Been to Heathrow lately?

If not, watch out… Wagamama’a new T5 22-metre widescreen is attracting humungous attention. Part signage, part display, this massive offering pumps out mouth-watering food 

The T-Rex of Tabletop. 

But how does a director prepare to shoot for such a giant screen? Can a 16:9 image be adapted or are we talking brave new world?

With a lot of experience in cinema-style-ratios, systems such as Hawk and Panavision anamorphic, I knew we had to adapt our thought process for such a giant ratio, but an early test and conversations with the screen’s supplier determined that anamorphics were out, potential distortion. So we needed to work within a 16:9 frame at a resolution that would hold up when most of your image is surplus to requirements. 

Danny Coster and his team at Locomotion established that shooting 4K would give us enough resolution for the 22:2 frame and we began storyboarding based on our new tech spec. Also, working directly for the client meant no agency backup. We had to get it right and we only had 2 days to shoot over forty set ups. So...

High speed special effects – EG: PHANTOM see Philips blender, were out. Too expensive and no way to pump high light levels into a live restaurant without frying the diners. This was all about appetising food shot in a quirky appealing way. We needed to be clean and straightforward, like the dishes. Locomotion had previously shot stop frame for Wagamama Takeaway so we knew a more graphic animated route worked. 

Shot on location at Wagamam Great Marlborough Street excellent home economist Lisa Harrison teamed up with my talented camera crew of The Wine Show fame: Cliff Evans and Jamie Knights. Whether it’s tabletop, location or UFC breakdown these guys can make it look great, but this was a real mission. 

We decided to use the live restaurant downstairs to give depth / a big backdrop and set up two mini tabletop studios upstairs on the mezzanine. Directing both simultaneously was a task - you should have seen the spreadsheets needed to coordinate the storyboards,  almost as epic as the giant screen.

But how did we view the monster 22:2 frames?  Trade secret.  No, joking aside, we programmed a mattes into the monitors and split the result between two displays. In fact the technical challenge wasn’t the monitoring it was working out how to shoot that wide. You have to retrain your brain to use a whole different set of lenses and staging, or else you end up with a twenty two metre mouth eating noodles, not so nice. Luckily…

The result was stunning.

In fact the campaign was so successful we went on to shoot social media content for Wagamama displayed on Instagram, Snapchat and other platforms.

That's waga-tastic!

Finally, it's official!

The Wine Show will begin its run in April - ITV4 Sunday 10th April + ITV1 Saturday 16th. The 13-part, one hour shows will be hosted by Matthew Goode and Matthew Rhys. Yes that's Matthew Goode of Downtown Abbey and Matthew Rhys, star of The Americans.

After nine months filming on location - Australia, Chile, USA, France and Europe - the show ended in my homeland, Italy. Why? Because in every show Mr Goode and Mr Rhys search for a wine that represents the spirit of Italy. Completing a "mission" set by wine guru Joe Fattorini.  It's a wine-off and believe me, things get quite competitive.

Our Italian Odyssey kicked off in Rome where my loyal camera crew decided to test their crane, inside the hotel room. As the afore mentioned piece of kit was too big for the executive double they opened the window, allowing the camera to poke out into the street, directly above... a nunnery. Needless to say the pole was immediately retracted. Papal disasters avoided we moved onto a story about ancient wine and, as Mr Rhys eloquently put it, the bouquet crossed "manure with leather". What he didn't know was that our Roman historian had added her own secret ingredient - cheese. Believe me, there was no acting in the ensuing facial expressions, it was pure Stanislavsky. All of that before we'd even left the capital. I won't tell you what happened at a barrel race in Montepluciano, just watch on April 10th or 16th.

In short it was a lot of fun, and I'm proud to say that's reflected onscreen. It was great to work with actors and presenters on longer form dialogue and interesting to shoot multi-camera links as well as actuality.

Back to the present April has also brought more stories from the octagon, and two more shows for UFC FIGHTNIGHT. There was also a new TVC for ALPEN GOLD which will premier in the next spotlight, and post production on a secret table-top project that's going to appear on a massive screen at Heathrow later this year.

I hope you all enjoy The Wine Show, love to know your thoughts.

Guess who’s back, back again…

Hello 2016! If you’ve been dry for January, well done. If you can't wait for February, I’ve got something special for you…

The Wine Show - a 13 part series to be broadcast on UK TV  this year. Directed by my good self it's presented by two UK movie stars, hot new factual discovery Joe Fattorini, Amelia Singer and the well know Gizzi Erskine.  

Spanning the entire globe the show’s full of riveting stories, gorgeous vistas and (cue Don LeFontaine voice over) "the biggest wine cellars in the world!" There’s also plenty of mouth watering food as globally renowned chefs, such as Atul Kochhar, discuss their perfect food and wine combinations. It's a table top delight. 

Of course the filming wasn’t without it’s dramatic challenges; occasionally feeling as if we were staring in our own version of PLONK. But then what d’you expect when you’re humping kit and crew across the globe. But for every airport meltdown there was the most incredible sunrise or sunset, usually followed by an amazing glass of local surprise.

What makes me particularly proud is that not only does it look fantastic, the whole series is immensely watchable. Nothing about this wine show is dry or high brow, it’s an accessible program you can watch with family and friends.

Technically it showcases Arri’s amazing Amira and the skills of Cliff Evans, Jamie Knights, Ed Bullman and many more.  There’s drones, drones and more drones – one of which ended up on a million pound titanium roof - nothing to do with Mike Garner whose drone skills brought the show’s Italian location to life.

So keep an eye peeled for further announcements and updates because it’s the TV wine show everyone has been waiting for.