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.

The GTC also does a great job of bringing together industry professionals and providing it’s members with a forum to learn and pass on information.

I was recently invited to join and as it’s been on my mental list of things to do for some time I decided to do it. I was quite surprised to be told that Dad and I are the first father son members of the GTC, I thought nepotism was rife in the TV industry, maybe not so!

As a member I was invited to attend the AGM, workshops and Awards this weekend in Birmingham. Although I was not able to attend all the things they had planned I was able to make the awards and the dinner dance after.

The Event and the GTC itself have many sponsors in the industry, most noticeable is “Vitec Videocom” who not only own Vinten but have recently bought “Camera Corps”. It was great to see Bill Vinten at the awards, 90 years young, still supporting the GTC after nearly 40 years of involvement.

Bill Vinten was awarded in 2010 the most prestigious GTC award the “TiCA” award. It was not the first time the name Vinten has been etched on the award as William Vinten collected the first GTC award in 1974 for the “Fulmar Pedestal”. You can read more about the history of Vinten here:

http://www.vinten.com/en/timeline

The TiCA is awarded to an individual who has furthered the cause of the GTC by fostering and improving the art and craft of the professional television cameraman over many years.

The previous role call of TiCA winners is pretty impressive, Barry Dodd, John Brennan, Ron Green, Clive Lovell and Sir David Attenborough to name just a few.

Now to be honest I did know Dad was going to be awarded something on the night, I had no idea it was the TiCA! As time went on and on and the table of awards was depleted, some choosing to make a short speech and others choosing to take the award and scuttle off to admire their prize I started to wonder if someone had got it wrong and he was not going to get one at all!

So they came to the final award, the TiCA, and they moved quickly on and suddenly they were playing a short video of some of dads early work including, Z-Cars, Doctor Who, top of the pops and Tales of the unexpected along with a few shots of him in his finest flares and bushy 1970′s beards.

It was very funny and when it ended there were rapturous applause from the audience.

Dad made a short speech and credited lots of people including previous award winner Ron Green who was his camera supervisor at the BBC in the early days.

Safe to say the award will be taking pride of place in the Greenway household and I was very privileged and proud to be there to see Dad receive the award.

The dinner afterwards was very relaxed and informal and good chance to meet and chat to all the people we hadn’t met earlier in the day.

Lots of people keen to see dad’s award and the first father and son members and many interested to hear more about what I do, all the different minicams and remote cameras available, and what I do day to day.

It was a great weekend, disappointed with myself for not getting more involved with the GTC earlier on in my career but it would be safe to say I will be more involved from now on.

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!

The first band up were The Musgraves who played one of there own tunes, Comfortable Shoes, and then did a great cover of I Need A Dollar, what a fantastic tight group, they really set the whole tone for the rest of the day.

Throughout the day we saw appearances from Dave Pearce, Clare Teal, Steve Lamacq, Kelly Jones, Damon Albarn, David Rodigan, Richard Hawley, JD McPherson, Huey Morgan, Will Young and of course we have to give a mention to Sir Terry Wogan.

Most memorable for me were the performances from Paloma Faith and Carol Decker. Before her first track, Paloma was relaxed and joking around with her manager/agent and a couple of people from Radio 2, in the background her two backing singers in 7” heals and short skirts were pretending to be robots, trying to shake each others hands and drink tea all jerky and weird nearly tripping over the cables and mess on the live lounge floor. It’s and image that will stay with me and always make me smile.

As for Carol Decker, well she certainly looks a little older than when China In Your Hand was first released… I am sure we all do! When it was released it was a school-disco favourite, not a favourite of mine at the time I have to say, but having seen her bang out that song with just her guitarist to assist her, I’ve got to say – she’s still got it!

All the artists and Radio 2 DJ’s were on great form all day, it was a really unique intimate atmosphere and this really came across in the broadcast.

The day didn’t go without a few hiccups, including the audio feed for our web stream being pulled from the patch panel by BBC engineers on three separate occasions, even with a big sign on it saying “LIVE STREAM AUDIO, DO NOT TOUCH”

It was a real pleasure working with everyone at Radio 2 and the BBC digital/online guys and I look forward to doing it all again soon.

The footage is on the BBC website for the next 5 days then on a file sharing website somewhere else!

We rigged the Premier League Poker in Vienna at the end of March and it only got de-rigged last night after the final tournament which had been a 48hr poker marathon!  It was an epic shoot, thankfully for my own sanity I decided to split the job so I did the first 6 days then someone came out to take over from me for the next 10 days of filming.  All the kit behaved itself although it was very hot and smoky in the casino so the temperature inside the TV table was much hotter than we are used to but the Sony BRC H700′s worked faultlessly throughout.  Although it was an epic shoot, making over 30 1 hour programs for Sky there were some pretty interesting goings on, most memorable was when one player put over 60,000 euro into the pot, to call the other player, the other player showed his cards and the player who had just called thought he had a worse hand and folded his cards!  Just goes to show even poker players get tired not just the crew!

This month our Bradley Engineering remote camera kits has been very busy, filming Million Pound Drop every weekend and we also filmed an Orchestra in Westminster Central Hall.  Titanic Requiem was a massive shoot with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and above the orchestra there was huge screen on which was meant to be holographic images in time with the music, however when we turned up we were told that there had been problems with the truss holding the screen.  One of the motors had failed and one corner of the truss had come down and ended up resting on top of one of the priceless chandeliers.  Overnight the riggers had come in and fixed the problem and secured the truss, however the hologram projectionist had not had enough time to program and set up the equipment to the new position and needed another 12 hours to get set up.  The end result was that the whole lot came down and there was no centre piece, no holograms and no screen.  The show went on anyway and our little cameras were scattered amongst the orchestra and provided great close up shots of the woodwind, brass, choir and conductor.

And finally on the Million Pound Drop last night a nice young couple won a nice £125,000, it had been a bit of a long run since anyone has won a decent amount, some really stupid contestants, some people who just mis-read the questions and then some nasty questions.  However Stuart and Karen broke the current bad run of luck and walked way with a whopping £125,000, the money clearly meant a lot to them and Karen was speechless at the end of the game, needless to say everyone on the production team were really pleased for them.

Thats all for now, not had time to mention the new motoring show I have started filming, save that for next time, still not fully sold on the Sky F1 coverage, it’s bloody good but I do miss DC, EJ and Jake having a bit of banter in the pits!

Thursday had me back to Dunsfold with McLarren, this time with the GT3 car, a million miles away from the road going MP4 12C. Had a couple of hot laps with one of the technicians at the wheel getting some nice exterior shots using a combination of Go-Pro and Sony HXR MC1 minicams. We got all the footage we needed from his laps but the subsequent laps with Lewis Hamilton at the wheel were in a different class. Lewis managed to get it a little out of shape on one corner, that really put the willies up our presenter who was in the passenger seat. From the in car camera you can see him hanging on for dear life! The presenter got out grinning like a cheshire cat, the on boards looked great, watch out for them on an F1 channel near you!

So do I stay loyal and watch this season on BBC or turn and see what Sky have to offer?
I think I’ll have to watch the first few on Sky just to see how they cover it!

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.

Lets see how things go tonight, we have a different director, new contestants, fingers crossed for an exciting show.

Earlier this week I was working with a fantastic little crew filming a press day for the new McLarren road car.

It’s the 4th of these press days we have done, press are flown in from around the world to have a tour of the factory then they get to drive 3 different MP4-12C cars.  I have 4 Sony HXR MC1 minicams rigged as in car cameras, at the end of the day each member of the press gets a hard drive with all their in car footage on along with interviews with the car designers, Ron Dennis, Jenson Button etc and beautiful stills shots of all the cars.

Thats all for now, post again soon

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.

We have had some Panasonic HCK10 POVCAM’s out with a Scandinavian crew this week, they had not used them before and have been really impressed with the results.  They have been using them as in car cameras, we supplied them with nano flash recorders so they could record at a higher bit rate and gekko lighting kits to get the most out of the dull, short winters days.

Back on the Million Pound Drop now, be sure to post again soon

Dg

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.

Anyway looking forward to getting all the admin jobs done and getting away for the weekend, Prescott hill climb this weekend, should be a good one if the weather holds.

http://bugatti.co.uk/events/VSCC2011.aspx

That’s all for now

Dg

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

Tuesday 12^th July 20.00   ITV4

Saturday 16^th July 16:30  ITV4

Sunday 17^th July post-02:30 ITV1

Sunday 7^th August 18:00  ITV4

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

Shortly after the FOS I found myself back at Goodwood rigging all the in car cameras for a Channel 4 Audi R8 challenge.  Incredible cars, only usually see them being driven by rich bankers and posers on the kings road.  With a real race driver at the wheel they really do shift, I was scared when I got taken round, testing the minicams obviously, I didn’t get any pleasure out of it at all, tyre squealing four wheel drift, entering corners at 100mph, throwing down through gears at the final second, I doubt any of the bankers ever drive them like that.

Meanwhile back in the real world I’ve had all the Bradley Engineering BE HD10 cameras out on various reality/comedy shows using the night vision function in low light.  Not really had any reason to use this before but it works really well and is great for the classic “big Brother” style shot of house at night or the scary haunted house at night.

Both systems went out with Nano Flash recorders and a pile of CF cards, despite all the new tape less systems the nano flash still seems to be king in my world, for the moment anyway.