Going Underground.

It's just bloody typical. I've been hauling my pasty looking skin around in the search for news for the past few weeks in the usual English Summer of rain and damp. So what happens when the temperature rises and the glowing yellow orb makes a welcome appearance...? Yep, you guessed it. The BBC in it's wisdom sends me on a filming trip into a 1.2 mile tunnel under the Hampshire countryside.





The warmth of the sun and it's lighting properties are replaced with a cool breeze and builders dust, not to mention the orange glow of sodium lights just to ruin any cameraman's day.

But seeing as the department of transport is just about to open one of the longest road tunnels in Europe, bypassing what was the biggest bottleneck in southern England, I suppose I had better be grateful for the chance to be one of the very first people to drive through it.





I must admit to being impressed at the marvel of engineering that has taken place here, allowing more vehicles to speed through the countryside and quickly arrive at the automotive hell that is London. You know, that place of freeflowing traffic and clean air...

So instead of a story chasing ice cream sales figures at the beach, or chatting with picnickers on the South Downs, I dutifully captured the mixed lighting of the underground tunnel in all it's orange glory whilst simultaneously wiping road dust from my lens. But at least I suppose, I won't burn my delicate skin like a Scotsman south of Glasgow. No... I shall return from this job looking like Gollum, fiddling with my ring. My focus ring, that is clogged with dust...

Paul Martin is @ukcameraman on Twitter

http://www.media-attention.co.uk

Flabtastic News..!

You know what? it's a wonder that when the sun does finally come out here in the UK, that i don't melt... literally. Most travelling news cameramen must be made of a substance closely akin to playdough... Being on the road and eating the crap that passes for roadside cuisine makes for a wobble around the middle that would put a Turkish belly dancer to shame. When you realise, that as you type into your laptop that is perched on top of a mound of flesh protruding from where a finely tuned six pack once resided, it's time to rethink the way in which i feed this temple of mine.

Roadside dining at its very worst...

Sometimes, it's unavoidable. whilst racing from the scene of one local catastrophic event to another,     ( For that, read minor union squabbles or courtroom steps rumpus) i may not have time to visit the nearest fine dining restaurant or purveyor of mung bean soup with which to sate my bodies desire for fresh, wholesome sustainance. No. In any case, at those prices the bean counters back at the ranch would ruin their computer keyboards with all the spraying of coffee as they read my expenses account...

My usual encounter with food is that of unwrapping tightly bound foodstuffs from a petrol station and throwing it down my neck without much thought to chewing. And anyway, chewing it may release the flavour of the said foodstuff, and you really don't want to do that. Usually a sandwich with indeterminate fillings with a few wilted leaves of green stuff that has not seen sunlight since being ripped from the earth god knows how long ago.

It's either that, or something swimming in grease in a bread roll, a slice of processed something or other and a splat of tomato sauce... Hmm, yummy. Try eating something that has the ambient temperature of the surface of the sun, with gooey shlop leaking over your finest white T-Shirt as you drive to your next location to make another deadline. I once did just that... and during a rather rash braking incident, the inside of my newsmobile resembled the carnage of a murder scene... Burger bits, Goo and red sauce spattered on the inside of my windscreen made a passer by scream in terror... But i digress.

I do try and eat sensibly, honest i do. Mrs ukcameraman makes a delightful pasta bake, with salad bowl and rustic brown bread. It makes a lovely meal for the elderly guy next door as i fail yet again to turn up on time for our evening meal... Sorry dear, they want me on the lives tonight.

So i guess that i will resume trying to find the best that i can at roadside diners, burger vans and petrol stations, and continue to sweat Piri Piri sauce from the meatball sub that has become a particular favourite of mine.

Now if you will excuse me, it's lunchtime. And in the news business that's about 3.30pm... just in time to ruin your evening meal.  

Paul Martin is @ukcameraman on Twitter

www.media-attention.co.uk

It's OK... My Skin Is Waterproof.

