Working with 16mm

Being able to shoot on 16mm was vital for the film course I chose. If I was going to give up my time to take on a film degree, I wanted an unforgivable filmmaking experience. 

Working with film, limits you. Puts you under a great deal of pressure to know what you’re doing. There’s no delete button or auto mode with a Bolex H16. Just a clockwork precision instrument that show no remorse. From working on film, you intuitively think more about how you go about making your film. You care more. It sounds really silly and obvious but you really do because you’re forced to. From your limitations and your constraints, you push yourself!  I’ve worked on Super 8mm film before but never 16mm, or a fully manual Bolex camera. The price of Super 8 is still within what I’d consider “worth trying for the experience” range but 16mm film and especially the price of working 16mm cameras are well beyond that. They’re in the range of “only if it’s apart of a degree course”. I love film. I’ll definitely continue to shoot on film, whether that be on Super 8mm motion picture or 35mm stills, but most importantly, I’ll take what I learnt from this workflow and adapt it into digital.  Growing up in the ‘iPod’ era can leave you lazy and ignorant. Pinching your iPhone screen to digital zoom rather than to move close to get a better shot. I believe it’s important, whilst we can to have this experience working on film. To better yourself as a creative. 

Live Session - Paul Tyan

It's a beautiful thing when you get to capture a gorgeous talent on film. Paul Tyan is a talented composer for film and television. It's the kind of job I pray to come into my inbox. This was one of the first videos I shot using my Sony A7S and had fun playing around with S-log2 with filmconvert and colorista III within Premiere Pro.

I’m always up for working with talented musics! Get in touch if you are/know someone who potentially would be up for making pretty live sessions: ray@rayrobertsfilms.com 

Boy with a Movie Camera

Film wasn't a career path I ever thought possible for me when I was younger. As much as I loved watching the making-of many a' film as a kid, I always saw the magic on screen to be something I could never create myself. Certain that people who did must of been born with their talent for their craft.

In 2006, I came across YouTube and unlike traditional cinema, I watched and thought "I can do that". And it's that "I can do that factor" that lead me to at least try. And in trying and an awful lot of persistence I learnt more skills and eventually came to the conclusion that a career in film wasn't an unobtainable fantasy. Especially in this era of accessible filmmaking. Cameras are cheap, editing software are built-in to most computers and for the first time, reaching a global audience is not only easy but free.

Komorebi (木漏れ日)

On this film, I had the pleasure of directing the beautiful Rebecca Need Menear whilst she waved around colourful smoke grenades in a forest. We had a great small crew. I worked behind the camera with Kato on the other camera. Winning-team. It was a swell shoot.

The editing stage was a lengthy process but a rewarding one. It was a delight to cut this video to Spazzkid's rad track 'Forgiveness' from this Album 'Desire (願う)'. It was just so nice to see how well the footage cut to the track. If you haven't treated yourself to it, go listen to his album and if you want to support his rad work, buy his album over on his Bandcamp. 

It's hard to imagine this video working as without Rebecca's face. It is a lovely face. To sum things up, I'm really happy with this video. So go watch it and tell me what you think! Until next time. 

Respect The Pasta

I bet you're wondering, ASK Italian invited me and Tilly down to their restaurant on Spring Street to participate in a pasta master class run by Theo Randell. It was a part of their #RespectThePasta campaign in which the aim is to educate people on the proper approach to cooking pasta.  Being someone who isn't known for uploading 'food porn' to Instagram, I was a little confused to why I, an ol' filmmaker, was invited but I certainly wasn't complaining  I learnt so much about cooking pasta from scratch, the Italian way, that I'm now considering opening up a restaurant and stereotypically changing my name to Luigi. I'm leaning towards 'no' on that one. 

Thanks ASK Italian, anyone who gives me free good pasta and then teaches me how to replicate it have a warm spot in my heart

Tilly made a little video

Not Good Enough

I would like to thank my good friend, Jon D Barker, for tagging me in and creating the motivation tag and for the kind and supportive words he had to say about me (his video). It's a video tag with three purposes; to motivate yourself, to motivate people you know and to motivate others. I think it's a great idea. 

As I wrote my thoughts for the video, I realised I had to cut out the 'motivate people you know' section from the final video because I was struggling to say what I thought without it becoming a video lasting 32 weeks. And I don't think I have enough footage of me riding a bike to put that together.  So here, in written form, are 3 people I would like to tag and say some words too: Mira Duel You're a very intelligent and interesting guy who has the ability to create thought-provoking discussion, which is only made that much more impressive when you remember you're still at school. Although the people around you at the moment might not agree with that.

You have a good eye for things and a great way with words that make me suffer from mad creative envy sometimes. 

