Michael was born in London where he now works and lives. He became interested in photography in 2000, but while studying architecture for two years in the University of East London it became a serious hobby and after switching to a photography degree he is now entering the world of professional freelancing after having recently completed his final year.

“While moving image and film was never a greater interest of mine, it has always been in the family with my parents taking family films on video cameras and my father working in a studio close to the BBC. Having an interest in photography and personally knowing the director of photography, Michael Franklin, it was clear we could work together with respect to lighting. It was my job to make his vision a reality and through collaboration or inspiration I provided the means to create moods in and outdoors. It was fortunately a huge learning curve, and I know I’m not speaking only for myself. Being a fan of natural light photography made my job quite difficult, and quickly I understood the huge and important jobs those in lighting have. Starting with the equipment being some of the heaviest and largest on set to the precise flagging and toning of the light colour and shape.

There were times when the lights were up and running, but my hands were decidedly empty. This was when I had time to document the whole process from cooking, cleaning and chilling to directing, acting and filming. For the most part I found that a 28mm f/2.8 lens was the best compromise between document/portrait/landscape and made a homogeneous final product that had a similar effect to the Nikon f/2 lens used on the Canon XL1 via an adapter. I found this experience extremely rewarding and probably one of my most successful projects of recent months due to the very real process of documenting and making magic with light in a most dynamic and beautiful location in the English countryside.”

Michael Huish on flickr:
www.flickr.com/photos/mihuish85

Other Photography Work:

Ealing Comedy (2008) World Premier - London Empire Cinema, Ealing

Global Peace Festival (2008) - London Excel Exhibition Centre

Valgas Moore, currently living in the south west of England, started media 4 years ago, mainly focusing on photography as a GCSE.  After school he was split on what to do, so without much thought he chose to attend a two year moving image course at City of Bath College. It turned out to be a really great experience, which made him want to focus on film making as a career.

“The buzz word on set of What a Witch was “mysterious”, and this was true for every aspect of this production. I was never fully sure who would actually turn up on the day, or how we would shoot a professional film with mainly non-professionals. I was excited, nervous, anxious to start, but also unsure of what to think of the other people there, or what they thought of me. Luckily, all my worries and uneasiness were quashed with a great introduction and tour around the location by Boris Seewald. After this, the atmosphere calmed. I think we all felt like we wanted to give everything and learn a lot on this production. The shoot started at 6am, the earliest I’ve ever been on any set, but spirits were high and we got to work well. During filming, I was given a lot of trust and responsibility, I always felt like a valued member of the crew. Michael Franklin and Boris Seewald made sure everybody knew what they were doing, and the whole production ran smoothly into the next day, we took the last shot at about 2am, the latest I’ve ever been on set. Overall, when I look back on the project, I have only fond memories. I was able to keep focused on the film, but not miss out on general laughs while the camera was off. A perfect production with perfect people, lots of thanks to Michael and Boris for organizing it all.

My job on set was Focus puller/1st camera assistant. That consists of setting up where the camera should be and go in every shot, and keeping all subject matter in focus. It all sounds pretty straight forward, but there was a lot more to it on this film. We were shooting on a Canon XL1, a standard broadcast quality digital camera, no problems there. The difficulty came with the lenses, we were using the kit canon lens, but on top of that, we added an adapter so to use 35mm lenses. This made my job a lot harder. The depth of field while using this set up is vastly shallower then if we used the kit lens alone. So it meant I had to be very careful not to go swinging in and out of focus. With all that in mind, put the lens on a tracking and panning camera and the result is a few more takes then I’m used to. Overall though, the cinematography because of this was to a far higher standard than your average no-budget film.”

Other Filmprojects:

Memories (2007)

Tiredness Can Kill (2008)

My Reality (2008)

Gambia fund raising documentary for ITV West Local

Photographer for events:

The Mayer of bath

All college out reach and promotional events, showcases, open days etc.

Youth Summer Camps

Valgas Moore on FlickR:

www.flickr.com/vmmoore