….. Renishaw 1

Halo Films’ latest job is a glossy promotional film for (local to us) international engineering firm, Renishaw. Although experts in complex measurement and control systems our first day’s filming took us to the home of Gloucester Rugby club to document the inaugural flight of Renishaw’s newly sponsored hot air balloon.

The launch took place in between matches at the Rugby Sevens and meant that as the balloon sailed off into the evening sky our crew soon had to dodge a swarm of rather large and eager players!

Renishaw’s film will show the breadth, complexity and precision of their measurement devices and explain how without them many of the things we take for granted in modern life; cars, aeroplanes, computers and medical machinery would not be as accurate or reliable as they are.

Sadly none of us at Halo are competing in London 2012, although there is one of us who still imagines he could….  but we have just realised that three people we have filmed recently will be – how awesome is that?

Fabian Cancellara, the subject of our Full Gas cycling film will be defending his Olympic Time Trial title and Carl Hester, the charismatic focus of our series for Horse and Country TV, At Home With Carl Hester is already a 3 time Olympian and will competing in the dressage event in London. Amazingly, so will the other star of that show, Charlotte Du Jardin who trains with Carl at his yard near Gloucester. We were privileged to spend time with these people and as good as they are at their sports they are also great human beings. Incredibly talented, supremely dedicated and humbling to be around, all of us at Halo, and especially the one still dreaming wishes Fabian, Carl and Charlotte the best of luck in London.

You can find out about Full Gas here, and At Home With Carl here.

Can you just help me with the white balance?

Continuing our desire to help people from the area get a taste of the film business, Tom Lee has become the latest local teenager to get work experience at Halo.

A student at Rednock School in Dursley, Tom who is in year 10 is taking a media GSCE next year and with some of his friends makes films in his spare time. We had one day’s filming the week Tom was with us and he helped out while we were filming the head teacher of The Castle School in Thornbury, Melanie Warnes for their new web site. (see news page Filming Castle School)

As great it is to have a spare pair of hands for a week we hope that students find their time with us helpful when thinking about their future.

Tom had this to say about his time at Halo:

My time at Halo has been a real eye opener. It has shown me that making films and videos is what I want to do. I also now have knowledge of the different jobs in the industry from admin too editor and I now know the software and equipment used by the professionals. It has been a week of enlightenment and it has SECURED my passion for film making. Thanks Halo for the brilliant and inspiring week.

Tom L

As film makers it is often interesting when you keep up with people you have filmed in the past. Sometimes you get to know people’s families and perhaps see their children grow, at other times you get the chance to follow their on going success.

For us at Halo it is with absolute pride that we remember our time filming with cyclist Fabian Cancellara for Science In Sport’s film ‘Full Gas‘. After crashing early in the year and breaking his collar bone in three places he is now back to his best. ‘Spartacus’ as he is known in the cycling world won the first stage of the 2012 Tour De France and is now in the coveted yellow jersey.

His win was in THE OPENING time trial, the discipline of the sport he has made is own, having been world champion 4 times and won Olympic Gold in Beijing. He is now favourite to win Time Trial Gold at the London Olympics later in the year.

And why are we proud? In Full Gas, Fabian gave viewers a unique insight into how he trains for, prepares for and rides the perfect time trial. He was open with his approach to one of the most difficult areas of cycle sport and in short, his generous nature and thoughtful interview helped us to make a great film.

So go on Fabian, stay in yellow for as long as possible…..

If you want to find out more about Full Gas visit our page and to buy the film go to www.fullgasdvd.co.uk

The Sound of Silence….

At Halo we have our own purpose built commentary booth and in the 5 years that we have been producing films have only had to do one commentary recording out of the building. When making Freefall, our film about understanding suicide, narrator Dr Tanya Byron had medical commitments that kept her in London, so we used a booth at Loudhailer Studios, where a lot of the sound work was done for many of Peter’s BBC projects.

So, for our latest project we were at Halo again and the commentary artist came to us. Daniella Hunter, is the new voice of Masters product videos and as the second batch of 35 films is nearly complete she spent the day with us recording. With scripts written over the last few weeks it won’t be long before the new videos are streaming on the Masters web site and being shown in golf shops across the UK and Europe.

Have a look at the Masters videos from batch one here Masters Golf

The Filming Is Over…..

…. and the editing has begun. After a week in the small studio at Halo Towers and three days in the great surroundings of Cheltenham Film and PHOTOGRAPHIC STUDIOS we are finally in the cutting room with the 30+ new product films for Masters Golf.

Along with new music and more prominent graphics this batch will take the concept of a video catelogue to new heights. As a distributor and owner of many brands, Masters are keen to control the message golf shops give to their retail customers. They’ve found video is the way forward, being able to embed them on multiple web sites, show them on in-store TV’s and to capitalise on social media communication.

Check out the video below to see Halo’s set up in Cheltenham and the Masters page to see some of the first batch of films. Masters Golf

The first sunny day in May and we find ourselves indoors…..

We’re at Cheltenham Film & PHOTOGRAPHIC STUDIOS for our first day of filming on batch two of the Product Videos for Masters Golf UK. The whole team are here along with Emily’s friend, actress Kate Cooper who is modeling the new kit.

Three days here and we will have all 35 new films in the can, or as modern technology dictates, on the high speed memory cards…

Masters Golf is Here Again…

We are delighted and excited to be working with Masters Golf again. Masters have engaged Halo to produce a second batch of Product Videos which will showcase some of their upcoming golf products.

Our hugely versatile cafe area at Halo HQ has become a film studio once again and filming will commence over the next couple of days.

MARKETING Manager Simon Atkinson said, “The transition from a paper based brochure to video format was a huge leap for everyone and challenged us technically, however we haven’t looked back. As the demand for online video continues to rise at such an astonishing rate, we are very proud to be pioneers in the golf industry”.

MastersGolf TV has recently notched up 100,000 viewings… all the current videos are visible here, are used by sales staff who now carry an ipad around with them instead of sales brochures.

Simon added, “The first series of videos created for Masters were produced to the highest quality, the variation of presenter-led, informative and graphics videos makes each film unique – a tough challenge considering there were 350 in total! We are very pleased to be working with Halo again and look forward to the next phase!”

The current video catalogue can be seen on Mastersgolf TV:

http://www.youtube.com/user/mastersgolfTV

Andy and Emily have been busy shooting a music video for talented local singer, Samantha Hudson.

The Old Painswick Inn provided a great setting and whilst Andy was behind the camera, Emily appeared on screen as the ‘other girl’ in a love triangle story.

Samantha’s debut single, Caught In The Storm, is due to be released this week; it is a fantastic track and we wish Samantha lots of luck with it!

Not to be out done by her brother….

Friend of Halo, Pfeiffer Georgi, a Year 6 pupil a St Mary’s in Thornbury, also competed for Giant Cycling Club – Halo Films in the Wolverhampton CC Circuit Races at Stourport.

Riding with the boys she rode strongly to take 6th place overall in the Under 12s race and came home second girl.

All at Halo wish both Pfeiffer and Etienne well with their cycling this year.