Director of Photography and Photographer

Story

“Imagination is the only weapon in the war against reality” Lewis Carroll

That quote from the genius mind of Lewis Carroll is there because I find it inspirational.  As simplistic and innocent as it is, to me it’s quite profound, for whether it is the arts, literature, science, engineering or whatever, it reinforces to me just how important our unique ability to imagine has been throughout human history.

In the visual arts, imagination plays a significant creative role and it’s always at the forefront of any of my photographic projects.  I’ve been creating images for many years, moving images as a Broadcast Director of Photography and Documentary Lighting Cameraman and also as a Photographer.  My body of work for broadcast includes over 40 multi-camera entertainment shows such as; Dragons’ Den, Dealers, Last Laugh, Get Me the Producer etc., more than 100 documentaries, many short film dramas, commercials and promos.   I’ve produced and directed my own films for CBS and the History Channel and I have the honour and privilege of being a BAFTA voting member.

As a Photographer, I’ve created numerous images, sometimes for commercial use sometimes for private clients and I spend a lot of my time creating images just for me; I have a keen interest in all things photographic and in particular ‘Photographic Art’ and a bias for the quality of monochrome.  The Royal Birmingham Society of Artists invited me to organise and curate their launch into ‘Photographic Art’ recently with an international Photographic Prize Exhibition.  I invited along three other photographers to join me to judge and select the successful exhibits from the 241 artworks entered and also award prizes to the winners, the exhibition was considered hugely successful and it was altogether a privilege and greatly rewarding for me to be involved.

My other interests are scuba diving, the natural world, and art.  I’m also a beekeeper and in a good year our girls produce a wonderfully delicious honey with floral overtones and a hint of caramel.  I have 4 hives right now so somewhere between 100,000 – 150,000 bees and I feel like I’m doing my bit for the environment too.  I also have great fun watching and feeding the wildlife that visits our garden especially the Fantastic Mr Fox seen here, he has a family right now with three young cubs and when I’m not doing any of that, I will be just exploring our amazing British Isles.

Broadcast - Multiple Camera Productions

Director of Photography

In 2004, I was approached by the BBC to create a strangely named new pilot for a ‘prime-time’ factual entertainment series.  Director/Producer Martyn Smith and I set out to find a suitable location and to figure out how to put this new show on the road with quite literally, nothing more than a blank sheet of paper.  Weeks later with time and hope running out, the final location on our list was an old Georgian warehouse in Stoke Newington, North London called The Depository.  On entering this antiquated building the idea I had developing in my head now became a thundering reality and the creative potential to me was crystal clear, this was the ‘Dragons’ Den’ we were looking for.  From the start, as Director of Photography, my responsibility was to create the ‘photographic blueprint’ for the multi-camera ‘Dragons’ Den’ series.  I decided on ‘film noir’ lighting to compliment the Depository’s ‘edgy urban backdrop’ because I wanted to create a distinctive visual identity for the show, this blueprint has continued since then and the series has grown from strength to strength.  My time creating ‘Dragons’ Den’ from its inception in 2004 through the second series in 2005 and third series in 2006 was immensely enjoyable, working with a marvellous production team and having a lot of fun in the process.  My company Tomahawk Film and Television Limited provided all the necessary technical equipment and technicians for creating the pilot and the following successful three series.

Finding the right location for any show can be tricky, BBC Scotland’s the ‘Last Laugh’ multi-camera series which followed a year later was no exception, and in the end we selected the London Ark which fulfilled the brief for a cleaner and modernistic look.  Presented by Dara O’Briain with writer and producer Ash Atalla, ‘Friends’ writer Adam Chase and actress Natalie Casey as judges this became the UK’s largest sitcom writing competition.  5000 people entered the ‘Last Laugh’ where writers compete to have their script turned into a sitcom pilot. Again a great production team made filming so enjoyable needless to say with a lot of laughs too.

