Chris Layhe & CLAi

San Francisco, CA, USA

Filmmaker • director • producer • videographer • video editor • color grader

Hi, I'm Chris Layhe, I'm in the San Francisco Bay area and I have a passion for making outstanding films and videos that excite people to create change. I've been a Cinematographer, Editor and Colorist for over 25 years, working on everything from Feature Films to National Commercials, Fortune 500 Corporate Videos to Music and Performance videos, and Broadcast Documentaries to Crowdfunding pieces. I started out at the BBC in London as a Director and Editor (I'm English but have lived here for over 20 years), and then moved to the ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi as a Director, Editor and Cinematographer before starting my own London production company, CLAi, to let me also take on film projects (I've always been the CL and the friends and associates that like to work with me provide the Ai). It was a great background for any film and broadcast professional, and established my approach, which is very much a combination of delicate multi-layered storytelling and perfectly composed imagery at the highest quality possible. Throw in a deep appreciation of sound developed from years as a musician, and a wickedly crazy sense of humor and you have the essence of what I do - in pretty much any role. Today, I work as a solo independent contractor on most projects, in order to be able to provide a very high level of creative excellence while still being affordable enough for most productions. That may be as an Editor and/or Colorist, or as a DP and/or Cinematographer, or some other combination of my skill sets and experience. Whatever will best meet the needs of each individual client and of their film or video. For larger projects, or those which have very short timelines, I call on the support of my little CLAi gang to put together a complete production team, as well as comprehensive facilities for post-production and every part of the shoot - except for a live action studio, which we always rent. Almost all of my work is shot and color graded in 4k or RED 6k UltraHD for the ultimate in quality, and edited and finished for the internet, BluRay, theater projection or broadcast TV. Last but not least - I love to chat with people about film and video projects and find out how I can help to turn their ideas into reality... even if that means doing a little research and pointing them in the direction of a more appropriate solution than I can provide. Maybe that sounds crazy, but for me, and CLAi, it has always been about creating the most successful film or video that can be made - and achieving that is as exciting to me now as it was when I first picked up a camera back in Manchester when I was 18, and believe me - that was an eye opening experience!

BMW M class race cars, great drivers, terrific location... how could it be anything but oodles of fun and a wickedy successful video for SVC!

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BMW M class race cars, great drivers, terrific location... how could it be anything but oodles of fun and a wickedy successful video for SVC!

Two

This is a clip from the feature film “Searching for Nepal”, it was created as a documentary to open the next chapter of a book by Phil Deutschle about his time in Nepal as part of the Peace Corps, produced by Far Journey Productions - Phil, Robyn Hutman and Matt Dickinson and shot entirely on location in Nepal. Chris Layhe and CLAi were asked to color correct and color grade the film, while also handling the audio final mix and project mastering.

Three

The CLAi Color Grading Reel shows some of the many steps that we take in color correcting, grading shot to shot, creating a look and removing unwanted elements from a film or video. Much of our work is shot in 4k or 6k RAW, as seen here, and then brought to 1080P for delivery. This is a low resolution 720P output.

Four

Chickenfoot "Three And A Half Letters" music video, produced for Chime Interactive, executive producer Jon Luini, director Arthur Rosato, director of photography Chris Layhe for CLAi, editors Alexandra Conway and Chris Layhe for CLAi, color correction by Chris Layhe and Alexandra Conway, narrative cameramen Beau Saunders and Chris Layhe for CLAi. band cameramen Jon Luini and Chris for Chime Interactive.

Five

"DeepFlight Dragon And Super Falcon" video for the Monaco Yacht Show 2015 and DeepFlight PR and promotion use. The Dragon video was shot in Lake Tahoe by CLAi, DP and Director Chris Layhe, dive camera and drone Duncan Clark, second drone Michael Miller. The Super Falcon footage was shot by the GoPro extreme team. Editor and colorist Chris Layhe.

Six

"Punches" is a video production by CLAi for Visage to launch their new service Visage Pulse as corporate social media marketing video. Like all of our pieces for Visage, it uses humor and a degree of quirkiness to make it's points - this time with the addition of small animated iconography. Chris Layhe was producer, director and DP on the project for CLAi, which was edited, color corrected and color graded by Chris Layhe and CLAi. Shot in 6k on the RED Epic Dragon for UHD 4k delivery.

Seven

"Love And Other Devices" is the first film produced and directed by Elle Stanion,.a narrative about Artificial Intelligence that comes at the subject from a whole new direction in a whole new way, and is funny, engaging and extremely well made. Elle asked Chris Layhe to provide guidance on the post-production workflow for RED 4k, color grade the film, and handle green screen keying. The film has been shown at 14 film festivals around the world and won multiple Best Film Awards.

Eight

This is the Kickstarter video created for the highly innovative ThoughtFull Toys to drive their crowdfunding campaign for the "Modarri" line of toy cars. The miniature vehicles are a totally new approach to the toy car, which are steered and propelled in much the same way as the finger skateboards of the 1980's, and are built with real nuts and bolts to enable a user to reformat them with spare parts and use other cars to build new concepts... very cool stuff from some very clever guys!

Nine

This clip is from the feature documentary film "The New Generation Queens" produced and directed by Megan Shuzter. It is the story of a group of women coming together to play soccer in Zanzibar in the face of social, religious and sexual discrimination. Chris Layhe handled much of the editing, the color correction and grading, the final audio mixing and the mastering of this film. It has been featured in six international film festivals, winning Best Documentary and Best Social Impact Awards.

Ten

"YaLaLay" by Stephen Bigger and the Santa Cruz World Choir and Orchestra. This music video was designed and produced by CLAi, and shot on the RED Epic and Canon 5Dii, all in slow motion from 60fps to 300fps, Director and Cinematographer Chris Layhe, edited by Chris Layhe and color graded and mastered in Da Vinci Resolve Pro. It's a fairly different style of non-narrative music video for CLAi to create, a song that in Swahili that only uses fifteen different words over six and a half minutes!

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