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Top Gear Test Drive Hovercam

Hovercam were contacted to work on some new ideas for Top Gear back in January 2009. The production team were keen on trying new ideas to put a different perspective on the cars that are tested for performance around their test track at Dunsfold, Surrey. Typically the program has featured two-dimensional imagery of super cars, so the idea was to br...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 September 2009

Filming for the army on Salisbury Plain

The ApproachIt’s no secret. Soldiers are trained to feel invincible, They develop a whole persona around focussed “toughness” and the ability to take care of themselves. But nobody is tough enough to withstand being crushed between a 70 tonne Warrior and a Land Rover. The problem is how to explain this to men who as a day job, get shot at. That was...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 September 2009

The filming of Lands End to John OGroats

I’ve been here for several minutes now. Standing in the pouring rain with a camera pointing at the road sign for Somerset, the drops of rain tapping on the camera rain cover add a certain atmosphere to the wild track. I stood trying to work out who was the madder, the two cyclists I was waiting for, or me. Here they come, 10 seconds on the tape, ba...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 August 2009

Polecam on Safari

Safaricam"No, you can’t get out of the car", the voice replied. "Why not?’ I asked. "Because you might get eaten by a lion."I put the phone down and contemplated what it was I had just agreed to do. The Kenya project started with a call from a French production company expressing an interest in hiring my Polecam system for three weeks. The series,...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 August 2009

A day in the life of a TV lecturer

0830The Dorset country lanes give way to the flood of traffic into Poole and Bournemouth as I negotiate the rush hour streaming into the seaside town. Driving past Poole Harbour, home of Sunseeker Yachts and the RNLI reminds me that yacht I once dreamed of is still a dream. However, the job I once dreamed of became a reality when I became a televis...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 July 2009

From little acorns....

So what do we do? We have done little for television – our market place is much more modest. Parafotos has its origins in the early sixties when I started filming free fall parachuting– having to cope with a Bolex H16 strapped to the side of my helmet during the opening of the parachute was an interesting experience which no doubt accounted for an...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 May 2009

Ask the Experts with True Lens Services

Why should I have a lens serviced?A camera lens is not actually a sealed unit, though it may look as though it is. When you pull focus or zoom the lens, cells of glass within it start to move which results in pressure being created on one side of the cell and a partial vacuum on the other. This vacuum will suck in the surrounding air and any airbor...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 April 2009

The SxS vs MxT Debate

We are all probably already tired of hearing the phrase ‘cutting costs’ but the reality is that ways have to be continuously found to reduce our production costs in order to stay competitive. The question is – are some savings a false economy or are they really worth it?We have been hiring out Sony’s XDCAM EX cameras for over a year and they are no...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 April 2009

HD camera market

With the low cost HD market taking an ever firmer grip on the industry, we asked for Hireacamera Managing Director Guy Thatcher’s opinion on the changes taking place. So is anyone still hiring DV/DVCAM equipment anymore?Certainly in the area we specialise in, since the arrival of the Sony HVR-Z1E nearly four years ago, we have slowly watched the ma...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 March 2009

What do Location Managers do all day?

It’s a question that is often asked by my family who fondly believe I spend my time in idle chit-chat and gossip with high-powered film and media executives sipping skinny-latte Mocachinos (whatever they are!) and eating sushi. But consider the following exciting ‘James Bond’ style scenario. “Our hero and heroine are on the run, driving fast throug...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 March 2009

How The SADiE LRX2 Is Making Location Multitrack Recordin...

Nearly twenty years ago I saw one of the first SADiE Digital Audio Workstations, which were just starting to make their mark as the first cost effective computer sound editor. I was so impressed with the concept that I immediately wanted one, even though I had no professional use for it whatsoever. Most of my work (particularly then) was in TV docu...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 March 2009

How we lit Mick

Shine a lightLets start at the beginning with the most fundamental, basic of questions – what’s the point of lighting anything, let alone a living legend like Sir Mick Jagger? The answer is simple – because lighting is the most important part of the whole process. Not the filming. Not the fiddly edit. Not the chin-scratching pre-production. The lig...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 January 2009

SOOM under the Senegal sun

No power – inconceivable for Europeans, but normal for the African village Ndelle. Situated six hours from Dakar, it is attainable only by dusty, sandy fields. However the approximate 800 village inhabitants have reason for joy: The company Solar 23 is building a solar plant in Ndelle. The German cameraman Jrgen Killenberger captured this project i...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 January 2009

Lightworks Editing

It is said that “Variety is the Spice of Life” and the Lightworks Editing systems have been very spicey recently. The new season of the English Football Premiere League will once again see Perform Media Services Ltd. bringing their Lightworks “Softworks” editing systems into action. Perform have the contract to provide in match “near live” and dela...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 December 2008

London to Capetown, by bike Part 3

Brazzaville was still five hundred kilometers away and the road was still a little on the rough side but not as sandy. What it lacked in sand however, it made up for in water. The road had developed the particularly unattractive habit of having huge water-filled mud-holes at any place where it was impossible to pass on either side. So there was no...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 December 2008