As a filmmaker I’m always looking for an opportunity to create my passion projects or let my imagination takeover. I’m a former Royal Marine and have served in some dangerous places around the world. Through-out my military career, I always had an eye for a story or a beautiful scene and often took photographs or tried to film that moment. This probably originates from my father’s influence, Bernard Glancy – a cameraman and director of photography who has been in the industry for 5 decades and worked worldwide for ITN, BBC and international broadcasters. Through him I’ve learnt the art of cinematography and the importance of selecting the highest quality equipment.

Directed by James Glancy and Marty Stalker

When Sony asked me to create a short film that could demonstrate the versatility of the E-mount range of lenses, I let my childhood imagination take over, and I wrote ‘The Secret Cupboard.’ As a child I had a very active mind and loved exploring new places, especially if they were forbidden. Close to where I grew up in Surrey in England, there are many woods, walled gardens, stately homes, and disused Second World War air raid shelters. These provided with me with endless places to discover and let my imagination run wild.

Heavily influenced by childhood adventures and literary influences such as the ‘Famous Five’ and ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’, this story is about a young boy (Reggie) moving into a new house. Whilst playing he follows his pet dog (Hugo) into the cupboard under the stairs, taking him into a new world. He emerges in Penshurst place, a 14^th century manor house, once the property of Henry VIII. As he goes in search of Hugo, he finds himself in a maze of haunted rooms, armouries, and a stunning walled garden. Penshurst Place allowed co-director Marty Stalker and DOP Bernard Glancy a huge range of scenes and light conditions to push the Sony cameras and lenses. With limited time and a small crew, we were all multi-tasking and had to work efficiently.

For the shoot we selected the FX9 and FX6 as the main cameras, pairing them with the new FE C 16-35mm T3.1 G cine lens, FE 50mm f/1.8, FE 70-200mm f/2.8 GM OSS and FE 16-35mm f/2.8 GM. Our aim was to keep the scenes flowing, by following Reggie’s natural inquisitiveness as a child. We set the FX6 on a Movi gimbal and told him to explore each area, in order to capture his real expressions. The whole film was shot in one day, which meant we were up against time. The beauty of Sony’s E-mount system is that we could make quick lens changes on both camera systems, and set-up both cameras on the same settings.

Usually we use SLOG 3 cine, but we opted to film in S-Cinetone for the Secret Cupboard because the colour matrix produces that cinematic look without much correction in post. I was slightly nervous not shooting in LOG until I saw the rich colours in the scene with Reggie by the fire. We lit some of the internal scenes, but for most scenes we relied on natural light.

Inside the stately home we predominantly used the 50mm and the 16-35mm cine lens on the FX6, mounted on the gimbal as we followed Reggie around the house. On all the moving sequences we used auto-focus, allowing the camera operator to concentrate on framing and moving smoothly. Outside, when filming with Hugo the dog, the FX9 was used with the 70-200mm G Master lens mounted on a tripod, to capture long shots when Hugo stood still. However, we continued to use the gimbal with FX6 and cine lens when following the dog around the gardens. This is where autofocus was invaluable. The dog moved so quickly, it would have been almost impossible to keep up with him and maintain a sharp focus. The beauty of the E-mount range is that there are so many fast lenses to choose from that are interchangeable with all Sony Alpha and Cinema line cameras.

The Secret Cupboard production team included Marty Stalker as Director, myself as writer, co-director, producer and behind the scenes camera, Bernard Glancy as DOP and lighting, and Brendan Monteiro as Movi operator, and Reggie the actor and Hugo the dog as themselves. Editing and post-production was by Marty Stalker.

Since shooting the Secret Cupboard, I’ve shot over 500 hours on the Sony FX6 and E-mount lenses for television shows (Discovery Channel, National Geographic). I’m extremely impressed by the versatility of the lenses when using either auto and manual focus, and the quality of the image. More recently I have co-directed my first feature documentary “Afghanistan,’ with Marty Stalker. We again used the FX6, Sony professional sound recording equipment and the E-Mount lenses (16-35mm, 24-70mm, 70-200 G Masters). “Afghanistan” will premiere in early 2022.