Category

Blog

Saints Fan TV is now live!

Having been a life long supporter of Southampton Football Club, from the darkest Branfoot years to the present Shexy Football Koeman years, it is with great fondness that Saints Fan TV is born. Around a year or two ago, a friend suggested doing a fans-related channel but the time and effort required just didn’t fit in with my schedule and workload at the time. Working for free is something i’m not particularly fond off, although SFTV will hopefully bring in some income via YouTube advertising and local sponsors, it’s still a huge amount of work to carry out for little immediate reward. It really is a case of doing something you love and anything else that comes by is just a bonus.

Presently there are a growing number of videos focused on the finding out the opinions of Saints fans after the matches with Match Day Previews too which feature Lets Play of FIFA 16.

My Tweet on Alton Towers Exploitation goes Viral

A Job as a Rollercoaster Tester may sound fun and exciting, with an element of danger to it, but not if you’re not being paid or reimbursed for your travel & food expenses!

You will need to be at their site for 8am every day upto September, testing the rides before the park opens to the general public and you must provide or pay for your own food.

Apparently Alton Towers are dressing this exploitative employment sham as a competition – submitting a audition style video describing why you should be the parks Rollercoaster Tester is the application method of choice.

The owners behind Alton Towers, Merlin Entertainments Group Limited are the second largest attractions group behind Disney. In 2013, 59.8 million people visited their attractions, which includes Lego Land and Madame Tussauds. Their revenue for 2013 was £1.2bn with a profit of £172m. Not sure why they cant pay someone a meagre £7ph to sit on a rollercoaster especially one that needs ‘testing’ Hopefully the ‘Nuts & Bolts Tester’ has had a go before the unfortunate exploited employee.

My tweet on the above ITV report went viral! Now on The Exploitation Daily Website

Voice In A Million at Wembley Arena

I recently worked for Voice In A Million as part of a 6-camera recording of their huge concert at The SSE Arena Wembley. I arrived around 12 noon and met the Director and other Camera Operators for what promised to be an exhilarating shoot. I love multi-camera shoots of live performance events, it’s the closest thing to a time machine! Time moves so fast because you are deeply engrossed in the capturing of the event. Blink and you truly do miss it. At least there’s a DVD of the concert available for parents to buy, a true souvenir and memento of the day.

For the shoot I used a Sony PMW EX3 hooked up via a HDSDI cable outputted to a Vision Mixer. The talkback wasn’t too hot, especially once the arena filled up with 6,000+ screaming School Children! The other 5 cameras included a EX1R, Blackmagic Ursa and a Canon XF105. The Ursa is a interesting camera, but for me I like to have portability and something more versatile. The Ursa Mini has potential to be my upgrade from the EX3. Despite it’s age, the EX3 still produces an excellent image.

Voice In A Million or VIAM are a fantastic organisation and during the show I found out the essence of what they do. Sometimes you can only find out so much from a web search. Also, a web search doesn’t convey completely the passion and love a organisation has. Throughout the show presentations on stage were made by the organiser, Jo Garofalo and compares David & Carry Grant who also adopted a child and really gave a insight into adoption.

VIAM was founded in 2009 by Husband and Wife Robert and Jo Garofalo. The whole premise is to raise awareness for adoption. To highlight the fact that many orphaned children need a home.

For further info on VIAM, click here.

Camera Phone Gallery:

 

A Video Production guide to Living and Working in Ibiza

Ibiza – a magical magnetic Island off the coast of Spain – a short Ferry ride from Barcelona. A brand in itself – cars and songs are named after it.

The thing that first strikes you when exiting the plane is the heat and humidity followed closely by the smell. It isn’t the smell of jet fuel or indeed a Jet2 Plane, but rather, a eggy sort of smell. It is also met by the exuberance of it’s newly landed, slightly intoxicated holiday makers awaiting their week or fortnight long vacation in the blistering sunshine of Ibiza.

Accommodation

There are of course lots of placed to stay in Ibiza. You can drive from one end to the other in about 1 hour or so, so this is a very small Island.

Ibiza Hotel Guide on Ibiza Spotlight

San Antonio

Image: Ibiza Spotlight

Cheap as chips – you can literally purchase traditional English fish and chips in San Antonio. The accommodation ranges from decrepit 1990s musty dumps to more luxurious, newer apartments and villas, including the infamous Pikes Hotel – now Ibiza Rocks House.

I stayed in a fantastic Hostal to begin with, Hostal Tarba in San Antonio. Not the cheapest but close. A rarity in Ibiza, a modern, newly furnished Hostal with extermely friendly staff. The only real negatives were the noisy aircon, poor food and the occasional drunk, loud noises at 4 in the morning, which goes hand in hand when staying in the party hotspots of San An and Playa d’en Bossa.

