Showreel
I recently created a new showreel consisting of some of the work I’ve produced since turning freelance, and footage I’ve created in my spare time.
Some of the footage included is a video I completed just last week for the financial company Fundsnet. Here is a link to their youtube page where you can watch the video in full
I’ve uploaded my showreel to Vimeo, a site I’ve known of for a while but only today signed up to. Please watch in HD, enjoy!
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Tags: crumpton, matthew, reel, show, showreel, vimeo
Not sure if you’ve noticed, but its been pretty snowy recently.
Like everybody else, I’m sick of the white stuff now, but when it first started settling at the beginning of December, I was caught up in the beauty and excitement of winter’s very own masterpiece. I mean, anything that can make some of the industrial eyesores of Yorkshire I see everyday look like a postcard deserves some recognition!
Due to the severity of the snow, my arranged work in Scarborough was cancelled, meaning I had a HD camera and a free day. I didn’t want to waste the opportunity of capturing some of these amazing views, and despite my little dig at God’s own county in the previous paragraph, Yorkshire really does have some unbelievable sights within its borders. Although Tingley reservoir doesn’t quite rival the tourist hotspots stretching across the Dales, I was certain it would be spectacular with a little sprinkling of snow.
I wasn’t disappointed.
Here’s a short video I made attempting to share some of the sights I saw, and while they may not give it justice, and snow may be the last thing you want to see just after your commute to work this morning, I’d appreciate it if you gave it a look!
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Tags: 2010, crumpton, graduate, matthew, production, Reservoir, snow, television, Tingley, UK
Going it Alone
It’s been almost five months since I graduated from university, and although my answer to the commonly asked question ‘what are you doing now then?’ was a good one, I think I’ve just about milked dry the response ‘well, I’ve just left university…’.
It’s an awful dilemma to be in. I have no job, I want to break into an industry alongside thousands of others who are just as qualified as me, and my student discount has run out. OhmyGodwhatdoIdo?!
Good question. I had several options.
1. Get a job in a call centre/pub/etc where I would end up enjoying the money and get comfy.
2. Sign on.
3. Try and find production work at whatever pay and however few and far between.
So I decided to pursue the third option, and for the past two months I have been registered as self-employed! I like to call myself a ‘Freelance Media Production Professional’, which is a ridiculously fancy way of calling myself a runner.
However, registering as self-employed was the easy part; gaining work and a client list has proven to be more than a challenge. Thankfully, I have managed to find myself enough work to keep me going, although my parents are still waiting for their first payment of my board!
The work I have completed has varied massively, something that I have really enjoyed as it has opened my eyes to the different approaches necessary for particular roles. I have been doing a fair amount of work for a PR company that I mentioned in my previous post, Wolfstar, which has ranged from editing pre-recorded footage, creating videos consisting entirely of kinetic typography and pictures, to filming an award ceremony for Unilever down in London!
Another job I have recently completed was for the events company Hairy Lemon based in Leeds, who needed a video loop of kinetic typography that was to be projected onto backdrop for a fashion show in Sheffield.
However, one of the most insightful jobs I have worked on was fulfilling the role of a runner on a SafeStyle UK commercial shoot for Mezzo Films. I spent three days at the South Manchester Studios, and one day on location at a house in Bingley. The time spent on the shoots helped me better understand the different roles of each crew member, and how important it is to respect each individuals role to ensure the day runs smoothly. I loved being the runner on the shoot, as the jobs were easy to carry out, and gave me time to talk to the different members of the crew. Not only did this build up my knowledge for different roles of the production crew, but it was a great chance to network throughout the day. Oh, and I realise how much a nice cup of tea is appreciated!
Hopefully, I will be able to take on enough work in the future to continue being freelance, which will then, fingers crossed, lead to a full time job at a production company. In the meantime, I’m thinking of taking on a part-time night job to keep the pennies coming in so I can continue working freelance!
