Case Study - Parthian Climbing
What do you do when a huge filming project starts with nowt but an empty warehouse?You improvise!
The challenge of this project was to release exciting teaser videos for a new climbing centre, but without actually having anything that resembled a climbing centre to film for almost two months.
In this first video, I decided to use create a horror-style trailer - inspired by a shot of a workman walking past the window. I had actually filmed during the day, so I used After Effects to replace the sky, colour-correct the footage, and add some smoke effects. I'd never advise shooting day-for-night but this, mostly, worked (albeit with some glaringly obvious sunlight...)!
For this second video, we wanted something which would convey the proximity of the Reading and Southampton centres - members at one could fairly easily travel to the other to access double the climbing!
My idea was to give a cheeky nod to the Portal franchise. I'd never attempted a "portal" video before, but we gave it a go! I shot the Southampton footage first, including a set of marks on the wall to track the portal later on, then travelled to Reading and filmed the same footage again, trying to mimic the camera move as closely as possible. The climbing holds have plenty of information to track in AE so spliced the two shots of Tom together as the camera turned, added a portal effect, panned the audio, a touch of rotoscoping and hey presto!
This was by no means the last video, but it was the first to feature actual climbing (and the same drone shot as the horror trailer before I changed the sky)! I'm not normally one for filters and outrageously ramped up colours, but it felt kind of appropriate.
I also juxtaposed quick cuts and some camera tracking with long slow-mo shots and smooth camera moves to keep the pacing interesting.
Below you will find some other examples of videos I made for Parthian, including a short documentary covering the story of the build from initial concept through to the official launch party for the centre, and a night shoot which may even beat this one for vibes.
Working with Honda
I spend the majority of my time as a freelancer working with C3 Studios, and the majority of that time working on projects for Honda UK and Honda Europe. (This came about after the Honda RA-301 project below.)
During my time working with C3 and Honda, I covered all aspects of shoots from pre to post-production. I don't need to tell you what this involved, but I will for SEO purposes. Scripting, planning, camera operation, production, livestream operation, sound design, editing, motion graphics, and asset creation for social media.
I also helped to lead Honda UK's first foray into livestreaming when COVID prevented them from running in-person car launches.
Social media & other bits
These are some examples of social media assets I have created over the years, most of which use some After Effects wizardry to make the magic happen.
Selected projects
Below are a few other projects from when I first began freelancing. From events, to products, to animated explainer videos, they demonstrate the range of projects which I am comfortable to take on.
