made for some exciting running rugby. Look out for England 7s Star ‘Damu’ as well, who returned from the Las Vegas 7s the weekend before. My favourite shot from this game is Malakai Magnus intercepting the ball and running in for the try – 9.05 mins in:
I am also in the process of putting together a promotional video for the Army Netball Team. The team was in Aldershot recently preparing for their Inter Services games, where I filmed their training session and warm up games. It was my first time filming Netball – a faster paced game than what I was expecting which allowed me to get some great shots. I will be posting the finished video soon so keep an eye out on my website.
Next week the Royal Engineers Rugby Union team have their final and most important game of the year against their Rivals the Royal Artillery. It’s been a disappointing season for the Sappers as they have failed to reach the Corps final for the first time in many years, but the game against the Gunners at Chatham should be a great one to finish the season with. I’ve been working on a promotional video which will be shown to the team prior to the game and it will be uploaded afterwards so look out for it as well as highlights from the game itself.
The Army Rugby League Season is approaching and I have just completed a Promotional video for the Royal Artillery Rugby League team. The montage features footage from last seasons games and highlights the key fixtures including the Sebastopol Cup vs the Royal Marines, Hopson Memorial game and grudge match vs the Sappers in the Lawson Cup. Here’s the link;
That’s about it for the moment, I’ve got a couple more promotional/motivational videos in the works for a few teams which i’ll share more about in the next few weeks.
The recent cold weather has played havoc with fixtures but the Army Rugby team are back in action this Wednesday vs the British Police which I’ll be filming & doing highlights for and i’ll be back at Reading this Saturday for a re-arranged fixture.
Thanks for reading and checking out my videos. More updates to follow…
I’ve created a couple of short promo videos for the Army Rugby Union as they enter their new season in 2012. The first video features Army winger Ben Seru a Hat-trick scorer in both games vs RAF & Navy.
Taking inspiration from an NHL campaign I’ve used a soft colour filter on the clip and added some grain and also, when the reversing starts, a filter to produce a look similar to that of an old movie. I think the simple effect of reversing the footage fits in well with the theme of the promo – ‘History begins again’ as the Army looks to create more history in 2012. The added commentary is taken from last years game vs the Navy at Twickenham using my own footage that I took from the sidelines.
Here is the link to the Promo, best viewed in HQ:
Hope you enjoy the clip, and look out for more in the next few weeks!
Just a quick one to wish everyone a Happy New Year! Here’s hoping 2012 is even bigger and better than last year. A big thanks for visiting my website which now has over 14,500 views! 2011 was a really fun year and hopefully there will be even more big things to come in 2012. I will continue to update on new work and projects so keep an eye out on my website and if you haven’t already please become a fan on facebook by ‘liking’ my page:
Taking inspiration once again from NFL Films, I have decided to occasionally upload snippets of some of my favourite shots from footage that I have taken, with a brief insight as to why I have chosen it. For my first video I am using a clip from the Help for Heroes game where I was pitch side filming for the Spirit Dance Cheerleading team. In between filming for them I was getting some shots of some of the Army players who featured in the game as well as artistic and atmospheric shots from around the ground.
I have filmed at Twickenham now on quite a few occasions, most memorably for the Army against the Navy which had a crowd of 63, 000 and provided a great atmosphere. With a backdrop of such a large crowd it makes it easier to get some great shots. For the H4H game most of the lower tier was full, which helped with this particular clip. Due to certain restrictions at the ground and the fact that I wasn’t filming the game specifically I had to keep to the outer part of the walkway around the pitch. This particular shot was taken in the final few minutes of the game, featuring an attacking scrum for the Northern Hemisphere. The crowd was entertaining itself with a Mexican wave which did a few laps around the stadium, I thought this would be a good shot to capture with the players setting up for a scrum at the far end of the pitch. I kept the scrum itself right at the bottom of the shot and therefore the crowd made up the majority of it in the background.
I kept the camera recording as the referee reset the scrum three times, and finally just before the final reset the wave came around, providing me with a good atmospheric shot, with Army Number 8, Boladau, featuring prominently as well.
I am always looking for lots of different angles to film, not just the game itself but the surroundings as well. What I like about filming rugby is that everything is instantaneous, and you constantly have to stay alert to what is going on so you can capture the best footage, whether it be on the pitch itself or around the crowd and stadium, it’s quite challenging as well though because if you miss a shot then thats it gone. When i’m filming I like to stay as quiet and out of the shot as possible so when i’m filming players it’s a more natural and realistic shot.
I kept the camera wide and still on this shot, which I often like to do and make the players do the work, rather than focusing in on the ball and then following the scrum half as he takes off to the left of shot.
Here is the short clip, uploaded to YouTube:
Hope you enjoy my insight into this short clip. As the season goes on I will add some more of my favourite snippets from games.
Wednesday was the coldest and windiest conditions that i’ve filmed in for quite a while as the Royal Engineers travelled to Abingdon to take on the RLC. Thankfully Under Armour tops do a good job to help with the cold, but after a while it still gets to you – especially the finger tips which doesn’t help when trying to film!
