Phil Peel's Blog

Hi.

Welcome to my blog. I’m a director/producer who also lights, writes and teaches.

You’ll find quite a range of stuff here as I’m involved in many aspects of film and video production.

I’ve have a lot of experience in Directing, Lighting & Camerawork , Producing,  Writing, Corporate, Live Multicamera Directing, Music Videos so if you want to work with me or some advice drop me a line  philpeel@gmail.com or give me a ring on 07973 753 777

I’ve worked professionally in most areas of film and television production. So the phrase “Jack of all trades ..master of none” comes to mind.   

Here’s a few of my credits:

Producer and Director of Photography of:

-   Buon Giorno Sayonara (2010) (short) 28 International Film Festivals including “Best Comedy Award” Hyart Film Festival in Wyoming. Nominated for  three awards : Best International/Foreign Language Film, Best Direction (Karen Hope) , and Best Performance (Thomas Kadman) at Thurrock International Film Festival
-   Bull amongst the Feathers (2008) (short) Rome International Film Festival
-   Legs 11. (2009) (short) Toronto & Florida International Film Festival
-   Shadows (2009) (short) Dubai International Film Festival, Mumbai International Film Festival
-   Zombie Radio (2010)(short) Boston Sci-Fi Festival
-   In My Shoes (2010) (short) Fastnet Film Festival
-   Mad Frank (2010)(short) (producer)
-   Jack, the Last Victim (2006) (feature) Writer, Producer, Director  (supported by Screen South)
-   Emily’s Dance (2001) (30min drama) Producer, writer, director  (New York Digital Film Festival)
-   No Apologies (2011) (20 min drama) Director of Photography

and lots of music videos, corporates  ..and 50+ credits when I was working for the BBC.

If  you would like to see some of the films I’ve written and directed, they are here

EMILY’S DANCE

JACK THE LAST VICTIM

and here’s some I’ve  shot and lit

MAD FRANK

ZOMBIE RADIO

and here’s my links

My IMDB page YouTube page My Vimeo Twitter Google+

70,000+  now 150,000 + page views in 21 months

SEE my YouTube CHANNEL

Buon Giorno Sayonara will be screening at Thurrock International Film Festival on Friday 29th June, and has been nominated for three awards: Best International/Foreign Language Film, Best Direction (Karen Hope) , and Best Performance (Thomas Kadman).

Well done guys

Buon Giorno Sayonara filming

Here’s a great article about “Stand in line”

Phil   AKA …”one of the guys doing the music video “ 

Though I used to work every day on TV News, I must admit it’s a thrill to get something I’ve personally directed and shot shown on Primetime TV.  So meeting up with the news crew today outside the Emirates Stadium took me back to my days in TV news…

( I realise that  I wrote “news crew” from habit.. It was actually one guy with a heavy Digibeta and  an equally heavy tripod.)

We met up ..eventually.  They went round it one way as we were going round to meet them on the other side.    ..and it’s a big stadium.   So eventually we met up.   ..and I found that I had worked with the cameraman at BBCTV  South many years ago.

So it was the normal  scenario .. Standing in the middle of a busy roundabout. Cars honking as they passed by. The reporter trying to get her head round the story, cameraman  wanting to do it  before the rain, quick interview, wide, reverse shots.

Finally let’s do an arty shot of the 2 singers and music producer, Valentine, Dretonio and Gary- all kitted out in newly bought Arsenal shirts-  walking down the steps to meet up with the glamorous reporter.

Singer Greg Valentine, rapper Dretonio and producer Gary Louca. Credit: London Tonight

Watching it this evening I thought it would they would run the interviews and just show a few seconds of the video at the end, but they actually ran over half of the music video  and wove the interviews into it.   ..and it worked really well.

…and then the Evening Standard wanted photos.  ..other media ..Soccer AM ..  it’s starting to catch on.. who knows   ..fingers crossed.

ITV London Tonight Website

Football song becomes unlikely hit”
http://www.itv.com/news/london/2012-05-03/football-song-becomes-unlikely-hit/ via @itvnews

The video that Mike and I filmed last Autumn at Poole Docks is showing as an installation at the Ruskin Gallery in Cambridge. We shot it with Lizzie Sykes. The dancer was Cathy Seago and it was an interesting and slightly surreal experience. So it’s great that it’s on show now. I can’t wait to see what she’s done with the images.

LINK to filming the dance

Just heard that Sandy has been awarded a CBE.   Wow!  Well done Sandy.   Thanks for all your help over the years.

http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/about-us/what-we-do/protocol/honours/honorary-awards#.T4_ytNfNZ3g.facebook

http://www.philpeel.com/2011/02/sandy-lieberson-on-why-are-we-teaching-writers-to-pitch/

I’ve used a lot of BlackMagic kit for some years now, they have some very interesting, innovative stuff.

They make lots of video adapters, convertors etc from SD to HD, SDI to HDSDI etc. etc.  and have moved into vision mixers.

But I didn’t expect their latest offering. It’s a 2.5K resolution, 13-stop dynamic range, RAW-shooting (or a range of compression formats), Thunderbolt-connected, built-in touchscreen LCD, SSD-recording camera with the new version of Resolve 9 color correction software… for under £2000. It’s large sensor but not full 35mm using a  S16 format instead.

