Yes, that is my full name; a bit of a mouthful. I was born in Farnham Hospital, Surrey on the 8th December 1968, so I am now 30. I have always been fascinated by films and tv, which is probably why I took up video making. Whilst still at school I would go along to folk music festivals with my mum and watch the tv crews at work. Often I would sneek over to the main tents and play on the huge broadcast cameras whilst the crews were still asleep. I have spent most of my life in education, after school I went to Farnham 6th Form College studying Communications, my first experience at film making. After that I brought my first camcorder, a Panasonic M5 VHS. It gave me many years of faithful service, travelling with me to Germany, Portugal and up the mountains of the Lake District. If you want to get into video production I strongly suggest you buy your own camera so that you are free to experiment in your own time. In 1988 I went to Farnborough College of Technology & spent 2 year on a TV Techniques course. It was a pilot course for City & Guilds, at this time there was a media boon in the UK and media related courses were springing up everywhere. After this I went to Basingstoke College of Tecnology where I studied a BTEC National Diploma in TV / Film Production. I got to use professional equipment, work on real projects and learnt a great deal. I even spent 3 weeks at the Sky TV studios and learnt how to use studio cameras. It was great fun there, and I learnt a lot, in particular, not everything you see on TV is real. But I topped it all when for my final project I made a video about the Surrey Ambulance Service, where I interviewed some of the paramedics and spent a day attending 999 emergency calls in an ambulance. My driver and I would rush to the emergency calls with the blue lights and siren going to attend RTA's (Road Traffic Accidents) and other incidents.
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The final video won an award at the 1994 Surrey Film Festival for Best Documentary. This acheivemnt was also featured in a few local papers and the "Camcorder User" magazine. I am very proud of this video as it was exciting to make and a once in a lifetime adventure.
After passing BCoT at the end of July 1994 I was looking for a degree course when I found a job as Media Technician for Collingwood College in Camberley, Surrey. After my first year the media studio was built, which is where I am now based, running the day to day operations of filming role plays, recording student bands and filming any classes which require me. My aim however is to work either freelance with my 'company' CTV or to work in a professional production company whether broadcast or local, any offers out there?
I have always been interested in flying, though the lessons are quite expensive, but I am a virtual pilot as I fly flight sims on my Power Mac. I fly Apache Longbow and Commanche Mac, but my latest sims are X-Plane and Fly! which are civil sims rather than combat ones, but it teaches you how to 'really' fly a plane rather than shoot down bad guys. I currently have 1.5 hours piloting a helicopter and 3 hours flying a light aircraft.
I don't drink, don't smoke and my only vice is eating chocolate ! I love Galaxy bars, and regularly eat the big 150g bars so you can imagine I'm getting a little large now, (though I'm not catching up with my younger brother just yet!)
