Wootton Bassett Rocks! Wake Me Up When September Ends

Dreambase Studios are very proud to present the charity single and music video in aid of military charities. ***OFFICIALLY RELEASED***, a cover of the classic Green Day track - Wake Me Up When September Ends – produced and performed by over 1000 residents of Royal Wootton Bassett in honour of fallen heroes and in aid of military charities: The Royal British Legion, Combat Stress, The Undentable Trust and Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen & Families Association (SSAFA).

Timed to follow Wootton Bassett receiving its Royal status, the project is the brainchild of Wiltshire mum of two, Tracey Rogers, whose brother, Captain Mark Hale, was repatriated after being killed by an IED whilst evacuating an injured soldier in Afghanistan in 2009.  Having now completed the single and accompanying video, Tracey explains: “I first had the idea for a charity single in June this year.  I wanted to do something meaningful that involved as many people as possible from this wonderful community to remember my brother and other fallen heroes, to mark the end of an era of repatriations through Royal Wootton Bassett and also to raise much needed funds for military charities that focus on supporting bereaved families and also help and support wounded servicemen and women”.  Although repatriations no longer pass through the town, the community of Royal Wootton Bassett are continuing to support families and soldiers by raising funds through sales of the single and video and will continue to remain in close association with military families.

Having secured the support we needed to get the project off the ground, Richard Sutcliffe our Music Producer and Sound Engineer recorded the single using local musicians and singers together with two choirs and over 200 people from the town, the recording and mixing of the track took place in Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios in Box, Wiltshire with additional recording in St Bartholomew’s Church in Royal Wootton Bassett and has been 
mastered at Abbey Road Studios.

The accompanying video for the track features over 1000 local residents.  From our singers and musicians, skateboarders, the Junior Town Crier, sports and youth groups to British Legion repatriation bikers and standard bearers – everyone played a part in the video, which used the iconic Royal Wootton Bassett high street as the back drop. It is visually stunning, beautifully mastered and at the same time extremely moving. For more information on cast and crew, please visit the IMDb page

The project has had fantastic support both locally and nationally; the single was recorded at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios and mastered at Abbey Road.  The music video was filmed using a Red One camera to give a cinematic quality and has been mastered to cinema standard by Dolby.  The video was directed and produced by Mark Kenna co-owner of Dreambase Studios in Royal Wootton Bassett and the Director of Photography was Ross MacKenzie owner of Firebird Films in Swindon. Dreambase also completed 100% post production including 5.1 sound mix, edit, grade and DCP for cinema.

The single and video can be downloaded NOW from iTunes, Play, HMV, Amazon, Napster, Spotify, 7digital. You can purchase t-shirts, writstbands and pre-order your limited edition DVD form the Wootton Bassett Rocks website. Charitable donations can be made by the general public via SMS texting RWBR11 and the donation amount to 70070 or at the JustGiving website. You can follow our progress on the Facebook page or follow the project on twitter





If you have any projects you would like us to get involved with, please email mark@dreambasestudios.com. We look forward to hearing form you.

Marvel Style Animatic

Acme Corporation are at the leading edge of their industry and have recently appointed a CPO to the board. Within the organisation, opinion is split. What's in store for the new CPO? Find out in this episode of CPO Agenda... 

Dreambase Studios were commissioned to produce a series of Marvel style animatic clips based on characters created by the companies creative director, Tim Carrier. "The videos produced by Dreambase Studios have really helped us to get our message across in an entertaining way. We really like what they have done with our storyboard and especially love the sound design and score that accompanies the video. We've already played the HD clip at a few conferences which went down very well indeed. Dreambase Studios also helped us with our social network presence and created a YouTube channel for future content too. It's a bit of fun with a very important message that is a little different from most of the other promotional marketing videos out there. We aim to produce a further 3 clips over the coming months and look forward to working with Dreambase on future projects."

Coffin Fit - Teaser Trailer: Behind the Scenes PT1

'Coffin Fit' was originally a short story that formed part of a horror anthology, written by award-winning director, David Hawk ('Special Delivery', 2010). The story was written with the lead character as both the protagonist and the antagonist to see if its possible to sympathise and be horrified at the same time.

