Monday 31 December 2012

Heres to 2013!

Thanks to everyone who looks at this thing, everyone who follows me on twitter, likes my facebook, views a photo, has liked the new Aspect Media launch or watched a video or supports me or my work in anyway.

You have all made 2012 one of the best years I have had to date, and I for one cant wait to see what 2013 can bring, it has all the ingredients to blow last year out of the water...

See you on the other side everybody!

Harry Molloy boosting way up on a jump in Spain.

Monday 24 December 2012

Aspect Media 2012 show reel now live!

We have been working hard on this the last week or so, 5 days editing down in London with the other half of Aspect, Chris Seager and we are both very happy to show you our new 2012 show reel.

This is the new face of video from me, only so much one person can do and as you can see when you put 2 of us together, good things happen ha




Give it a share, like, tweet etc etc

https://vimeo.com/56218076

Ta

O and have a very merry Christmas everyone! 

Monday 17 December 2012

5 things: Pitching and Pricing

I get asked a fair bit about pricing and how to go about approaching companies and magazines.

While there is no finite answer and no 100% concrete formula for it, there are a few things to keep in mind that will make your life easier and your chance of getting work higher.

  • 1: Dont be scared to ask, the best way not to undercut everyone is to know roughly what other people are charging. Seems simple but as with most things in life most people arnt willing to talk about these issues.
  • 2: Only send the very best of your work. If you send through sub par work, next time your name pops up in their inbox with some honestly amazing images, they will asume they will look like the last lot. Be very self critical. 
  • 3: Work out your daily base cost, insurance, rent, food, living etc, your time. This is your base day rate. Then add on useage, this varies hugly depending on if company X wants it for a small web image or for a national add run ... then add on extras like renting gear, fuel etc ... invoice for that amount.   
  • 4: Keep emails short, to the point, polite and spelt right. I know I am one to talk but its key, check and re check all correspondence. 
  • 5: Be confident of your value and learn when to say NO! If your work is good enough, people will pay you for it, this is true in all areas of life and work. As long as you as happy your work is good enough, and ready to be marketed then its about being confident of what your asking and while a bit of negotiation is part of a lot of work, learn when to say no, some jobs are just not worth the hassle. Sadly you rarely know this till its to late.

I will do another blog post when I think of something else to write about or someone else prompts a post.

J

Wednesday 12 December 2012

Filming Gear - what I use

This is another hotly requested topic for a blog piece so I thought I would address it...

Gear for filming is somewhat of a minefield, so many options, and everyone getting hung up on new cameras and toys constantly ( myself as well to some extent )

There is a lot to be said for the well used phrase of " not worrying about the gear, more on the skills "

While that idea is 110% true, no one can argue that with the introduction of more cinematic tools into the MTB video world, super slow motion etc the production values are rising, and its move with the tide or get drowned ...

As mentioned a post or two ago, I have recently gone into partnership with fellow filmer Chris Seager and formed Aspect Media , 2 people on shoots is a must if you really want to step up the quality, 2 peoples gear, 2 peoples time and skills, it made sense.



But what this means is for jobs we now have access to each others gear, while a lot of items are now doubled, some things only one of us had, now both of us do as such, so ...

The Gear I use:

Cameras: 

Mainly Canon DSLRs , small light, inexpensive, high quality footage, no brainer!

550D , 60D , 7D , 5d3 

Then we have a Sony fs700 which is a pretty new camera capable of super slow motion. As I said above, a great tool, but now everyone is doing super slow motion, its using it well and with skill and creative vision that's the key now, not just having everything barely moving.

60D , 5D3 and Sony FS700
My 5D3 in lightweight video mode and the Lowepro Vertex all packed up.


Lens's:

Everything from 8mm fish eyes right through to 300mm , again a long time building up this collection as good glass isn't cheap, and there is no way of short cutting. With glass you really do get what you pay for. Something to really bare in mind with video and especially MTB work, you will be in dark woods a lot, so the extra 300 quid for that extra stop of light really IS worth it ... and IS is not a must, but does help a huge amount.