Later it was a visit back to the original ‘Dragons’ Den’ location The Depository to create Channel 4’s ‘Grand Designs – Trade Secrets’ with Kevin McCloud.  This multi-camera production was a complimentary series to the main show ‘Grand Designs’, Kevin McCloud and guests Deborah Saunt and Naomi Cleaver reveal behind the scenes advice and tips on how to build your dream home.

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‘Get Me the Producer’ for Channel 4 was next, hosted by media executive, journalist and broadcaster Greg Dyke.  With similarities to ‘The Apprentice’, a selection of aspiring TV producer candidates compete against each other in a series of Producer/Director challenges in order to win a producer position in a leading independent television company. Based in Brick Lane east London, Greg Dyke organised the contestants into teams and then set them assignments, multiple cameras then followed the teams going about these challenges with a ‘fly on the wall’ style of filmmaking in and around London. Logistically and editorially challenging but also great fun in the process.

‘Dealers’ was all about antiquities, a multi-camera show created for Discovery in 2011.  Two aircraft hangars on an old ‘Battle of Britain’ airfield in Essex were chosen as the location for this complex 8 x HD camera production.  Antiquity dealers from around the world would bid in an arena for unique and valuable relics brought in by members of the public against a dramatic and visual backdrop of antique aircraft, paraphernalia, vehicles and unusual equipment.  I transformed the arena into a vault like ‘Indiana Jones’ setting with hanging coolies and pools of coloured and white light giving the show a vivid mystery.  I employed two lighting truss’s; one10 x 10 metre square and an 8 metre long walkway supporting 120 lamp heads to create the dramatic ambiance for the dealers to perform in.  This comprehensive production was a great challenge technically and allowed me to create on a larger canvas with the end result a polished and entertaining show.

Beginnings and Documentaries

My passion for photography began aged 10 when I was given my first camera.  Professionally it began whilst serving in the Armed Forces.

Photography is high on the agenda in a military environment for all sorts of reasons from the routine to the extreme and a thorough understanding of all photographic principles is vital.  I studied applied photography and photographic science at the Joint Services School of Photography a military training establishment for all three Armed Services and then joined a select membership in the Army Film Unit covering Public Relations to Military Intelligence.  With secondments to Malaya, Singapore, Germany, Cyprus and Northern Ireland, I finished off my military career by designing and overseeing the creation of the photographic laboratory and studio for Army Intelligence and Military Police based on Salisbury Plain.

During this time I developed a serious interest in the film and the television industry and one year later found myself on assignments as a freelance cameraman making documentaries for all the major television networks and also making films for many large private corporations and companies.  Central Television then offered me a position in their Film Unit so I left the freelance arena to spend five years travelling around the globe filming documentaries from hump back whales off the coast of Hawaii to holocaust victims in the Ukraine.  I also had the pleasure of working on dramas such as; ‘Boon’ with Michael Elphick, ‘Chancer’ with Clive Owen and ‘Dramarama’ – and even managed to do a stint on the fabulous ‘Spitting Image’ before it came off air.

The legendary and very popular ‘Cook Report’ tempted me back into the freelance world with the offer to become their first principle Lighting Cameraman.  The ‘Cook Report’ is remembered as the leading investigative documentary series of its time with regular viewing figures in excess of 12million, something quite rare now for factual television.  My role was to film without direction and provide technical and creative coverage 24/7 and to ensure all filmed sequences supported the journalistic narrative which often meant filming covertly or in hostile and dangerous environments.  Back then, this ‘no holds barred’ form of investigative journalism together with the financial support of a major television network, was fundamental to the success of the ‘Cook Report’.  Chasing criminals around the world and making 22 ‘prime-time’ documentaries with Roger Cook was not only hugely demanding but also meant filming by the seat of your pants sometimes.  Whilst this tended to be very exciting it didn’t come without a few snags along the way.

Filming by the seat of your pants!

Here I’ve selected some of the many stories from my time on the ‘Cook Report’.