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Tags: Camera Operator, Cameraman, crumpton, Editor, Freelance, Hairy Lemon, Kinetic Typography, leeds, matthew, media, Mezzo Films, production, Runner, South Manchester Studios, Wolfstar
A week at Wolfstar
This week, I have been lucky enough to spend five days working at the Leeds based PR company Wolfstar. As you may have read in my previous post, this isn’t my first time I have experienced working for Wolfstar, as just last month I produced a video for their client Givaudan promoting their new iPhone application ‘iPerfumer’.
It is from this work that resulted in me spending the week at Wolfstar. After a few emails and a meeting last Tuesday, we decided upon a work experience/trial week being the most suitable scenario for me to showcase my ability, and to integrate into the Wolfstar office environment alongside the rest of the Wolfstar ‘pack’. However, by the time I arrived at the office on Monday morning, I wasn’t a new face to everyone. After my meeting last Tuesday, I became aware of the Leeds Mashable event taking place that night at the Living Room, which was organised by Phylecia Wakeman and Clare Callery at Wolfstar. As the event was attended by a number of other Wolfstar staff members, along with other PR professionals across the Leeds area who shared an interest in social media, it was a perfect opportunity to become acquainted with my soon to be colleagues for the following week.
The whole team at Wolfstar have been great, making me feel more than welcome and providing a fun and enjoyable office environment. I also had a great opportunity to meet every member of the office through the week as I was filming individual staff videos, which should be going up on their website in the near future. 
Another project I have been working on is developing my ‘kinetic typography’ skills. In other words, getting text to look fancy and fly across the screen! As I have never been trained to use Flash, I decided to use the Avid Marquee tool (God bless the Avid Media Composer 30 day free trial!) instead. Although extremely time consuming, I think I have picked up the process fairly quickly. Hopefully I’ll post a short video showing some of this work.
I’m extremely grateful for the opportunity Wolfstar have given me this week, and hopefully this won’t be the last time I work for the company. In the meantime, I think I’ll settle for my two weeks in Bulgaria as of this Sunday!
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Tags: Avid, Clare Callery, Composer, Freelance, givaudan, iPerfumer, leeds, Marquee, Mashable, Matthew Crumpton, media, Phylecia Wakeman, PR, Tim Sinclair, Tool, Video Production, Wolfstar
Last Wednesday I was asked to accompany the Leeds based PR company Wolfstar on their trip to London to attend the launch of Givaudan’s new iphone and ipad application- iPerfumer. The event was held at the swanky Ivy restaurant located in London’s West End, but this wasn’t just a mid-week trip to the capital; I had the responsibility of producing a promotional video which was to be filmed, edited and uploaded to the internet in just a few days.
This was an unfamiliar scenario for me. I was used to generous deadlines, working in groups and technicians helping me out if anything went wrong on the Avid editing software at university. This time, everything was different. However, I thrived in the opportunity to prove myself, getting straight into action as soon as we arrived. My confidence with the camera was key, and was due to my eagerness at my time at university to book one out whenever I had the chance! After a successful day of filming, I was looking forward to getting the footage onto the Avid, as this is when you can really see the results. The editing process went well, and was again due to my endless hours using the editing suites at university.
Frustratingly, the longest process ended up being uploading the video to YouTube in HD! It took almost 24 hours to finally upload! Thankfully, the team at Wolfstar are impressed with the video, and more importantly so is the client, Givaudan! Please give the video a watch, and you can find the Facebook page for iPerfumer here.
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Tags: Avid, client, crumpton, experience, givaudan, iPerfumer, leeds, London, matthew, media, production, TV, Wolfstar, work
Catwalks and Kittens
The set of a fashion show isn’t somewhere I’d usually find myself; with my preconceptions of stick-thin models and pretentious fashion ‘critiques’ providing enough reason for me to steer clear. However, last Tuesday I found myself at the Lawrence Batley theatre in Huddersfield filming a fashion show organised by fashion students at the University of Huddersfield.
