The Royal Albert Hall with 48V

I was approached by Eliot from 48V in March asking wether I would like to travel over to london and be part of the camera crew filming a large choir at the Royal Albert Hall. Well of course I would! The event was on the 25th April, we would collect equipment and travel down the day before, do a full day at the RAH and then travel back at night. I booked all the neccesary time off from work and even had my younger sister re-arrange her family birthday visit so that I could attend this fab opportunity.
However, in the weeks approaching the 25th April Eliot got in touch with me and told me that the budget had been reduced for the event and that he would be unable to involve me in the project.
I very nearly accepted this as an unfortunate loss of opportunity and carried on about my business, but since I had re-arranged my sisters birthday plans I decided that I couldnt let this one go. I contacted Eliot and explained that I had made a number of sacrifices to get to this particular gig. He agreed that it would be shame not to take me and offered to look into it as there was still one more place on the sound crew, either he could move onto sound or I could go and learn that area. I was happy with either since the work experience in either department would be of great use to me.

So i got in on the gig, we confirmed travel arrangements and Eliot organised for me to help with sound and rigging, woohoo!

On the day itself we arrived early and had a look around the venue. Nick was to be my 'boss' for the day and he instructed me where to run XLRs and where we should put various microphones. My biggest issue was not being so familiar with sound, I struggled with remembering names of certain microphones but was open about it and asked for assistance whenever needed. The set up was huge, XLRs had to be run from the subbasement, up to the basement then out onto the stage and to each microphone. we also had mics hanging above the crowd and an additional person setting up a PA who needed to split off from all of our feeds. It did take a while. 

Once everything was set up we stayed in our recording studio backstage during rehearsal do make sure everything was working properly. As soloists came out to practice I went out to coach them on where to stand to get the best sound. We also discussed any movement with the artists and arranged for microphones to be moved during the gig. Nick drove the desk for the gig and I moved microphones around between listening in. 

The event ran smoothly and de-rig was done as quickly and then we headed home, back to Wales. Being involved in this event in a department I have never really delved into before really did feel very daunting at times. I had mentioned to Eliot and Nick that I would take on some training before the event if needs be, despite assuring me I wouldnt need it I do feel that i could have taken away a lot more from the experience. I did however get a good look at what happens in the sound department, when working with cameras it can be easy to gloss over the sound when theres someone else to do it. I now take a lot more interest in whats going on. My assertiveness when on my own hasnt changed as much but I am more capable of helping out with sound when needed, which is never a bad thing :)

Tinopolis

I've recently been undertaking some work experience with Tinopolis, a large independent media company that produce content for the Welsh TV channel S4C. I have been working alongside lighting cameraman, Luke England, a contact and friend I have been introduced to through working with the music videos at 48V.

I was extremely privileged to gain this opportunity as the channel it makes programmes for and the business itself is almost completely Welsh speaking and, more often than not, will only allow Welsh speakers to work with cameramen and with general content of the production. This is due to the fact that everything both behind and in front of the camera is predominantly in Welsh, without knowing the language you are not only unable to communicate with colleagues and talent but are unable to pick up cues in dialogue or understand fully exactly what is going on in the shot without translation.

Being from England I have very little knowledge of the language and had picked up a series of podcasts for beginners to get an idea of the language and pick up some niceties so as not to come across as completely ignorant to the language.

