Uncategorized | Edward McGown - Freelance TV and Commercials Director

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The Craftsmen’s Dinner with Michel Roux – series trailer launched

The Craftsmen's Dinner with Michel Roux

Series trailer launch

The series trailer for ‘The Craftsmen’s Dinner with Michel Roux’ was launched this week. I was director and co-creator for this series on culinary craft presented by Michelin-starred chef, Michel Roux Jr.

The series follows Michel as he goes in search of the craftspeople creating some of the most rarefied produce in Britain: from a handmade knifemaker who spends over 8 hours sharpening a single blade; to a salmon smoker who insists on playing jazz to his fish as they smoke.

Along the way, Michel collects ingredients for an extraordinary meal of his own: a celebration of the the very ultimate in luxury ingredients.

This branded content series for The Balvenie whisky is released March 2016 in 6 x 10 min episodes.

David Attenborough’s The Great Reef

I just returned from a very enjoyable couple of weeks onboard a research vessel on the Great Barrier Reef where I was self-shooting a sequence for David Attenborough’s forthcoming BBC wildlife series.

Watch out for the series on BBC 1 in the new year!

Kisharon commercial

I wrote and directed this commercial for Kisharon, a charity for people with learning difficulties. Very pleased to hear that the film helped contribute toward a record fundraising year for the charity.

Working with DP Robert Hollingworth, we shot the film’s principal drama scenes on the Sony F3, then used the excellent new FS7 for a series of slow motion, macro shots that helped capture the subjective experience of life seen the eyes of someone suffering from hypersensitivity. Very grateful to talented editor and sound designer, Francis Morgan-Giles for his creative work on the soundtrack.

Making David Attenborough’s Conquest of the Skies

You can watch the behind-the-scenes documentary that I directed for David Attenborough’s latest series, Conquest of the Skies, at 9pm on Thursday, 15th January on Sky 1 HD.

The hour long show was fantastic fun to make, and involved following Sir David’s journey for over a year as he made the series. I self-shot the programme on a Sony PMW-300 (along with an army of go-pros) in a range of challenging locations – from a freezing Loch Lomond in Scotland to the depths of the Malaysian rainforest.

One particular highlight was filming with cameraman, Paul Williams, as he launched into the abyss, 200 feet in the air above the opening to Gomantong Cave in Borneo to capture the exodus of over a million bats as they left the cave at twilight.

Slightly less edifying was shooting sequences in the cave down below where Sir David had the honour of filming among one of the largest concentrations of cockroaches in the world – all of whom feed on a giant pile of bat droppings, twice the height of a two storey house. I am pleased to report that the crew have all since had a jolly good wash.

Having filmed the programme last year, I have since been working in Australia directing the behind-the-scenes sequences for David Attenborough’s next flagship documentary series for BBC 1, The Great Reef. The series will be broadcast around Christmas 2015.