Filming in Europe Post Brexit
Introduction ATA Carnet Duplicate List Travel Goods Movement Reference (GMR) Introduction In this post-Brexit, post-Covid world, travelling around Europe with filming equipment is a challenge upon itself. Before our worlds changed due to political reasoning and pandemic ongoings, travelling into Europe for work was tricky, but also a regular and [...] Read more
15 Top-tips to Becoming a Freelance Videographer
Top tips to Becoming a Successful Freelance Videographer Introduction 6 years ago, after a fun and prosperous career working within various different agencies and production companies, I decided to take the leap. I chose to leave a reliable and steady world of 9 to 5 for the topsy turvy world of freelancing. And after many ups, a few lows, a bunch [...] Read more
Getting to grips with grip - how to PROPERLY setup a tripod
Recently Wex Photo Video - the UK’s leading photography and video store, asked me to make a film about getting the most out of a fluid head tripod. As a professional cameraman with over a decades worth of experience, it put me in a good position to do so. I thought I’d write this up into a blog to help anyone else out there getting to grips with [...] Read more
Filming Green Screen with the Sony FS7
Recently I was DP'ing a shoot for the return of a BBC primetime comedy show. As we were getting set up I had the usual pre-shoot conversation with the client... what's your workflow, what resolution would like, what gamma settings would you like, etc... and as often is the case, the client didn't know. I always like to establish if the client has [...] Read more
Top cameraman hacks to save money and time
I just thought I’d take 10 minutes out to share my top hacks that help me as a freelance cameraman to save time and money whilst out and about on shoots. Whilst none of these are revolutionary, they make my life easier and so may well make yours easier too… Sugru First up, Sugru. I discovered this on a shoot I did for Amazon. Mouldable glue which [...] Read more
Shooting on the Sony FS7 for broadcast
Having now used the Sony FS7 for over two years, Wex Photo and Video recently commisioned me to produce a film to share my views on using the camera in the long term. Trying to keep it as indepth and honest as possible, I set out to create something that could be handy for someone coming to the Sony FS7 for the first time. Looking back a few years [...] Read more
Cameraman Charging Peli Case
A familiar problem to us traveling cameramen is the constant battery charging. At the last count I had 10 different batteries and devices that needed charging for a shoot. This is all ok when you’re at home with your kit laid out but when you hit the road, charging just become an absolute nightmare. This got me thinking, there must be someway of [...] Read more
A Film-Maker's Review of Shot Put Pro 6
Why aren't all camera operators doing this? For some time now secure offloading software has been available. Whilst it's widely used by DITs and Data Wranglers, there is a slow but gradual uptake of use by camera operators, editors and videographers. I've personally been using ShotPut Pro 5 for the last year and whilst it does double the offload [...] Read more
Run and gun videography with the Sony FS7
I thought I'd do a quick blog post on the kit I use for a lot of my work. As a self-shooting producer/director, a large amount of my work is run-and-gun, documentary style film making. Often, I will be shooting solo and responsible for ensuring that the lights, sound, camera and direction is of top-notch quality. I have to be ready to shoot in [...] Read more