Firstly, I’ve got to hold my hands up and confess to being so stereotypical. I thought the show was amazing. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not rushing out to buy the Ugly Betty box-set, but the whole production of the show was to be admired. The set, lighting, music (a lot of 70’s disco and funk), professional models, and not least the clothes on show were brilliant, and two packed audiences seemed to agree.
Anyway, back to the point. I was a camera operator for the day, filming alongside three other cameras. I absolutely loved the experience, and found I enjoy filming moving subjects. This isn’t the first fashion show I have filmed. Last September a course-mate and I filmed a fashion show for Breast Cancer, and again I really enjoyed the challenge of producing good pictures with moving subjects, with the pressure of having only one chance.
I also received confirmation of my higher second (2:1) for my final degree mark that day, so once I finished the final show at 10pm, it was off to join my course-mates for the celebrations!
After enjoying filming the fashion show so much, I booked out a camera last Thursday with the intention to take advantage of the good weather up at my girlfriends house in Harrogate. However, we went for a meal instead, so it was a little late to do anything special! So I ended up filming my girlfriends new kitten, and with the footage I shot, I ended up putting together this 52 seconds of craziness the next morning in the edit room. Just a little fun.
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An eventful May
The month of May couldn’t have been kinder to me. From good grades, great work experience and the amazing day that was May 8th, a lot of hard work seems to have paid off this month. Even the weather has been kind to us! Despite writing this blog on a dreary Saturday afternoon in Yorkshire…
After an unbelievable three years, my time at University is over. I am clinging on to my education for another four weeks or so though, as I don’t plan to move back home until I have no other choice! Regardless of the mark I receive in my final exam (I find out on June 15th), I have definitely achieved a 2:1. I’m elated by my grade, but still feel slightly bitter about not attaining a 1st! Still, I am proud of my degree and am sad to be leaving the university.
Another chapter was finished for me this month, as on May the 8th Leeds United were promoted back to the 2nd tier of English football. This meant that my time at LUTV was up, until August anyway. I have been invited back next season to work, again on the racks on matchdays, and I can’t wait for the new season to begin!
On the 18th, 25th and 28th May, I spent more time at ITV Calendar with staff camera operator Richard Sowden. The 18th was a glorious Tuesday, and we were in North Yorkshire visiting the beautiful Newby Hall and gardens. Richard and I were accompanied by Mark Witty, Calendar’s feature editor, and Jon Mitchell, Calendar’s weatherman filming a package which was to lead into the following week’s ‘Calendar in Bloom’, where Jon Mitchell did a live link from Calendar viewers’ gardens to coincide with the Chelsea flower show taking place in London. We then headed back to the studios as Richard was manning a camera for that nights show. Before the promo for the show, Richard gave me five minutes to practice moving with the camera in studio, as the peds used at Calendar were different to those I was used to in the university’s studio.
The following Tuesday introduced me to a different side of television news. Hard news. Richard and I spent most of the day camping outside Leeds Crown Court, waiting for the family of Joseph Lister, a teenager who tragically died in 2005 at a cave in North Yorkshire, to make a statement to the decision of the case. On Friday the 28th, we were on another hard news story, this time following the recent Bradford murder cases. Again, a lot of waiting around was involved for relatively little footage, but despite the cold and early morning, I still enjoyed it. It was great to see the camera crews and photographers all working together to get the best shots, and knowing you’re the first in the country to hear news that most others wont hear for hours has a weird sense of accomplishment.
Despite a morning spent following a murder case, the mood around the Calendar news desk soon perked up when it was confirmed that the Prime Minister was coming in for a quick interview. Political views and allegiances aside, it was a great experience meeting David Cameron, and he was friendly and funny to the whole news team. However, when the red light came on and the cameras were rolling, he soon showed his ability to argue and the reason why he is probably Britain’s Prime Minister today. Despite the difficult questions presenter Duncan Wood was firing at him, he was able to argue his point well and remained calm throughout. It’s been a great month, and here’s hoping to June following suit.