I met up with Luke on the first day at Tinopolis and had a quick tour of the premises. The building itself contains a tv studio on the lower floor which is in use twice a day broadcasting local news and general interest, Wedi3 and Wedi7. There is also a second smaller studio for a Welsh childrens programme and an animatronics department working alongside this. There was also all the neccesary areas such as main gallery, editing suites, props, stock and lighting dept. The area I was to be operating in for the majority of my time at Tinopolis would be the camera crew dept. I was to be part of a team of cameramen and soundmen who would go out to various locations throughout the day filming short pieces to be aired on Wedi3 and Wedi7. Location shoots would also include SNG's (Satellited News Gatherings) which would be fed live through satellite in the evenings for Wedi7.
Luke, myself and our sound bloke spent the first day working on two stories, one of which was in a school and another at a writers house in Camerthenshire, both were about international Book Day. I jumped to action straight away and helped set up the tripod/sticks and asked about lighting requirements which was apparently quite impressive, woohoo!
For the following weeks everyshoot had the same sort of layout. Pick up and check equipment from the Tinopolis Office, head out to the location, set up, shoot and de-rig and go onto the next plece until it was time to pack up and head back to the office. Every location would hold a differnt challenge, from sleet to too much sun then smallest room ever to huge places with power points too far away. Whenever lighting was required Luke would tell me what he wanted and I'd get on with it, he would discuss the layout with me and I'd identify possible shots with him.
Whenever Luke was unavailable to go out on location with I would spend time in the studios observing. I found this a little tiresome as I prefer to be more involved and hands on, however previous work experience people at Tinopolis have very much taken a back seat and watched everything happen around them, therefor the staff at Tinopolis, at times, would disregard me and just leave me to watch. I would make an effort to try and get involved but unfortunately the language barrier would also get in the way, so on a few occasions I was left on a couch watching rehearsals and live shoots with a radio and no idea what was going on. However, I did manage to get upstairs to the main gallery to watch some chromakey. The gentleman I was with at the time mostly worked with graphics and computers and was continously getting green bounce back on the talents face and couldnt figure out the problem. I quickly demonstrated my skills by piping up and telling him it was lit badly and how to rectify the problem very simply by moving the talent further away from the green screen as she was too close, unfortunately that involved resetting all of the lights in a short time and the studio staff weren't up for doing that so the talent was left with a green face. In voicing my opinion and explaining such a simple fault I did gain the respect of that staff member who has since seen me around Cardiff and asked me to return. Which is nice.
All in all my time at Tinopolis was lots of fun, I feel that I came out of the experience with a lot more confidence in both areas of camera and lighting. 

In working with Luke I really learnt the pace of the job. I was aware of how quickly a shoot can be and the time constraints involved at times but that doesnt prepare you for the real thing. I adapted very quickly though and made sure that I kept up with the pace and, at times, pleasantly suprised people at how quickly I could help de-rig. The variation of camera shots and techniques I learnt with Luke really helped develop the way I work, I've seen a huge improvement in myself with both technique on the day and end results am very pleased with how quickly I took on board all advise and made it my own.

With lighting I think confidence was really the key, i've been full of it since begining University but I took a bit more away from Tinopolis purely from seeing how quickly and easily things can be done when needed, its comforting to know that although taking time and really getting indepth with lighting is something that is hugely important at times, its still just as good to trust in your instincts, wack a light up and get the job done and having it work just as well.

I loved the pace, the environment and the staff at Tinopolis. This is most certainly a field of work I shall be trying to get into as soon as possible!!

Mickey Gee

So, a friend of mine, Gavin, asked me if I could help him out with filming a gig at the Globe. It was for a memorial gig to remeber local guitarist Micky Gee. I jumped at the opportunity and arranged for plenty of equipment and organised a crew of my own to help out. Clive joined me to do sound and I asked Rhod and Andy (both of whom worked with me on DJ SkillKids videos) and Gavin had all the contacts so I left him to arrange interviews and he requested to do all of the editing. I also arranged to use this as a final project towards University.
So the night was fairly random, Gavin had arranged for some guy named 'Steve' to record sound seperate to us, turned out though he was useless and didnt know how to work his own equipment. Luckily Clive sorted mine out as soon as he realised Steves desk wasnt recording anything. To go with this, Rhod and Andy didnt show up, despite telling me they'd be there. So i did all the filming pretty much on my own. I had two cameras, one static and one for me to roam with and do interviews.
The interviews we did turned out very nice, and the live shots were mostly good although the persone in charge of stage lights kept using a horrible blue light which kept flattening everything. Overall though we got some good footage and Gav took it off to edit. We also met up later n the month to get some more interviews at peoples houses, which looked lovely. Unfortunately, despite arranging deadlines and stressing the fact that I was using this to help with University, Gavin has not done any editing so far, partly due to some personal issues he's dealing with at the moment, but after not meeting the deadlines I have become seriously concerned about his commitment. So I was forced to sit down and edit a taster piece on my own.. I have also sourced footage of Mickey and arranged voice overs with Clive, but there is still a huge amount to do. Theres a disc full of old photos of Mickey that we need to get our hands on, I need to make sure we can get rights on footage acquired and do a full edit of the thing. The idea was to approach local tv stations and to distribute the footage to friends and family of Mickey. We'll see how it goes I guess!