One incident that hit the national headlines was whilst ‘door stepping’ a deeply unhappy drug dealer in Holland we were suddenly and violently attacked.  I had my broadcast camera worth some £30,000 wrenched from my arms and smashed to fragments right in front of my eyes whilst one of the drug dealer’s bodyguards jumped on my back punching me about the head.  My Sound Recordist, Keith Conlon was then attacked and suffered a black eye and also had most of his sound equipment destroyed too - I remember thinking at the time this wasn’t part of the plan.  It soon became apparent to the criminal fraternity that whilst bashing Roger Cook made good telly it didn’t solve their problem of media attention, taking out the camera and sound most certainly did.  This highlighted the significant insurance problem we had in which all our technical equipment and ourselves were deemed uninsurable by commercial insurance companies, none of them would touch us with a ‘bargepole’.  A bit of a problem when you’re freelance.

Drugs were always on the list to investigate and a trail leading into Northern Ireland and close to the Irish Border was one of the more alarming moments.  During another successful ‘door-step’ where Roger and the Producer got thumped, we rapidly found ourselves in a surrounded situation that was getting out of hand.  Suddenly a double barrel shotgun appeared from nowhere pointing right at us and the distinctive and frightening sound of a ‘deadening click’ as the gunman actually pulls the trigger.  Whether the gun truly misfired or it was a stunt done to scare us we’ll never know for sure, however, it didn’t stop the angry gunman putting the butt through our vehicle windscreen in a fit of rage seconds later.  I guess you could say we overstayed our welcome sometimes, actually it was probably most times but that was the nature of the ‘Cook Report’.  However, we managed to see a lighter side to things later and were thankful for the soothing effects of Rogers’s Single Malt Club.

The Cook Report was notorious for going the extra mile and during one investigation I actually came close to putting my own freedom on the line.  I had flown into Bangkok along with the rest of the world’s journalists on the trail of two young British girls who had been caught attempting to smuggle 26 kilos of heroin worth £4 million out of Thailand, which at the time was the Thai’s largest ever haul.  Much later, our investigations led us to risk crossing the border into Burma illegally and on into the mountainous and notorious ‘Golden Triangle’ to seek out the drug war lord Khun Sa, who back then it was estimated controlled some 70% of the worlds heroin.  This was only possible by leaving secretly at dawn on the back of a mule and involved lying low when necessary to avoid armed Thai and Burmese border patrols - which happened frequently.  It took 24 hours to reach Khun Sa’s hideout.  Meanwhile, we had a tip off that one of the girls was held in a Bangkok city jail and we desperately needed footage of her whilst incarcerated before going to trial.  Trouble was, the jail was permanently guarded and was out of bounds to everyone - especially journalists.  We had a production meeting and it was decided the only way remotely possible to achieve this would be if I made an attempt to slip in alone with my camera at around 3am when fatigue is at its highest point, steal passed the guards in the main entrance, find and film the girl.  Well, that all sounds well and good whilst drinking a cool beer in an hotel bar planning it, the consequences of anything going wrong and getting caught in the act - would be dire for me.  We had already done a recce in the notorious ‘Bangkok Hilton’ posing as business men, so I had seen the many Europeans that were ‘banged up’ without hope there and joining them was definitely not part of the plan.  3am came and went, one of the guards was still prowling about, after a while he disappeared and with sweat streaming into my eyes and not just from the heat of the night, my heart pounding in my brain I approached the main entrance.  As luck would have it, I could see that the main guard had indeed succumbed and had his head buried in his arms and was asleep at his desk, the other guard that I had spotted prowling earlier was nowhere to be seen.  There were two thoughts in my head as I approached the point of no return, it’s ‘now or never’ and ‘what the hell am I doing’, or words to that effect.  I then slipped silently passed the sleeping guard and entered the jail.  I followed a stone stairway downwards and found myself in a large open area with one enormous central caged cell with at least 50 male and female prisoners together asleep in various positions on the cell floor.  The humid stale air was quite overpowering and I was forced to control my breathing to a minimum but soon spotted our girl and filmed her as quickly and as silently as I could, desperate not to wake anyone in the process and finally got the hell out of there.  The consequences of being caught in the act didn’t bare thinking about, the Thai authorities would not have tolerated such transgressions - but I got away with it, a dangerous but calculated risk that went in my favour.  Pushing the boundaries was part of the DNA of the ‘Cook Report’ for everyone that worked on it and I guess sucking up the adrenalin was all part of it too.