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Tags: bradford, calendar, crossbow cannibal, crumpton, David Cameron, Duncan Wood, experience, huddersfield, ITV, Jon Mitchell, leeds, LUTV, Mark Witty, matthew, media, production, Richard Sowden, student, Studio, studios, television, TV, university, University of Huddersfield, Work Experience
Over the past few weeks talk of the general election has greatly intensified, particularly as a result of the recent television leader debates. It is fitting that these television debates have sparked such public interest in the election, as this post looks into the repercussions a Tory government would bring to television in Britain, particularly regional news.
I’m just going to put this out there: I support Labour. Now you don’t have to scrutinise this post and come to the conclusion that I’m trying to influence your vote. All I want is to highlight the significance your vote will have on British television on May the 6th. In fact, this post may end up being counter-productive if you disagree with the points I make!
Cast your minds back to the 1980s, or, if you’re like me and your lifespan doesn’t stretch that far, turn your history book back 30 years, and you will find one Margaret Thatcher in office. Below is an extract from my Media Policy essay written earlier this year that highlights the impact Thatcher’s power had over British broadcasting:
Thatcherism was evident across the whole of Britain, with her neo-liberal ideologies forming a much different Britain to what we had previously seen. Deregulation, privatisation, liberalisation and imposition of free trade disciplines are all trends associated with neo-liberalism (Freedman, 2008, p37), trends that Thatcher intended to apply to British broadcasting.
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Thatcher envisaged a broadcasting system similar to that in the United States, were commercialism ruled. However, due to the Peacock Report in 1986, ‘consensus reigned that the BBC must remain under taxpayer-supported public control’ (Allen, 2001, p253), ruling out the possibility of a privatised BBC. Despite this, Thatcher was still able to reform broadcasting in Britain; intervening with Britain’s commercial television:
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‘the Thatcher government succeeded in pushing through the Broadcasting Law of 1990, which provided for the auctioning off of the regional ITV companies and the creation of a new terrestrial channel, all to be funded by advertising.’ (Herman and McChesney, 1997, p167)
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The act helped deregulate and expand commercial broadcasting in Britain, and even replaced the IBA (Independent Broadcasting Authority) with a ‘new, “lighter touch” regulator, the Independent Television Commission (ITC)’ (Galperin, 2004, p159). Although the act was passed, there were a number of authoritative figures who opposed the reform:
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‘Labour and most incumbent ITV operators opposed the reforms, but more importantly, so did a number of Conservative front benchers in Parliament, who managed to introduce a number of Reithian safeguards to the broadly deregulatory bill.’ (Galperin, 2004, p159)
Now 30 years on, it looks increasingly more likely that we will once again be living in a Conservative Britain in a few weeks time, meaning the vision of Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Jeremy Hunt, is extremely significant for the future of British broadcasting. In his recent speech Jeremy Hunt: No public subsidy for outdated regional news, Hunt reveals that a Conservative government would bring the following changes:
Our priority must be to make our media regulation fit for a new media age. This means moving to a light touch regulatory model that allows media companies to develop and test new business models.
…as in America advertising on local TV franchises can be sold nationally as well as locally.
It appears to me that the Conservatives would look to continue where Thatcher left of. For me, British broadcasting works due to the PSB remits still in place on commercial channels such as ITV and channel 4. I dread the day when our commercial stations churn out the borderline propaganda that is television news in America, and this ‘light touch regulatory model’ that Hunt mentions above is the beginning of the deregulation a Tory government would bring. I am sceptical about the proposed reform of our regional news system which centres around the idea of ‘city-based TV franchises’. Our cities are simply not big enough to uphold the American system, and the rural areas of our regions will be even more under-represented in the news then they already are. It’s no secret that ITV regional news is losing money, but a change in the structure of regional news will not necessarily increase the number of viewers, which is ultimately the only statistic that will make advertisers pay more.
