New short film - Pass Her By

Thursday, January 28, 2010 at 09:20AM
Filed in: Webfilm and video production
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The story was initially conceived after a phone call with my parent's who live in a house which is surrounded by vast forestry commission woodland. We started thinking about making a short about a unknown homeless character entering the property from the forest. The short would be about the initial conflict between the intimidating trespasser and the apparently vulnerable housewife.

As conversations about the story developed, between myself and a good friend of mine Tom Bates, who has very creative story writing abilities, the character of the house-wife started to develop. She would be in a rather lonely relationship, who's husband left early for work each morning, and she would be left to tend to the house by herself each day. This opened up the potential for the trespasser to fill a need for a new person in her life, after the initial confrontation.

It was then that I realised the trespasser could actually have been created by the house-wife, as a figment of her imagination, as a result of this loneliness and the absence of her husband.

I decided to tell the story as if the trespasser is a real character for the main part, and introduce the idea that he is a figment of the house-wife‚Äôs imagination as a twist in the final shot.

I shot the film on location at my parent's house in Ross on Wye. It was by a happy coincidence that it snowed just before our scheduled shoot, which luckily didn't melt too much over the course of filming!

I used a Sony EX3 with stock lens along with a Glidetrack and B-Hague jib. I edited in Final Cut Pro, audio mix in Soundtrack, and colour correction in Apple Color

New SetSeed powered website design: IPC Exeter

Tuesday, December 8, 2009 at 03:01PM
Tags: setseed, cms, design, portfolio
Filed in: Website design portfolio
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IPC Exeter needed to replace their out of date website with a new, more dynamic website which better reflected their business. Using the vibrant colour scheme from their printed material, Phototropic designed an exciting new website which could be edited in-house using SetSeed.

We developed an interactive system to display information on IPC Exeter's many language courses, and then connected this with a SetSeed contact form to enable their visitors to easily choose and enrol on a specific course. Because SetSeed supported this already, IPC Exeter didn't need to pay for any custom development on the software to enable this feature. What's more, all the content is fully editable within SetSeed so IPC Exeter can maintain their annual list of courses themselves.

SetSeed features in use by IPC Exeter

Task based interface

Contact Forms

Images and Videos

Page Preview and Version Control

Livechat

This is what Ben Thorne from IPC Exeter said about us:

I wanted to completely overhaul our website and had been mulling this over for too long.

I approached some companies who wanted to know what the turnover of my company was before quoting, which I found odd and inappropriate. Ben Vallack was recommended to me by an excellent graphic designer friend Dan Loveday (Wireeater), and I liked his proposal in terms of cost and concept.

Ben basically built the framework of the site based on my very simple design brief and then trained me to use his excellent Setseed content management system. What I liked so much about Ben's approach was that, in direct contrast to other agencies I had approached, he demystified the whole web design process.

Having provided me with the training and the tools, Ben was then there to respond to all of my questions very promptly and efficiently - for example sending me very straightforward video tutorials to assist me in learning the CMS. Ben provides on-going support because he has confidence in his system and knows that 'on-going support' really means answering the occasional e-mail from me.

After years of agonising over how I wanted my site to look and work, Ben has assisted me in building exactly the site I wanted in a couple of months. I am delighted with the site and would have no hesitation in recommending Ben Vallack and Phototropic to potential clients.

New SetSeed powered website: Science and Religion Forum

Monday, October 12, 2009 at 04:12PM
Tags: setseed, cms, design, portfolio
Filed in: Website design portfolio
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Having been so pleased with a previous website we created for him, Andrew Robinson recommended us to another organisation he is involved with to rebuild the website for Science and Religion Forum. They were struggling to make changes to their site so wanted to move to a SetSeed powered website.

We gave the website's look and feel a complete redesign as part of the project and came up with a powerful yet easy to use light-on-dark interface. This reflects the philosophical nature of the organisation and they were very pleased with the results.

SetSeed features used by the Science and Religion Forum

Task based interface

Contact Forms

Images and galleries

Blog

Page Preview and Version Control

Multiple Users

This is what Andrew Robinson from SRForum said about us

Our previous website was dated and creaking. We were looking to update it with a more user-friendly replacement but we needed some continuity with the previous site. Ben had already designed an unrelated site for me, so I had no hesitation in recommending him to the Science and Religion Forum. We were not disappointed. He has designed a vastly improved site, visually attractive and easy to use for visitors and webmaster alike, and he provides excellent technical support. Thanks Ben - great site (again).