Michelle Tofi

I’ve been meaning to update my showreel for quite a while...

Sun, 20 May 2012 09:53:37 +0100

I’ve been meaning to update my showreel for quite a while and yesterday I finally found the time to do it, ahead of a busy week shooting a short in collaboration with the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (Lamda).

Showreels are difficult things to compile for a number of reasons. There will always be clips you reuse, reel to reel, because they’re particular favourites or special to you. That said, each new one cut means dropping older shots to make way for newer work - a showreel can’t run too long because who has time to watch five minute reels when sifting through potential hires? There always have to be sacrifices in how you present yourself, and for this one the longest chunk in my reel comes from the first feature I shot as DP - ‘In Two Weeks’ directed by Andy Amadi. That means I’ve had to lose a little of the corporate and live event jobs I’ve done, so the reel is essentially film and music video work, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

The final frustration you’ll hear most often from crew cutting showreels is the inability to use footage that hasn’t been released, or approved, or that you signed your rights to away. I would love to be able to show some of my work on a couple of other projects from this year - not least from my second feature as DP, ‘The Watcher Self’, but I also don’t want to spoil those projects ahead of release. When the time comes, I hope the wait is worth it! So for now, please enjoy my current reel for 2012!

Very happy to finally release this video for Amzo’s...

Fri, 11 May 2012 11:34:00 +0100

Very happy to finally release this video for Amzo’s “Spotlight” (apparently it dropped without me noticing a little while ago - too busy on the feature shoot for The Watcher Self I think).

I’m very happy with how the video turned out - especially due to the limitations of crew. We shot the entire thing as a collaboration between myself and gaffer Simon Olney, with some production assistance from the multi-talented Kim Verma. Big thanks to dancer Shannon Tella for her incredible contribution to the shoot. Enjoy - and please watch at 1080 for full HD effect!

I’m currently shooting The Watcher Self for...

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 10:15:19 +0100

I’m currently shooting The Watcher Self for writer/director Matt Cruse (and starring the frankly brilliant Karen French). The shoot is going fairly swimmingly so far, thanks in no small part to my 1st AC David Dearlove, pictured above, watching me watching him. If you’re looking for an AC/Focus Puller or Camera operator, I couldn’t recommend him enough. Plus, he’s got 8 years of parkour experience! Or so he says…

The edit for Amzo’s ‘Spotlight’ video is...

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 23:15:00 +0100

Frame Grab from Amzo's 'Spotlight' video

Frame Grab from Amzo's 'Spotlight' video

Frame Grab from Amzo's 'Spotlight' video

Frame Grab from Amzo's 'Spotlight' video

The edit for Amzo’s ‘Spotlight’ video is almost done, so here’s a few frame grabs to give you an idea of the highly stylised look we went for. Very much looking forward to sharing the final cut.

This weekend I shot the video for Hip-Hop & RnB artist...

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 17:11:25 +0100

This weekend I shot the video for Hip-Hop & RnB artist Amzo’s lead single ‘Spot Light’ at a warehouse in Dalston. I was lucky enough to have the hugely talented Simon Olney along as gaffer for the video, and professional dancer Shannon Tella (above) provided her skills on the rooftop as the sun set. Looking forward to the release so I can share the video with you.

Editing. Slipping in a classic fridge pov shot with the amazing...

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 20:31:51 +0100

Editing. Slipping in a classic fridge pov shot with the amazing Joyce Veheary (Taken with instagram)

Check out the video for The Jude’s new single...

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 10:30:51 +0000

Check out the video for The Jude’s new single ‘Heartbreaker’ above - directed by the awesome Jon Walton and DP’d by me. A really energetic shoot, I’m very pleased with the way this one turned out. Support The Jude on their single release (today) by grabbing the track from iTunes and hitting them up at http://www.twitter.com/wearethejude

Early this 2012 director Jon Walton, a crew of camera folk and...

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 07:30:17 +0000

Early this 2012 director Jon Walton, a crew of camera folk and myself as DP took charge of a spacious recording studio in Surrey to shoot a live session with self-proclaimed “vicious skiffle” band, The Jude. Here’s the first track cut from that session - ‘Les Filles Francaises’. I’m happy to report our original music video for this track has now gained over 10,000 views on YouTube, but it really comes to life here in the live setting.

Here’s the latest video from my recent collaboration with...

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 12:11:05 +0000

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...

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 17:04:32 +0000

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...

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 16:20:51 +0000

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!

I’ve been collaborating with Jelluzz on a series of videos...

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 22:54:33 +0000

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

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 21:17:10 +0000

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!

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 14:03:58 +0000

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...

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 12:05:46 +0000

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!

Packing light for today’s job. Of course the boom pole is...

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 14:54:02 +0000

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

My friend Luke made this excellent poster for a short film I...

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 16:23:38 +0100

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”.

Today’s rig: 5D MK II, Redrock rig with cage + top handle...

Sun, 09 Oct 2011 10:08:13 +0100

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)

The Jude - ‘Les Filles Francaises’ I hope you guys...

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 11:20:00 +0100

The Jude - ‘Les Filles Francaises’

I hope you guys will enjoy this black and white music video for today’s single release of The Jude’s ‘Les Filles Francaises’. I directed the photography of this video under the supervision of incredibly creative director/editor Jon Walton last weekend and any French cinema fans amongst my readership will hopefully appreciate the nods to certain classic films of the Nouvelle Vague period. Look out for homages to A Bout de Souffle, Les Mistons, Bande à Part, Jules et Jim, Amelie and (500) Days of Summer! The band were great fun to work with and the single is available from today on iTunes here: Download Les Filles Francaises

A quick update… So above is the awesome video for...

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 13:34:50 +0100

A quick update…

So above is the awesome video for Cypher16’s ‘Lonely Road’, featuring crane work and camera work by me and some excellent other camera guys who gathered last month at Battersea Power Station, 5:45am, to get this video shot in one long and frenetic day. The band were a pleasure to work with and really tore it up, playing live to the backing track without losing any of the intensity you see in the video, despite us making them do take after take to get what the director wanted.

It’s the first of two music videos I’ll be posting here in the coming week or so, having just wrapped shooting on the debut single for The Jude over the weekend - that shoot was absolutely a delight, we had two brilliant actors on set with terrific energy, plus the band bringing a huge amount of creative input to director Jon Walton’s vision. I was DOP on that one and got to borrow the signature visual style of some of my favourite filmmakers to bring the piece to life. I don’t want to reveal too much before it’s released, but it’s definitely going to be one worth waiting for. The single is released next Monday so keep checking the blog to stay posted!