The Guild of Television Cameramen

GTC Awards 2012

 

I have always kept up to speed on The Guild of Television Cameramen’s events and awards as my father is one of the very early members he has always passes on his copy of “Zerb” once he has finished with it.

 

The magazine is a great read, there are always articles on technology and shoots relevant to current projects and it’s always interesting to read articles written by people you have know for years but maybe don’t see as often as you should.

 


What a day “2day” was.

What a day “2day” was.

A pretty tricky late night rig of 6 x Sony BRC H700 cameras in BBC Radio 2 studios whilst the studios were live was rewarded with a fantastic intimate days filming the following day.

 

I have worked at Radio 2 before filming bands in the live lounge with Jo Wiley. It’s always so relaxed and low pressure in there, be happily set up and having a cuppa, chatting to someone and then all of a sudden the band pick up their instruments, launch into song and you remember why you’re there!


Busy Busy April

Its been a very busy few weeks with one thing and another.


Formula One Week

After years of not doing much in the way of Formula One this week has been very busy with it! On Monday I was at Silverstone filming with the Marussia F1 team in the new “Wing” pit building. Although the schedule was pretty tight the team were very helpful getting cameras attached to the car for the “on board camera” laps, the footage was very good, we got everything we needed for the client. Great atmosphere within the team, really nice group of guys, wish them all the best for the 2012 season.


March Already!

It’s the 2 March already, can’t believe how quickly this year is going.

 

It’s been a great start to the year with lots of work from clients old and new and lots of bookings coming in for the summer months.

 

This week we are on the Bank Job again, I was told the viewing figures for last week were OK but not great, there were a few technical problems with the questions system and a few stumbles by Goerge Lamb the presenter but on the whole the show looked great and our Bradley Engineering system of 4 cameras worked faultlessly throughout.


Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone.

Feet havn’t touched the floor!  For the first time ever I had to work new years eve and new years day and nearly every day since!

It’s been great fun though, the new Ch4 quiz show “the bank job” seemed very popular and the final show was incredible with a big twist and an ending you just couldn’t make up, you can watch it again here:

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-bank-job/4od#3275003

Our Bradley Engineering cameras were used for close up shots of the money and vault cases, the shots were used lots in the show and would have been impossible to get using heavier cameras due to the vault walls and bars.


Christmas nearly here!

Where do the hours and days go? It’s Christmas in less than a week! The Christmas run of Million Pound drop was great to work on, great fun doing the Channel 4 “Mash up” where all the presenters swap jobs, watch out for that coming up soon. As usual our Bradley Engineering minicam system worked well and provided all the overhead shots of the drops throughout the series. MPD will be back in full swing second week of Jan so make sure you tune in every Friday and Saturday night.
I also spent a very cold and windswept day at Longcross working for BMW last week filming BMW dealer videos. I provided 4 in car cameras which were rigged and de rigged more times than I could count. They had a Porsche Panamera which was an incredible car, sumptuous interior and fast as anything I’ve ever been in, but it’s a Diesel, a Porsche Diesel, really!
Anyway, got to dash, bit of late night kit preparation tonight getting ready for a long week of rehearsals in central London next week. dg


Busy Busy Busy

Well, far too long since I posted on here, I’ll try and make up for it now!
So much has gone on, house move, new baby, office relocation the list goes on and on!
Work wise the Goodwood Revival 2012 was amazing, we had inspired choices when it came to deciding which cars carried the in car cameras, our on board camera producer gave us a list and we attached a variety of Sony HXR MC1′s, GoPro’s and few smaller minicams to the allocated cars. As luck would have it the cars with the cameras attached had quiet a few battles and great bits of gesticulating by some of the drivers as they lost and gained positions.
We also attached a couple of cameras to the Spitfires which were incredible, we had watched them practising on the Thursday and when 11 of them went up on the Sunday it did not disappoint!
The weekend was made better by some good hospitality (thank you Chrysler) and having the mobile minicam workshop/gin palace just a few minutes walk from the circuit.
We had more high speed minicam action doing a great pilot at RAF Brentwaters a few weeks later. Fantastic stunt riders and pretty dramatic pyrotechnics at night, hard work getting great shots on the little cameras in the pitch black but we did eventually get some interesting shots.
Well thats all for now, check back soon and I promise to get some new videos on the youtube channel soon…..minicamdan


Quiet Week in the office

Is there such a thing as a quiet week in the office? Not in this office!

Although not much going on this week I have some Bradley Engineering cameras off to be rigged in a police station and four Panasonic HCK10 POVCAMS going out being used as in car cameras.

The rest of my time has been taken up quoting on a variety of weird and wonderful things around the globe, even had to sign an NDA for one of them, very secret squirrel!

Companies always say “you’ll have to sign an NDA” and then nothing comes of it, these guys seem pretty serious though.


Goodwood

Had a fantastic Goodwood FOS.

The program has gone out now but think it will be on again at the following times:

Tuesday 12th July 20.00   ITV4

Saturday 16th July 16:30  ITV4

Sunday 17th July post-02:30 ITV1

Sunday 7th August 18:00  ITV4

It will also be shown on “Sky Anytime” from now until whenever!