[I am]; therefore I think.

Al Jazeera English location shoot with Adam Gill & Lawrence Lee

jreu — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 02:11:04 +0000

Howdy folks,

Plenty more content up soon but first let me share with you the events of today.

Lawrence Lee!

My uncle and mentor, Al Jazeera English Producer, Adam Gill gave me a ring on the 18th. We have just set up an internship in Doha for me during February, this internship will be supportive of my dissertation and valuable experience to furthermore apply for a job with the company after completing my course in London College of Communication. However more importantly, Adam has flown to England for the festive season and moreover needs to film a profile video of the news correspondent Laurence Lee tomorrow!

“Would you like to come to Coventry to assist us?”

Such a fantastic opportunity was not to be missed, especially to one who loves the television and film industry. Although, in these times I rarely do much free work, in this instance and during February I’m am working my way into my ideal position in sunny Doha. Besides that, I love working with Adam, he has taught me so much from such an early age!

If I turn my heating to 30 I can pretend for now

I hopped, skipped and jumped onto a train from Birmingham to Coventry in the early hours and met the guys. After introductions, I quickly found out that the camera operator was the same operator who filmed over the balcony in Greece, Libya and some of the most hairiest situations heard! I remember watching those shots and thinking must of been the most thrilling setting to film.

Laurence was filming a short on Britain closing it’s last remaining coal pit, Daw Mill. We traveled a fair bit, did some vox pops, an interview, cut aways and finally headed back. All of this in the freezing cold and pouring rain.

Here’s some shots to keep you entertained in the beautiful setting of rainy England;

Vox pop in the rain

Daw Mill in the background

Finally, I’m going to be making a vlog whilst out in Doha. I shall be filming what the area is like, working with Al Jazeera, night life and more. If there is anything you guys would like to see, let me know! Take it easy people!

Red Rocket does the London 48 Film Competition

jreu — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 13:11:20 +0000

In September, my company ‘Red Rocket’ endeavored to take part of the internationally re-known film competition the 48 hour film competition. To give you a brief summary of the rules and regulations, we had to create a short film that satisfied the following rules;

You are given EXACTLY 48 hours to create everything in the film with the exception of planning
You are given a specific genre to adhere to
You are given a Character’s name, a line of dialogue, a prop that must be included in the film
You can only use maximum of 3 Cameras

The project went exceptionally well, we hired out a boxing ring in which we stayed in for the duration of the filming, this was the Poplar boys and girl club. There was a kitchen, pool tables, table tennis, gym equipment, showers, sauna and more! The only thing we didn’t have and that really stumped me as the Producer was the lack of printers. There was 3 printers, one in which that had black ink but would not print without replacing ALL the colour cartridges and the other two identical printers were so old that the manufacture, HP, refuses to distribute the drivers anymore!

The second nightmare of the 48 hours was that, we had a script writer and a very good one at that. Mr Simon Jay who writes for theater, however after writing the script, the director and crew were unhappy with the result. Following that, they decided to make the short envisaged without a script,I objected to this but after deliberation, believed it would be in our best interest.

Everybody worked extremely hard and very well together, acting as one, lead by few. Funds were tight and at best the Director and I ended up fronting majority of the costs.

Check out the fantastic pictures contributed by my good friend Daniel Gregory;

[Blast] from the past

jreu — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 20:55:50 +0000

Boom!

I apologies to those who follow, for once again for my sporadic, infrequency of new posts. Unfortunately, at present I have met yet again; that mental and physical block of creativity. I have had many events unfold recently, the death of one of my closest friends, Chris Lloyd. The birth of my new nephew, Leonidas Danté Sarabadu. The many freelance jobs, part-time work and production. As well as battling through university and travelling back and forth London like my house is on fire.

Therefore, I have just had a little browse through my previous work to see what I have accomplished with my time in university over the last 5 years. It’s amazing to look back now and see how much my life has taken such a turn, the most important lesson I have just learnt is that, I could always do more.