Very interesting camera.  I remember telling a lecture theatre full of students, when Red first announced their camera.

A sunglass manufacturer …making a camera  …that’s ridiculous. …was their reaction.  What do they know about cameras? That what Arriflex, Sony  do.   It’ll never catch on.

That was slightly my  initial reaction when I heard about the Blackmagic camera.  But it actually makes a lot more sense for BlackMagic to move into camera production than a sunglass company.

I wonder whether it’ll catch on?

Here’s the link

http://www.blackmagic-design.com/products/blackmagiccinemacamera/

Aaargh!   I just noticed …1/4 inch jacks not XLRs for audio input!!!    What are they thinking of!  It’s a camera not a guitar amplifier.

Black mark for BlackMagic.        shame..

Kodak have sent a notice to dealers that that will be discontinuing their three slide films – E100VS, E100G and Elite Chrome Extra Color 100 – due primarily to significantly declined sales and usage over the years..

This does not affect any other films in their portfolio. All the color negative (Portra, Ektar) films and black and white (Tri-X, T-Max and BW400CN) films remain.

…for the moment.

Kodak catalogue

Another milestone passed       ..or should that be gravestone.      ..end of an era.

Here’s an interesting post from EOSHD comparing the New Canon with the GH2

Turns out, the GH2 has one unsuspecting video feature that beats out the current standard of DSLR videography, the Canon 5D Mark II, not to mention its recently reviewed successor, the 5D Mark III. Amazingly, the GH2 cranks out video with detail and sharpness clearly superior to either of the 5Ds. The results are visible in the test video, conducted by EOSHD, along with a detailed analysis.

“here is a summary: the GH2 produces a more pleasing image with far superior resolution and a more organic grain structure. Dynamic range is similar on each out of the box but you can gain a little more back on the 5D Mark III in post if you shoot flat with CineStyle or Flaat.”

“Overall the GH2 looks more like a digital form of Super 16mm with a fine grain and detailed image. It is also punchy and contrasty. With fast glass it has more of a dreamy Super 35mm look. The GH2′s sensor size is after all very close to motion picture Super 35mm, if not photographic 35mm. I am big on a fine grain of noise. Too clean and you get a plastic look, too blotchy at high ISOs and you get a very soft image. The noise grain on the GH2 is unusual for an H.264 based codec in that the high bitrates with the hack maintain a very fine grain structure like the broadcast MPEG codec on the Canon C300. The 5D Mark III is the opposite – a blotchy noise pattern and even a fizz at lower ISOs which is generated by the codec.”

“In terms of large differences to the GH2 the 5D Mark III has the advantage of full frame sensor size only.”

So is Canon DSLR video dead?

For a lot of people it is going to be and I suspect Canon want it to be that way, so you buy their pro video offerings.

http://www.eoshd.com/content/7631/panasonic-gh2-vs-5d-mark-iii

There’s been long queues for David Hockney’s Exhibition at the Royal Academy.

This couple outside however seemed oblivious to the crowds.  It was also very busy inside, but despite the crowds, I found Hockney’s huge paintings created a movie like experience.  Many canvases were cinema screen sized, so when you stood reasonably close, they filled your field of vision.

Standing close, everything you could see was the painting. So you were seeing it as the artist saw the scene. This was an extra-ordinary experience.

For me the most memorable was the gallery with six giant canvases, all painted from the same position at the confluence of paths in the middle of Woldgate Woods.

Hockney had gone back to paint the scene as the seasons changed the view throughout the year.

So as viewer, you were able to walk a few paces to see, through his eyes, as Spring changed to Summer, Autumn and Winter.  Extraordinary.  It’s not as though the location was especially memorable, but through Hockney’s vision he revealed  beauty out of  the ordinary.

Then toward the end of the exhibition, it did literally become cinematic, as Hockney had filmed some of the locations throughout the seasons, with 9 simultaneous cameras, showing on 18 screens.

Then somewhat playfully, the video  finished with a song and dance routine.

All in all an inspiring exhibition,  which reminds you what a beautiful country we live in.

With thanks to the  Royal Academy

Check out David Hockney Website

Phew! I’ve finally completed the latest draft of my Jack the Ripper Screenplay.  I’d completed the script over a year ago, but it needed massive revision. …and I’d got completely stuck on it for a long time.  I had re-written the ending to make it more dramatic and ended up with Act 1 and 2 which didn’t mesh with Act 3.  I’ve attempted to solve it before, but just got stuck as it was so complicated.

So over many months I’ve tried a variety of computer programs to help me analyse it. Excel charts, Mind maps, Power Structure, Scrivener, Phil Gladwin’s Screenwriting Goldmine , Blake Snyder ‘s Beat Sheet. etc. etc. nothing worked.

So after a break of several months to give me some distance from the storyline, I eventually reverted to pencil and paper and it’s worked. The solution was to cut most of my favourite scenes. Now the storyline make sense!  But I now have to transfer the scribbles on over 100 script pages and type them back into the script.