Festival organisers DanceXchange delivered an epic festival of dance across Birmingham and the West Midlands, featuring a number of innovative outdoor dance events that provoked and excited new audiences.

It was also the first time I’d really pushed shooting video on the Canon 5DMKII so was delighted when I heard a chunk of the footage was featured on BBC 4 documentary ‘The Most Incredible Thing About Contemporary Dance’.

It’s a fantastic doc in which presenter and orchestral conductor Charles Hazelwood gives a lovely insight into the world of contemporary dance. With key interviews from director of DanceXchange David Massingham and a montage of my IDFB footage during the opening gambit and then again around 50mins into the piece.

It was originally broadcast on BBC 4 last week but you can still go catch it on iPlayer until the end of this week! Inspiring, insightful, well worth a watch!

The idea was to make films around the theme of Monday mornings and employment. It was a no-budget shoot but we managed to pull in favours and get a lovely little crew and cast together. The final film can be seen below…

The competition results are out next month, so fingers crossed we get through to the final selection!

Continue reading to see a few production stills taken by Shaun Bransgrove..

The show tackles issues of grief and loss set against the incredible backdrop of a woodland setting constructed inside the main gallery space at the mac.

Jane commissioned me as photographer and film maker for all press and marketing material and to also make a trailer of the piece which gives a brief and beautiful glimpse into The Woods...

The final video is now up on You Tube and looks awesome! Check out the steam coming off the arm of our BMX rider to get an idea of how cold it was inside the skate park location!

Thanks to the band and their enthusiasm for charity shops we were able to play a classic game of ‘Guess Who’ in the woods! That and their sheer excitement on the shoot are what made this simple video work! The band are such talented and lovely chaps, I’ve got a feeling they’re gonna rocket over the next year!

Their single is released 6th August on the Static Caravan label.

I was only commissioned to shoot the London leg of the project. You can see a few of my stills featured on the Let’s Colour gallery and a few of my favourite shots below…

The comp teams film makers up with musicians, and gives them two weeks make a music video with zero budget. The completed videos are then judged by a select panel of producers and directors, with one winner and one runner up.

We were teamed up with local band Fatbwoi 5 and their track ‘Bullet’, below is our entry which took the runner up award…

Huge props to those that helped us on the video, dressing up peeps and all for getting involved! 

On the web and in print! Just got back from buying a copy for the archive! You can read more about Treasured on a previous post.

Sound from the 5D isn’t great so using a separate audio recorder I captured decent sound via a radio mic, then in the edit I synced up the 5D and radio mic sound in seconds with the remarkable Plural Eyes sound syncing software. You have to use it to believe it!

The doc itself is an interview with the Jonathan Watkins, director of the Ikon Gallery discussing the work of artist collective MadeIn and their edgy, hard hitting show that asks us to rethink and question our political and cultural perceptions.

It’s the first time I’ve been able to create the video first to then pass on to a sound designer to do their thing. Really impressed with the great work of sound designer and composer Lewis Gibson!

The show uses three items of bespoke designer maker jewelery from which it draws thematic narratives, as an audience member you experience this by yourself with the performers leading you around and immersing you into the story of your chosen piece. Treasured runs at the newly refurbished MAC from 9th - 27th June!

Best known for her folk-inspired work, Rojas uses a wide range of media, including painting, installation and print-making, with a smart sense of humour, to make observations on gender relations and representation. This then translates through into her music, which she writes and performs under the alt-country alter ego of Peggy Honeywell.

For the exhibition opening Clare performed her music to a packed out audience and this provided the perfect live soundtrack and backbone to the film.

The video is now live on the Ikon site, so enjoy…

I didn’t get to see the show but did get to photograph some of the incredible puppets created by artist Caroline McDowell, a few of which can now be seen on the Arts Council website...

I was on camera duties for the Birmingham Vox Pop shoot - filmed around the famous Bullring shopping centre. A few months on and the Talking Energy video wall is now online promoting discussion and debate on the issue of future energy resources and climate change…

Here’s a short test video I made after my first outing with the camera…

Online contemporary dance zine Article 19 were on the shoot to document our experimental logo production and created a really nice making of film…