A typical day that recently has been anything but...

In my early years I worked in London as an advertising photographer, shooting international adverting campaigns for world famous brands including: British Airways, Daimler Jaguar, Ford and Peugeot. 

Now, based in Northern England, I have worked in broadcast TV, and corporate video film production for more than 30 years, undertaking a wide variety of assignments ranging from being the Cinematographer or DoP on; feature films, commercials, documentaries, and talk shows, to being a Lighting Cameraman shooting one-day news and sports story assignments. So, there is no such thing as a typical day in my life.

But now, winter 2023/24, the UK TV industry has suffered a prolonged period, about 18 months so far, of an unprecedented shortage of work affecting the vast majority of the UK’s media industry’s workforce. This is especially severe for those of us who mostly work in the unscripted sector, the majority of whom, like myself, are freelance/self-employed professionals. In short, almost everyone in every branch of the industry has suffered a huge fall off of work, and of course a painful reduction of incomes, throughout this extended period. Many have left the sector or have taken on other unrelated temporary jobs to survive. 

After such a long lean time, we are again into the new year. Typically, January and February are two of the quietest months of the year.

So, I was particularly pleased in early January to book-in a two-day assignment to shoot press conferences for a Southern production company working on a project for the Football Association. 

About 6 weeks later, no more work had materialised and things were again starting to look challenging when on the evening of Sunday 18 of February, I got a call. Was I free tomorrow, and could I be in Liverpool at 09:30 in the morning? The shoot details and address were to follow.

I confirmed my availability and terms were agreed even though the details of the job were not yet fully defined. This was possible as the work was for a long-established client, so we both knew the script, and we trust each other.

About bedtime that evening, I was still prepping my equipment when the assignment was confirmed. Still no address for the first location, a Liverpool FC player’s home. That key information arrived somewhat later.

At around 01:30 Monday morning, I had the address so consulted Google maps for a guide as to the time to allow for the journey, I had decided what equipment I would need, prepared it, and organised it for loading quickly into my car. Finally, it really was bed time. Of course, having had no work for a few weeks and with an early start, after a late night, I knew I would struggle to fall sleep. True to form, sleep did not come easily, and all too soon my alarm signalled a busy day was starting, ready or not.

By 06:30, I was on the road with all my equipment. I had added 30 minutes to the Google estimate, allowing 3 hours to arrive. All went well until I hit the motorway network around Manchester when the expected congestion impeded my flow. Long story short, I would not be there on time. I phoned ahead and was told not to worry. We had to do some filming at 10, so we would have about 10 minutes to organise that. Not ideal but because of the thorough prep before bed it would be fine.

My journalist, Saber Desfarges from TF1 (French TV), and our hero, Paris-born Ibrahima Konaté, a Liverpool FC star defender, were relaxed and ready to roll. 

Radio mics were fitted and turned on. I had pre-set the camera the night before, so all that remained to do was turn it on, mount the receiver for the radio mics, and plug in my headphones for a quick audio check.

All was cool. By 10 am we were filming, exactly as scheduled. 

We filmed the first interview as Ibrahima was driving to his training session.

We did not need any training footage, so while he trained, we went to Liverpool Football Club’s Anfield Stadium to shoot some B-roll art, and vox pops. 

Then we went to check out the hotel function room, suggested by the hotel as a possible location for the main interview, which was scheduled for late afternoon. The room was rather bland but fortunately, very quiet and fairly spacious, essentially ideal. 

Time for a spot of lunch and a chance to meet my colleague, Peter, who had brought 2 extra cameras from London. After lunch, he started setting up the equipment for the main interview.

Saber and I went off to film some of the people at The Anfield Wrap, a podcast company, which specialises in discussing Liverpool FC from their studio on the side of the River Mersey. We filmed 3 of their subject experts making a podcast and then grabbed some informal semi vox pops style answers to a few questions about our hero.

Once finished, we headed back to the hotel to finalise the interview setup. Peter had done a great job in the limited amount of time he had been there, especially as he was working without having access to all my equipment. 

I adjusted the position of the chairs, and set the lights. 

Given we had 3 different models of cameras, one challenge was to make all the pictures look the same. So, after I lit the scene, Peter and I worked together to match the cameras. 

The format was, a medium close-up (MCU) and a closeup (CU) from two side-by-side Sony FS7 cameras, a Mk1 and a Mk 2, pointed at Ibrahima from an angle of about 15 or 20 degrees, and a two-shot of Saber and Ibrahima, facing each other filmed on the third camera, a Sony FX3, positioned at 90 degrees to their eyelines.

While we waited for our hero, I copied the footage I had shot earlier, onto a hard drive ready for Saber to take back to Paris. This would save time at the end of the shoot.

About 7:30 pm Ibrahima and a couple of friends arrived and we were underway. We seated the friends out of sight of Ibrahima, to avoid his eyes drifting about unnaturally.

My French is not good enough to follow the conversation but the energy, and charm of the man came over very well, as indeed had been the case in the car shoot about 10 hours earlier.

With the interview over, Peter grabbed a shot of Ibrahima pretending to arrive, as I started copying the files from my camera. Peter then started striking the equipment before he rushed off to catch the last train back to London. I finished backing up the footage, packing up the equipment, and then loaded my car.

All told, it was a long but very successful day. There was never any stress. Everyone was delightful at all times. It was wonderful to be shooting again, and to be working with such friendly and highly professional people.

I did not get much chance to use my survival level French but I love the language and any opportunity to parler français est toujours extrêmement bienvenu. 

With the car loaded, Saber asked if I wanted a hotel room, as he knew I had already worked a long day and still faced a drive of more than 2 hours to get home. That was a very thoughtful and much appreciated. We had a lovely supper in the hotel, and it was great to relax and chat in a more social way than is possible whilst working.

We got on very well, so Saber mentioned an idea to work together again, soon, perhaps on a Newcastle shoot.

It often pays to take time to socialise with clients. You never know where the conversation might lead. 

Howay the lads!

A few days later, Saber sent me a copy of our film. He and his editor had done a great job. Another film to be proud of.