Michael Brennan DP HD Filmography
"Exeter Friendly" insurance commercial.
"The light" commercial for RNLI, shot in force Nine Gale on a rib.
"Belasco" Pop promo.
"Boudica" A&E channel Doc. In production. Described as the best lit interviews they have ever seen.
"Walking" & "Cruising" HD info commercials for Irish Tourist board
Four TV commercials for Quatar Airlines
"Italy from the Air" HD consultant and aerial coordinator. (in production)
"No surprises" 3 x TV commercials for African Bank.
"Bright" toothpaste commercial.
"Turkish Airlines" 2 x HD Commercial.
"Rabbit on the Moon" UK Mexican co production, thriller. UK 2nd Unit and HD equipment supplier. Most successful indi movie ever in Mexico.
"Murderer Either Ways" HD short directed by Alex AJ Festinese. Screening at Cannes 2004 and Sweet HD Edinburgh festival.
"Fanta" high speed (2000fps) digital cinematography for Coca Cola, shots were emailed to European agency from my studio over the course of 3 day shoot.
"Stopping Power" Short produced by Blue Star Movies, shot on Italian Riviera, forerunner to a series of feature films starring 6 teenagers cast from around Europe.
"High Speed " DP of full length feature and the first Hollywood action feature shot on HD. Directed by Jeff Jensen, produced by Classic Films.
"The Ride" full length HD feature (second unit DP and additional photography)
"Frozen Assets" Scottish Screen's first HD production for BBC. Black Comedy with an Operatic theme.
"Night People" feature film. HD consultant and equipment supplier (in production)
"B17 The Mission" 3D HD made for specialised 180 degree 3D cinema in the USA.
"Bow Wow" aerial title sequence shot with HD gyro system over Ireland. First use of the Cineflex HD system in Europe.
"W.O.M.B" pop promos for this progressive UK group.
"The Boy Whose Skin Fell Off" Emmy award winning C4 Doc. Aerial sequence over England using HD gyro.
"Schneider Optics". 1 x 60 and 1 x 30 second commercial and Academy award ceremony footage.
"HRH Prince of Wales" for The Princes Trust and ITV.
"Anarchy in the UK" HD short.
"In the Moment" a short that features multilayer bluescreen.
"The Play" HD short
"Barretts Feltham" Corporate shoot, involving HD aerials and cgi.
"Parvest" Bloomberg TV promo.
"Weddings from Hell" stylized effects for ITV
"Liz Hurley" title sequence LWT.
"Gagging for it" first TV comedy shot on HD in UK.
"Hurley" Biography of Shakelton's photographer, for Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Mixing Super16mm with HD.
"Sightsavers" commercial shot in Ireland (HD camera operator)
"Team One" HD feature. 2nd Unit
"Awake" HD commercial for cinema release.
"Suave Bastard" 15 minute short film for theatrical release. Posted on Avid DS HD. The first HDcam project finished in the UK. Short listed at the Raindance Film Festival
Various Aerial shoots using f900
Wide range of stock footage is available currently being used on US Prime Time eposodic, Discovery channel documentaries and feature films.
Editor of bimonthly "High Definition Magazine"
Member of the European Digital Cinema Forum's Editorial Board of EDCF Digital Film Production Handbook.
Contributor to EDCF Digital Film Production Handbook.
Lecture at Danish Cinematographers Union
Designed and ran HD for DP's a week long course at Prauge Film School including HD to film transfers.
HD Masterclasses to 150 Producer Directors at BBC HD Day at Television Center and HD for DPs at BBC research and development in 2003.
HD consultant for DK Danish state broadcaster for drama/feature Asta
Keynote Speaker at Meet the Cinematographer IBC
Lecture at the Danish National Film school
Keynote Speaker Broadcast HD conference 2003
Invited to speak at The Production Show 2003, 2004.
Invited to lecture and masterclass at Edinburgh festival 2004.
Supply and setting up of Cinealta camera for a major HD documentary "Herge" with theatrical release made by a coproduction between European state broadcasters.
Consultant/DP for Australian production company for 13 part TV series
Consultant/DP for US/NHK/UK 2 x 1 hour HD documentary"
Consultant Americas Cup
Consultant/DP for full length theatrical release docu drama of a motor racing team.
Consultant for UK, Irish, Scottish, US, Italian and Scandinavian post production and production companies.
Research continues with testing of grading, camera setups, chroma key materials and exploring tape to film path in the forever(?) changing world of HD.
Gained CAA UK approval for use of High Definition Gimbal on certain types of helicopters.
