I was fortunate enough to be able to shoot a Documentary down Savile Row at Henry Poole & Co. the first every tailoring firm to move down the street, we wanted to make a personal story but place it in a portrait of a place where craft and tradition come first.

The film is a study of those for which detail and precision are at the heart of their work. At a time when machine work is increasing its presence within firms, tailors are looking to stress the quality of their true bespoke work – a suit made entirely by hand. Tailoring is a craft surviving 200 years and takes highly skilled individuals 8 -10 weeks to create a unique suit. For the tailors, cutters and finishers; bespoke is the epitome of their craft.

I decided to shoot super 16. Film is a physical medium, one that you can touch and feel and i felt that using a traditional photochemical based capture format demanded a level of precision and craftsmanship not too dissimilar to that of a bespoke tailor. Therefore i believed that shooting on film brought an extra dimension to the documentary that would be lost with digital capture.

We had 2,000feet of film stock which equates to less then a hour of footage around 50odd minutes for a 15 min film and had a back up camera in the bag (a hacked gh2 and a 7d) much like Top Gear have the bastard car on their epic journeys incase it all goes tits up, but thankfully we did not have to as i was not happy with a few test shots and stills that we took on the 7d.

Anyway here are some pictures unfortunately from a compressed version. I would love to share a link but we are currently about to hit the festival circuit and have had our first screening at the BFI Southbank in London, I really find the work posted here of a high standard and would love to hear feedback and thoughts? would any of you consider shooting film if the project would seem more authentic with it?

On a plus note i really love Super 16mm, It was a sad day when Fuji finally shut up shop I have only shot one narrative short and this documentary on the stuff and another short on a Bolex and yes it is a very grainy medium but it resolves colour beautifully and has great dynamic range and uncompressed from a 2k scan it is mint! I will shoot film as and when i can but for budgetary reasons this may not be possible..... Sooooo i cant wait for the Black Magic Pocket as it would mean the same field of view and a chance to stick on some Zeiss super 16mm Cine lenses.