Royal Northern Sinfonia

Project: Profile, short-form documentary
Role: DP/Director
Producer: Rachel Williams
Commissioners: The Glasshouse International Centre for Music / The Northern Music Trust
Format: Media and PR / Online
Camera: Sony FX 6
Live Video: Stream Scape

Royal Northern Sinfonia is a chamber orchestra based in Gateshead at the newly re-branded The Glasshouse International Centre for Music (formerly The Sage).

I was appointed as the official filmmaker for the 2019 season, allowing me to work closely with the orchestra, guided by producer Fraser Anderson. Over that season, Fraser and I produced a project known as A Digital Guide to a Chamber Orchestra.

Off the back of that project, I was invited back to Gateshead to create four shorts that continue the Musician Profile strand created back in 2017.

To bring the film series up to date visually, I shot all the interviews and solo performances with multiple cameras, one of which was on a computer-controlled track. I used prime lenses and filters to create a specific look to the world inside The Glasshouse. My approach to lighting was very much old school, using large, tungsten lamps through big frames of Magic Cloth with flags and negative fill to shape.

The films are a combination of live performances, documentary 'day in the life' footage, and staged sequences; the films aim to paint a picture of the life of a contemporary professional musician and their orchestra, which is based in the north of England.