Video Archives - Simon Plant Photographer

Dec

End Of Season, Rhodes

It’s been a busy end to what has been a slightly unusual year with both new exciting opportunities as well as a few challenges too but life is never linear or dull as an image creative!

October saw me back in Rhodes for a third time in 3 years but this time I chose to spend my time filming rather than capturing stills which I seem to be doing more and more of these days.
I decided (for the most part) to keep the gear to an absolute minimum. Apart from the Video time lapse section which was shot with my Canon 5D Mk4 most of the remaining filming was captured on iPhone and my Sony RX100 pocket point and shoot albeit a high end one!
My biggest dilemma was wether to take my gimble but I decided it would be a great exercise in adaptability and creativity to do without it plus I simply couldn’t be arsed to carry it !

Sep

Somerset Uncovered – Evening By The Isle

Continuing my personal filming and video time lapse project “Somerset Uncovered” the latest location was not only the closest to my studio and home but also one I’d never heard about.
This was despite driving past it many times over the last 15 or so years.
It was while chatting to my sons friend on the way to a football match that he was telling us of a spot that some of his friends go to swim in the summer holidays.
I was intrigued to take a look even if the directions were a little vague !
The following day with the family and dog in tow the location was eventually found and it was not only stunning but less that a 10 mins from home!
I went to film here 3 times in total mainly due to weather and some rather inquisitive cows blocking my intended shooting location.

[su_youtube url=”https://youtu.be/k5uygcNd7sM”]

Jun

Somerset Uncovered, Village Cricket.

Another Time-Lapse video from my project Somerset Uncovered.
I had been wanting to test out a new bit of equipment on location to aid my shooting Time-Lapse videos and the perfect opportunity arrived this week.
With a beautiful evening forecast that looked like delivering a stunning sunset this would be perfect test conditions.
My son was playing a Cricket match at the village cricket club which is situated in beautiful surroundings.
I wanted to capture the setting sun and the match within my composition so I arrived and located the perfect spot.
Not really being a follower of Cricket and the rules I asked how long was left and told the home team were now starting to bat so could be a while..perfect !
I had only shot for about 10 minutes when suddenly everyone shook hands and disappeared. Apparently they won the game with just a few runs so nobody else was required to bat so they all buggered off home!.
Not too worry I decided to keep shooting as my hunch at a fantastic sunset still looked promising so I stayed another 50 minutes and was glad I did as the sky was incredible.

[su_vimeo url=”https://vimeo.com/341102387″ width=”1600″ height=”720″]

Apr

A Morning On The River

A short time-lapse video capturing life upon the river Avon one early morning at Stratford Upon Avon England.

[su_vimeo url=”https://vimeo.com/331172665″ width=”1600″ height=”720″]

Feb

Stills Based Motion. Parallax Videos

With technology in constant movement it’s sometimes hard to know when something new appears if it’s just a temporary gimmick or if it’s actually something useful that will stay around.
3d motion or 2.5d to be more precise has been around a while and caught my eye.
It grabbed my interest as I could see how it could add value to clients by using the same still images shot for a campaign and repurposing them for motion based ads.
Like most things the images work best when pre planned to be used in this way but you can still create some subtle eye catching Parralax images from the simplest image like this portrait of a Belly Dancer.

[su_vimeo url=”https://vimeo.com/258647113″ width=”1600″ height=”720″]

The following samples are a little more complicated to produce requiring elements on several layers (spot the subtle seagull movement).

[su_vimeo url=”https://vimeo.com/257257982″ width=”1600″ height=”720″]

[su_vimeo url=”https://vimeo.com/256236312″ width=”1600″ height=”720″]

More stills based motion work can be found Here

Feb

Video Production Services. Repurposing Images With The Parallax 3D Technique

I’m always looking to be able to offer clients more bang for their buck especially when budgets are tight.

Repurposing existing stills into 3D engaging video (actually 2.5D to be precise) clips is one way to offer more value and provide engaging content for a website and social media channels.

