We often get asked to provide services for photographers from overseas.
Last December saw Emma going behind the scenes on the set of Sherlock Holmes II to digital operate for the American photographer Nels Israelson on the new movie posters
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london based production, hire and technical support for professional photographers and videographers read more »
In a shoot that saw Flick Hire provide all digital production and also a number of assistants, this shoot was completed over 10 days in both London and Madrid.
High speed shooting, slow motion cameras and lasers were all part of our arsenal which helped photographer Alan Mahon get these amazing shots.
We provided not only capture computers but remote viewing stations for clients to watch the shoot from seperate parts of the building.
Here is a peak at the results.
Some final images from the shoot!
Hurray! Fernando Milani is back in the UK and we got to work with him for this brilliant shoot for Shamtu shampoo!
Still to see the final images but here is a sneaky peek behind the scenes!
Off again with several assistants and a three camera set up to film a live fundraising performance for the very talented Absent Elk
Finally they are out and we can show you the shots!! Here’s one of the images from Alan Mahon’s BP ‘Heart’ Campaign, that we worked on last year on the snow!
A chance for one of our operators to once again work with the brilliant Nigel Parry, and get the chance to meet David Walliams.
Shot in Black Island film studios whilst the commercial was being shot, amongst grand pianos and skateboarding dogs!
Working hard we can see! Emma’s returned to the UK, and sent us over some behind the scenes images of the trip, can’t wait to see the final images from the shoot!
Emma, our star operator, is off to Cape Town for a month long catalogue job with fashion photographer Simon Lipman.
She left hoping for a suntan, but 6 days in has reported back that between the file naming, backing up and processing she has only managed to escape the computers for two hours of sunshine so far. We wish her good luck!
We’ve been involved with the band Absent Elk before when we filmed them in a pub for one of their singles. I distinctly remember listening to their cd at the time and was transfixed by one of the songs – ‘Comfort or Amuse’. I said at the time that I’d like to shoot a video for the song. It’s been almost a year since I mentioned it but I got a call from Kjetil Morland, the lead singer in January asking if I’d like to shoot a video for ‘Comfort or Amuse’ to be used for promotion of the song for Cancer Research.
Finally we set off last week for 2 days filming at a fantastic location on the Isle of Wight. So off we went. We chose to use a micro-crew of 3 people to do the filming using a 5D-mk2, Libec jib, track and ‘Joker Bug’ continuous lighting. Here’s us on the RedFunnel ferry…
We pulled in at 6pm and trecked over to the other side of the Island to the location. After unloading all the gear and food supplies we had a brief rest before starting filming the next morning when the band turned up with our main protagonist. Here’s some images of the setting up.
Set pictures ©Tom Lakeman 2011
We’ve just seen the final edit and it will be up here as soon as we are allowed to release it…
A special thanks to Tom (lighting assistant & chef) and Dan (camera assistant) who made the job run so smoothly and Helen from Vintage Vacations for supporting our cause.
The end of 2010 saw us working on a hush hush ad campaign for BP. Working with photographer Alan Mahon. We provided 4 Hasselblad H4D digital cameras, Apple MacBook Pro laptops, camera support systems and 2 digi-Techs for the shoot which happened over a 3 week in Sheffield, Loughborough, Birmingham and London.
We also provided a driver and transport for moving between the locations, which would have been easy if half of England hadn’t been in the grips of some of the worst snow we’d seen in ages. In fact Sheffield had been completely cut off!
The early starts also saw witness to the best Haw Frost we’ve ever seen.
So finally we’ve seen a glimpse of some of the work.
We regularly get asked to provide support for arial photography and we have worked with some of the best. Our experience spans shooting with the doors on or off in Robinson R44′s all the way to Bell 206L-1.
We can even provide specialist kit like gyro’s and long-life batteries for computers and cameras.
Suddenly another call from Open Abu Dhabi wanting to shoot a press campaign on the Canon 5D-mk2. More Emerati’s, this time a slightly yourger bunch…
Shooting tethered into Capture One 6 (still a little bit buggy, but getting there) on a new MacBook Pro with SSD drive, Profoto 8a’s and light shapers.
Off to Snap studios, one of our favourites, for another shoot with Simon Lipman for George clothing.
