My name is Will J Carman. I'm a filmmaker based in Nottinghamshire, UK. This blog is where I post about projects I am currently working on or have completed, along with my creative inspirations and behind the scenes...
Here is a little live promo I recently shot of Nottingham band EYRE LLEW performing their second ever live show at Dot To Dot Festival in Nottingham. As I mentioned in a previous post I have been filming a few projects with these guys recently and this is one of the finished results.
Eyre Llew’s next live performance is at Splendour Festival in Nottingham on Saturday 18th July 2015, if you're going be sure to check them out at the Courtyard Stage!
My friend Dizzi mentioned he was putting together a small team of free runners, martial artists, stuntmen and camera operators and asked if I wanted to be involved. As part of the starting process he wanted everyone to put together a short thirty-second video showcasing themselves and their skills.
I decided to make a short video showcasing a mix of my own personal parkour training as well as filming. However I didn’t want to just have clips of me holding a camera, so I decided to mount my GoPro to the hotshoe of my camera whilst I filmed a glidecam shot with Dizzi and I think the result is pretty interesting.
The last three months have been really fun, the variety of projects I have been able to get involved with has been amazing!
Direct Search Advert
I was the camera operator on a promo shoot for a recruitment company which involved two shoot days in Nottingham and one in Formby (after a four hour drive which should have been two and a half!!). This was my first professional job with the A7S and it held up very well and the director was very happy with the finished shots.
Josh Wheatley “Close” Music Video
My friend Abbey was producing a music video for Nottingham musician Josh Wheatley and asked if I would be interested in coming on board as the data wrangler and a behind the scenes shooter. It was a very fun shoot and a huge success overall. I’m currently in the process of editing the behind the scenes video together which will be released soon.
Chika & Marley’s Promo
Nina Smith’s manager Dominic got in touch looking to make a short promotional film for a new Caribbean and Japanese takeaway food service he was setting up. He sent a couple of examples of the type of video he wanted which were short and snappy with personality. It was a lot of fun to shoot and edit, pretty different to what I have produced so far.
EYRE LLEW @ The Maze and Dot to Dot Festival
I’ve been filming a few videos with Nottingham band Eyre Llew over the last couple of months. A mutual friend Dizzi got in touch and asked if I would be interested in shooting their next music video for their track ‘Caulis’, which was a lot of fun. I then ended up filming their debut gig at The Maze and their most recent gig at Dot to Dot Festival.
It has been great fun working with a sound bunch of guys who make incredible music. I’m looking forward to more work with them.
Fat Free Media
Fat Free Media are a video production agency based in Nottingham whom I’ve had my eye on for a while as I really like their style of work and even emailed a while ago about vacancies. Recently I got a call from their producer asking if I was free to come and help them shoot a promo / prank video near the Market Square, obviously I said yes. My job for the day was to shoot a bit of behind the scenes footage during the setting up and then became Camera B for the actual video.
“A Bag of Money” Short Film
To finish June off I had a great time working as a 2nd AC (Assistant Camera) on Derry Shillitto’s short film “A Bag of Money”. I have never properly worked as a 2nd AC prior to this but I was really keen to get involved and gain some more experience in that area. It was a fantastic two days with a great cast and crew, really looking forward to seeing the finished film!
I was asked to film and edit a highlights film of Confetti’s 2015 Industry Week. Having helped produce the highlights film last year I already knew what it was they were looking for, but it was a bit daunting being a one-man crew this time round.
My main aim was to make the video exciting and interesting to watch, which can be a bit of a challenge when your subject for the majority of the video is people talking. So I utilised things like my slider, transitions and split screen effects in post which allowed me to use more of the shots available and produce a more creative edit.
It was five full days of filming as well as editing so that the video was complete and ready to be shown at the after party, which sadly I couldn't attend, but it was such a fun week and great to be a part of!
Well, it’s been a while since an update, so here are a few things that I have got up to since the beginning of the year.
Karl Bratby Photography Workshop
I shot behind the scenes on two of Karl’s photography workshops, one featured a lot of lovely fujifilm glass. It was a lot of fun working with Karl and Steph and I hope to work with them again soon on some other projects.
Nina Smith ‘Stronger’ - Behind the Scenes
I got a text from Nina asking if I would be interested in filming behind the scenes on her next music video shoot, working with Nina is always fun so I said yes! I spent the day following her and the crew just trying to capture what happened on the day.
