
Charlie Derham Cinematography (official)
Ben Joiner
Based: in the UK
Years of experience: 20
Years of working as director of photography: 12
Focus: car cinematic shots and car shows
Ben Joiner is a UK based director. He studied film in the UK and a film school in Vancouver (Canada)
leaving with a diploma.
Joiner has also shot many TV adverts for car companies such as Toyota, Lexus, Nissan, Range Rover and Mercedes. below you will find an example film produced For the Nissan GTR by Ben:
Joiner was director of photography for Top Gear for 12 years, up until he Departed when Jeremy Clarkson was kicked off the programme followed by Richard Hammond and then James May's made a decision to discontinue presenting in the BBC programme Top Gear.
After this Ben was selected By Amazon video to be the head of photography for season 1 and currently 2 of the car show the Grand Tour, which is amazons own version of Top Gear, however, in better quality and with a bigger film crew allowing Ben to capture shots he had only dreamed of capturing and framing.
Below is the trailer for the Grand Tour season 2. This will enable you to get a feel for the quality of the
shots and also the framing of every tiny detail.
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Bens filming Jobs have taken him all over the world, mostly through Europe, South America, the USA, Asia, Middle East and the Arctic. Joiner's capacity to adapt to local working habits and promote a creative and collaborative environment amongst his team and colleagues, has often been crucial to the visual success
of his projects. His attention to detail, organization and a considered approach learned in still photography is utilized in his cinematic and video work.
Ben uses framing to execute selective parts of a scene stand out, for instance in his car series he makes the actors reach out in a car, if the focus is on them. Then when the video switches to a cinematic aspect ratio (21:9) the specific sections of the car are being framed e.g. the exhaust or the engine pistons.
This technique absorbs the watcher into a picture of insane clarity and detail, which flows with the numerous scenes where these shots have been taken.
Awards:
BAFTA Craft Award Nomination 2012