Bragg Photos

I’ve recently set up a YouTube channel, mainly in order to upload some 8mm shot films I’ve been working on recently (watch this space). In the meantime, I’ve uploaded some of my better University films from 2005-2008, which are pretty much the only things I’ve worked on that I know I’ve got permission to share. All of these four films were shot on Mini DV, which was the primary digital standard definition that we worked on at University at the time, soon to be superseded by High Definition.

I’ve uploaded four so far. There were two others that I quite like, which I would have uploaded, but they both have (I think) copyrighted music, which we probably didn’t have permission to use at the time, let alone now. I might do some editing on those two and release them at some point. Those missing two are my first works shot on 8mm and 16mm film (although the transfers are standard definition), so it’s a shame I can’t upload them yet, as they would be interesting to compare them to the Mini DV work.

The first – Is Someone There? (2008) – was my final ‘Individual’ project. It’s a Nick Broomfield style documentary, and probably, to this day, the film that I am most proud to have worked on. My friend David Hutnik worked on it with me on camera (and I helped in turn on his ‘Individual’ project, see below) and I did everything else, including sound (unusual for me! – but I was purposefully doing the Nick Broomfield role). The documentary follows four young people on a programme run by the YMCA and Prince’s Trust:

The next film I uploaded is a second year documentary, for which my role was camera – Meet Mark (2007). It’s a film about an autograph hunter called Mark, and, oddly, features Sacha Baron Cohen (in his Borat persona). It’s not all made in a style that I like, but the London bits, especially towards the end, are very enjoyable and visually interesting. The copy I have is not the best quality, and is letterboxed, but it’s the best copy I have. (It was made in the era of working on DVDs and dodgy transfers).

The next two films I’ve uploaded are not actually films that I was credited for on my course, they were made for other people’s ‘Individual’ third year projects.

Another Me (2008) was directed by Martin George, and Produced by Yusuf Gillani. I was drafted as Director of Photography, and really appreciated the practice at the time! It was basically just the three of us in the crew, for about a week or so. It’s my favourite University drama film I worked on, and stands up so much better against some of the full group projects that I worked on, and is still a very interesting subject matter:

Lastly is Spindl (2008), a film I spent a few weeks in the Czech Republic shooting with my friend David Hutnik. It is a sort-of place-based documentary and it features a day in a life of a Ski shop worker. In the same few weeks we also shot some adverts for the same Ski company that features, but I don’t have copies of those sadly. Some of the snow shots I still love to watch!

I hope that there are some people who have enjoyed watching some of my early work. Let me know what you think!