Motofix Mural
My friend Luke mentioned he was going to be filming some local graffiti artists paint an old garage and asked if I wanted to tag along and film as well. It was quite a nice way to spend a Sunday afternoon even though it was freezing!
Confetti Industry Week
I was asked to film the highlights film for Confetti’s Industry Week where professionals from the TV/Film, Music and Games industry come in and give talks and workshops for the students. Having shot it last year I was really excited to do it again!
Urb:Rev 1st Quarter 2015
Me and the rest of the Urban Revolution guys wanted to create and release a bit more regular video content this year so Phil suggested that we film for over a period of 3-4 months and then edit all of the footage together. The first video has just been released and it can be viewed HERE.
I recently filmed a photography workshop that Nottingham based photographer Karl Bratby held at his studio and produced this little behind the scenes promo.
I didn't go in with much of a plan on the day but I knew wanted to make something that showed the fun atmosphere of the workshop as well as showing the gist of the kind of things people can learn and get up to. Karl gave me total freedom to do what I wanted on the day and it was a very fun shoot!
Overall I'm pretty happy with how this piece turned out and I'm looking forward to doing more projects with Karl soon.
This is a bit late, but I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year! 2014 was a good year and I’m excited to see what 2015 has to bring.
2014 Achievements:
- Started to get paid work and registered as self employed.
- Passed my driving test, first time.
- Completed my foundation degree with top marks.
- Made an award winning short film.
2015 Goals:
- Build client list and testimonials.
- Improve quality of work.
- Do more personal projects.
- Write another short film.
- Stay positive.
October began with me deciding to leave my third year of university. I had completed a foundation degree earlier in the year and was going to do an optional third year to top it up to a full degree, but after consideration I decided that having a full degree was not really going to help me in terms of a career. So, I thought it would be best if I left.
Loughborough Parkour Park Opening
My friends Dan and Tim from JUMP Parkour asked me to come down to Loughborough for the opening of a parkour park that Dan had designed himself.
It was a massive turnout, biggest crowd of traceurs/free runners I've seen for a while! I spent the day filming the event trying to capture it as best as I could.
Loxxi Hair Extension Photo Shoot
I got up at 5am and went down to Birmingham with photographer Chris Perfect for a photo shoot with a new hair extension brand called Loxxi. My job for the day was to film behind the scenes, setup timelapses and assist Chris with little bits and bobs he needed help with.
I didn't get a chance to grab any behind the scenes shots for this post so instead I've included a couple of frames from the GoPro timelapses.
Daudi Matsiko and Three Girl Rhumba Nusic Session
I helped shoot Daudi Matsiko's Nusic session at the beginning of the month, great acoustic musician! I also had my last Nusic session shooting the band Three Girl Rhumba, great music and energy, nice way to end my time at Nusic.
Boxing Shoot
Photographer Chris Perfect had a photo shoot coming up at a boxing gym in Derby with a fitness model and a group of boxers, I went along and filmed some behind the scenes footage of the shoot for him. It also gave me a great opportunity to put my new slider to some use.
Rebecca-Anne Latham Photo Shoot
I had a little photo shoot with Rebecca-Anne Latham. I don't do many photo shoots these days but it was nice to shoot some new portraits.
Just Another Vision T-Shirt #3
I got another T-shirt design printed, for this one I wanted to use text only and create something super simple. I quite like how it turned out.
Lewis Watson - Shepard's Bush Empire Gig
The highlight of the month was probably helping shoot Lewis Watson's gig at the O2 Empire in Shepherd's Bush with Raja Virdi & co. It was a great shoot with a great crew, hoping to be involved in more projects like this in the future.
Manfrotto 755CX3 + MVH500AH Head
For a while I've been wanting to upgrade my tripod to something lighter. I've always liked the 755XB tripod legs, mainly because they have a levelling ball head and spirit level, but I wanted it to be light. So, I decided to go with the carbon fibre version of those legs and got the 755CX3.
Konova K2 60cm Slider
After shooting a wedding with my friend Nico and seeing all of the toys he had, one of the pieces that caught my eye was his slider. I already had a glidetrack but I was never happy with the length and quality of its build, also it didn't fit on the tripod I had at the time (Velbon DV7000) so it didn't get used much. It's great to finally have a slider that I can use properly!
Image is from a fitness/boxing shoot I did recently with photographer, Chris Perfect.
Last month street wear brand Growl & Grandeur had a photo shoot down in Essex for their new look book and asked me to come along and film behind the scenes. Here is the result.
