Well here it is! This is the brand new music video I have been working on with Colette Falla & Johan Carlsson, for Colette’s new single ‘Underwater’, and it’s also the first music video I’ve ever made!

What’s interesting about this particular commission is that I completed the filming for this project entirely using just DSLR cameras in the HD-video mode. This allowed me a great deal of flexibility and versatility in what we could achieve in a short space of time with minimal fuss and allowed me to concentrate on the creative side rather that get wrapped up in too much tekkie stuff.

Colette and I both grew up in the same place and as good friends have worked with each other many times before (last year we collaborated on “No Regrets” which you can find out more about here http://www.karltaylormovie.com/  you can also see some of the behind the scenes stuff from the music video in an earlier post on this blog here http://www.takeabetterphoto.com/music-video/underwater-music-video/.

Anyway to give you some more photography info, the video for Colette’s fantastic new single was filmed using a Canon 5dmk2 and a Canon 7D and just a few lenses. In fact I think if I recall correctly I used a 24mm, an 85mm, a 50mm and a 70-200mm lens for the entire project. For the underwater sequences I used an Ikelite housing which was kindly lent to me and for the dolly shots a simple manual slider track created the right look. I used Adobe Premiere Pro for the editing and I spent a lot of time in editing putting the final piece together to give it the feeling and style that I had visualised before filming. As is always the case this was very much a team effort with my colleagues assisting with logistics and helping out during filming.

What I love about the final result is not only the great track and music from Colette but also the professional feel and edit we achieved for the video by not focusing too much on kit but focusing more on good light and ideas for creative concept. As with all good photography that ethos has driven a better result than top end kit combined with minimal creativity.

For those of you who would like to see how this music video was made we will soon be releasing a FREE behind the scenes video on how we did it with all the details of the techniques and how we went about it…. so stay tuned to this blog for that!

I hope you enjoy the finished music video, if you like it please feel free to share the link as we’d love to help Colette get a lot of exposure through it’s release ……..

Many thanks
Karl Taylor

First off I’d like to say a big thank you to everyone involved in the shoot, including Tim, Fabienne & Lucy all who contributed to the success of the results through either their input or their paint throwing skills! Also a thank you to Shanine on make up and a BIG hats off to Sophie our model who remained calm and professional, even with everything we threw at her (literally!).

We’ve had a ton of questions about the shots, how they were achieved, the lighting, the set-up and the techniques used, not only on the model shots but also the paint pot colour explosions and the basket ball shot (or paintball as it’s now known) . Every last detail of information (even the type of paint) from this series of shots plus 15 other incredible photo-shoots will be included in our forthcoming Advertising, Product & Still Life Photography Course and DVD which is due for release next month.

With 17 years of hard learnt skills from thousands of commercial shoots, I have sifted out my very sharpest pro-photography secrets for this production. This course is definitely not for the photographer who simply wants to succeed – it’s very much more focused on those who crave to excel in photography! This course is also by far our most technical and comprehensive production yet and the content is quite simply staggering. In essence, this is my “blue print” to professional success as a commercial and advertising photographer. The stuff in this course is the stuff that other top pro’s just don’t want you to know!

You can pre-order this title now at http://www.karltaylorphotography.co.uk/ or take advantage of our special pro-series bundle offer here

This was as difficult as it looks!

Fabienne & Lucy did the washing up on this one!

We had to break the laws of Physics for this one

Karl & Tim, check for possible leaks before the shoot

The girls get all the good jobs!

This was only the start of the mess!

The white background images were aimed at Specsavers Spanish market as eye catching advertisements with simple copy to be overlaid on the images. The blue/grey background images were targeting Specsavers expanding hearing aid market in the UK with prices that will leave you speechless. Specsavers is now Europe’s largest optical retailer and has also recently opened in Australia and New Zealand with an incredible total of 1390 stores and counting.

We had a great deal of fun working on both projects which were art directed by the talented Mark De La Rue and Richard James who came up with the concepts. Mark and Richard are senior art directors at Specsavers Creative Dept and i’ve had the pleasure of working with both of them many times over the years.

