My passion for cameras, cinematography and editing was given an early kick-start when my Uncle came to stay for his regular annual holiday at the family home in a remote Lake District Valley. He had bought, a then state of the art, VHS video camera and we spent a sometimes rather wet and/or foggy summer filming across one of the most beautiful are... Read More

My passion for cameras, cinematography and editing was given an early kick-start when my Uncle came to stay for his regular annual holiday at the family home in a remote Lake District Valley. He had bought, a then state of the art, VHS video camera and we spent a sometimes rather wet and/or foggy summer filming across one of the most beautiful areas in the UK; he as teacher and director and me as ‘gopher’ and student. Since then my passion for cameras, cinematography and editing has been a part of all aspects of my life. No matter where I am or what I’m doing I am constantly watching and mentally recording light, shadows and how they are formed so I can use, interpret and reproduce them later as needed. This has become an instinct now a little like breathing for me. Coming from a family that have worked in the creative field, my mother was a creature effect artist in the film industry and my uncle works in the video game industry, I was set to follow in their footsteps. For a while I worked in both film and television starting at the young age of 14 on ‘Wings of a Dove’. Then Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, as a camera operator at the age of 17. In 1999 I took a day job in the Civil Service to raise money to go to Australia as the film industry relocated there when a heavy tax was imposed in the UK. With one thing and another it has been 17 years later before I have left to return to follow my passion full time again. I made use of the intervening time, while still working at the ‘day job’ to study at university where I specialised in cinematography and landscape photography. During this time, I also continued to work on a part-time basis in the media industry, starting my own company utilising the experience of my mother and another close friend, to create several of our own projects. The company is still on-going. I have recently finished creating my fourth music video, they are all different styles for different music genres, from Black Metal to English Folk/Roots. On top of this I have also created/filmed/edited a number of videos for Toyah Willcox’s live shows in 2017. I was the head of media for the four years the Dover Music Festival was running (2014-2018). My job was both creating the promotional videos as well as filming/editing the entire festival myself on several cameras at the same time. Then with the footage produce a number of videos for their YouTube channel, which I also ran on their behalf. On top of this I was working with RSBlu Sound, to feed a mix of pre-created videos I made with live feed on their large screen being used as the stage backdrop. I have designed and produced a number of adverts for local businesses, the latest being R.K. Graphics. I have a high understanding of social media video production, creating and filming/editing/directing a number of ‘live’ shows as well as Vlogs for different sites from a fashion company to a guitar pedalboard show. In my spare time, I volunteer by lending my expertise and assistance in several local community projects including filming, producing, editing and assisting with the Dover Athletic Youth Team. It is the work I do with the Youth Team that I am most proud of. My filming work has helped several of the young players to obtain high grades in their sport science A-Levels as the videos were used by them in their project, this has assisted them in gaining positions at University. It has also helped some of them gain a professional contract with several mainstream football clubs in England. Following are some of the strengths I can bring to a project: • Expert in filming both location and studio work • Experience in Live event filming • Functional knowledge of lighting requirements for both indoor and outdoor shooting • Proficient in the use of Abode Creative Studio including: Premiere, After Effect, Photoshop, Lightroom, OnLoction • Skilled in assembling and setting up equipment before shooting • Strong working knowledge of the latest digital HD and 4K video camera operations and maintenance • In depth knowledge of production and direction protocols with understanding of field specific key technical terms • Intensive training with the public in both a safe as well as a hostile environment • Able to work both as a member of a team and on solo projects • Strong ability to recognise and follow a narrative on the go • Able to work from home due to owning my own state of the art equipment, from a studio or on location • Experience of directing external talent in the field I bring a strong understanding of modern filming techniques to my work. I am well aware that cinematography in no longer a finished job when the filming is wrapped, and that from start to finish, the good working relationship with both Director and Editor is paramount. Working as a cameraman with editing skills means I have an understanding of the technical issues and needs as well as the artistic ones and helps me to aid in the creation of a more polished finished product. My Current Equipment List: *BlackMagic Cinema Production Camera 4K *Full 800w lighting kit *Zoom F8 Field Recorder and Mixing Device *Number of High-Quality Microphones including Sennheiser MKE 600, AKG Microphones, Behringer XM 1800 *Adobe Creative Cloud *PC able to edit 4K, specs as followed: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit Inter Core i7-5930K CPU @ 3.50 (12 CPUs) 32 GB Ram DirectX 12 NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN X (28GB Memory) Creative LAB Sound Blaster Z *Full Adobe Creative Cloud Membership *Superfast Fibreoptic Broadband allowing downloading and uploading of video in minutes Read Less