I don’t suppose you may have encountered this but I occasionally work filming night events, psytrance, night clubs etc. During work, I very often work 18+ hour shifts, the kind of shift that are illegal even for companies such as Mc Donalds to push their workers into. I love them but the stress of so many hours, alcohol, cigarettes every 20 minutes to keep you awake and the buzz of the night does take a toll on your body; So much more than waking up the next day from a night out with a hangover, recovery can take a week! The feeling that you accomplished so much, set a new personal record, enjoyed every second with amazing people and made an impact for a person is a feeling that rivals euphoria and is definitely worth the physical anguish.

This is the type of feeling I get when looking back at this work and appreciating the time I put on them. Have a look and tell me what you think, for the next posts coming up will be my recent work and is miles better than this work from my former self. Until then, I bid you farewell as I have some epic events coming up soon that require a LOT of attention and I have regained my strength and determination to make sure I put 200%

Thank you all!

The making of the Creative Communities Exhibition

jreu — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 16:30:51 +0000

Below you can view an interval shot of me creating my exhibition in 272 Holborn with my partner. The film is shot over the course of two days and features us illustrating, fixing the piece in place, creating a shelf and programming the screens:

Following that you can see me featured in the SUARTS TV channel for UAL, in this video you can see my personal description for my piece as well as the audience and the project manager explaining the purpose of the gallery:

Music video Oh my! vs OGZ complete

jreu — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 10:20:50 +0000

The music video Oh My! Vs OGZ has finally been released. Two months ago I wrote about my participation as Assistant Cameraman and now it has finally been released, check it out:

Amsterdam with the Masters of Digital

jreu — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 20:52:40 +0000

[Once upon a time in the Land of CLOGGs, TULIPS and Marijuanita ....

Psytrance was playing like BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM !!!

And a group of crazy Psytrancers followed !!!] Master Edwards-leader of the psytribe.

Amsterdam was off the rail, theres so much I’ll just write this blog in bullet points:

Friday 3rd June
-arrived after 10 hour journey [No sleep] with Julia and fighting idiotic passengers
-Took a 40 minute drive to the squat we were staying at
-Took a 40 minute drive to Akhnation, Amsterdam Central
-Started setting up with the master of interior design Sutekh and Vlad the digital impaler
-Promoted on the streets of Amsterdam for hours
-Went to film Pre-party
-took a 40 min drive back to base at 6am ish

Saturday 4th June
-20 minutes drive to main stage
-rigged main psytrance party with Sutekh
-derigged Akhnation party
-Promoted on the streets of Amsterdam again
-PSYPARTYYYYYYYYY
-STRAIGHT to after party [no time to rig-nobody noticed ;)]
-filmed after party till all DJs finished
-Drove back squashing entire crew into van
-got back to the squat and crashed

Sunday/Monday 6th June
-lots of djs and guys left
-chilled with the guys till next day
-Left Amsterdam at 7:30pm

Funny mentionable memories:

-Tasha took a photo in the red light district whilst promoting and a prostitute nearly jumped through the window
-My belt snapped whilst filming and I was nearly caught with my trousers down
-The master’s choice of song for the journey back was David bowie’s “This is not America”
-Vlad was invited to join a church ceremony on the bus with some girls but refused because he went recently for some psyaction
-Passport control got 3 women to stand and stare at me for 10 minutes contemplating letting me back into my own country
-Nearly got on a bus to Spain

Photo References:

Digital goes Dutch- Psytrance hits Amsterdam

jreu — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 23:12:42 +0000

I’m on my way to Amsterdam as I type. Getting the coach is surprisingly easier than getting the train to Amsterdam. I departed from Victoria coach with no search, no metal detectors and no hassle. All I had to provide was my passport and reference. I have to thank my partner at this point because she carried half of my luggage going to Victoria.
I met Julia who is a bar maid and works for GDM, she finished he job in retail, literally when she was supposed to be boarding the coach and ended up sprinting to Victoria, I never met her before but as she wondered past my girlfriend and I with a worried face, we could tell it was her.

Anyway, I’m nearly on the ferry and I’m eager to get a picture. I’ve never been on a ferry before. To wet your appetite for psytrance this is the DJ itenerary for tomorrow:

PRE PARTY

1 22:00POLO
2 23:30SUTEKH
3 1:00PROTOACTIVE PSYLATINO
4 2:00ETNARAMA
5 3:30HANUMAN
6 5:00

Once I get a picture of the ferry, I will upload. Stay tuned people.