The 'Behind the Scenes - Montage' clip was produced by Dreambase Studios who provided filming, edit and score. Dreambase Studios are providing sound post production for the teaser trailer and short film that will be shot over the summer.

A Day in the Life

We were commissioned to produce a short promotional film, highlighting a typical day at Red Oaks Primary School. The shoot was completed in a day, the music was recorded in the morning during an African choir performance by the students for their African guests and the whole film lasts only two and a half minutes, a real whirlwind of a film. A fabulous school and a real pleasure to be involved in such a project. The film was shot using the EX1 in 1080p with stunning results. Click here to see the film.

"Working with Dreambase Studios was an absolute pleasure; nothing was too much trouble and our vision for the film has more than been fulfilled." [Terri Menham, Head Teacher, Red Oaks Primary School.]

"The School day film is STUNNING, utterly brilliant!! LOVE IT!!" [Jack Smellie, Relaxed Web Design.]
 

S.E.N. Community Art Documentary

Dreambase Studios were commissioned to film the project over the 2 weeks, producing a 30 minute documentary which is to be used as part of the S.E.N. Uplands school's prospectus. The film was premiered at the school during a recent parents evening where everyone was able to admire the artwork in situ, then watch the film to find out how it was all created and put together.

The project was funded by the National Lottery and was organised and run by Purton-based artists Antoinette Robinson and Gordon Dickinson from No Added Sugar. The artwork around the entrance to the school comprises brightly painted circular panels depicting scenes created by those taking part, with the schools’ motto, ‘a vibrant and caring community where learning for life is fun’, as its theme. Inside the foyer of the school a series of square designs create a bright and lively display against the white walls.

‘It has been such a great success, the art work is unbelievable and has made the entrance to our school very welcoming and vibrant’. 'Dreambase Studios displayed an empathy and understanding for our young people straightaway and understood what it was we wanted to capture and portray in the filming of our Community Arts Project. They have captured our arts project in an unobtrusive way that didn’t impact on the project, but actually enhanced it. The film will help our organisation moving forward'. [Jackie Smith, Head Teacher, Uplands School]

Click here to watch the trailer.

Classic Car Event

Over 40 classic cars and motorbikes parked around the town hall on Saturday 5th June for the 'Brilliant Bassett' event organised by volunteers from the Wootton Bassett Chamber of Commerce.

Visitors wandered amongst a variety of vintage cars including a 1935 Austin 7, 1951 Daimler, 1963 Humber Super Snipe, 1966 Mini Riley, replica AC Cobra, a range of MG’s, as well as more modern classics such as a Ferrari 348 Spider and Morgan Areo 8. Additional motorbikes were also welcomed along this year, including Royal Enfield and Douglas motorcycles, and a 1917 Alldays & Onions which has been in the owner’s family from new.

You can see the little video we made for the Chamber website here, which includes one of our music tracks.

School Celebrates St. George's Day!

We filmed 450 children at a local school over a 1 hour period from 40ft crane to create a short film displaying the children make up the coast of GB using the EX1 time-lapse function.

["The film is fab", Terri Menham - Headteacher, Red Oaks Primary School]

Labour Candidate Campaign Film

We were approached by the Labour Party in Swindon to film the North Swindon candidate, Victor Agarwal's campaign. They wanted a professional film with high production values on a tight budget. The film was shot using the Sony EX1 HD camera in 1280 x 720 /25p with boom mic and the 3-way Dedolight Kit with softbox & grid. We managed to turn this around very quickly as time was paramount. We provided the editor with well logged clips, alternative takes and transcoded options for optimum flexibility in the edit as well as offering advice on the technical aspects of the film, including delivery formats.

"This is an awesome result, all I can say is wow! The way the posters have been arranged also have surpassed my expectations, and give it a lot of impact with the lighting." [Ramon Lawson, Producer / Editor]

Click here to watch the film

Wootton Bassett Repatriation Documentary

We were asked to provide camera and filming services for a Liverpool based film maker, who is developing a documentary about the Wootton Bassett Repatriations. Using a two-camera shoot we obtained footage from the event and conducted interviews with members of the public, many of whom attend the repatriation services on a regular basis. The idea behind the film is to show what it's like to really be there - something that's not often portrayed on the news reports.

