New Keys

Exciting news from The Light Direction in Kendal. 

We have now got the keys to what will be our new office and post production facility in the heart of Kendal.

Can't wait to get started on fitting it out.

Please drop in to say hello any time. You're most welcome.

Viva Las Vegas...!!

Las Vegas Baby..!

Over in Vegas for the first time for NAB, the National Association of Broadcasters annual exhibition. The biggest in the world and Vegas is an appropriate place for that I guess...!
 

Filming at the House of Commons

An unexpected addition to the calendar in March was a last minute job that came up to film a speech being made at the House of Commons.

Stephen Larkin, CEO of the ever evolving Africa New Energies was making a speech to the Africa Alternative Energies Conference and was talking about the role his company are playing in the search for an energy solution for Africa.

Watch the video here

Cruising Lake Windermere on The Teal

Some beautiful weather this month along with plenty of snow on the hills made for some great days out and also some striking images waiting to be captured.

One particularly fine day saw The Teal arriving back at Waterhead under this rather dramatic sunset following one its regular trips around the Lake which includes stops at Bowness, Lakeside down at the southern end of the lake and Ambleside up at the northern end.

FA Cup

Lots of work recently bringing the TV pictures of the FA Cup coverage into your homes. Adrian has been working on many of the matches that you will have been watching at various grounds large and small across the north of England. Both the BBC and BT have been televising the competition this year.

Walk The Nile

Watching 'Walk The Nile' on 4OD reminded me of my backpacking adventure around Egypt in 1990.

Levison Wood and various fellow travelling companions walk the 4000 mile journey from Rwanda where the Nile begins to it's final destination in Egypt where it runs into the Mediterranean Sea.

Journalist Matt Power who was accompanying Levison on part of his journey through Tanzania, became a fatality when he suffered heat stroke and died on March 10th 2014.

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/walking-the-nile/articles/tribute/in-memory-of-matthew-power

It was a gruelling, incredible and very scary adventure. Well worth watching.

Alexa's Borneo Charity Expedition

My niece has decided to go on a trip to Borneo later this year to help build accommodation, improve schools and regenerate forests. It is going to be an amazing experience. I think that's such a cool thing to get involved in and I love her enthusiasm and commitment to making it happen.

http://alexaturpin.wordpress.com/

New Energies, New Africa?

New Year, New Project, New Energies, New Africa?

Well, maybe... Let's hope so anyway.

This is an adventurous and pioneering project seeking to succeed where some of the oil giants have already failed.

Namibia is the focus for this story. Power is something we all take for granted but in southern Africa that's simply not the case. They are already suffering scheduled blackouts. Africa New Energies is going to try and solve all that with a rather different approach to oil and gas exploration. We have been commissioned to produce a four minute promotional video for them. Early days but scripting is in progress.

From the heat of Abu Dhabi to a frozen Lake Windermere

From the heat of Abu Dhabi and the cliff hanger finish to the F1 season to the cold and snow of the Lake District. Well done to Lewis Hamilton for winning his second world title.

Low Wood Bay is a fantastic spot to look across at the Langdale Pikes, Crinkle Crags, The Old Man of Coniston and Swirl How.

It was a very cold and frosty morning as the sun was rising over Lake Windermere painting the snow covered mountains a vivid pink contrasting with the deep blue sky and the moon sitting high over the water.

Suzuka Spiders and Russian MiG's

Konnichiwa means hello in Japan. These rather scary looking inhabitants of the Suzuka race circuit were waiting for us inside one of the tyre wall barriers at the Spoon corner. The impending typhoon and Jules Bianchi's crash made this a rather sombre week. Otherwise it was good to be in a new country and meet some of the locals who are all very enthusiastic race fans. Kampai (Cheers) and Arigato (Thank you) were about the only words of Japanese that I managed to pick up, very useful in the local bars..!


From the little town of Adler just south of Sochi, this view looking out across the Black Sea was waiting to greet us one evening after we had finished at the track.

The race circuit is built within the complex of buildings that housed many of the winter Olympic events and even attracted the Russian President Vladimir Putin who turned up to watch the end of the race on the Sunday. This caused mass hysteria with security, snipers and a fly past featuring several MiG fighters. We even had cameras inside the MiG's with 3 live feeds as they flew over the circuit.

Documentary for the LCC on their 90th Anniversary

We completed filming and post production on a short film documentary for the LCC Lakes Christian Centre based in Windermere, Cumbria who celebrate their 90th birthday this year.
Sarah Tyson who produced and directed the film had come up with a short script that took us from the early 20th century right up to the modern day. Shooting was done over a couple of days at various locations around the south lakes including the Langdale Valley, Ambleside, Windermere and Bowness.

