The Guild of Television Cameramen – Associate Member and Social Media Officer

I joined the GTC as a student member in July 2011, and have recently been upgraded to Associate Membership, which is available to “those who operate cameras in any branch of professional television but have less than three years full time experience.” I have also volunteered to be the Guild’s Social Media Officer, which means that I run social media initiatives, including the Facebook page and Twitter account, to other areas of the web such as LinkedIn.

I look forward to working with the GTC, and helping them build up their presence online – like our Facebook page and follow our Twitter account to keep up to date with the latest news!

Crew Call

For all the positions below…

Please send an email to lake54@lake54.com with the subject line consisting of the event and role you wish to apply for. The jobs are unpaid, but will genuinely provide you with experience that you can use to apply for other roles in the future. You’ll get a reference from me, as well as the ability to use the finished product to promote your skills.

You must be able to go with the flow and have a good sense of humour, however when dealing with members of the public and clients you must be able to be highly professional – when you are working with me, you are also representing me.

If you’re accepted, you must also be presentable on the day. For crew, that means a clean, professional appearance, preferably dressed in black. For talent positions, wear what you feel comfortable in, but it must be appropriate to the type of event.

Heartbeat Charity Flashmob – Multiple Crew Members

I’m in need of several members of crew who can setup cameras quickly and efficiently. The idea I have at the moment is for all the kit prepared in one location, then once the flashmob is ready to start, we go out and setup, and the flashmob is pretty much right behind us. You do not need previous experience, but a familiarity with the basics of filming would be extremely helpful. The role may develop into one which involves interviewing members of the public.

Date, time, and location are not being published publicly due to the nature of the event, but if you are accepted, details will be given to ensure you are available.

Closed: Hack to the Future – Camera Operator

I need a camera operator who has previous experience with professional kit. Your main role through the day will be acting as a secondary camera to myself, getting alternative angles on interviews and events. You’ll have an excellent ability to work with and around children/teenagers aged 11 to 18, as well as be comfortable talking to a wide range of business, industry, and education professionals.

Date and Time: 11.02.12, 9am – 6pm – these are flexible, you don’t need to be there right at the start, or right at the end, but it would be great if you could be available in case.
Location: Our Lady’s Catholic High School, Preston, PR2 3SQ
Kit: If you’ve got a semi-pro or pro camera, it would be a great help if you could bring it, if not, one will be arranged (most likely a Sony PD175). If you have any other AV kit, please let me know in your email.

Closed: Hack to the Future – Presenter/Interviewer

I need a presenter prepared to do pieces to camera, as well as conduct interviews with attendees of the event. Your main role through the day will be talking to teenagers and getting their reactions about the event. The focus is to encourage similar events around the country. You’ll have an excellent ability to work with and around children aged 11 to 18, as well as be comfortable talking to a wide range of business, industry, and education professionals. Previous experience is preferred but not essential, you must have a clear voice and be confident in front of the camera.

Date and Time: 11.02.12, 9am – 6pm – these are flexible. Followup voiceovers may be required at a later date.
Location: Our Lady’s Catholic High School, Preston, PR2 3SQ

Christmas and New Year

I’d like to wish all my clients, past and present, a Merry Christmas, and look forward to working with you again in the New Year. If you have yet to work with me, get in touch! I’ll be answering my phone as normal, and my emails as near to normal as possible.

Perhaps you’re running a local business, and want new customers to be able to see around your shop or office, or you might be running an event and need it covering with multiple cameras – whatever your requirements, please do get in touch, and I can work with you to provide exactly what you need. I have an extensive network of contacts that have the ability to provide the very best in media production services.

My New Year’s resolution is to get myself set up as a company one way or another, and finish any oustanding projects.

Remember to connect with me through LinkedIn or Facebook if you want to see all my latest recommendations and photos from events.

Once again, have a great Christmas and New Year!

Microsoft Office Specialist

I’m now a certified Microsoft Office Specialist in Word and Excel 2010, scoring 95% and 93.1% respectively. Transcripts are available for verification, on request. I am planning to continue with this series of certifications, and also extend into the Certified Professional series.

New Job, New Business

I have been hired as Media Manager and Lead Cameraman at Forward Motion Modelling Agency! I am now in charge of development of their website and social media presence (e.g. Facebook, Twitter). I am also in charge of the video side of things, from producing videos myself, to managing other people when they are involved. I look forward to working with FMMA, and all of the models who are on their books.

I’ve also got closer to starting my business, a name has been nearly decided upon, so watch this space!

New piece of kit

I have just ordered a dolly for my tripod – essentially it adds a wheel to each tripod leg, enabling me to get fluid tracking shots (on a suitable floor). Depending on the exact size of it, this will be a part of my standard kit when shooting, and naturally inclusive in any charges. This will also gives the tripod extra height when shooting from a static position, benefiting situations when the normal height of the tripod might just be a bit too short.

New Crew T-Shirt

I’ve got a new crew t-shirt on the way, fully personalised and embroidered from the good guys over at T-Shirt Studio. If I’m out filming from now on, it should be a little clearer now that I’m a camera operator and not a photographer, as some people seem to think when they start posing for a photo, shouting “come on, hurry up”!

Dropbox – get extra space for free!

If you’ve never heard of Dropbox, and want to sign up, please use this link to sign up to it with – by doing so, you give us both extra space for free!

Basically, Dropbox is a ‘freemium’ file backup and synchronisation service. Freemium means that a company offers a basic or limited service for free, in the hope that you’ll take up a paid/subscription service in the future, in return for more features – in the case of Dropbox, you get a lot more space.

If you’re a student, you can also visit this link to earn yourself double referral credit – each time you refer someone to Dropbox, instead of crediting each other with 250MB of extra space, you’ll get 500MB! That’s another 80-odd songs that you could sync! The offer also works on previous referrals, so if you’ve already referred 2 people to Dropbox, you’ll nab yourself a total of 1GB in referral credit!

I use Dropbox as part of my backup strategy, which I’ll write about in a future post, and highly recommend it. It’s also a great way of collaborating on projects with team members, and it handles conflicts pretty well too. It also has good auditing tools, enabling you to see who moved or deleted files.

Filming at Revolution Preston Saturday 29th October

I’m going to be filming again at Revolution Preston this Saturday for the Hallowe’en party that’s taking place, get your make-up looking its best!

Look out for me in my CREW t-shirt, and give us your scariest look if I happen to be filming you! If you want to check out the previous Revolution video, you can look at it here.

Website Updates

I am currently in the process of developing a bespoke project management system, to enable clients to view realtime updates on their projects, and give feedback on previews a lot easier. This is being developed solely by myself, and will be under continual development once released, to make it even better. Some features of the system include listing all of your projects, along with how far they have progressed. Previews can be linked to, and feedback given. In a future development of the system, I will be adding a feature to link comments to timecodes, to enable a more precise method of commenting.

As you’re reading this, hopefully you’ll have noticed that I’ve added a new category to my website, to enable me to post about things other than portfolio entries. The content of this category will range from short, informative posts such as this, to longer articles, perhaps on computer programs or other videos that I have seen on the internet.

Thanks for reading!