The event was extremely moving at times (even though it had been attended before by us) and getting the balance of obtaining film footage and paying the utmost respect to the five repatriated soldiers and their families was a very difficult challenge.

RED ONE Workflow

Lighting cameraman David Read provides a comprehensive Red Camera package plus the services of a talented and experienced cinematographer with over twenty years in the business.

“The idea behind the RED camera system is simple. Design and build a high performance digital cine camera with the quality of 35mm film and convenience of pure digital. RED delivers unmatched image quality with no recording system limitations.” - taken from www.red.com

David visited our studios for the day to test the RED ONE workflow with Final Cut Pro 7 in our HD edit suite. After setting up a few shots, making full use of David's knowledge and lighting, we then ingested the footage via firewire 800 using the RED drive RAID and FCS 3 Installer that Provides native REDCODE media (R3D) support for Final Cut Pro and Color. Includes: RED QuickTime Codec (v3.8.0), Log and Transfer (v20.0.0), REDCODE plugin for Color (v2.9), and Final Cut Studio RED workflow whitepaper. Note: Supports RED ONE cameras up through Build 20.

The results were stunning, working in ProRes 4:4:4:4 was not an issue for FCP7, we could easily edit multiple HD streams using our G|RAID's and had no issues streaming HD direct from our RAID5 server to HD Plasma for client screenings. The 2k stills were impressive and the detail when grading in colour and zoom in motion was impressive to say the least.

A Young Film Student With Ideas

Alex Neville approached our studios for a weeks work experience in post production. He's in his second year of studying BA(Hons) Digital Film Production at the University of Gloucestershire and has worked on around 10 short student films over the last few years. His most recent documentaries are: "King Cone" and "Laundrette" which were well received.

We have many innovative project ideas and decided that we would complete one of our projects within the week Alex was at the studios (as well as completing the wiring of the ADR/foley booth.) Shooting all the scenes with the EX1, we completed a rough edit and bounced a ProRes version across the network to the 5.1 audio suite where Alex really got stuck into the sound design, recording ADR/Foley and mix. After colour correcting, he rendered out the short film which was demonstrated to a local special needs school and received some fantastic feedback.

"I just wanted to thank you again for having me down last week. On reflection I think I learned a lot and had a great time in the process. I will defiantly keep in touch and I would love to come and visit again in the future." [Alex Neville - Student, Digital Film Production, Gloucester University]

Magic Mathworks Travelling Circus

The Magic Mathworks is a travelling hands-on maths exhibition for schools, museums and discovery centres. This touring maths lab demonstrates and explores a multisensory approach to the learning of mathematics based on the Multiple Embodiment Principle of Z P Dienes.

As part of an on-going project with a local school, we are filmng a series of events that will be used to promote and highlight the ethos of the school for the interest of new parents and governing bodies.

A Snow Film

We are working with local schools and are in the process of filming a series of events that will be used to promote and highlight the ethos of the school for the interest of new parents and governing bodies. We are providing the whole production from planning, filming, editing and sound post production for this project over the next few months.

Change Your World

Sustrans is the UK's leading sustainable transport charity. Change Your World is an annual campaign run by Sustrans which invites people across the UK to swap just one car trip during the first week of July and to walk, cycle, take public transport or car-share instead.

Sustainable transport charity Sustrans were delighted with the results of their project with Dreambase Studios:

"Mark and his team came in at very short notice, quickly grasped our concept and worked at breakneck speed to produce a short promotional film. We instantly felt we were in safe hands with people who were happy to work with our ideas and blend with their own creative thoughts and experience to get the finished product. Their enthusiasm and commitment exceeded our expectations and made them a pleasure to work with." [Gill Harrison, Sustrans Press and PR Manager]

Filming is 'The Dogs' at Lucy Pet Carer

Lucy Pet Carer is growing and expanding every year to meet new clients demands and have now relocated to new premises as a more intimate family business set in a 3 half acre estate overlooking the countryside around Wootton Bassett. Providing professional service to clients who want peace of mind when they're away from their pets. They offer free range play and boarding, no kennelling. They also have cat and rabbit hotel facilities!

