Unit stills in the urban jungles

I always like to hear from production companies and film crews coming in from overseas. It’s nice to know my unit stills photography is making its way outside of the bubble that London can sometimes be.

This enquiry came in the form of a request for a unit photographer for a pilot episode of a new Youtube Kids show. It’s titled ‘Maddie’s Urban Jungles’, starring the one and only Maddie Moat.

Two days of filming, with the first around central London, doing a few ‘to camera’ pieces The second day would be exploring the green lands of Richmond Park.

Maddie’s Urban Jungles is set in cities around the world with Austin, and London playing host to this episode. The idea is to show urban kids that there is a world of wildlife right on their doorsteps.

The pleasure of working on documentaries is that you usually have a bit more time with the talent than you would on a feature film. I was able to borrow Maddie and the kids between filming, to go off and shoot some extra promo photography. Having this option, as well as shooting along side the film crew, during takes is a dream.

Above is Toby Edwards, who works as a sound designer, engineer, and composer.

For Maddie’s Urban Jungles, Toby was brought in to let the kids listen to the noises made by insects burrowing beneath the earth. Using special microphones and recording equipment he is able to hear the sounds from above the surface, without disturbing their habitats.

Having a lovely location like Richmond Park always makes the job a little easier, presuming the weather holds out. Having a great crew and cast on top of that just tops it off.

On this one I had free rein to grab my shots during takes, between takes and plenty of BTS images of the filming as we went along.

Head over to YouTube and take a look

I’ve loved working on more documentary projects this year and hopefully will be sharing some more of the imagery for the others, once they are released.

Stay tuned…