I love my crane - new buy from videographer in Florence

Strange title? Yes. I never thought I could describe a piece of film equipment that way, but it's true.

I have just upgraded from a cobra crane jib to the Kessler crane KC8 for our fitness advert shoot in Stazione Lepolda Firenze.

Wow it really is a great piece of kit. The difference from my old one is massive. For such a lightweight and portable crane the smooth flowing floating shots look awesome. Production value goes through the roof when creatively used crane shots are employed. With some careful practice you don’t need to hire a specialized operator and bust the budget.

Photoshoots in Elba Island

The last few weeks have been a very busy and exciting time.
Firstly, I finally moved into the new Florence studio & office and it's looking and feeling great! I then went with all the team for a week of cross media shoots on the beautiful Elba Island, just off the Tuscany coast.
We shot 5 cross-media collections for Image Source, and my favourite Art Director Tanya Lefevre who flew from London with her usual bag of amazing props and ... a new underwater casing for the D5 that we were testing, resembling a very cool sixty-handbag - basically, a plastic bag!
The weather was beautiful, with endless blue skies and an amazing strong sunlight. David Steven Lee was doing video as usual but this time with his new Panasonic GH2, and my Italian assistant Vanni proved to be absolutely untiring throughout the week!
We had lots of fun and some great adventures - shooting underwater was amazing - and I will be posting some photographs and videos as soon as they go through editing and retouching. To be expected: a couple of vintage cars to die for, a bunch of wild kids, a beautiful bride, 5 stars hotel treatment, SPA, romantic sunset, young and free teenagers ....

A trip down memory lane - DIVA magazine covershoot video

DIVA magazine cover shoot - behind the scene from emma innocenti on Vimeo.

Once upon a time...
...before I started writing this blog, there was a special celebration 150th issue for DIVA magazine...
We invited 150 women of all sizes, shapes and colour to take part in a naked photoshoot to grace the cover of the magazine. It was a way to celebrate real women and the real readers of the magazine who could finally see themselves represented and have the thrill of a real photoshoot.

The planning and organisation was quite manic, and we had no idea how many of the women would turn up at silly o'clock at the Heaven Club, in Central London for a 15th of August early breakfast photo shoot.

We didn't know if we could managed to get them all nice, naked and relaxed, looking at the camera and smiling without catching a single blink.
Also more importantly, without showing private parts or even a single nipple, as they are totally banned (by law) from front covers of magazines!

Well, we made it! Enjoy the video that has just been re-edited for my website and thanks to: Jane, Louise and Eden at Diva magazine; Antonello; Benedetta for the production, Giacomo and Nicky for assisting me, David for the video; the stewards on the day; Heaven & Kinetic for the logistic support and EVERYONE THAT DARED BARE IT ALL! It was fun!