James Stier

Seat Ibiza SC Sport Car Promo 2009 from Voidcomp on Vimeo.

Produced by Gary Taylor and James Stier. Merry Christmas x x x.

On one of our latest project we have been testing out some new equipment specially geared towards vehicles. This has been in preparation for and up and coming adventure project but its also been an ambition of mine for some time now. We produced a promo for the new Seat Ibiza SC Sport using some new suction mounts from Manfrotto and some supports provided by Hauge.

Hauge are a UK based company who supplied the jib, mounts and the cups.

One of the rigs we used is the double suction mount. We shot using an SLR, allowing us to keep the weight down which was fixed on to a plate attached to the main bar of the rig. The cups can can be attached to any flat non-porous surface, we could run with one or two mounts but for added safety I would recommend using two any external shots, we used a single mount for some of the interiors.

Speaking of safety, we hooked up the camera to the mount using carabiner clips as the weakest part of the rig is the plate. The mounts themselves, as expected are solid and are made by Manfrotto, as long as the surface is clean and flat removal of the mounts is near impossible until you break the seal intentionally.

The camera plate is a good size which supports the camera over a greater area preventing any movement in the camera’s plastic casing. A double ball bracket, along with the tubular structure, enable the camera to be mounted in a variety of positions with relative ease. This does depend on the vehicle, a Land Rover Defender for example would be ideal, as was the old style Honda Civic Sport we used as the second car, the Ibiza was very curvy and proved to be more of a challenge to get the angels we required.

Overall the mounting solution performed amazingly well. More info here.

Sorry its been so long. We have had such a busy few months, and I haven’t even started Christmas shopping.

The good news is I have a video we produced just recently coming very soon, plus our new showreel is about 80% done and will be online in the new year. In the mean mean time I wanted to inform everyone about a new project we are just starting work on. The project is called The Road to Macedonia and is a journey from the UK to Macedonia, I cant say too much at the moment but the web site is www.roadtomacedonia.co.uk, any news will be posted there first.

Keep up the Christmas cheer!
James x.

Just wanted to update you on the video we produced for Sheffield University, it was great project to be apart of. This is quick compilation of some of our favourite moments cut to music, co-produced by Gary Taylor, and big thanks to him and everyone at the University especially Caroline Parkin for all her support. Enjoy.

Sheffield University – MRC Video from Voidcomp on Vimeo.

Its been a while hasn’t it? Life just took over and for the last month I have been working with the British Army and Royal Air Force in California on an exercise involving Merlin helicopters. The training is designed to get the helicopters, and more importantly the heli crews prepared for Afghanistan in hot, high and dusty conditions. And boy was it hot and dusty.

Royal Air Force helicopter crews embarked on this intense four-month deployment to the US in advance of being posted to Afghanistan at the tail end of 2009. The Merlin helicopters and their pilots are based at RAF Benson, but are set to augment the UK’s Afghan helicopter force by one quarter when they take up residence there.

The training was held at the simply awesome NAF (Naval Air Facility) El Centro in San Diego – the facilities for working hard and simply relaxing were 1st class for a base in the middle of the Californian desert. Being underneath the helicopters as they performed load pick ups and performed dust landings was fierce, the downwash was littered with rocks, sand and debris in 50 degrees temperatures. The effect on these men, women and aircraft will be to expose them to conditions where they are working at the absolute peak of their performance capabilities, prior to the arrival in Afghanistan.

The RAF is supported by the British Army, I worked specially with Private Haynes and Corporal Gunn from the 21st Signals Regiment and Kingsman Bishop who are MAOTs (Mobile Air Operations Teams) overseen by Master Air Crew Brampton (RAF) and Flight Lieutenant Bell (RAF).

The experience was a great one and hopefully the passion, enthusiasm and hard work the entire deployment put into the exercise is show in my work.

More info here.