FilmAM Wedding
This month I had a wedding shoot with FilmAM. The day began with an early start and a late finish (4am to be precise) on Albert Bridge where we got some shots of the bride & groom walking along the bridge together; a bit different to the usual wedding shoot!
Nusic Session
I had my first Nusic session filming the band Field Studies who were finalists at the Future Sound of Nottingham final, which I helped film as well. We shot them perform two songs in the studio and an interview afterwards.
Cooking Show Pilot
I had the pleasure of helping shoot a cooking show pilot for Notts TV and it was a lot of fun to make! We filmed the chef/presenter produce four meals: a main course, desert, condiment (sauce) and a special ‘student edition’ meal. I really hope the show gets picked up because I would love to do more.
Just Another Vision T-Shirt #2
I got another T-shirt design printed! This time round I wanted to do something a little different to the previous one and have a purely graphic design that didn’t include any photographs. Pretty happy with how it turned out!
Even though this is technically my third short film, it feels like my first. The first two I made during my college course and I felt that the only reason I was making them was because I had to make them.
Whereas this is the first short film that I've made because I wanted to make it. It didn’t really matter to me whether or not I got it done in time for my uni deadline, I wanted to put in a lot of time and effort to try and make it the best it could be and step up the quality of my narrative films.
I like to think I have achieved that.
Epoch also won 'Best Short Film' at the Confetti Showcase which is amazing!
Filming Dates:
23rd February - Hotel Scene
9th March - Interrogation Scene
16th March - Fire Escape and Alley scene
23rd March - Last scene (alley at night)
Facts:
The hotel scene was shot in approximately 5 hours and was split into three sections when filming; beginning, fight, end.
The third scene where Aiden runs into the alley and crosses out Sharron's name in the book - all of the sound in that scene was re-recorded in post. I recorded the leather jacket movements, pocket watch, notebook and breathing in a studio then recorded wild track of his footsteps in the middle of the night outside my house one evening when it was very quiet.
This film is the first time I have ever done post-production sound (foley, mixing, wildtrack etc) and it was a lot of fun!
The interrogation scene was shot in a school where the drama club was rehearsing 'We Will Rock You' at the same time as we were filming.
For the second scene where Aiden runs down the fire escape I originally planned to use a different location but after constantly sending emails, making phone calls and getting nowhere, I remembered that the office Mike works at had a great fire escape (better than the one I was trying to get).
In the first draft of the script the film ended when Aiden disappears in the alley in scene 3, but I felt that I needed to add something extra to the story before I felt it was complete.
I originally planned Aiden to kill the assassin in the hotel but I decided it would make the story and character of Sharron more interesting if she killed the assassin instead.
When we finished filming the interrogation scene we re-shot it, with puppets, which may hit the internet someday (maybe)...
This is something that is really overdue but I finally got round to making a showreel. It mainly focuses on my camerawork showing a variety of projects from music, to narrative, to documentary, to corporate.
I've been tinkering around in After Effects lately and have produced a short ident animation of my logo. What do you think?
I wanted to make something short and simple, so I decided to keep it 2D and have the length be five seconds maximum.
I mainly used keyframes (position and scale) to animate the movement of the letters and border, along with some fast blur effects for when they were moving. After that I added some film burns to add a bit of colour and then finally the projector sound effect. I also used two black solids to cover up the W and C so that it looked like they were emerging from the J.
I'm really enjoying after effects at the moment and definitely want to incorporate motion graphics into future projects.
Let me know your thoughts on this, feedback is welcome!
Been working on a heap of projects this last month.
Industry Week
On the 3rd-7th March, myself and my friend Luke were asked to film a promo of Confetti’s Industry Week where guests from the TV/film, music and games industries come and give talks to the students.
It was a surprisingly fun project to do and very different to what I’m used to, both in terms of content and deadline time but it allowed us to get very creative with how we shot and edited it. *Upload soon*
Short Films
Right now, myself and my friends are all in the middle of making our own short narrative films varying from police drama, to romantic comedy, to science fiction. They have all been a lot of fun to be involved in and been great learning experiences. I'm really looking forward to seeing them all on the big screen!
E4 Animation
As part of a Uni assignment we had to create an ident for either E4 or SkyArts, I decided to go for E4 because I had an idea that I thought would fit the channel well but also because I wasn't very savvy with After Effects and really wanted to expand my knowledge on it. Now I just need to wait until the new Estings competition opens!