The man with the moustache was Mike Solomoms who once held the Guinness Record for the longest moustache in the UK! I had a great chat with Mike about all things photography related as it just so happened he used to be a camerman at for Thames Television. The lovely lady with the dog was Jennifer Lessimore from casting agency Ray Knight and retouching on the dog was provided by the talented people at Happy Finish. I can’t remember the dogs name but unbelievably it was borrowed from a friend of Mark’s and played the part perfectly (although I believe Happy Finish did contribute to the shocked look on it’s face more than the dog did). Luckily for us though it did bark a few times so we managed to get some shots with it’s mouth open and the dog seemed to love the attention plus all the treats it received for good behaviour!

The gold fish on the other hand took ages to train to jump out of that bowl at just the right time… just kidding he did it first time! Just kidding again there was actually no goldfish, I used a previous picture from my library of one in a tank and then simply comped him into the shot.

Full marks to Fabienne and Lucy who did tremendously well in stopping the bowl from hitting the floor each time using an array of cushions and lightning quick reactions, needless to say they got a bit wet as did the studio floor but at least my camera stayed dry

Check out the results below and look out for the ads appearing near you soon!

What!

How much!

No fish were harmed during the making of this shot!

It's OK someone caught the potato crisps

The girls got wet, but at least my camera stayed dry

Shiz contacted me a few months ago asking permission to use one of my images for his artwork, and after he gave me assurances that it was all legal cleared with London City Council then I was flatterd. Shiz’s work apparently took about 7 hours to complete and now resides in Leake Street in Waterloo but as he explained to me he doesn’t hold a lot of hope for it remaining intact for long as it will probably be painted over by someone else soon.

Anyway congratulations to him it’s a good rendition of the original picture.

flying girl goes to the wall

You may remember last year that we worked with Colette Falla on our short film “No Regrets” (she was the girl in the film) if not you can read about it on this blog or follow this link to see it http://www.karltaylormovie.com

However Colette’s main artistic focus is music and she is based in Los Angeles, currently studying music at the Musicians Institute in Hollywood. She has previously toured had other acting parts and frequently sings soulful jazz at a few LA nightspots (she’s also a lovely actress and model to work with plus an all round talented young lady and a personal friend of mine).

Her boyfriend is Johan Carlsson of top US band “Carolina Liar” http://www.carolinaliar.com , who have had a number of hits and success in the US albums and singles charts in recent years. Between Colette and Johan they have written and produced a new single titled “Underwater” which is due to be released later this year. Having worked with Colette many times before and most recently on some of our new DVD titles and “No Regrets”, Colette asked me if I’d be interested in filming her music video. Of course I was thrilled to help her out and we decided upon a theme that simply went with the title but was visually engaging and fun…..

But choosing water as the theme did have its drawbacks, firstly it was midwinter here in the UK and the ocean was freezing and secondly cameras just don’t like the stuff (although as usual we still ended up mixing all of these and inevitably I ended up in it!). Anyway I’m not going to give the whole thing away until the finished song and video is ready for release, but I can tell you that we had a lot of fun making it, including filming in scuba gear in a pool, in a bath in my studio and on several cold beach locations too.

Colette was a real star with all we put her through for the filming, especially the underwater sequences and Johan was also fantastic and makes a couple of cameo appearances in the video.

From a photography point of view you might be interested to know that we filmed the whole thing on HD-DSLR cameras using a 5dmk2 and a 7D for the main part of the filming. For the underwater sequences we had the 5Dmk2 in an underwater housing with a dome port and we used Zacuto rigs for the cameras. The studio stuff was a bit more complex but certainly achievable by anyone with a bit of creativity! And you’ll also be pleased to hear that we filmed plenty of behind the scenes footage which we will be posting here when the song and music video are ready for release.

We hope the song will be a really big hit for Colette, I’m sure it will, all the team here really liked it….even after hearing it a thousand times in unusual circumstances and locations!

Here are a few screen grabs and stills from the production and as I mentioned we’ll post the behind the scenes footage as soon as we are allowed ☺

In the studio

In the pool

waiting for a boat

filming on the beach

miming underwater is not easy!

In my opinion the BBC and it’s license fee is worth every penny!

