Michelle Tofi

Here’s the latest video from my recent collaboration with UK grime artist Jelluzz.  I’m particularly pleased with the split screen footage in this music video; look out for the scene where the girl lights a cigarette by a phone booth - I’d say the two shots almost match up perfectly.  The concept of the video is to demonstrate what life is currently like on West Green road, and what it could be like in a fantasy world. As always, please comment/share. 

Cold Inside is the first of a series of music videos I’m producing for Jelluzz’s new mixtape ‘Navy Blue Days’. Featuring Nathan Hector and Tessa Hart, Cold Inside was shot on 5D MK II in and around Acton and Ealing. I edited the video in FCPX.

To get the whole mixtape you can download for FREE here http://hulkshare.com/wl4zq8obgubm and here http://www.downloadamixtape.com

Xander’s “Requiem for a Dream” video featuring Amzo dropped at the start of this week and has already racked up over 13,000 views on youtube. Here’s the link from my Vimeo page.  I shot the video and it really was a fun shoot - Xander has an incredible amount of energy and creativity and brought loads of ideas to the shoot we got to try out, including shooting 50fps for most of the piece on 550D, then time-remapping in Motion’s Optical Flow in post.  I hope you enjoy the video!

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I’ve been collaborating with Jelluzz on a series of videos for his upcoming mixtape Catch Me if I Fall. It’s been a great opportunity to get more familiar with FCPX, which has become my go-to edit suite for music videos (I’m still using FCP7 for narrative film & corporate work, and probably will for the foreseeable future). Here’s a screenshot of the edit suite in action, cutting a split-screen based video that I hope you’ll all enjoy. Watch out for it soon…

Gear Review: Delkin Fat Gecko Camera Mount

I’ve been working on a short film - Play Rewind Forward - for quite a while now.  It’s an improv based piece and that means director Melina Liu is free to add new scenes as talent becomes available and the story develops, giving the film a cool organic vibe.  It’s also meant we can experiment as much as we want with the camera work and visual style, which has meant lying in the grass while parkour kids leap over us, and attempting to attach cameras to mobility scooters as make-shift dollies. That’s where this guy comes in - the Delkin Fat Gecko Camera Mount.

The Delkin Fat Gecko is a standard suction cup based camera mount that features two adjustable suction cups, rotatable to fit a curved surface.  Attached to these is an articulating arm and a rotating camera base with a standard 1/4 tripod thread that should fit most cameras, or even a quick release if you’re daring enough to try that out. I took the above shot with the Delkin mounted to a side window, shooting straight at the passenger wing mirror. Admittedly, my mirror needs a clean! 

I’ve used mounts before but never with my own camera. For example this Hama Car Camera Clamp Support (Universal) is remarkably more expensive but when I used it the design felt cheap and unsupportive, and there’s no way I’d have let my own kit sit on the bonnet of a car attached to it.  The Delkin on the other hand, with it’s unique locking system and double suction mount just feels a lot more sturdy, and for a little over £50 it’s a great bargain.  Not a driver? Not a problem! The day I got mine I mounted it to the front door to get some weird birds-eye perspectives. Because the Delkin articulates you can pretty much stick it anywhere with a flat surface and get an interesting angle of view.  I just used mine for a timelapse sequence in a music video I’m shooting/directing so hopefully I’ll be able to share some footage with you soon.  In the meantime, grab yours here: Delkin Fat Gecko - on Amazon.co.uk.

 

CrumplePop ShrinkRay X - Free for a week!

I love CrumplePop.  Despite having issues with their initial set of plug-ins not playing well with FCP7 (My fault, not theirs, and they refunded me!) I’ve been loving the releases they’ve put out for FCPX, the still much maligned follow-up to their old Final Cut system I’ve grown with and loved. Having people like them come aboard the FCPX love-train has helped me enormously to embrace the ‘X’, and with a killer promo like this one you’d be mad not to give them a go.

ShrinkRay X from CrumplePop on Vimeo.

Yup, those awesome folks over at CrumplePop are actually giving away the full version of ShrinkRay X - the FCPX friendly follow up to their awesome ShrinkRay for FCP7 - for absolutely free this week. You can read everything you need to over at this page but once you’ve read that price tag, what more could you need to know?  It’s already installed on my copy of ‘X’ and I’ve toyed around this morning with some old footage shot on high. So far, I love it. Of course everyone needs to eat so after the 23rd of November it’ll be back to its regular price of $75.  Seriously, grab it now, right here.

I recently started working on a series of video projects to coincide with the launch of Xander’s debut EP “Royal Blood”.  This first one is a sneak preview of what to expect, layered with the intro to new track “Thesaurus”. I can’t take credit for anything other than a quick re-edit here as the stunning collage-based visuals themselves were created by graff artists David S. We do, however, have an awesome video on its way to launch the brilliant track “Requiem For a Dream”. Watch this space!

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Packing light for today’s job. Of course the boom pole is separate! (Taken with instagram)

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My friend Luke made this excellent poster for a short film I made in the 2nd year of university - Ki No Otokonoko: Wooden Boy.  It’s a Japanese language fantasy piece about a girl who makes a strange discovery about her heritage after the death of her father.  You can watch it here - http://vimeo.com/11790275 - if you’re so inclined. Or visit Luke’s tumblr, linked below, for his artwork, writing and awesome shorts/music videos

lukeibbetson:

This is another variantion on “Kino”.

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Today’s rig: 5D MK II, Redrock rig with cage + top handle plus Arri follow focus and mattebox, Zacuto baseplate and EVF, Marshall monitor, 5D externally powered by Diconic HC. (Taken with instagram)