When I was your age, I felt that the restrictions set by my parents and school very depressing. I would constantly look at other people and feel less of a person than them for them. I don't feel like I can fully understand what it must be like for you as you seem to have more restrictions being at boarding school and all. But it's important to remember you'll be free soon. Just bare through the exams and then you can do what you want. All I have to say is to surround yourself around good people and explore new experiences and places. But don't do anything stupid.  Quinn Humphreys My son. You are a very ambitious individual. I hate how much I'm going to use this phrase in this article but, when I was your age, I was the same. I wanted to make things for YouTube. I had all these ideas but lacked the helpful friends or equipment. I would of loved to be in your scenario at your age. You have some great creative friends. I can tell you're inspired and that's good. Use it to motivate you. Projects will be difficult and may put you off in the early run but keep at it. You learn and evolve. Just don't kill off the dream this early. Just think how much you're going to improve in only a years time. It's going to be drastically different! But you're not going to improve until you try again and again (wait for it) and again. Do your homework, try and try again.  Sometimes it good to distance yourself from YouTube. Don't compare yourself to others on there and especially don't let it bring you down. Expose yourself to a lot of different good pieces. You'll pick up more things that way. Good luck to you.  Kato Murphy  Every time we interact, you leave me impressed by your knowledge for what you do. You even teach me new things. You're a very intelligent guy and you have a eye for good things. Your taste is superb. It shows in your work and in conversation. I know a-levels are bringing you down at the minute. I can't imagine what that's like. At college, I did a course that I was good at and didn't feel like work. Deep down I felt sorry for the a-level students whilst I felt excited to write essays about things I love. Even though your subjects aren't going to directly aid what you want to do, it's really good you're not giving up. I probably would have. Academia at GCSE almost killed me.  Just be sure to keep yourself sane by rewarding yourself with doing creative things. That'll do you good. I don't have much to tell you aside from don't forget you have a promising future ahead of you and I'd be lying if I said I'm not excited to work with you more. (Thank you for teaching me how to ride a bike by the way). 

Home

I had a photography day with Tom the other day. We went out with two Canon SLRs and Tom brought his DSLR. I haven't shot anything on DSLR in a while, so Tom lent me his camera. We went on a little walk around where we live in Salisbury. It's weird to think I'm definitely going to living somewhere different in a year from now. Even now, when I walk through my home town I feel like I'm revisiting. You know that distinct feeling you used to get when I was walking home from school? I get that when I travel up to London. I've never lived in London but I spent more time in London than I do in my home town this days. It's weird. I've noticed, when I walk up to Waterloo station, I reach for house keys too. 

The places we passed through on our walk are places I used to spend a lot of time when I was younger but no so much these days. 

35mm Photography, Hipster!

Recently, I copped a Canon AE-1 SLR camera from eBay. There is one difference between DSLR and SLR cameras. SLRs take 35mm film. My experience with 35mm prior to obtaining the gorgeous Canon AE-1 (which I've named Kato) didn't go beyond disposable cameras.

In the photo above, that's my friend Jon D Barker looking all kinds of fine. 

Disposable cameras are good fun. You're restricting to a number of shots that can't review and delete so you're constricted to a set number of shots which makes you think about your shots more. You also get a real nice nostalgia-inducing feeling as you go through your photos after they've been developed. Now imagine all that, plus actually being able to take photos with more control over the aperture, shutter speed, also given a choice of over which film you use, interchangeable lens and even compatible with modern hot-shoe items like flashes AND you can get some really lovely shots.

I think buying an old SLR was a good decision on my part. I'm super happy with how the shots came out. I'm going to start sharing my photography on my Tumblr. If you want to see the entire set of photos from my first proper attempt at 35mm, you can see them here. 

A film about my 2013

2013 has been a slow year for me. I feel like in 2012, there was a constant income of fun memories being made whereas 2013 delivered extraordinarily unforgettable memories but delivered them long and far in between.  I traveled a lot more this year. I never saw myself as much of an adventurer when I was younger. I was always someone who observe, research, and thought about embarking on adventures but never did. I think it was whilst returning to the UK from a spontaneous two day trip to Hong Kong to see my friend, Aly, when I thought "that was quite the adventure".  I pursued a lot more film projects in 2012 but they were all much significantly smaller. I feel like I've been much more ambitious this year and don't plan on taking it easy any time soon.  On the topic of YouTube, I felt like some of the connections I had with people I met through making  videos on YouTube in 2012 have weakened. I assume due to my focus with making films and the ideal mindset of a 'successful' YouTuber are at a crossroads now. I'm probably no longer the a popular choice to collaborate with or to be seen talking to on Twitter as I'm probably not going to be gaining many more subscribers any time soon. 

But that's okay.  The friends, collaborators and audience who have stayed, I can now be certain are doing so with no shallow or self-gain intent and that's good.  I have a too many ideas and big plans for 2014. It's such a shame I only have 365 to try to make do with. I'll try. 

Two Days in Hong Kong

Anyone who's reading this who have been in my company anytime in the last 2 months have probably heard this story because it was so good.

In August, I spend some time in the Philippines. Four days before I was supposed to depart back to England with a 40 minute layover in Hong Kong, I rebooked my flight to one leaving for Hong Kong the following day (with rebooking fee of only £40).