Out to Miami for one of our digital assitants assisting children’s photographer Tim Marsella, lucky thing!
So this is what our branding company have come back with…
The original brief was to find a logo for FlickHire that suggested 70′s porn star. Maybe some gold foil on black, we suggested. What do we know?…
Tif Hunter recently took our Hasselblad 50ms (multi shot) for this ad campaing for Nokia. We supplied the Hasselblad H4D-50ms, iMac i7 27″ and our best Digi-Tech.
Off to Inverness for a filming job. 12 hours straight in the car. This is what it looked like…
London to Inverness from Michael Harvey on Vimeo.
So here are the final ads from the Kelloggs shoot we did with Jason Knott.
All lit with the Briese lighting on location in Bromley.
So here we are again, in Dubai this time, shooting with Simon Impy for Mubadala. For this series of portraits for bill-boards we provided the Hasselblad H3D-39 and prime lenses, a digi tech and in-house retouching.
We were asked to provide a DoP and 1st AC/DIT for a one day commercial shoot in Abu Dhabi. We shot for ‘Walk Abu Dhabi’ on a 5D-mk2 with prime lenses.
At least we got a bit of rest before getting back on the plane to the UK!
Got a 5D mk2 with a follow focus and a matte box? Found a case to take it all assembled? You have now…
Photokina with Kata Bags from Michael Harvey on Vimeo.
It’s nice to see a company that’s making an effort to keep up with the new breed of video shooters.
While at Photokina, I met up with David Grover from Hasselblad to talk about the NEW Phocus 2.6 software and the iPad app.
Photokina with Hasselblad from Michael Harvey on Vimeo.
Phocus 2.6 – New features
Dust Removal Tool
‘Star’ ratings ***** like Lightroom and ACR (traffic light system – red, yellow, green remains unchanged)
iPad app
Photokina is MASSIVE!
Most UK photographers are fairly used to going to Focus on Imaging at the NEC in Birmingham. Especially if they are after some new piece of equipment that they want to get their hands on and compare to others from a competitor.
It kinda makes sense to walk into a place and be able to look at two or three different solutions to something you want to sort.
Over the last couple of years Focus has suffered. Attendance has fallen off and hard times means that some exhibitors didn’t turn up – even after paying for their booths! An often heard complaint was that Focus was becoming a wedding photographers show – not that there is anything wrong with that, it’s just that there were more people selling photo albums and frames the there were camera manufacturers.
So off I went to Photokina to have a look and help out a friend on their lighting stand. Arriving on Thursday evening having driven through some of the most spectacular thunder and lightning storms, I was well set up for my first day at the show. The first thing that strikes you is… It IS massive. I’m not sure that a single person spending 6 days at the show would actually make it around all of the 18 halls. There were manufacturers from every corner of the photographic universe, including a few that just didn’t make any sense at all (one was a polish lady selling milling machines – obviously useful if you were inclined to make your own screws or spare parts for your cameras. The other one was a guy selling puppets… actually more like ventriloquist’ dummies – problem was that he was a terrible ventriloquist, and at €140 a pop that’s an expensive toy. Having said that, you know the expression that goes – “if it can be used for photography…”).
I did my research before leaving and there were some interesting possibilities that were on the brink of being launched – Canon 1Ds mk4, something from Nikon maybe even something new from Hasselblad or Phase. It didn’t take me long to bump into one of the Nikon staff staying in our hotel for me to hear a story that was regularly repeated by everyone I spoke to. Photokina is no longer a show that manufacturers use to launch their new products. I was curious as to why and this is what everyone said: ‘Why would a manufacturer choose to release their new product at Photokina when their competitors would then go on to release something else?’ The moment of glory typically lasted for hours before your competitor released something newer or better. Every manufacturer I spoke to said that by leaking new products on the internet it gave them more hype for longer than ever before.
So back to Photokina.
The highlights were few and far between. Everyone I met said it was a disappointing show. Equally everyone was very impressed that all the major players had not only turned out, but had spent a fortune on their stands. In the brief walks that I managed I saw everything from skate boarders to circus acts, fast cars to famous fashion photographers all touting their wares for one company or another. Just to set the record straight, I had no intention of blogging Photokina, but come the last day I couldn’t help myself from doing a couple of interviews with people or products I found interesting. In the back of my mind, I couldn’t help wondering why anyone would go to Photokina (unless you actually lived in Cologne) so when I met a blogger from Canada by the name of Klyment (http://www.youtube.com/user/Klyment) I had to ask.
