Cameraman - Blog

A few years ago, whilst we were all in the height of shooting with our FS7s, I wrote blog piece detailing the best settings to use when shooting green screen. It still is one of my most popular articles yet. To follow that up, I thought I’d do quick article to show the best settings for shooting green screen with one of the most popular video [...]

Page Content: What is 3D printing? 15 USEFUL Prints for cameramen D-Tap Voltmeter Sunhood Follow Focus Gears V-Lock battery plate for 30mm rod Screen protectors Universal Push On lens cover DJI Ronin SC2 Cable Clips Controller Protector PL Mount conversion adapters AA Battery Storage Box Hidden holder for Rode smartLav Board Marker Holder 15mm [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]