It is important that our government safeguards the core values that is associated with British broadcasting, and does not bow down to the American model, which would only help increase this so-called ‘Americanisation’ that is apparent across the world. In the United States, regulation bodies work around the market competition, adapting numerous policies in order to comply with the change in the market; whereas in Britain, market competition works around the regulations that are in place. Allowing market competition to rule is a dangerous approach, and without regulation our television screens will become nothing more than a moving billboard, rather than the medium for entertainment, information and education that it is today. I know which system I would prefer.
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Tags: british, broadcasting, conservative, crumpton, culture, election, general, ITV, jeremy hunt, labour, matthew, media, news, regional, regulation, shadow secretary, sport, student, television, thatcher
Friday marked the final hand-in date for my university work, and with the exception of a two-hour exam in May, my time at university as a whole. The day was greeted with mixed emotions; relief, joy, pride, but somewhat unexpectedly, a sense of nervousness.
For the past three years, the plan has been simple. Graduate. This isn’t to say that I haven’t been thinking about what to do after university, in fact, far from it. My course at the University of Huddersfield, Television Production & Media, carries a strong vocational element to its structure which aims to give me the best possible chance of gaining employment in the television industry as soon as possible. However, the last three months have been hectic, with my dissertation and practical project, along with my other modules, taking up the majority of my week. Unfortunately, this has distracted me from planning ahead, building contacts and gaining more work experience; hopefully, this hasn’t hindered my chances of gaining employment come July.
Upon completing my work, I’ve also had a lot to think about; aim to find employment as soon as possible? Realise that I am still only 20, and should take advantage of this freedom by travelling around Europe before the constraints of work limit my free time? I admit, it’s an enviable situation for most people to find themselves in, but making the wrong decision could be a huge regret for some time.
On a brighter note, the practical project that I have completed, a promotional DVD for Huddersfield Town’s youth academy, turned out great, and I’m really pleased with the end result. Unfortunately, I can’t upload the video to the internet, as it would breach contractual agreements made with the club. However, I think the DVD definitely sells the academy well, and will hopefully bring in more prospective youngsters to the set up they have down at the Leeds Road playing Complex. I thoroughly enjoyed working on this project, which as a whole only served to reiterate my desire to succeed in the industry, as it is something I would love to be able to do every day of the week.
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Tags: academy, crumpton, experience, graduation, huddersfield, job, matthew, media, production, student, television, town, university, University of Huddersfield
Making the most of free time
I won’t lie, playing on the XBox 360 and watching television is my most common way to spend my free time, and although the latter could be deemed as research for my university degree, I think I’d be clutching at straws if I was to say I spend all of my spare time productively.
However, that’s not to say I haven’t been doing anything with my life! University work has been at the forefront of my daily agenda for the past month or so, but with my dissertation handed in last Friday and just a few deadlines remaining in my University tenure, I have found myself with a little more time on my hands.
Camera work has always been an interest of mine, and I’m always desperate to increase my knowledge in terms of camera techniques and editing software. Today, I decided to put my creativity to the fore and try out shooting in HD on the Panasonic AG-HPX171E DVCPRO HD. Some of my course mates couldn’t quite comprehend why I was filming in my spare time, but I genuinely do enjoy it! I filmed it this morning, then after a game of 5-a-side football with my friends, I edited the piece in the afternoon.
So here is the video, unfortunately YouTube felt the urge to prevent it uploading in 720p, even though it was shot in 1080p! So you’ll have to settle for 480p, but it still looks fairly high quality to say it’s been compressed and uploaded to a website. Hope you enjoy!
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Tags: AG-HPX171E, crumpton, DVCPRO, HD, huddersfield, Huddersfield Narrow Canal, matthew, Panasonic, production, TV, university
Matthew Crumpton- Videographer 