DaVinci Resolve Grading Suite in Kendal, The Lake District

Pictures from the inside of our edit and Davinci Resolve colour grading suite at the Old Smoke House in Kendal in The Lake District.

Colour grading is a vitally important part of the production and post production process. This is great quote from Simon Reeve's new book 'Step by Step' that is well worth a read. Here he describes the production process and the role of the various people involved in producing his fascinating and beautifully shot documentaries:

“Pound for pound, nothing improves a programme faster than a skilled Colourist sitting in front of a vast Star Trek sized console playing with scores of dials and sliders like Jean-Michel Jarre tweaking colours and shadows.”

Here I am colour grading a short documentary about a Tree Surgeon company based down in Kent. It was produced, filmed and edited by Angus MacFadyen who is also based in Kent.

Colour grading is something that can be done remotely as it only requires the source footage to be delivered on a hard drive by courier. We can then grade the footage, export it out of Resolve, return it back to the editor again by courier where the graded footage is then imported back into the project.

Professional colour grading can completely transform a video, film or documentary, whatever the nature of the project.

#colourgrading #colourist #davinci #davinciresolve #postproduction
#broadcast #videoproduction #commercialvideo #tvcommercial #documentary

Best Video Production Company Award for The Light Direction

In November we were delighted to be once again told that we had won an award, this time for 'Best Film and Video Production Company' in Cumbria.


The trophy is a lovely piece of engraved slate, very appropriate for The Lake District.

This was primarily for our work on a series of promotional videos that we filmed and produced for a local Kendal based company, Pappy's Texas BBQ, who occupy the Old Smoke House and have a Texan heritage producing tasty slow smoked meats for both the commercial and private markets.



#videoproduction #commercialvideo #promotionalvideo #instructionalvideo

Broadcasting the WTA tennis finals from Singapore

In October Adrian was a part of a big team working out in Singapore to televise the finals of the WTA women's year long tennis tournament. This lovely old colonial outpost still has a bit of that British colony feel to it. Sadly we won't be returning here as the finals are moving to China from next year.




#wta #tennis #broadcasting #singapore

Colour Testing the Blackmagic Mini Ursa Pro

Colour testing the Blackmagic Design Mini Ursa Pro using a colour line up test chart from X Rite and waveform monitors from Divergent Media.

It's important to know how the camera sees the colour information gathered through the lens. Every camera has it's own colorimetry characteristics and colour matrix processing and so they will all see the same colours slightly differently. In a world where we are often shooting material in high dynamic range (HDR) using a film log curve rather than a standard video log curve, it's even more important to be able to re-create a known, standard 'look' from the raw footage. 

Knowing how the camera responds to colour as well as highlight and lowlight information helps the Director of Photography (DoP) know how to light and shoot a scene.

The more testing you can do with a camera the better. And if you are using different types of camera to shoot multiple angles or different scenes within a production and you need all the footage to match, then it becomes even more critical. When you are grading the footage and you can have created a 'look' that you like and you want this to be consistent across the production, then knowing what corrections to apply to the different cameras footage prior to applying the LUT for the actual 'look' that you want is crucial.

The science of colour, of colour capture, colorimetry, colour space and colour reproduction is a fascinating and much mis-understood area of television and film production.

How do I go about making a commercial video to promote my business?

A question often asked by many business owners and a very good one too. How do we get a promo video made to show off our business to our clients and potential clients. It can seem like a scary prospect.

 

Start at the very beginning, a very good place to start. If you're looking to get a commercial promotional video made whether it be for the web, for DVD or Blu Ray, or for broadcast, then you can come and talk to us.

We can talk you through the whole process, put your mind at ease, take your ideas and visions and turn them into a professional polished product.

Case Study:

Pappy's Texas BBQ, a local company based in The Lake District but with a Texan pedigree and big dreams. We talked them through the whole process, took their ideas, their knowledge and obvious love of their business, and we produced a script and a shooting schedule. We filmed over three days, did the post production over another three days which included recording a voice over using our vocal booth in our office and edit suite in Kendal. We then sourced music, another voice over recording by an artist in America who did an authentic Texas accent, and some stock footage of Texas plains. The whole thing was edited and the footage graded, the sound mixed and some graphics added.

The result was a very happy client.


www.thelightdirection.co.uk
+44 (0) 1539 727544
info@thelightdirection.co.uk

Holiday Cottage Stills Shoot in the North Lakes

A nice little last minute pre-Christmas stills shoot for a holiday cottage company in the North Lakes. A lovely little gem, hidden away under the towering shadow of Skiddaw.

Getting the Office ready for Christmas

Nothing like getting ready for Christmas...!

Glowing in the Dark

One of the many challenges we faced this year was to shoot a collection of glow in the dark educational resource products for a local company here in the Lake District.

It was certainly an interesting day's shoot and a lot of post production grading and painting was required to finish the images to print standard.

A big thank you too to our star model who behaved wonderfully well and did everything asked of her, even at the end of the day when she was tired..!

North West Enterprise Awards for The Light Direction

In November we were delighted to be told that The Light Direction is now an award winning company, being the recipient of the accolade of Best Lighting Design company in the North West Enterprise Awards of 2017 hosted by SME News.

The glass engraved trophy awarded to
The Light Direction Ltd. in the
North West Enterprise Awards 2017
hosted by SME News

Singapore Sling at Raffles Hotel

You actually can't get a Singapore Sling at the Long Bar in Raffles Hotel just now as they are refurbishing. It's a great little corner of old Colonial greatness though.

The challenge of shooting luminescent 'Glow in the Dark' products.

Sensory, luminescent, 'Glow in the Dark' products certainly make for a challenging photo shoot. It's not so much about how to light, as how NOT to light.

This little test shoot for Wigton based educational resources company Twoey was certainly a bit of fun...

Suzuki Hayabusa

Only in Japan... a fully Chromed Up Suzuki Hayabusa, parked up in the outskirts of Tokyo. 

Japanese Open Tennis in Toyko

More tennis this month out in Toyko, Japan this time. A mixture of heat, rain and humidity. 

Rogers Cup in Toronto

The last time I was in Toronto was in 1996 at the start of a huge 2000 mile road trip. 

This time it was for work, painting pictures for the WTA for the Rogers Cup Tennis Tournament.