How many Photokinas have you been to?
Klyment “This is my third”
Why do you keep coming back to Photokina?
Klyment “Every Photokina I see something that changes the way I shoot”
You know. That’s good enough for me. If I could see something every two years that changed the way I worked, I’d travel half way around the world to see it! Klyment has a number of interesting videos from Cinec and Photokina which are worth looking at.
Anyone who is seriously interested in what was at Photokina and is looking for information on something in particular should pop over and visit the DP Review website (http://www.dpreview.com/) they have done a brave job of getting out there and reporting back on just about every new release that the show had to offer. They have extensive product reviews and many sample images shot with the new cameras.
Another shoot with Simon Lipman for one of our operators. Busy busy busy!!
While coming back to the UK from Lagos, we got a call from Abu Dhabi to ask if we would provide equipment for the Breast Cancer Awareness campaign ‘Pink October’. It was lucky that we were an hour and a half up the road and had all the right equipment to help out.
A bright summers day saw one of our operators out to countryside to the home of Mark Webber to digital operate on this shoot for Red Bull magazine with Alan Mahon.
One of the few things people anticipate when moving from stills to moving image is that stills is all about ‘keeping the camera still’ and moving image is all about ‘how the camera moves’.
One of the most graceful ways to make the camera move is to use a jib. Now we frequently get asked about what a jib does and how it works… so we made this short film…
setting up the Libec JB-30 jib arm (graded) from Michael Harvey on Vimeo.
We were asked to provide Canon HD-DSLR cameras, lenses, lighting, sound recording equipment (incl. Zoom H4n, Røde shotgun mic, audio boom), DP and Sound Engineer for this shoot with Mark Waldron.
The Barman Turned from Michael Harvey on Vimeo.
We were asked to provide DP, Gaffa, Canon HD-DSLR cameras, lenses, Marshall reference monitors (x2) and location facilities for filming 3 virals for the Vauxhall Meriva.
We were asked to provide Hasselblad H4D-50ms, lenses, Briese lighting (220 & 77 reflector) and DigiOp for hair shoot for Shamtu at Jasmine Studios, London.
We were asked to provide MF Hasselblad H2 w/ P45 back, 50/80/100/120 lenses, DigiTec, ProFoto 8a packs and heads, Silks and Frames, gaffa and production for Phillip Dixon shoot in the UK.
We were asked to supply HD-DSLR Canon camera and lenses, Libec track & jib, HMI lighting and computers for music video for the band Absent Elk
This April, two of our operators jetted over to New York to work on the Jet Blue campaign, with photographer and videographer Alan Mahon. We provided all filming equipment and rigging including tracks and tripods, Marshall monitors and focus pulling equipment. After testing all the kit in London for several days at our London base we were able to advise on the optimum settings for the conditions and provided beautiful film files from the Canon 5D Mk2 and gorgeous stills on the Hasselblad.
The job was made a little more interesting by the Icelandic volcano, unexpectedly extending the crews trip!
We were asked to supply HD-DSLR Canon camera and lenses Libec track and sticks for jet blue ad’s shot in NYC, directed by Alan Mahon.
A windy and wet day in Littlehampton for our digital operator Emma, as she provided digital support for the photographer Peter Dench on this light hearted campaign for Weetabix.
Rain and a wildly swinging giant shark made for an interesting shoot, luckily the location van was on hand with warm food and power points for backing up and editting.
We are so pleased to have been part of this month long advertising shoot with photographer Peer Lindgreen, many of our operators got the chance to work on this as there were so many different executions to achieve. Peer was recognised soon after the campaign came out in Creative Review as Photographer of the Year. We have to agree!
We were asked to provide a digital operator, a lighting assistant and a runner for this advertising job with photographer Veronique Vial. Because she is based abroad we packed our location van with as many added extras as we could think of, grip, cabling, even pens and paper. All the little things we knew could make the difference when on location.