Co design and production of specialised helicopter bracket for a High Definition Gimbal, with CAA and EASA approval.
Degree Illustrative Photography at RMIT
DP of over 120 hours of broadcast television production, originating mostly on digital/video including
50 drama and reconstruction's for BBC and ITV60 hours of high budget documentary programs for music, arts and science for BBC, Discovery, TLC ITV and Channel 4
Director training courses for BBC, LWT and Granada Media.
Awards
"High Speed" HD Trailer best audio visual presentation,Euro media."Faking it" 2001 Bafta nomination
"Summer on the Estate" BAFTA award Best newcomer.
"Blues and Twos"; Royal Television Society Award Best Factual Programme.
"To Kill and Kill Again"; Cable Ace Award, C4 Emmy nomination, best documentary.
"Histories Turning Points"; Gold Award Boston Film Awards.
"Matters of Taste"; Glenfiddich Award; Best Food programme.
"Strings Bows and Bellows" Golden Globe; best arts programme
My Favorites
Getting to know the Cineflex HD aerial system at Heletranz in Auckland and shooting sequence for "The Boy Whose Skin Fell Off"
Using Digital slo motion for Fanta commercial see www.ultramo.com
For the Rory Bremner Show starring a British impersonator, I designed a 1 minute 50 second motion control move. Using a specially built tripod from Ronford Baker, made for Imax cameras, together with a special setup card for the camera and carefully chosen prime lenses, we managed to keep the registration of the camera pixel perfect for the entire day. We employed a composting artist with computer on location to help visualise the four characters that Rory was playing. At the end of the day we had a virtually broadcast quality composite of the shot. It was a unqualified success on a tight budget. see Moco 4 pass frame grab
Demolition I tracked a 500fps high speed film camera at 35mph from the very base of a 17 story building,as it was being imploded. The camera was 12 feet from the base of the building. The track began after the building was detonated. Demolition track frame grabs. Another film camera inside the building was extracted one second after the blast. A video camera on the roof gave a third perspective, 9 other film and video cameras rolled on the event.
We used my Hawkhead Motion Control Pan and Tilt Head from Hong Kong to Texas, with a few stops on the way, to create a stunning series of time lapse shots for PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
A month of enduring temperatures of up to 800 degrees Centigrade for Fire, Nature of the Beast wasn't easy but the results are worth it! I built state of the art camera housings that enabled us to put cameras inside fires where they were totally engulfed. I further developed this into a 3rd generation fireproof camera housing for digibeta and another for DV cameras to be used on the Wall To Wall Television series Into The Flames. See fire frame grabs
Building Sights; Casamalaparte in Capri. This ten minute architectural programme consisted of crane shots from seemingly impossible angles.
Rough Guide to San Francisco and Seattle- described by Rachel Purnell, series producer, as the best ever Rough Guide.
The Estate Revisited. We constructed a bomb proof box to achieve a unique shot from the roof of a 20 story Tower Block. The camera was overhanging the roof parapet by 8 feet, shooting vertically down. It then crashed 240 feet to the ground as the building was demolished by explosives. I used the same camera again on Demolition for ITV. It is still working!
Strings Bows and Bellows the critics described this series of 5 minute contemporary music pieces as a "visual feast."
The Technical Firsts
Assembled (possibly!) the first progressive scanning digital camcorder in 1992 by adapting NAC high speed camera.
Freelance DP in Europe to own a Cinealta f900
To complete project using HDCAMSR format for "Italy from the Air"
Use of Cineflex gyro in Europe.
Full length action feature shot on HD.
2000 frames per second 1k digital slo motion footage transferred to HD format.
HDCAM project completed on Avid DS/HD in Europe by Pepper Post.
Use of f900 and Wescam in UK by Aerial Camera Systems.
Use of 500 frames per second digital slow motion camera for The Granada Tour.
To export Stanton Crane (Jimmy Jib) from the USA.
To import to UK the Wildfire Ultraviolet light and fluorescent materials.
Use of video minicam for documentary in UK for True or False
In the UK to broadcast material using Canon's High Definition lenses on digibeta
To shoot with a Gyrostabilised Ultramedia camera, sailing across an open Sea (North Sea, from Denmark to the Shetlands) for The Creators, BBC
To use the worlds longest reach access platform (126ft reach) for The Creators, BBC
Programme shot on Beta SP in UK for Friday Report, BBC.
Location Experience
Australia, Argentina, Algeria, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, Holland, India, Iraq, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Kenya, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Quatar, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, USA.
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