late 'n' Lives guide to comedy!

So the first episode of late and live aired on Monday which was very exciting but in case you missed it heres a link the the bbc iplayer version (sorry if your not in the UK) and its also only online for 30 days so if you look at this link in a years time doubly sorry :-)

iplayer link


And heres a link to a trailer for the show:

Late "n" Live Guide to Comedy

Here is a teaser trailer for the new BBC TV series I worked on last year.

LATE ‘N’ LIVE GUIDE TO COMEDY – UNCUT, UNCOUTH AND UNCOMPROMISING - AND ON TV FOR THE FIRST TIME

This is a press release for the BBC TV series I worked on last year its airing on BBC1 Scotland 23rd January at 11.15 and then for the next 4 weeks:

For a generation raised on Live At The Apollo and The Michael McIntyre Roadshow, the LATE ‘N’ LIVE GUIDE TO COMEDY will be a revelation.  Edinburgh Fringe audiences have, for over the past 25 years, gathered like Romans to the Coliseum to watch comedians fight against hecklers at the leading Gilded Balloon venue.  These people are renowned as the comedy world’s most unpredictable audience; never sedated by a famous name - they expect laughs or they give better than they get. 

To many it’s known as the comedians’ graveyard, with some performances there becoming the cautionary tales of comedy folklore, but that hasn’t deterred some of the best known names in comedy wanting to take on the LATE ‘N’ LIVE crowd – a group of people who know that they are in control.

Now for the first time, narrated by LATE’N’LIVE veteran performer Lynn Ferguson, together with face to face interviews with the comedians who also performed there  - exclusive archive footage of LATE ‘N’ LIVE can be revealed to those who never made it to the post-midnight show.  Or indeed weren’t sober enough to remember it. 

Amongst those taking part in the programme are Bill Bailey, Russell Brand, Johnny Vegas, Jason Byrne, Zoe Lyons, Shappi Khorsandi, Fed MacAulay, Caroline Rhea, Ross Noble and Rich Hall. 

The raw comedy where anything can happen epitomises LATE ‘N’ LIVE.  These BBC programmes look at four specific angles of comedy.  The first deals with Hecklers; the second Comedy Virgins, the third Antics and the final looks at Scottish-ness (see notes at end).

The woman behind both LATE ‘N’ LIVE and indeed the Gilded Balloon venue is the First Lady of Comedy, Karen Koren who says; “When we started LATE ‘N’ LIVE it was the first late night compilation show at the Edinburgh Fringe.  It couldn’t have happened anywhere else and was part of what makes this festival brilliant.  I’d literally collar comedians during the afternoon or after their gigs and tell them that they were booked.  We never knew what the audiences would be like, and in some ways the wilder they were meant that the challenge was greater.  There was and is nothing bland about LATE ‘N’ LIVE; I’ve seen some of the best known names in comedy die on their backsides and others pack a punch that I didn’t know they have.  I’m more than pleased that we can show people what real comedy is like”.

the beautiful world of the lensbaby

At 1.45 on Friday afternoon the post arrived through the letter box of my flat and there was a “sorry we missed you” card from a well known courier service, now I know for a fact that they weren’t sorry they missed me and I’m (90%) sure that they didn’t even try to drop off the parcel that was now waiting for me in the (not so) local collection point.

This would usually annoy me but on the card it said from San Francisco and the only thing I was expecting from the states this week was 2 Lensbaby lenses this was great except I also had to be at a BBC shoot at 2pm! So I drove as fast as I could, picked up the parcel and whilst on my way to the location I opened up the box and had a look inside.

Just as a side note, I’m very geeky I get very excited about technology, lenses and new stuff! This isn’t the first time I seen a lensbaby , I shot with one a few years ago and it was the Control Freak version which was a lot of fun to use although at the time it was mounted on a lens adapter in front of a Sony ex1 which made it interesting to operate.

But with the advent of DSLR’s this really is a great time for lens baby to flourish and for people like me to make use of them!

So I got to the location and showed the BBC team the new lenses and they said great lets use them on some of the location shots! And so we did.

Lensbaby kindly sent me the Composer and the Muse to play with and what’s amazing about these lenses is that you can take out the optics and switch them around. So alongside this I got a fisheye optic and a soft focus optic which all have adaptable apertures (check this link to their website for more info www.lensbaby.com)

The Composer retails at around £170, the Muse £70, fisheye £100 and soft focus £65.

Lensbaby have been around for a while now and on youtube and vimeo there are many many videos shot with 5d’s, 7d’s, Nikon cameras etc… but I haven’t really heard many people talking about them, so what are they like?

Well I have been using the composer with fisheye optic for most of the week and im hooked! Now you wouldn’t just use this lens for a shoot as that would be crazy but as an accent shot, it excels its just fun and looks a little mental! I like it a lot because it’s not too serious and yet it can produce stunning shots if used in the right way. And for under £300 to get a fish eye that is this crisp is pretty amazing!

The nice thing about the Composer is that you can lock the movement of the lens into a static position where as the Muse is always moving and for video that can become a bit tricky.

The build quality is great the separate aperture rings are fun if a little tricky to use on location (wind and rain is tough to deal with at the best of times!)

The soft focus optic is also really nice although I have struggled with it a bit, for stills it seems amazing but for video I wasn’t really shooting anything that was enhanced by that look so I haven’t used that as much.

Downsides to the lenses, I had a look at a few sites that were talking about Lensbaby and one of the recurring themes is that these effects can be achieved in post… and yes you pretty much can create these effects in post but its more than just an effect as with all lenses the specific look and feel comes down to the skill of the operator and in this respect using the Lensbaby as an additional tool in the cinematographers arsenal is the point. For me personally it is much more fun going out with the lens and adapting the shot to the lens rather than shoot your stuff go back to the edit suite and then click a few buttons!

Overall Lensbaby lenses are exciting, different and pretty cheap, they aren’t suitable for every shot but they will be their if you want that unique look and feel that only these lenses can give, and most importantly they are a lot of fun.

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BBC New Comedy Award 2011 with Lens Baby

On Friday last week I was shooting for the BBC and the Lensbaby's had just arrived and so have a look and let me know what you think.

BBC New Comedy Award 2011

On Friday I was shooting with a BBC team headed up by Siddharth Khajuria (amazing bloke) and we were shooting on canon 7d's and a 60d, it was alot of fun and to make it even cooler lens baby had just sent me over a couple of their lenses to try out which I will post lots more info on in the next few days they are super fun!!!! But heres a couple of pics of me whooo and heres a link to more pics

Ill post the video as soon as its up which should be in a few days and you can see some of the really fun wide angle stuff I shot using the lens baby.

Radio 4 Comedians storm royal mile

Over August this year I produced this show for BBC radio 4 here is the full 30 min show if you dont have that long scroll down and the 3 min version is a few posts earlier!

BBC RADIO 4 SHOW

 This is the first part of a bbc show i produced (and Steady cam opped) over the weekend, David Lumsden Directed we had 5 7d's, 3 sony xdcam and a red cam.