Shoot Film Co. — Videos

Today I'm super happy to feature something a little different: a stop motion animation short created by photographer Max Lamdin. I'm going to let him take the reigns and tell you what this project is all about below. Have at it, Max!

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My name is Max Lamdin, I’m a 20-year-old photography student living in Kent in the UK, I’ve been heavily interested in photography for the last 5 or 6 years but have always enjoyed it, I grew up shooting film and returned to it around 4 years ago and it’s been my main focus for all of that time. I’m pretty much constantly shooting, with no particular preference for subject matter; street photography, portraiture, documentary the works, on a whole range of formats too, 35mm, medium format and polaroid.

The thing that ultimately interests me the most about film photography is the unlimited possibilities which can be made from cameras to film stocks, plus I have always been interested in the cameras and how they work. That was the main motivation behind the animation from the beginning, although it was set out as a Uni project I knew I wanted to make something that wasn’t just a straight video and I knew I wanted to make it about cameras.

In total I took around 3000 images in a simple set up with a lighting tent, sadly I couldn’t use film for this project because I would have if given the chance. The ‘story’ line behind the video was a bit of make it up as you go kind of thing, but I wanted to make sure I was using film cameras as they’re what I’m most passionate about and I wanted to use modular cameras so that I could build them up in the video. When I made the video, the cameras included were my favourites at the time, the Nikon F4, is an absolute beast of a camera and I treated it as such, I used it heavily over 2 years and it was one of my absolute favourite cameras, however I recently sold it as I got hold of an F5 that was at a price I couldn’t say no too, whereas the F4 was a beast the F5 is an absolute monster!

Although I miss the F4 I’m incredibly happy with the F5. Also included in the video is a Bronica SQ-Ai, perfect for this video due to its modular build, sadly this camera has had some issues and has been sent away for repair twice, which is why at the very end of the video eagle eyed viewers will notice something slightly different about that particular camera. I’m currently using an SQ-A in its place at the moment which is alright in some regards, but I definitely miss my SQ-Ai. The final camera in the video is a Polaroid ProCam, a bit of a weirdo in some regards, I see it as something Robocop would use which I hope explains why I’ve edited the way I have. But a very fun camera to use, taking Spectra film and allowing for a larger amount of control than most polaroid cameras. Now I’m using either an SX-70 of the Polaroid Macro 5 (something definitely worth looking up).

That’s the story behind the cameras I’ve chosen, all of the images included in the video preceding the cameras were shot using those particular cameras/on similar formats, to give a glimpse into my photography while also being surrounded by what I love most about photography.

In total, the video took an estimated 30 hours to make, about 15 hours of shooting, and roughly 10 hours of sound design, all of the camera sounds were genuine sounds which I recorded myself, and most the sound effects were found on free sound websites (poor student problems). I’m not entirely sure how long I spend editing the video in total, but it must have been roughly 5 hours at least. I wanted to make something which was meaningful to me and actually showed something which I am interested in which I feel was accomplished.

If you would like to see any more of my photography it can be found at maxlamdinphotography.co.uk or you can follow me on Instagram @the_maxines if you’d rather see some of my more sporadic postings about cameras and general photography nonsense.

Usually, I like to own a camera for at least a few weeks and shoot 5 or 6 rolls through it before I do a full review. But there was something about this camera that really made me feel at home with the way it operated, so much so that I had to do a review on it after owning it for 3 days and shooting 2 only two rolls of film through it. Check it out this video review of the Konica Hexar RF 35mm film rangefinder camera!

I bought a sealed box of vintage cameras without having any idea what was inside. I couldn't resist the temptation. A lot of the fun in discovering this stuff is in the surprise, and when the opportunity presented itself, I couldn't say no. I thought it would be fun to get a video of the unboxing, so here it is!

See photos of the contents here: https://flic.kr/s/aHskzfxdJf
Vintage Camera Collectors on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/vintagecameras/
Help keep these videos coming! Support me here: http://www.shootfilmco.com

MINOLTA CLE SAMPLE PHOTOS:

Special Preorder Pricing NOW. Ships September 8th 2015.

I'm proud to present the newest patches: The All Hallows Eve Special Edition. Two new patches, illustrated by Andrew Denholm. https://youtu.be/B2m0ovlFDJc I've been waiting a long time to announce these, and now that it's September, and the Halloween season is upon us, they must be revealed to the world. I started working on the ideas of these months ago, and when I saw Andrew Denholm's inspiring work, I knew he was the one I wanted to illustrate them. We worked together and the final result are the two newest patches in the lineup, which I am proud to announce to the world today.

The vital stats:

• 3-inch circle
• Custom embroidered
• Heat seal backing
• Made in U.S.A.
• Glows in the dark

Order yours today! Special preorder pricing until September 8th, 2015.

To help celebrate today's announcement, we've asked Andrew himself to talk about his work:

1) Please tell us about yourself and how you came to be an illustrator. As a child i was encouraged to draw at home by my parents and would spend hours either copying cartoons or making my own characters. This developed into making sketch books full of drawings as a teenager with my style constantly shifting and changing depending on what i was interested in at the time. I began to paint a lot in high school and was accepted into Edinburgh College of Art to study for four years. I initially wanted to do fine art painting but i discovered that illustration was my true passion as i loved to tell stories through images. I had not even considered illustration to be a possible career growing up by looking back i realise i had been training all my life for it.

  2) Who are some artists, in any medium and artform, that you take inspiration from in your work? I have had many influences throughout my life that have helped shape the way i create my work. I particularly enjoy the work of Keith Haring as his graphic style is really exciting and full of energy. I really enjoy images with lots of movement and emotion like Guernica by Picasso and his work is so varied it is a constant source of inspiration. Artists like Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, Jean-Michel Basquiat are great artists to study for character design. I also like many Scottish artist such as Peter Howson and John Bellany.

3) Was it fun to work on the Halloween-themed film patches? The patches were great fun to develop. Both of the characters had lots of mood and darkness to them but i was also able to be playful, adding a sense of fun to them. Trying to incorporate cameras into the patches were a challenge as the composition was a little tricky but i feel they work really well.  Halloween is such a great area for character design so it was enjoyable to research the subject before designing the patches.

4) What new projects are you working on now? I am currently developing a storytelling kit for children that will encourage them to write and illustrate their own stories. It has a basic structure that will guide children through the different elements of a story while allowing them to tell it in their own way. I hope to help children enjoy drawing as much as i did when i was their age. I have studied the theory of Vladimir Propp and how fairy stories are structured to help develop the project which has been very interesting. Check out Andrew's work and follow him: