From Timber To Tide reaches 150,000 plays

My portrait of traditional wooden boat builder Ben Harris was made a Vimeo Staff Pick in December 2015. People are still discovering this video and the number of plays has steadily been climbing over the last year. I'm really proud to see it reached 150,000 plays today.

I never thought that this slow and intimate portrait would have such a broad appeal. It just shows one doesn’t always have to make things for ‘the YouTube’ generation as some people call it, pushing for a fast-paced, short video with bright colours and people jumping up and down (just made that up). There’s been a real move towards authentic stories that take their time being told and i applaud this.

Anyway, thanks to everyone that’s been enjoying this little film. More to come.

A film from our maker series. Ben Harris is a traditional wooden boat builder based in Cornwall, UK. This film documents Ben Harris’ love of woodwork and boat building, how he acquired his skills, and how incredible it is to be able to take something that you’ve built with your own hands out onto the water and sail it across the sea. Who is Ben Harris? Ben has always loved wood. His mother said that his first word was ‘log’. He has been working with wood throughout the UK since the age of 15. First as an assistant to a cabinet maker, where he started by sharpening the tools and clearing up. He then developed his skills in furniture making and his passion for wood and forestry by working in broadleaf woodlands. Later he tuned his skills in bespoke oak-framed carpentry and went on to establish a sawmill and oak framing business in Scotland, sourcing timber from the local estates. In 2005 Ben moved to Cornwall to study boatbuilding. He has been building boats and sailing them ever since. http://www.benharrisboats.co.uk/ Shooting from timber to tide We spent three days with Ben, staying with him in the idyllic handbuilt wooden cabin he lives in, in Constantine, Cornwall. When we arrived Wednesday, late afternoon, the plan was to make pumpkin soup and couldn’t believe our luck when we discovered the open fire cooking area in the garden. Within an hour after arriving we were already shooting some lovely material. The next day we covered the area around the house, the two workshops, the woods and recorded the voice-over. The real treat came on Friday morning when we took his self-built sailing yacht Alva out on Falmouth’s waters. First, we covered the beautiful yacht from a motor boat with skipper Matthew Dale and dog Ruben, before we stepped on board ourselves and got close to the action. What a great experience. Stills and behind-the-scenes pictures are available on our website: http://www.pixillion.com/our-work/film/from-timber-to-tide Credits and technical information Directed by Remco Merbis and Fern Scott. Cinematography, grade and edit by Remco Merbis. Sound recorded by Fern Scott. Music by Jonny Pryor. https://vimeo.com/pseudohaiku Thanks to Ben Harris, Jack Adair Bevan, Jacob Dodd and Matthew Dale. Sony PXW-FS7 Metabones Speedbooster Ultra Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM Lens Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 II USM Lens Manfrotto 546GBK with 504HD head tripod DJI Ronin Chinese Lantern Shot at 25 and 50 fps at 1080p and 4K. Graded in DaVinci Resolve, using Impulz cinematic film emulation 3D LUTs at 1080p HD with added 35mm film grain.