The Little @ International Short Film Festival Detmold.
Posted by William at 7:57 pm on June 19th, 2011
The Little is my owl endowed short film and a reciprocate of the coveted Coca-Cola Cinemagic Innovation Award. Last week it continued its festival run screening at the International Short Film Festival Detmold. Sadly I missed the screening due to a week spent working on pitches at The Mill. However I heard tell from those in attendance that the festival had a lot to offer with screenings and workshops. So worth checking out for 2012 if you haven’t already: www.fest-der-filme.de
Here’s the little film itself….
“THE LITTLE uses no dialogue, a mind-blowing meld of live animal work and CGI and a simple story to create something that feels entirely unique. While I’m biased due to my irrational love of owls, it reminds me of the tone of film I was shown as a kid when family films weren’t afraid to scare the kids” Bradley Porter EatSleepliveFilm.com
NEW JOB! – DIRECTOR AT ACADEMY AWARD WINNING COMPANY, THE MILL
Posted by William at 9:02 am on June 10th, 2011
Yesterday I was very excited to sign a contract with the BAFTA and OSCAR award winning Visual Effects Company, The Mill. I will be joining The Mill as an in house director. The Mill have recently produced ads such as the Nike Write The Future commercial featuring Rooney with that beard and the Magners Bee’s advert. Other clients include Adidas, Converse, Old Spice, Nissan, Budweiser, Audi , Volkswagen, Porsche and Heineken to name a few.
I will be working with The Mill to direct commercials and other content for both the web and theatrical release. So the next few moths should be a very exciting time!
New Talent Award
Posted by William at 7:42 pm on June 1st, 2011
I received a nice package in the post this morning from the National Film Festival for Talented Youth, in the form of their coveted New Talent Award.
NFFTY is a fantastic festival held in Seattle, which I was very upset not to be able to attend (especially after seeing the opening party video bellow). But being the lovely people that they are they sent my award in the post. Ta NFFTY!
Using the Wescam Red one Helicam unit
Posted by William at 12:18 pm on May 6th, 2011
On a recent job in Portugal I had the great furtune of being able to use the Wescam helicam unit with a RED ONE camera, there are only four of these bad boys in the world! So I was very excited to get in the air and try it out.
The Red one is attached to the helicopter inside a giant sphere containing all kinds of motion control and stabilisation wizardry. The camera operator then sits next to the pilot with a control deck, which looks like an over sized nintendo controller from the early 90’s. I then get to sit in the back of the helicopter and comunicate through my headset to both the camera operator and pilot.
We had an hour to get all of our footage, which was an intense experience in itself. Directing aerial footage is unlike most directing experiences. You are literally staring at the monitor eyes peeled giving second by second direction to the camera operator and pilot to get the exact shot you want whilst traveling at up to 150mph (and on occasion only meters above the ground, tree tops or even breaking waves!). The three dimensional movement created between the camera control and helicopter flight path is something which gives aerial footage such a dynamic feel, I loved playing with this cross axis dynamism. It helped to produce an incredibly uprising effect, adding great drama to the aerial landscape shots.
I will definitely be pushing to use this system again on future projects, what it can bring both aesthetically and dramatically is unachievable in any other way. Just a shame its so damn expensive at £1K per hour for the chopper alone!
‘confirms this guy knows what the f**k hes doing’
Posted by William at 11:56 pm on April 17th, 2011
A fantastic write up on the EatLiveFilm.com blog…. This one had me blushing!
http://www.eatsleeplivefilm.com/premature-evaulation-1-william-mcgregor/3707/
SHORTLISTED!
Posted by William at 11:46 pm on April 17th, 2011
No Escape has been shortlisted for the Sci Fi London Film Festival! A testament to the crews incredible effort.
The shortlisted films are available online, its worth checking them out as their is some great films in the mix. A particular favourite is Rob Savage’s ‘Sit in Silence‘: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xi9ryy_no-escape_shortfilms
Once again thanks to the fantastic Guys and Gals who worked on this mad 48 hour film project!
Ben Burdock – Producer
Adam Etherington – DoP
Katie MacGregor, Kerrie Hughes – Production Design
Iain Whitewright – Editor
Robin Schlochtermeier – Music
James Kennedy – AD
Karl Clarke – Camera Assistant
Ed Bowen Carpenter – Focus Puller
Dominic Burges – VFX Supervisor / 2D Artist / Sound
Tom Slinger – Concept Design
Stuart Turnball – 3D Artist
Harry Wormald – Matte Painter
Maxime Chais – 2D Artist
Emily Greeley – DIT
Lily Markham – Costume / Make Up
Rowan October – Sound
Tom McGregor – Runner
CAST: Jamie Kenna and Rachel Bright.
NO ESCAPE…
Posted by William at 5:02 pm on April 6th, 2011
Slightly chuffed about this feature… The Mill like what we did… to me thats a big deal!
Also here’s a nice one with Screen Daily. Big thanks to Wendy Michtell!
http://www.screendaily.com/home/blog/short-and-sharp/5025831.article
done in 48 hours… NO ESCAPE
Posted by William at 11:41 am on April 6th, 2011
Im starting to feel human again after an intense 48 hours partaking in the Sci Fi London 48 hour film challenge. Myself and some talented friends set out to have some fun and make a film in a weekend. This is what we made:
It was a mad experience, receiving the brief at 1pm on Saturday, writing the script inside and hour before shot listing and scheduling as our production design team got busy. We then slept on set and woke up at 5am to get cracking. First off we shot any VFX shots so that the 2D and 3D effects could begin.
The post guys came up with a clever way of getting me to see the animations without long render times. Essentially they filmed their computer screens with their phones and txted me the footage to give notes on. Somehow we got through our 46 slates and managed to edit the film between 12am and 7:30am before completing the grade and sound design inside an hour and a half, leaving just enough time for the export. To be honest Im still not exactly sure how we pulled it off, so much could have gone wrong! Which is a testament to a fantastic cast and crew. So massive thanks and admiration go to:
Ben Burdock – Producer
Adam Etherington – DoP
Katie MacGregor, Kerrie Hughes – Production Design
Iain Whitewright – Editor
Robin Schlochtermeier – Music
James Kennedy – AD
Karl Clarke – Camera Assistant
Ed Bowen Carpenter – Focus Puller
Dominic Burges – VFX Supervisor / 2D Artist / Sound
Tom Slinger – Concept Design
Stuart Turnball – 3D Artist
Harry Wormald – Matte Painter
Maxime Chais – 2D Artist
Emily Greeley – DIT
Lily Markham – Costume / Make Up
Rowan October – Sound
Tom McGregor – Runner
In addition to our incredable cast who we where all very fortunate to be working with. The amazing Jamie Kenna and Rachel Bright.