Dan Greenway Ltd Blog

Well it’s been a fantastic few weeks working on the Olympics and meeting friends old and new.

I must have been very good in previous life because my last minute move by the powers that be to a new venue has really been a fortunate one.

Originally Camera Corps had me based at the Excel centre, I had settled into this idea although many of the sports here are not really my thing (Fencing, boxing, Judo) and also the thought of working inside a dull exhibition centre for 28 days was not really filling me with joy.   At the final hour Debbie from Camera Corps called me with news good and bad.

What a fantastic weekend, the weather did threaten to spoil it from time to time and there didn’t seem to be a weather App in existence that was even close to predicting what it would do next but we wouldn’t let it dampen our spirits.

What a day I had on Wednesday, not your average days filming!

Started with a 3hr drive from Lowestoft where I had been filming the previous evening down to Arena Aviation at Redhill aerodrome.

Despite the low cloud and driving rain we were told we had just 1hr to rig the Eurocopter AS355F2 IFR Twin Squirrel with 4 minicams and 2 mic’s.

We needed to film 2 of the rear passenger seats which would be filled by Paul Di Resta and Martin Brundle flying round the Silverstone F1 circuit.  We managed to get some good camera positions.   Amongst all the rattly and vibrating parts of the interior of the helicopter there were a few good mounting points.

Well sorry I have not posted for a while, as ever it’s been very busy. So hot of the press my new Sony H900 Robotic cameras arrived last week, so far very impressed. I used them on the red carpet for the film premier of “Rock of Ages” at the Odeon on Leicester Square. Very easy to colour balance and match to the other cameras and the control of the blacks was great as the red carpet was actually black in colour! The control is vastly improved from the old H700 model and generally it’s better in every aspect. Looking forward to using them again very soon. Yesterday was an early start at Aintree with a small team from Sky F1 and some lovely chaps from Lotus Classic who are based in Norfolk. It was a lotus 25 that Graham Hill won in at Aintree in 1962 being driven by Damon Hill. It was a beautiful morning and that car is incredible, the noise of the V8 shattering the early morning silence was magic. Damon was on good form and one of the guys from Lotus Classic, Bob was a fount of Knowledge. Bob had been a mechanic when Graham was alive and had lots of interesting facts about Damons dad and the car itself, we could have made a 30 minute documentary not just a little 2 minute VT! The car was pretty difficult to rig, it’s pretty tight in there but I squeezed 4 minicams on and got some great footage.

We didn’t have “Monte Carlo or bust” daubed on the back of an old car and the trip couldn’t have been much further from the 1969 film, but we were en route from Surrey to Monte Carlo.

It’s been a real boys week! It all started bright and breezy on a Monday morning in Guildford with five super cars, 10 journalists, a bundle of media crew and some stunning locations to follow.

The car we were travelling in ourselves was also pretty impressive – an AMG E class Mercedes estate, driven by our very own tamed racing driver. Some say he doesn’t eat dessert because it makes him grumpy, we say “thank you Matty” for getting us there safely and without any mishaps.

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.

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!

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

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.

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.