The opposite of Hostal Tarba’s modern, clean ‘home from home’ style was Hostal Torres – I read this as ‘Hostal Terrible’. This was in dire need of a style makeover on epic proportions. Just a grimy dump.

Orosol Hotel and Studios is almost next door to Hostal Tarba and I stayed here in 2006. A fairly generic hotel with a nice pool.

I have also stayed in The Arenal Hotel which is along San Antonio Bay – this is more of a family orientated hotel but is certainly a nice place to stay when you need valuable sleep.

Hostel Rosalia – I stayed here many moons ago – around 13 years ago I believe and it’s still there today. A plain single room with shower facilities in a separate room. Only stay here if you plan to spend your time in Ibiza at the beach or by the pool, no aircon and a bit of a dump.

Marco Polo – Musty old hotel with a seriously rude night porter who I believe has some sort of customer service phobia.

Playa d’en Bossa (PDB)

Image: Ibiza Spotlight

Classic Ibiza, a short 15 minute bus ride up to Ibiza Town (Evissa – Catalan for Ibiza Town). This is where you will find a more eclectic selection of people from differing nations – mainly Europeans so expect German, Dutch, Italian and French.

This is overall a more expensive place to live vs San Antonio, with prices equal or more than London. Expect to pay £500pm for a double room apartment, if you’re planning on spending the summer living and working in Ibiza. Most apartments are geard towards 2-3 people staying in the same room. Not nice.

A Hotel I stayed in in 2007 was  the Bon Sol Apartments. The cheapest in PDB and for good reason! Firstly, They put me in a ground floor studio near a swimming pool and LOUD SPEAKERS on the wall which started from around 9 – 10 in the morning – so good luck getting any sleep whilst on vacation. After I complained, they put me in the block of flats near the reception. This had extra tenants in the form of Cockroaches! I don’t often watch reality garbage on UK Television but I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here is something I occasionally dip into when it is broadcasted on ITV with the Geordie Jokers. At least you can get an idea as to whether or not you could do a Bush Tucker Trial if you were ever a Celeb that is. Shame there was no blender, could have made a Cockroach Smoothie!

In 2011 I stayed for one night in the same apartment block – right at the top of the block and had no ‘little friends’ visiting me this time. This was a basic single room though vs the studio self=catering cockroach infested minging hole like in 2007.

I also stayed in Figuerettas during 2007 with two workers, sharing one room with a girl. I still remember Victoria Webb from Evesham not giving my whole deposit back when I left the flat in September 2007 – she worked at Big Bens (now named something different) in Playa D’en Bossa. It surprised me when she almost went from someone i knew to this hard-nosed hollywood actress assertively telling me she wasn’t giving all the deposit back, like a fraudulent banker. It’s amazing how some people can lie and cheat their way through life and be so greedy over money. It’s a classic example of how you need to have your wits about you when travelling and especially advertising the fact that you have anything of value – ie laptops and cameras. You should also check out ‘The Wall of Pain’ at the Shipp Inn or various Internet Cafes around the Island Reward for Stolen iPhone / Laptop / Camera’ messages a plenty!

Page 2 for Transport Advice, Page 3 for living, working and filming in Ibiza Advice

Well Hung – a new online fashion TV Show – for us Men!

Having worked with Fashion Blogger and QVC Presenter Alex Willis-Bray with South West London TV for 6 months or so, I was invited to work on a brand spanking new online TV show just for Men!

Certainly, having covered London Fashion Week and then, in January 2014 London Collections Men, there is a clear lack of fashion presence for Men. Alex and I were more or less the only TV crew filming celebrities, designers and fashionistas just before they headed into the showrooms.

I filmed for 4 episodes at London Collections Men – Mens Fashion Week and at Fara Workshop in Angel, Islington. View series 1 below:

Fara is a place where every piece for sale is completely unique because it is hand made on site. Fabric is donated via their charity shops as they have been operating as a charity for over 20 years to help disadvantaged and vulnerable young people in Romania.

faraworkshop london fashion charity romanian children dan jamieson creatives david bowie charlton heston holy mackerel david being ordinaryNot only can you buy unique, one-of-a-kind clothing, but you can get hold of homeware and unique illustrations and artwork because they give residencies to emerging fine artists, illustrators and photographers – see the postcard below from artist in resident Dan Jamieson:

They are located on 28-32 Pentonville Road, Angel (1 min from Angle Tube). @TheFaraWorkShop | Facebook | Instagram