Dreambase Studios produced a promotional video for the business to add to the website as a follow up to the annual Doggie Christmas Party held at the facility. The content was shot on our EX1 and both operator and equipment got very muddy! And they say never work with children or animals...

The Fire Service College

The Fire Gateway is a web portal which has been developed to allow businesses and the general public to access, and interact with, an array of fire-related services on-line. The Fire Service College are the responsible body for the Fire Gateway. Nomos Media were responsible for providing a full-time 1st line support function for the Gateway, for providing an interface between the public and all 44 Fire and Rescue Services in England, for managing all 3rd party suppliers and contracts and for designing and managing all developments across the Portal.

We provided Nomos with a short testimonial for use at trade shows and events. Nomos, being a web technologies organisation specialising in the production of provision of internet based services filmed the content on the Canon 7D and provided the footage on hard drive. We ingested, transcoded and creatively edited the footage to a 3 minute video and delivered on both HD and SD.

Picture courtesy of Fire Service College

Wootton Bassett Repatriation

A grey mist hung over the market town of Wootton Bassett and seemed to match the mood of the people who lined the High Street. Click here to read the full article:

Filming this particular repatriation, the plan was to turn around a newscast edit in the same day using Sony's EX1 tapeless workflow. We were able to work quickly and efficiently ingesting the XDCAM clips into the workstation and edit seamlessly. We also discovered a neat little add-on for the firefox browser that allows you to capture flash content from websites such as YouTube. We used the Flash Video Resources add-on to capture some stock footage for the newscast. We then up-scaled the footage to HD using MPEG Streamclip which worked well.

Anyone Can Play the Guitar

Oxford born Jon Spira was introduced to the medium of film by his dad and one of his earliest childhood memories is assisting his father in the creation of short animations using Super 8mm film. Since returning to Oxford Jon has been engaged in an ongoing documentary project which seeks to trace the history of Oxford's music scene over the last 30 years. To read the full article, click here:

Jon Spira and editor Ben Lavington Martin visited the studio with a rough cut of the feature music documentary "Anyone Can Play the Guitar". We offered advice on the sound post production and Jon was happy with the consultation. He is currently in the process of trying to secure funding to complete post-production for sound mixing and legal and licensing fees for the feature-length documentary and we look forward to working with Jon in the near future.

Our Time Alone

Our Time Alone is short film by Gurchetan Singh (dir) / Hank Starrs (prod) for Blank Slate, part of the UK Film Council's New Cinema Fund Digital Shorts Scheme. Blank Slate is a UK-wide digital short film scheme supporting the next generation of cutting-edge black, Asian and minority ethnic filmmaking talent. Blank Slate is produced by B3 Media in partnership with the UK Film Council and Arts Council England.

Dreambase Studios provided complete sound post-production for this short film involving foley recording, ADR, sound design and mix as well as creating a DVD working copy for the B3 Media tour.

"We really love what you guys have done with the film. I look forward to working with you again very soon" [Hank Starrs - Producer]

To view the trailer, click here.



B3 Media Blank Slate Showcase @Encounters Short Film Festival
Bristol Watershed 2009

Radio In Schools

Radio In Schools is an independent, not for profit organisation. It offers a safe podcasting platform to allow schools, children and a new generation of listeners to get their voice heard in their own communities.

Dreambase Studios provided 100% post production creating a promotional video for the nationwide launch of Radio In Schools. A high definition version was used at trade shows and a standard definition version for the Radio In Schools website. We provided video capture, ingest, upscaling, transcoding and editing as well as sound design, mix and music composition delivered to a very tight schedule. The promo can be viewed in full on Dreambase Studios' Vimeo and YouTube channels.

"I love the ident, sounding fantastic and really like the direction of it." [Melissa Thom - Director, Radio In Schools]

Picture courtesy of Radio In Schools.