Part 2

This final version features the brilliant new music score is by Rael Jones.

Timeless from MB Films on Vimeo.

Book trailer for FEAR by Michael Grant & Egmont UK.

The trailer started life in August 2011 when had a concept meeting with Egmont at their office in West London. Lots of reading, emails, storyboards, pre-vis videos (will put that online soon) later we had our trailer. 4 out of 5 cast members returned, we searched for someone to play ‘Diana’ fortunately we found Emily who was perfect.

We filmed for a day back in October 2011 with the actors against green screen using Canon 7D using 17 – 55mm f.28, 70 – 200mm f2.8, shot by DoP Ed Beck.

We shot at a great studio (NDP Studio) in Leeds, Yorkshire with some very talented and professional young actors  (Emily, Beth, Robbie, Matt and Henry). Main reason for green screen is that UK does not look like Southern California so it’s the only option to control the look/backgrounds.  Also some fantastic hair & make-up by Anita Adams and as always some great work from our production assistant Dave ‘The Wolf’ Calub who also spent many hours on storyboards in pre-production.

A week after shooting in Leeds we were in Farnham / Frensham area of Surrey to shoot some background plates for the Forest, Desert and Cave. coincidentally  ‘Snow White and The Huntsman’ was shooting about 200 yards from us so we had some great lighting for our Astrid woods scene!

December and January was spent tinkering with post production using a combo of After Effects, FCP and Magic Bullet Looks.  As with the other Gone trailers we have done Ross Shepherd did an awesome end title/pack shot.

A good deal of time went on the Sound Design, sound is 50% of the film and should never be left to the last minute! We actually started the sound editing before the visual effects had began. We recorded a variety of sounds from all around and edited/mixed to what you hear in the final trailer. We used some sound fx’s from previous trailers; Caine had a particular sound/theme when he was on screen, that is repeated as with Drake and Sam.

We tried to make a exciting and cinematic trailer with a dark atmosphere that we feels represents the tone of the book series.  We’ve had some great feedback from Michael on the previous trailers so hope he likes this one!

Enjoy!

David Mead, MB Films

Directors/Producer – David Mead & Ed Beck, Editor/VFX – David Mead, DoP – Ed Beck, additional VFX – Ross Shepherd & Laurence Beck.

Official FEAR website  http://www.egmont.co.uk/gone/fear.htm

More Egmont Trailers & Media visit  http://www.electricmonkeybooks.co.uk/

Early November we filmed at Mercedes-Benz World in Surrey to cover the annual Compuware Costumer Briefing event for the 3rd year running.
Multiple camera shoot covering an action packed day including customer spotlights, presentations and AMG speed drives around the wet track. See Highlights films below.

This film is intended to capture the spirit and endless energy of London. We decided to shoot it in a mixture of Timelapse and slow motion. We started filming in October 2010 in Richmond upon Thames just on the western edge of the city, and then the ensuing journey took us all the way through the city and back again, ending up just a year later with a final sun rise shot in the Richmond area.

The brilliant but temporary music score is by Rael Jones. He’s currently working on music for the new BBC Sherlock Holmes series and he will be delivering a final score for my film in a month or so. I can’t wait to hear it, and I would like to thank him for all his hard work.

I’d like to thank everyone else involved too; particularly my camera assistants; David Mead, Dave Calub, Laurence Beck and Johana Castro. They helped me lug around equipment and of course they kept me company during the long hours of time lapse work. They braved not only windswept bridges, endless travelling, and brushes with local law enforcement, but also marauding gangs and drunken loons in the west end.

I can’t thank my wife Johana enough. I made her stand around for hours while she was two months pregnant, and I nearly ruined our anniversary by insisting on filming some time lapse footage at the Oxo tower restaurant half way through dinner, sorry.

Technical information:

Camera: Canon 7D
Lenses: 17 – 55mm f.28, 70 – 200mm f2.8
Edited in FCP
Graded in Magic bullet looks

I used various shutter angles and intervals to achieve the best effect for any particular shot. At night I mostly wanted that streaky look, so most of it is either 1 or 2 second exposures with the lens stopped down to around f5.6. During the day I would shoot people shots at 1 second intervals which seemed to give that impression of frantic energy, particularly on a long lens.

Hope you enjoy the film.

Ed Beck, MB Films

photography – Ed Beck
camera assistants – David Mead, Dave Calub, Laurence Beck and Johana Castro
editing – Ed Beck & David Mead
music – Rael Jones

All films can be seen at:

http://poker.ladbrokes.com/en/irish-poker-festival-2011/blogs

http://www.youtube.com/user/LadbrokesPokerTV?feature=mhee

Killarney Poker Festival Timelapse from MB Films on Vimeo.

Spirit of the House reflects on the relationship between Rodney Archer and his historic house in Spitalfields, East London over the past 30 years.

Spirit of the House – clip from MB Films on Vimeo.

Directed by Ed Beck & David Mead
Produced by Ed Beck, David Mead & Laurence Beck
Music by Rael Jones