  • 12-24mm
  • 15mm fish eye
  • 50mm
  • 24-105 IS
  • 17-50 IS 
  • 11-16mm
  • 70-200 IS 
Few lens's its good to have covering everything from 12 - 200 mm

Movement: 

Everything from sliders, dollys, cranes, steady cams, tripods of all shapes and sizes etc they all have there uses and all bring something to a shoot. 

3 foot slider
4 foot slider
8 foot dolly
12 foot crane
steady cam
3 manfrotto tripods all with fluid heads

Seager and myself shooting last month. In this shot is a slider, 2 tripods, camera bag , crane , fs700 with 11-16mm.


Everything else: 

Audio is a commonly over looked part of video, when in essence it makes up half of the experience, I know I don't spend half the time of a shoot getting sound. Its something I am really working on in up coming projects though.

We have Rode Video mic pros, lapel mics , zoom H4n sound recorders , and with the new canon DSLRs finally having caught up with proper video cameras, headphones to monitor it all with as well.

Then you have things like Gopros, all the attachments that go with them, endless hard drives, laptops , LED lights , clamps , time lapse remotes , variable ND filters etc etc

Mics, Lights, bits and bobs, computers, HDDs etc etc, the lists endless


Then everything gets carried about in Lowepro bags, mainly the Vertex 300AW and Flipside 500 AW , both good sturdy bags that give all the protection you need on most trips, while still having enough room inside for everything you need. Camera bags have been covered in depth in a few other blog posts of mine.

Lowepro bags, one of those bits of gear you never really think about as it never gives you a reason to. It just always works flawlessly...


 For a lot more information, from much more informed and clever people than I see these links:

http://philipbloom.net/blog/

http://blog.vincentlaforet.com/

http://blog.planet5d.com/

Anything else you want info on, or for specific info on gear leave a comment below and I will either answer in the comments or amend this post.

Ta

J




Sunday 9 December 2012

Desktop backgrounds for all!

I have been meaning to do this one for a while now ...

People always ask me to put some photos up good enough resoltion to use as desktop backgrounds, and I always say later.

Well here they are, all at 2000 pixels longest side so they will look good on all screens, if you use one leave a comment with which one, be good to see what people like the most.

Click these small images and they will open up full res, save that version.


Surrey Hill sunset

Brendog Ft Bill WC

The Alps

Gwin in MSA

Trails steeze

Gwin Val Di Sole

Sam Hill Leogang

Mountains in the mist

Scotland

Brayton Shredding

Bryceland roosting

Mitch Ropalato scrubbing it

Wales
Like I said, if you like them, use them, leave a comment saying which one you use.

Got a topic or something you want to see on this blog in the future leave a comment as well.

Ta

J

Tuesday 4 December 2012

IM NOT DEAD! ( New Site )

I am fully aware that to anyone who follows ( or did ) this blog, you must think I have died.

Well the truth is much rosier, I have just been a bit busy this summer, and keeping on top of everything, traveling and putting the odd thing up on facebook seemed to leave me with very little free time.

But, As you may have noticed, I have had a new website done!


It was much needed, and James Webber has done an amazing job. There are some new unseen images in the gallerys if you look about, some slightly revised info here and there, but the main thing is the size of the images.




Whats the point in shooting HD this, and 20 MP that when your website doesn't even show your phone photos properly...

So ... go check out the new site! 



In other news, fellow filmer Chris Seager and myself have set up Aspect Media.

We releasied that there is only so much a one man band can do , and with both of us stepping up and up, it was time we started somewhere we can work on larger projects, with higher production values both in and out of the bike industry and so Aspect Media was born.




DMR bikes rider and brand manager Olly Wilkins did the logo which has got amazing feedback, we couldn't be happier with the branding.

We are in the process of having the Aspect site built, but till then we have the facebook group up and running and are in the process of shooting our first main project.



Antidote is a full length film, and kind of Locals3 on steroids. We have both come so far in terms of what we know and gear that we are really excited what this new film can do.

Amazing Antidote logo done by Jay Robinson

Anyway, thats the 2 main things...

Have made countless videos, taken 1000s of photos and been lots of ncie places this summer, for info on that just take a flick back trough my facebook page here:

https://www.facebook.com/JacobGibbinsPhotography

Ta

J

( promise ill update this thing more, so check back )