News

The MOB are back at the Big Shed with a shopping spree of bookings to shoot a raft of ‘stings’ for retailers Morrisons. Mostly table-top foodstuffs, close up and personal with a few nice moves in the mix. Camera of choice: the Arri Alexa — amazing little workhorse that’s quickly building a dedicated following.

All surplus food product will be donated to Mob Films’ chosen charity, Mustard Tree, directly after the shoots. Mustard Tree are a Manchester based charity who support homeless and vulnerable people.

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This week, one of the first real tests for the newly sound-proofed Big Shed Photographic Hire Studio was in progress. Ironically, White Noise, a north west based TV ad production company, was shooting commercials featuring lots of sound.

The shoot for JD Williams features two “presenters” who used used a teleprompter to perform direct to camera. The sound engineer on the job, Mark Nuttall, said “Big Shed is one of the quietest studios I’ve ever been in”.

That’s great news and a real endorsement of the effort that‘s gone in to making Big Shed one of the best places to shoot stills and video.

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The Big Shed been asked and badgered constantly (…honest, guv) to get a companion treadmill for the one we already had. After listening to the multitude of requests, we have gone one better (literally) – we’ve purchased a matching pair – twins no less! (more…)

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Big-Shed has always had, in its proprietor Justin Windle, a great photographer (not just a pretty face). With many years experience shooting stills of everything from people, food, and room sets through to animals and inanimate objects like trucks; Justin is adept at successfully interpreting your brief and managing your projects effectively – providing you with the shots you need. Just ask his existing clients!

Advertising agencies, design groups as well as a wide variety of direct contacts have all used Justin to create and consistently deliver quality images. So, if you’re looking to hire a photographer or thinking of shooting at the Big-Shed but don’t know who to use – use the ideal on-the-spot guy who knows his stuff – Justin.
Check out his portfolio here.

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The roof of Big-Shed is sound-proofed! After listening (sic) to people in the film and video industry who shoot at Big-Shed, we took some advice and decided to further improve the facilities and get some sound-proofing into the place.

We talked to a chap called John Woods who has spent a lifetime as a sound recordist and acted upon his recommendations. John (a sound guy by all accounts) has spent a lifetime as a sound recordist and engineer and has worked on literally thousands of TV programmes – so his credentials are impeccable. In his role as an acoustic consultant he has developed solutions for the Pie Factory and The Sharp Project in Manchester.

He visited Big-Shed and checked out our ‘decay times’ with a special widgety thingy – apparently they were a tad lengthy and had to be dealt with! He stored the info away in his Macbook for later comparison. So, after a good look around and a swapping of ideas, we arrived at what must be done to the studio roof to create an even better place to shoot. (more…)

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We’ve been asked a lot to do the occasional still while a shoot is taking place. Now Big Shed has upped the ante and can provide comprehensive, behind the scenes photography of your production whether it’s a studio or location shoot.

Check out a couple of examples by clicking here

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Big Shed is happy to announce that there is now more power on tap.

Our electricity supplier is smiling too.

It’s taken a while but after countless electricians have opened countless boxes; looked at countless fuses, flicked countless switches, felt cables, scratched heads, hummed and hawed, it turns out that the Shed’s friendly next door neighbours, CSK Electrical, who Big Shed happened to mention the electrical issue to; said ‘Yep, we can sort that this week’. (…see, it’s just a question of knowing who to ask!)

And so now it’s sorted.

A total of nearly 200 amps, 3 phase; available over three outlets, positioned each side of the cove.

That’s a fair amount of beanz for you gaffers!

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David Fishwick, MD of David Fishwick LDV Van and Minibus Sales, is one of those larger than life characters, great fun and down to earth, what you see is what you get, and he loves his minibuses! His enthusiasm for all aspects of his business is boundless. (more…)

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We’ve all seen Die Hard 1, at least six times, right?

Well, what else would you do with a 12ft length of steel ducting that’s been lying idle round the studio, and spent most of its time in the way being very unsociable?

The bit where Bruce crawls through the ducting towards the camera, lights his Zippo and says sardonically: “come up to the coast, get together, we’ll have a few laughs…”

We thought we’d shoot a little spoof of that scene. And it would be good to make use of the Mezz Studio for some stills while someone was shooting yet another glitzy vid in the main studio. (more…)

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A welcome return to the Big Shed saw Green Room Films shoot another ICS Learn commercial. We thought the last one (see “Not a brick in the wall”) had some tricky visual gags and snippy edits, but this latest ad was going to employ motion controlled transitions between sets (created by Vanessa Hawkins Design) with live action! (more…)

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