Best results are always to be had by planning with the end result in mind and shooting with the following Parallax technique is no exception.

However, it’s still possible to take an existing image and produce some incredible results.

The first sample below was captured for my client Mimecast and is a fairly straightforward still image from a business lifestyle production shot on location in London.

With a little post-production and 3D rendering, it was possible to repurpose the image into a simple and eye-catching image asset.

This image was a little more involved and shot with the Parallax technique in mind which allowed a little more scope for creating some depth and motion.

Again this one lent itself perfectly to a Parallax effect keep an eye out for a couple of subtle movements towards the end of the movie.

Diver

You can view more motion work here

Jun

A Place To Remember

It’s been a very busy year so far which is my main excuse for not updating the blog in several months.
One of the reasons is I’ve recently taken on a new client who are currently keeping me extremely busy.
Part of the work this client needed required me to do aerial stills and motion work via a quad copter (Drone).
This in turn required a hectic 3 day training course for certification to fly commercially, which I’m pleased to say I passed.
Learning yet another skillset to stay current seems to be a regular thing these days and something that certainly keeps life interesting !
Ive done several aerial shoots so far and getting more creative and daring (within the civil aviation authority rules) with each flight.
A personal shoot Ive been planning since getting the aircraft is the one shown here.
This spot is special place to me as it’s somewhere I used to visit almost weekly with my mother in her later years.
It’s also a place i’ve photographed many times over the last 30 plus years.
The spot is situated on the Somerset Levels and you might just make out Glastonbury Tor on the horizon.
What I never done is shot the area from the elevated perspective and positions that the drone offers.
With good weather forecast with a fair chance of some low hanging moorland mist I set the alarm for a 4am start.
Drone work needs a fair amount of pre planning for safety reasons before getting on location and a fair few more checklist to tick off on the day too.
I did two flights that morning capturing some stills but mostly motion footage which Ive edited into a short video shown here.
As a personal piece of work I think this is a brief but fitting video shot from an appropriate vantage point to remember my loving mum.

[su_vimeo url=”https://vimeo.com/221090253″ width=”800″ height=”450″]

Feb

Watchtower of Turkey

Beautiful video of Turkey showing the people & amazing locations well worth a watch.

[su_vimeo url=”https://vimeo.com/108018156″ width=”1280″ height=”720″]

Dec

Protexin, Stop Motion Company Video

For several months this year we worked on a large project for a company called Protexin.
Protexin manufacture and distribute worldwide Probiotcs for human & animals consumption and where looking for a new way of showcasing to their international customers their impressive state of the art production line, staff and premises.
As we had been keen to work with them for quite a while we set up a meeting and proposed shooting a video using thousands of still frames (and some motion) to showcase their company in a contemporary and engaging way.
After shooting using the technique at one of the many exhibition that they attend (see Protexin A Engaging Video Solution ) they decided to expand the project even further to produce the finished video below.
After a fair amount of pre production and planning not to mention many many hours of processing, colour grading, a pinch of after effects and plenty of video editing the project was finally finished.
Protexin where extremely happy with the finished product and we have since worked on several other albeit smaller Photographic projects with them.

Apr

Stop Motion..Blending Photography & Video

Photography is still a relatively new media (100 or so years old) so we are told and now we all are shooting digitally it seems to be evolving quicker than ever.
For me every day is a school day and just like school of days gone bye some days the learning is necessary but a little dull and others extremely exciting that open new creative possibilities for creating imagery.
One such technique that has got me excited and one I have been experimenting with recently is Stop Motion Photography which blends still photography with video to produce some very contemporary looking movies.
This week I have been fortunate to be able to confirm working with a great new client whom I have wanted to work with for a while. My first commission is a fairly large project shooting with this very technique starting this week.
In the meantime here is a short sample shot at our Monks Yard studios onsite cafe to showcase their gorgeous specials menu.

[su_vimeo url=”https://vimeo.com/63266636″ width=”1280″]