For those of you not familiar with our UK system, we basically have to pay an annual fee of about £145 to have a television, effectively this fee is just for the BBC non commercial channels. For that fee we get an incredible amount of commercial free television (no adverts) spread over two main network channels, two subsidiary channels, a news channel, several radio stations and an incredibly informative news and international affairs website!

A lot of people in the UK oppose being forced to pay this fee and see it as some sort of tax, although many of these people are happy to pay for SKY TV at over £250 per year for lots of commercial channels? I personally don’t have Sky TV, and although many of it’s programmes do seem like good viewing, I barely have the time to watch the channels that I do have so it’s not something that I’d consider getting.

My biggest respect for the BBC goes to its award winning Natural History Unit and the wonderful work of the Camera men and women there (more to come on them in a future blog). In recent months alone I’ve felt I’ve already fantastic value for money with series like “Frozen Planet”, “Human Planet”, “The Great Barrier Reef” and many of the BBC’s science programmes such as “Horizon”, “Wonders of the Universe” and the recent “Stargazing Live”. In all of these programmes we were treated to some incredible camera work, story telling and most of all…. Inspirational education!

Not everyone will share my view and many people (many of whom will be not interested in photography, science or the beauty of the planet and our universe) will still feel indignant at being required to pay for a such a service and would probably be happier watching ad breaks or some pseudo-reality TV rubbish?! (Although I think even the BBC cover some of those viewers tastes on their subsidiary channels). But finally what I like most about the BBC is the sense of community that the corporation provides to the UK, it’s the one thing that you know is…. just there. It’s unbiased (most of the time), it’s reliable, it’s not swayed by commercial interests and lobbyists and to me it’s just one of the things that makes me proud that it is part of British culture.

But all that aside, here is my main reason for loving this institution and long may it continue…..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/collections/p00mr6nq

So here’s to a great 2012 to all of you, I’m stuck in France at the moment with cancelled ferries and storms in the English Channel! Still, I can think of worse places to be. I leave you with my favourite photo from the festive period. A picture of my daughter stood on the steps of the parents in laws house near Bordeaux. Pure joy & taken on my iphone ☺

I’d love you to read more about the film and the behind the scenes info. The film is a 10 minute short and features the haunting music “Heaven” by Unkle, so make sure your speakers are on! We were ecstatic to learn that “No Regrets” won best overall video in the Vzaar video festival judged by renowned Hollywood director Oliver Stone!  We’ve set up a separate website for the film http://www.karltaylormovie.com where you can watch it and learn more, I hope you enjoy it and look forward to your feedback.

All the best

Karl.

With my studio on the first floor I knew getting the cars up the stairs wasn’t going to be an option so instead we went for a warehouse space to give us plenty of room. Unfortunately the client didn’t have the budget for us to rent a fully equipped car studio, so we had to rely on bringing most of my studio to the warehouse and a bit of DIY ingenuity for the lighting.

There were a number of photography related challenges to overcome including, large subject, glossy finish, multiple shapes and surfaces and working in a shipping warehouse with lots of daylight streaming in! However after about 8 hours work we managed to photograph this one and the TR6 and a bunch of details and interiors, so all in all quite a productive shoot and very happy with the results. For those of you wanting to know the technical stuff, how it was lit and what we used etc, you’ll be glad to hear that we filmed the whole shoot and provide a step by step guide which will feature in our forthcoming Product & Still Life DVD

The full set of pictures should be appearing in one of the UK Classic Car Magazines soon, I’ll keep you posted.

© copyright Karl Taylor

We recently returned from California filming some new material for our future DVDs and I thought I would share some of the time lapse sequences that I captured from LA and the desert at Joshua Tree National Park.

These are still very much a work in progress and quite a random collection of unedited clips, I’m hoping to to have a short film edited soon but just thought I would share these with you in the meantime.

We would also like to thank Jeffery & Nikki from Faded & Blurred for their help in California organising equipment for our rigs and helping with the filming permits at Joshua Tree National Park. For those of you who haven’t visited Faded & Blurred then check it out as it’s an amazing creative resource for photographers. You can also read what they wrote on us here www.fadedandblurred.com

If you like the short video below please share it around, we are happy the more people see our stuff! Soon we will be releasing new material, including the short film that we are working on and obviously the brand new DVDs this summer!

Hope you enjoy

Karl.