Stockholm Cleantech Showcase [No, it's not about a new hoover]

jreu — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 09:45:52 +0000

Today I’m filming inside the Swedish embassy with the Swedish Ambassador. Z participants come to share their new gadget in an attempt to receive financial support and endorsement from the Swedish government in order increase awareness and increase interest into the Swedish market.
In rigging the set last night, I overheard a conversation that Sweden have opened up in the games industry, I heard that the popular series Battlefield is Swedish made. Although I still prefer to know Sweden for it’s delicious Swedish meatballs and Ikea.
The venue is beautiful, it’s a stunning building with high roofs, 17th Century painting and a nice butler called Terrance. In the picture you can see one of the gorgeous chandeliers.
Anyway, this could be an event worth waking up to, we go live at 9:15: The url is www.cleantechinvestor.com/live

Tekken Force Tournament 28/05/2011

jreu — Sat, 28 May 2011 16:47:33 +0000

Congratulations to the Tekken Force team for another sterling event within the gaming industry. I appeared at the beginning of the event to be bombarded by a full house in HMV inside the Trocadero. HMV was fully tech loaded with roughly 20-30 Playstation 3 Slim and each with a copy of Tekken 5. [A thief's goldmine] Although the event clearly stated B.Y.O.C (Bring your own Controller).

The games were underway before you could blink, although it was a little hard for the commentator to stop the contestants from still practicing their precision moves on each other. I was pretty sure the commentator was about to start pulling his own precision moves on the Tekken fans. Luckily for me and my partner who were practically shoved to the entrance (She actually enjoys playing Tekken 5) you could view each fight on separate screens as well as check the leaderboard on a extra large plasma t.v. Of course, although there were at least nearly a hundred, tekken-hungry fanatics at the venue, you could also watch the games LIVE on Justin.tv and the number were rolling in as well as overloading the wirecast server :)

I decided to pop out while the contestants battled it out for some bubble tea in Leceister Square and returned much later on to find the final fight and also, half of the audience disappearing to hide their shame and what was probably left of their honour.

Funnily enough, the person orchestrating the event is a colleague at the University of the Arts London; Jamar Jaja. Below you can see him behind the scenes but don’t worry, you can’t miss him. He did really well and you got to give him credit for carrying the monster that is his computer to the venue.

Congratulations again Tekken Force!

7th Heaven VS GDM PSYTRANCE

jreu — Mon, 23 May 2011 21:45:37 +0000

Afternoon all,

Before reading this, simply just go to this website and sign yourself up. You will not regret it:
http://www.globaldigitalmasters.com/

I think t’s about time I tell you all about some of the cooler things I do in the Television and Live events industry. Many of you will never have heard of Psytrance but those lucky enough to have been to a Psytrance party or even the famous ‘Acid Monkey’ parties will know exactly how epic they are.

The party I filmed was called INFINITE PROGRESSIONS 7th Heaven vs Global Digital Masters. The location was in an old club under London Bridge. Having a rave in the heart of London Bridge was heavy stuff, coming out of the comforting darkness and inspired UV art work was very disorientating but brought a new perspective to the daily grind of the capitol.
I ended up filming and helping the bar for 16 hours, starting at 11pm and finishing at 3pm. I don’t know how my boss does it, having to stay up the longest must be difficult but I guess the money can’t be bad. In the end of the day….night (?) we ALL have a good time.

I filmed using a Canon 5D mark II, unfortunately though, the battery was already at 56% when I arrived and the charger was no where to be seen BUT never fear I used my ability and careful eye to pick and choose shots, using the least amount of energy with the view finder and more on the manual for focus. I managed to snag a 50mm lens too which took some wicked shots of the venue and the 5D’s High Iso managed to keep the light on track.

Some of my favorite shots were the shot of the guys with the masks, shot of the girl raving to the guy with a red tails jacket and the shot of the t-shirt with ‘Mickey Knows a Smile’. Check it out:

Some photos:

I also did the Psytrance Indoor festival, check it out here:

Pictures: