FILMING BLOG

24th/25th August 2010
Trade your way to the USA, semi final, it the last shoot for me, buying for a fancy dress party at Pontins.

Its Ap Gareth Sacala Birthday, so we combine Birthday/Wrap/end of shoot drinks, with a few tunes.


Gareth Sacala plays a mean travel guitar.

Whilst soundman Ned Harmes just looks mean!

The lovely Jess Parish (Director) sings ‘Fever’ with some style, whilst runner Chris Fisher croons in the back ground.


Production co-ordinater, Lily Fitzpatrick, looking very mellow, after a round of Dolly Parton’s ‘Jolene’

23rd August 2010
Travel to Prestatyn
21st/22nd August 2010
Trade your way to the USA in Birmingham/Stratford upon Avon, buying flowers and selling them in a beautiful spot in Stratford upon Avon, what a pretty place.

16th August to the 20th August 2010
I attended the Bath Spar University Songwriting Festival 2010, I have a love of music, and have written for many years. It was a 5 day course, teaching the art of commercial songwriting, with many like minded souls, I loved it.
We had a lecture in the morning, then in groups to discuss the song we had written the previous day. A song a day, I managed to finish 4, and then we performed them in the evening, it really pushed your ‘comfort zone’, I played with the house band one night, after 10 min rehearsal, and just me on the last night.
I met a lot of talented writers and musicians, and was glad I did it.

13th August 2010
‘Sell Day’ in Bristol at a massive Hot Air Balloon event.

12th August 2010
‘Buy day’ on ‘Trade Your way to the USA’ which is where the kids buy the stuff that they are going to trade, and negotiate a deal with the seller. The kids are designing/buying T-shirts to sell at a Hot Air Balloon event.

We were followed by this strange paparazzo………………. aka soundman Geoff Price.
We were filming overlooking the Clifton Suspension Bridge, stunning views.

7th August 2010
Sell day ‘Trade Your Way’ Alton market.

6th August 2010
Buy day ‘Trade Your Way’ kids are buying cheese to sell in a farmers market in Alton.
I am listening to Mike, the cheese expert.

4th August 2010
Its a sell day Covent Garden, it rains and the sun is constantly in and out, and the kids are so fast they are hard to follow for actuality, but its all good fun.
This is the Reveal, Siara tells the teams who has won, in a little garden off Shaftsbury Ave.

3rd August 2010
‘Trade Your Way’ The teams are in Broadstairs buying London Souvenirs.

31st July 2010
Filming at a Victorian Museum, for ‘Trade Your Way’ its an ‘Alice in Wonderland’ theme day, the kids dress up and are great, Actors are dressed as the characters, the White Rabbit is bonkers.

Team Z1 Gareth Sacala takes a broad stance!

30th July 2010
Filming, in Ludlow, for ‘Trade Your Way to the USA’ at an amazing Food Market.
29th July 2010
Travel to Ludlow

25th July 2010
A Skirmish, which is people dressed up in Medieval stuff and battle re-enactment!
All good fun, I was Skirmishing with my DSR

24th July 2010
‘Trade Your way to the USA’ filming in a warehouse in Wells, they sell party packs.
Like any professional crew we start trying on the costumes.

Saira Khan (The Apprentice/Beat the Boss) is the presenter.

and Richard Nash the Director is looking very happy with proceedings.

21st July 2010
Still in Dublin, shooting interviews, 2 camera set up, my Digi BVW 790 and the Canon 5dMk11, fly home, get fleeced by Air Lingus for excess baggage.

20th July 2010
Filming a corporate promo, about 02, all shot on the Canon 5dMk11.
I’m now starting to feel really comfortable shooting with this camera. Its a tricky camera to use at first especially when you are very used to filming on the 3 chip broadcast cameras. But like everything, the more practise the better you get.
I now have a little table top dolly to try out.

19th July 2010
Fly to Dublin, get fleeced by Air Lingus for excess baggage.

18th July 2010
A farmers market in Milford, ‘Trade your way to the USA’ another super hot day.

17th July 2010
Filming at Latitude Festival, I went last year with the family, its a very laid back affair.
Mike Wiseman is the PD for Sky Arts, Ob Doc filming behind the scenes of the Poetry Stage, a group of poets called ‘Spoken Word’ Interviews and on stage performance.

I have 3 cameras with me, the main camera HDW750 shooting HDcam, a Z1 for Mike to use on the performance, and the Canon 5dMk11. Its a long night, but they are amazing, we get back to the hotel at 1am full of poetry and verse!

Mounting one of the poets, just to get the shot!

11th July 2010
Southend Beach, its the new hottest day of the year, 2 stalls have been set up, we are following the kids flogging their booty, all fairly manic, but we get some good stuff, the kids are great fun.

10th July 2010
Filming at a hugh car boot sale in Basildon, all handheld, legging it after 2 teams, of 3 kids, buying stuff to sell on Southend beach the next day. I’m shooting DVcam on a 570, its the hottest day of the year so far, I love a sunny day. The exec producer seems very please that the soundman is fit enough to run!

9th July 2010
Travel to Basildon to start first bit of filming for a CBBC series, called ‘Trade your way to the USA’ made by Leopard Films.
14th June 2010
Interviews for a Government funded website, i-could, shooting on Digi and supplying a 2nd Camera Sony Z1 and operator David Kline. Interviewing top NHS management who are talking about their experiences of mentoring. Bizarrely I looked down the list of Doctors we were filming and I recognised one of the names, I went to school with her! 2nd time this has happened in about a month.
10th June 2010
Canon 5d Mk11 shooting, interview.

30th May 2010
Well thats the Bank Holiday done! filming again down at Twickenham, England v Barbarians, there was more 3DHDTV happening.

29th May 2010
Been filming down at Twickenham, Saracens v Leicester Tigers, filming High Definition ENG, pre-match fans arriving, Teams arriving, in the changing rooms, and player Iso’s during the game, nothing particularly unusual there. But check out these pictures of the Sony 3D prototype camera’s that were filming the game. A multi-camera, outside broadcast unit, was broadcasting the game live in 3D to pubs and clubs around the country. 3DTV has arrived!

26th May 2010
Spent the afternoon walking backwards down the side of the Thames at Hampton Court, filming Digi Beta, one man band, with 2 Radio Mic’s, my rucksack on, an interview for SKY. Then a few pretties around Hampton Court Palace.
25th May 2010
Filming Greyhounds in Oxfordshire, interviews and dogs, one man shooting, another lovely sunny day, and the dogs were cute. Had to be careful, dogs took a liking to the fluffy on my camera mike.
24th May 2010
Just got back from filming for ‘Cricket Am’ for SKY, a little comedy piece about Lilley Cricket Club, in a beautiful, little, quintessentially English country village ‘Lilley’ it was a lovely evening which made for perfect light.
19th May 2010
Just shot a corporate promo about Whitbread Premier Inns, all on the Canon 5d Mk11. I have been using it on various shoots as a 2nd camera, but this is the 1st shoot where I have shot the everything on the 5d. The production company wanted the interview setups to be shot on Digi Beta at the same time, a kind of belt and braces as they haven’t used this camera before, and so they could take the audio off the Digi.
3 lit interview set ups, 2x cameras, Audio, and many shots around the hotel, I will sleep well tonight

18th MAY 2010
Waiting outside Wembly Stadium for a shot of Lord Triesman

MAY 2010

What I really should have been doing was filming a Rugby match for SKY, Harlequins V Sharks, but I decided to take a quick snap of me, and mi camera.

APRIL 2010
A High Definition shoot, filming with Jamie Cullum, a behing the scene’s look at ‘The Cheltenham Jazz Festival 2010′ it was brilliant, highly recommend, and Jamie is a ‘Top Bloke’

MARCH 2010
I have just started filming some environmental kids programmes for SkyHD. We were filming for a couple of days at the Eden Project. You can’t quite get the scale from the pictures but the director wanted a ‘Celebrity get me out of here” opening shot, so we shot it from inside top of the main biosphere.
We walked up the outside for the dome and then we were fitted with a harness.
When you walk out on to the walk way to the gantry the vertigo really hits you, with a few nervous smiles we nailed the opening shot!

On location Director, Jackie Negus and Presenter, Craig Stevens.

FEB 2010
It was warm when we left London, should have took my Bobble hat, it was freezing in Vienna.2 days shooting a High Definition corporate promo in and around this beautiful City.