Endurance

The Everest Marathon for ‘Against All Odds’ series was the most arduous film I ever made.  Arguably the most extreme marathon on the planet the race starts from Everest Base Camp at about 17000 feet so competitors have to endure and survive the gruelling climb before they even start the marathon run.  The route predictably, follows a course down but sometimes up as well, until reaching the full 26 mile distance and finish post in Namche Bazaar at 11000 feet.

Just being at high altitude has crucial implications and when your commission is to carry broadcast camera equipment and make a documentary in a short space of time with 50% less oxygen, that’s another challenge altogether.  Energy levels are in short supply at high altitude and fatigue can set in very quickly as can the serious possibility of altitude sickness, pacing yourself becomes Rule No: 1. Whilst we were part of a fifty plus team including 6 medics, we were soon rapidly losing competitors and support staff to fatigue and illness and our medical contingent suddenly dropped to two, we also had three team members go down with altitude sickness including one of our Sherpas.  This shoot was an amazing experience, when you’re at the height of Mont Blanc and you still see mountains towering over-head that is quite something.

Last Survivor

‘Instrument of War’ is a two part documentary; ‘Ladies from Hell’ and ‘Call to the Blood’ that I co-directed and filmed for the History Channel and CBS and is based on the only musical instrument in human history to be declared a ‘Weapon of War’.  The Great Highland Bagpipe or the ‘Great War Pipe of the North’ as it is sometimes known, was declared a weapon of war by the English courts after the crush of the Jacobite Rebellion on 16th April 1746 at the ‘Battle of Culloden’, pipers were hung drawn and quartered.  The two part documentary, narrated by Tom Conti, Hannah Gordon and Charlton Heston with contributions by HRH Prince Charles, Sir Jackie Stewart and rock star Phil Collins, celebrates this amazing instrument and why it has such an infamous history and its love/hate relationship with the public.  This film won a silver award at the Chicago Film Festival and was nominated at the New York Film festival.  These two films were hugely satisfying to make; my Co-Producer Patrick King and I were given unprecedented access to many institutions and historical artefacts including Royalty and places of historical importance.

During a filming trip to British Columbia we unexpectedly came across the last survivor of the Boer War, amazingly at 111 years old George Ives was still going strong in a retirement home there.  We interviewed George at length listening to his many tales as a scout in the Imperial Yeomanry and we learned that his final wish before he died was to lay a wreath at the cenotaph in London - something we decided to try and make happen for him.  This would be a bit of a challenge as George would require medical assistance for the round trip and he had no passport and hadn’t had one for many years if ever, if we managed this for him, George would also be the oldest person to fly across the Atlantic.  We succeeded in navigating around the ‘red tape’ and with his passport rushed through by the Canadian authorities, he arrived in London along with his nurse and youngest daughter now 77.  On arrival here media frenzy erupted, everyone wanted to see George Ives the last survivor of the Boer War.  What followed was a whirlwind of events; a standing ovation at the Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall, tea with The Queen Mother, and a private meeting with Princess Diana followed later by coffee with Baroness Margaret Thatcher in her private residence.  At 111 years old, George took it all in his stride.

Harry Lunan was another remarkable veteran we found, this time of the First World War.  Harry was the last piper from that conflict to survive, during the Battle of the Somme and with his unit, the 5th Gordon Highlanders he took part in a suicidal assault on High Wood on 30th July 1916.  Armed only with his bagpipes he charged into machine-gun fire to reach German trenches – nowadays we would consider that as madness but for Harry, he believed it was his duty, the troops relied on him and his pipes. We also arranged for him to visit London with help from the Sunday Express where he met the Prime Minister of the day, John Major followed by a private audience with HRH Prince Charles which we were given sole permission to film.