Unfortunately the Sappers lost their third straight game of the Season, failing to capitalise on good territory and posession, losing 12-3. I’ve posted highlights on YouTube, and the Match Report is up on www.sapperrugby.com
Last weekend I was pitchside at the second Help for Heroes game at Twickenham, a great cause which raised a lot of money for wounded Service men and women. The game featured many big names for both the Northern and Southern Hemisphere teams including 3 Army players. The Army team were also presented with the trophy from their recent World Cup win pitchside at half time infront of the 20,000 crowd.
I had been asked to film pitchside for the Spirit Dance Cheerleading team who performed before the game and also at half time. I took some footage of the Army players during the course of the game, although it was a bit difficult due to certain restrictions about where I could and couldn’t go. Overall from what I saw it was a pretty decent game, with both teams entertaining the crowd with some great rugby on what was a very cold evening!!
I’ll be back filming for the Royal Engineers on Wednesday who travel to take on the RLC in the final game of 2011, so hopefully they can get a win to end the year after losing their first two games of the season. Following that I’ll be filming for Reading at the weekend as they travel to Salisbury.
Finally, i’m also finishing off working on a promotional video for the Samurai International 7s team which i’ll post in the next few days.
The past fews days have been pretty busy. It started at 7am on Tuesday morning, having got back from a late shift at work at 2am the night before, when I got up to put together a Pre game video for the Combined Services team, which I had been asked to produce by Head Coach Andy Sanger. I finished it around mid day just before we set off for the game in Gloucester. The video features footage from the previous years encounters against the Barbarians and Samoa as well as footage from Remembrance Services and a RePatriation. It went down well with the team who watched it in their pre game meeting after being presented their shirts.
The game itself was a great encounter as both sides produced a brilliant display of rugby with the Gloucester Presidents XV just taking it with a late try 40-33. I have posted highlights from pitch side on YouTube which can be viewed here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QW1GjzIL7FE
The Pre Game video can be viewed here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfOEk1eYi74
The following day I was filming for the Royal Engineers as they took on the REME at Arbofield in the second round of the Corps Championship. Unfortunately the Sappers lost their second straight game which means they are unlikely to reach the Corps Final, unless other results go their way. I have posted highlights from the game on YouTube, and a match report is up on the Sapper website as well, www.sapperrugby.com
I’m back filming for Reading on Saturday as they hopefully pick up a win against Olney. To close off the week the Patriots are playing the Jets in a tough grudge match in New York – hopefully the Pats will snap their two game losing streak with a win Sunday night!
February Update
I haven’t updated my blog in a while so wanted to catch up with some of the videos I have been working on over the past few weeks.
Last week was pretty busy with the Army Rugby Union holding the Semi Finals in both it’s Community Cup & Premiership competitions on the Tuesday & Thursday. I filmed all four games and produced highlight packages for the Army website, getting some good footage from some entertaining games. Highlights included a resounding win for 28 Engr Regt in the Community Cup Semi Final, including a Hat-trick from Garry Windle, highlights can be found here:
The second Premiership Semi Final pitted 23 Pioneer Regt vs 17 Port & Maritime in an all RLC affair. Both sides included some Army 7s stars which made for some exciting running rugby. Look out for England 7s Star ‘Damu’ as well, who returned from the Las Vegas 7s the weekend before. My favourite shot from this game is Malakai Magnus intercepting the ball and running in for the try – 9.05 mins in:
I am also in the process of putting together a promotional video for the Army Netball Team. The team was in Aldershot recently preparing for their Inter Services games, where I filmed their training session and warm up games. It was my first time filming Netball – a faster paced game than what I was expecting which allowed me to get some great shots. I will be posting the finished video soon so keep an eye out on my website.
Next week the Royal Engineers Rugby Union team have their final and most important game of the year against their Rivals the Royal Artillery. It’s been a disappointing season for the Sappers as they have failed to reach the Corps final for the first time in many years, but the game against the Gunners at Chatham should be a great one to finish the season with. I’ve been working on a promotional video which will be shown to the team prior to the game and it will be uploaded afterwards so look out for it as well as highlights from the game itself.
The Army Rugby League Season is approaching and I have just completed a Promotional video for the Royal Artillery Rugby League team. The montage features footage from last seasons games and highlights the key fixtures including the Sebastopol Cup vs the Royal Marines, Hopson Memorial game and grudge match vs the Sappers in the Lawson Cup. Here’s the link;
That’s about it for the moment, I’ve got a couple more promotional/motivational videos in the works for a few teams which i’ll share more about in the next few weeks.
The recent cold weather has played havoc with fixtures but the Army Rugby team are back in action this Wednesday vs the British Police which I’ll be filming & doing highlights for and i’ll be back at Reading this Saturday for a re-arranged fixture.
Thanks for reading and checking out my videos. More updates to follow…
XII