We also used some of our own library footage filmed around Lake Windermere, and editing was completed on time in three days. The film has an original music score composed by local musician John Wright who did a fantastic job of scoring his piano sounds to a version of the edit that wasn't quite completed. He captured the feel of the film beautifully.

Monza, Italy... Bellisimo

A busy but excellent week in Italy. Nice food, nice wine, a visit to a new place, Lake Como, a good race. What more do you need?!

One of our high speed cameras that we use to capture the fast moving action that is F1. These cameras allow the viewers to see things that the eye would normally miss

Commonwealth Games in Glasgow

 This is the team that put the table tennis on air. Yes, just the table tennis..! All the other venues and sports all had their own team of dedicated people who made it possible to watch what was happening anywhere around the world, wherever you happened to be.

Fancy tables that appeared to be balanced on a glass globe formed the staging for the main show matches.

 This is the inside of one of our OB trucks where the pictures are controlled from. It might have been sunny and hot outside, unusual for Glasgow, but inside was always dark and cool...!

A chance to do some sight seeing one evening with a quick trip down to Loch Lomond. New for some of the crew, an old haunt for me.

My collection of passes and badges that allowed me access to the venue and got me through the myriad of security measures. Nice souvenirs too.

Couldn't resist a last picture by one of the show tables before it was all dismantled.

The end of a very busy, non-stop couple of weeks but very inspiring too. The volunteers created a great atmosphere outside all of the venues.

More Chocolate from the House

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory....?

Nope, it's the 1657 Chocolate House in Kendal, back for another stills shoot. Chocolate, chocolate, everywhere... and not a drop to eat. Well, that's not quite true, I did get to try a few 'samples' during the day, very yummy they were too. Some more nice images for their new website which will be going live very soon.

Food Glorious Food

Pappy's Texas BBQ is a new company based in Winderemere in the Lake District.

We were asked to shoot some stills of a selection of the dishes that they will be producing for weddings, parties and any other social gatherings requiring high class food served either casually or in a high class dining environment. And the food was tasty as a tasty thing... I got to sample some of the produce and very yummy it was too :-)

Shanghai, home of the 'Wonky Market'...!

Shanghai started out lovely and warm but the week ended up being very cold and somewhat wet. However there was time for tea tasting, some local cuisine and a few visits to the local market where you can buy almost anything...!

This picture was taken at The Bund, the waterfront area that centres on the Zhongshan Road that runs along the western bank of the Huangpu River:

No Worries Down Under

Most of March I spent upside down in the land Down Under. This was a working holiday, a bit of business and a bit of pleasure, the best compromise I guess..!

A couple of weeks in Melbourne with my lovely friends down on the Mornington Peninsula and a week working on the Melbourne F1, the first race of the new season.

Then it was off to Adelaide to see my many wonderful friends over there whom I hadn't seen for 11 years, although when we all met up it felt like just 5 minutes ago.

Melbourne, Flinders Street Station:

Adelaide, Largs Pier:

Adelaide, Colonel William Light overlooks the new Adelaide Oval:

and finally, my favourite vineyard in the Barossa Valley, the Bethany Vineyard, makers of the famous Bethany White Port:

Ben Kilner interview for BBC Sport

We had a fun day up at Glenshee ski centre in Scotland, filming an interview with professional snowboarder Ben Kilner for BBC Sport. Ben is representing Britain in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.



We had also hoped to do some aerial filming of Ben doing some runs on his board but unfortunately the weather beat us on that one with wind and visibility both very poor.


Ben talked about the build up and preparations, past injuries, some of the things that help and inspire him and how some of the tricks are invented and named. It was great to meet him and we wish him all the best for the games out in Russia.

www.benkilner.com

Produced by Eamonn Donohoe, Interview by David McDaid.

Austin, Texas

 The shooting range just outside Austin provided some high octane entertainment one evening and kept us pretty well focused for a while. 9mm was the order of the day and it soon felt just like being at the fairground..!

The bars on 6th Street were also ever varied with some interesting and colourful characters popping through the doors... You just never knew what was going to happen next. Drinking with the bass player from Tool and a state cop to mention but two..!

New Delhi, India

New Delhi, India. A place of many extremes and opposites. Slow, noisy, dirty, frustrating, poverty stricken... maybe.... but there are so many happy, smiling faces. Children come out to wave as you drive past. People everywhere are keen and eager to help, they can't do enough for you. It all says so much. India has one of the richest economies in the world, and yet so many live in extreme poverty that we can hardly comprehend. It's a huge country and one day I would love to go for more than a week, when I'm not working, and take time to look around at this beautiful place.