Meaning, for £40 I gained 48 hours in Hong Kong which I used to spend time with my wonderful friend, Aly Bongo. I met Aly at a YouTube gathering in 2011. Although, I didn't actually talk to her very much after that. I think it was actually a week before she moved to Hong Kong (around christmas time last year), she moved up to 'What a lovely friend' status. 

There is nothing about that story that doesn't make me go "oh wait... I actually did that?". What was the chance a flight leaving the following day would have a spare seat? I recall joking to Aly on Skype about me visiting her in Hong Kong as that was I think I thought would be near impossible.

Anyway, I was incredible happy that I got to explore Hong Kong and even more so to have my exploration guided by a wonderful friend. She took to me to temples, a cat cafe, a bar on top of a skyscraper, introduced me to toast with condensed milk as well as How I Met Your Mother and provided me with company whilst I enjoyed drinking a yakult with ice.

I didn't know if people were going to enjoy this film. It was hard to capture on film my excitement and my feeling of "wow. I made a last minute decision to try to book a flight to Hong Kong to visit my friend and successfully did".  

London in LoFi #YouTubeLoFiWeek

Now for my latest contribution to #YouTubeLowFiWeek, London in LowFi.

Please be sure to rewind the video after watching. Thank you.

~note: This video was hit hard by subscription feeds and never appeared in a lot of subscriber's feeds. I don't want to resort to tweeting the video out 5 times a minute with the promise of a DM to show thanks. So, if you want to be so kind to show some support, please comment, like and share the video page. I thank you kindly. 

Big IF London #IFYOUTUBE

On the 8th June 2013, I filmed a documentary at the Big IF event in Hyde Park, London on behalf of IF YouTube (and @liliesarelike). Over 45,000 people gathered together to spread awareness of such a worthy cause. Members of the YouTube community were there, as individuals who have are able to spread awareness to their social media-based audience. 

Every year, 3 million children die from Hunger. There is enough food for everyone. IF we act together, we can make this year the beginning of the end for global hunger. 

I got to interview Frank Kapeta, a 16 year-old Save the Children Ambassador from Tazania, and told me about his story about how he suffered from malnutrition as a child.

As well as inspiring he was ridiciously friendly and equally as inspiring. We ran into him at the tube station and I got to talk to him some more. He kept high fiving me and saying thanks for supporting the IF campaign. He even asked if I had some papper to write down his email! It was incredible both to be able to interview and just meet such a swell and inspiration guy. 

You can learn more about the IF campaign here

Moments in Paris - Super 8 Film

This is a film of my trip to Paris. I shot this on Super 8mm using a Canon cine-camera from 1972. I went to Paris with my lovely friend, Heloise Devaux, and it was really lovely. I've never travelled abroad so independently before. It was very nice. 

There's something just nice about Super 8. Fair enough, if you as a video producer disregard as out-dated tech but I find the facts like how it’s still being accessible to little filmmakers like myself just astonishing. 

Working with Super 8 presents you with a number of constraints. Number one (and perhaps the most restricting) is you have around 3 minutes of film to work with. The big number two being you can't go back and digital your footage. You can't even view it back until it's been developed. Oh celluloid filmmaking. But as my film teacher has told me time and time again, creativity is born out of constraints. And boy, is it a rewarding process. 

You could describe me as a film diarist. I enjoy capturing my own life and my real experiences on film. I like to edit my footage with the intention to capsulate how the memories feel to me. Call it self-indulgent, but I love capture my memories on film. The whole process is lovely to me.

Receiving my film back and setting up a 40 year old projector to play back my home movie onto my wall was a lovely experience. Super 8mm provided a saturated look and presented it in complete silence (besides the sound of the projector). To me, at risk of sounding very pretentious, it was my memories perfectly captured. Also, isn't Heloise just the prettiest thing? 

Jasmine

A music video for the song 'Jasmine' by Jai Paul using the slit scan effect. 

Dream of Paris

I am very happy with how this little film I made in Paris came out. It features my beautiful friend, Heloise Devaux, and features a beautiful little rendition of a song by a little German band. 

Heloise, as well as graced her wonderful self in this video, also helped out immensely. I cannot thank her enough. 

This, stylistically, was influenced hugely by Jean-Pierre Jeunet's 'Amelie' but I also stole little bits from Woody Allen, Michel Gondry and even the base concept was inspired greatly from KickThePj. I'm a thief.  

Showreel | 2013

Hello and welcome. This is the Ray Roberts Films 2013 Showreel. 

View this video on it's Vimeo page to view in HD. 

Music provided by Hugo Winterhalter 'Hungarian Dance no. 5'

Remember Me

This was a fun little sketch to film. One of those that I just wrote out quickly, decided that it worked, then without much more thought or planning, shot. 

Working with Dodie was a treat. She's lovely. I don't think you could ask anyone who knows of her or watches her videos without hearing a similar response. If you haven't, you can check her music videos out at her channel, doddleoddle, by clicking here.

Happy Valentines Day!