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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Now everyone that wants to shoot film/video or stills of two walking/running people next to each other, or even behind one another, can!

But seriously, the treadmills used against green screen are an invaluable tool for those shots with real action. Don’t just think they are for people either – we’ve had dogs photographed on them as well!

Specifications for both treadmills are below:

• Speed 0 to 7.5mph
• 3 position manual incline
• Running surface 120 x 40cm
• Foldable.
• Safety cut out key, batteries.
• Max user body weight 110kg (17.5st).
• Size (H)127, (W)73, (L)134cm.

And one last thing; did we mention they are green?

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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.

Two weeks later a gargantuan load of ‘stuff’ was delivered on 18 pallets and the hard work commenced. We used 425sq metres of 600 x 600 x20 mm of matt black acoustic tiles neatly suspended in a black grid system, totaling 5500 feet in length . On top of this was laid 2 layers of 50 mm RW3 dense Rockwool slab – so, 100mm thick and an area of over 8000 sq feet! Then above this was a deliberate air void of about 15 inches before the original double clad and insulated roof of the building.

The installation of this wall to wall acoustic insulation took 6 long days with continual shifting of studio gear (and the products we were using) around the floor space to enable access for the scissor lift and fork truck to get to all parts of the roof.

The final result is amazing. A neat matt black finish now totally removes any reflection issues that were apparent before in any shiny product (a car surface for example) and total black out is now possible.

John Woods came back to Big-Shed after the work was completed and set down his widgety thingy again and clapped his hands (as a quick test – not in some expression of joy or wonderment).”Wow” he said, quietly. “That’s good, that’s really good.” The decay time had been reduced to a fraction of the previous reading, he even showed us a ‘picture’ of the sound and then played the two for comparison. We have to say, we have never been so impressed by so little!

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Check out a couple of examples by clicking here

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An independently funded movie, ‘Being Sold’ was the idea of award winning director Phil Hawkins. Brilliantly written by Aidan Magrath, it’s a comedy that tells the story of John Foster who ‘manages’ to put himself up for sale on an auction site. The film follows the mayhem that descends upon him, his best mate and his family as the moments of the auction tick away. Produced by Phil, Mercedes Crescenti, Ben Swift and DoP Mike Costelloe and largely completed in just 2 days Being Sold is amazing achievement by all involved.

The film’s poster elements were also shot on the day by Justin and comped by Dinosaur Manchester. Big Shed produced the ’souvenir’ composite prints, a great piece of memorabilia to hang on the wall.

All the images of the shoot below were taken by Big Shed.

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Co-produced by Glue London and Chief TV Manchester and directed by Andy Lambert (HSI London); this Three Mobile tv commercial was shot over 4 days at several locations including a mill in Oldham, Mam Tor, various farms, the streets of Glossop and a swamp in the Peak District!

The ad was a spoof styled on the characters in the Rocky 4 movie. A nation wide poster campaign was also run.

All the images of the shoot below were taken by Big Shed.

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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.

David is the star of this commercial and delivers his lines with a natural ease which shows his commitment to the product.

Darwen based production company White Noise chose Big Shed’s main infinity cove to shoot a commercial using a range of six vehicles, from small Mercedes Vitos to large 18 seater minibuses, with full wheel chair access. Getting the vehicles (some of which were over 7 metres in length) in and out of the studio proved to be a doddle thanks to Big Shed’s large access door specifically built for this type of shoot.

Some stills and behind the scenes video from the shoot below:

And the finished commercial with post production

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