Framestore's MVPA award winning Colourist, Simon Bourne has completed the grading on the video for Helicopters and Planes by Josh Kumra. The video was directed by Vaughan Arnell, famous for his work with Robbie Williams, and sees the young singer sulking his way around a deserted central London.
Arnell took a minimalist approach to the video, using fixed lens Go Pro cameras and improvised rigs built by a team of five on a kitchen worktop. “Consequently, it was very fast to shoot although it took a while to get used to not having the luxury of playback to check back what we had shot" says Arnell.
“It was a very brave and adventurous thing to do” according to Simon Bourne, “Vaughan shot some test footage and we looked at the capabilities of the camera in different light and times of day as there is very little latitude. He wanted a very natural look with hints of pale colour but we discovered after doing a black and white version it became more appealing to the song and video.”
Despite the simplistic style it was no a simple task, as Simon can confirm: “A huge amount of grading with lots of different contrast was needed to create the look of the promo to make it stand up to the more conventional cameras out there, resulting in a low budget promo looking like a highly polished piece.”
