highland fling.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO Y’ALL!

An impromptu trip up to Scotland meant we left our London plans behind and with just an hour’s turnover in the flat – having just arrived back from the wedding of the year (congratulations to Nadia and Chris, again!) – we managed to get into Glasgow Airport for 8:30pm New Year’s Eve, then a car ride to our destination which was Pennymore Barn.  The nearest point of interest was Inveraray Castle.  It was the quietest New Year we have all had for a wee while – not that that stopped us from gallavanting round the hills during the day, but the evenings were spent by the log fire with a drink in hand, after a feast. Perfection.

2010 went by like a flash and certainly had it’s ups and downs, but everything is still going in the right direction.  I have high hopes for 2011 for myself as well as my friends and family, it’s going to be an exciting time.  Wishing you all the best for the New Year.

days of being still.

Now that Christmas is well and truly upon us, we can start winding down fully. These are the days of being still.  A few weeks back I shot with Swiss photographer Amanda Camenisch for Vanity Teen in West London.  The story was based loosely around a couple, with hints of Anton Corbijn’s ‘Control’ feel to it.  We have a mundanely beautiful story and I can’t wait to see the final edit out early next year. But for now, may this image keep your heart still.

WISHING YOU ALL THE HAPPIEST OF HOLIDAYS

orion house.

A few weeks back, I spent a very cold day trying not to get stabbed on the infamous estate of Thamesmead (yes, it is a council estate I can’t seem to get away from). Christopher Hewitt was directing a short film; the third installment for LG Portugal.  What we ended up with is incredibly beautiful and something we can all resonate to; a sign of hope in what sometimes feels like a mundane existence in our cycle of everyday life.  I am extremely proud to have worked on this piece, as I’m sure the rest of the team are.  Everyone deserves a big thumbs -up.  Above are behind the scenes shots courtesy of Rob Lutter, but for the film itself please see here.  A ‘Making Of’ was also filmed that can be viewed here.  Please let me know your thoughts.

pub crawl.

Mid-October saw myself and Barbara Anastacio work together on a shoot forMasquerade Magazine.  An all-girl team including make-up artist extraordinaire Poppy France; we spent the day in an obscure pub in Lower Clapton, with a parrot named Reggie.  The girls were great to shoot, although one was flu-ridden, but like a trooper, she soldiered on and we got some lovely images. Hope Masquerade can make sense of a story from it!  But here is a taste to get a feel for it.  

cold and wet in canary wharf.

A couple of weekends ago, I spent two nights shivering away on the eerily quiet streets of Canary Wharf.  We were shooting a commercial for SmartCars with real SmartCar owners and the agency Weapon7 were responsible for getting us involved. A great team, including photographer Paul Calver, who’s photo I have borrowed for a taste of what’s to come.  More images to follow once the project has been completed.

quoc pham.

So now we finally see the launch of the promo we shot for Quoc Pham leather cycling shoes, back in September.  Another amazing project in the bag with us (design studio), along with photographer Paul Calver, DOP Dave Hallett and music by Frederick Denham-Webb of Pushing Hands.  Watch the video here on Vimeo.

will i wake up with you, if i knew we could start again.

So the last few months have been abit mental to say the least, in both working life and personal life.  It was all-go and still is, which I shan’t complain about, but finally all our hard work has paid off as we have come up trumps (quite literally) with an amazing music video for DELS’ Trumpalump track, produced by Joe Goddard of Hotchip.  A lot of prep went into this, which the dream team delivered on the shoot day at The Russian Club. The video dropped last week, but I have been pre-occupied, so for those who haven’t seen it already via other various forms of online social networking bases, click here to watch the result. For extra laughs, watch the behind the scenes here.  An extra well done to the boys at us (design studio) who have recently acquired a rep over at Academy. More amazing projects to follow, I can feel it.

have an ogle at coggles.

A few weeks ago, the folks at Coggles invited me to make a selection from their menswear collection as guest editor.  It was a fun project and great to see what was going down in the land of Coggles; exciting stuff indeed.  Have a look here at the final edit to see if anything takes your fancy.

from eastbourne to east london.

A weekend ago, we saw a trip down to Eastbourne to shoot a promo for Quoc Pham; a high quality bicycle shoe brand that combines fashion and sport.  We spent the entire Saturday by the coast (much needed to wake me up) which was a nice change from the bustle of London-town.  The next day was spent getting abused in the very busy Columbia Flower Market, trying not to fall in the canal by Broadway Market and finally trying not to get caught filming at The Barbican and Smithfields.  You could say we got around that weekend.

twithead.

Twitter has found me.  Please commence stalking @chisanwan.