You all know the drill. You get booked to film one of the UK's top sporting Summer events, and you know, you just know, that as you and the team set up for outside broadcasting, the heavens will open and dump a shitload of water on you and your equipment. It's bloody typical. But hey... the big guy up there gave us waterproof skin so that the rain doesn't soak up inside you like a sponge, and he gave our muscles the power to shiver so as to keep us warm.

Unfortunately, Mr Sony invented electrical filming equipment with no such protection, only with the power to fritz out at the merest hint of H2O. Not only that, when outside broadcasting means just that... outside, you and your equipment are at the mercy of the British Summer, where the wind is slightly gentler and the rain slightly warmer. Still, we had great fun as we watched the Royal Ascot race going public getting drenched in their finery, and outrageously large hats go flying or limp in the rain.

Bloody miserable Englishman in bloody miserable English weather.

Me...? I was prepared, like the over confident boy scout, i had turned up with my wet weather gear to keep me dry, and a fleece jacket to keep me cozy warm. My camera got the same treatment, so together, we flounced about the racecourse without a care in the world whilst the unprepared got drenched. That, however, did not stop me moaning like a typical Englishman at the unpredictable British weather and having to work in it at the same time. Still, i got to watch plenty of top class Fillies as they pranced about the race course... Oh... and some horses.

Paul Martin is @ukcameraman on Twitter

www.media-attention.co.uk

I've been busy with my iphone...

I got around to thinking that this blog is primarily a behind the scenes type of blog for the life of a broadcast news cameraman. I have been doing very little of that lately, what with me wittering on about things that are not really from behind the scenes. I can wax lyrical on a wide variety of subjects as you well know, mostly bullshitting my way through random thoughts and issues that occur to me whilst travelling the highways of news broadcasting and burger outlet car parks. So here, for your delectation, are a few videos that i have filmed on my iphone over the last few weeks or so. They appear elsewhere on my various online places, but this being my main blog, they should also be here... So i hope you don't mind me repeating myself.

The first video is from behind the scenes at Bucklebury, where the press were gathered to film the celebrations during the recent Royal Wedding. Bucklebury being the place where Kate Middleton and her family currently reside.




The next video shows the not so glam side of TV Broadcasting, namely cable bashing. Anyone who has the remotest interest in the cameraman side of life will do this on a regular basis. Cable bashing is part and parcel of life as a cameraman or broadcast engineer... so get used to it, come rain or shine.



Paul Martin is @ukcameraman on Twitter.

www.media-attention.co.uk

Connectivity In The Modern Age....

Today is a day when i feel that my side of the news industry is a dinosaur, lumbering behind a sprightly pack of smaller, lightweight creatures and sharper teeth. As a TV News Cameraman, i am still lumbered with a camera the size of a truck battery, and just as heavy. Whilst my counterparts in the print and web news skip around me with lightweight digital cameras, i unlock the tripod legs and snap my camera into place, giving my shoulder a well earned rest.

The lumbering beast...

By the time i have my pictures on tape, neatly boxed and ready to be shipped out to the studio, the photographers have snapped their pictures, loaded them into their Macs, edited them and filed them to their respective papers. Pictures start to appear on news websites within minutes of them being taken. By this time, i have boxed up my tape and marked it accordingly, my pictures stuck to tape with nobody to take them to where they need to be.

Sometimes, TV News can be a frustrating business. Yes, i can go live into a bulletin, but not without the help of a satellite truck or at the very least a Bgan unit. Without them, i rely on taking my pictures to the studio myself, thereby leaving the place i need to be, or get someone to pick the tape up from me and take it to the studio. It's frustrating because whilst the news is speeding around the world via the web courtesy of the photographers, my news is still stuck in my sweaty little palms until i can offload it to the studio.

News on it's way...

Upload it to my laptop and 3G it to the studio i hear you say. Well, i would, but where i am today, the 3G signal is weak to non existent. Even the photographers are on the edge of being able to send a single JPeg let alone 30 to 40 seconds of Broadcast quality video. So i wait. And i suspect i will still be waiting in a few years time until this country wakes up and sorts out good 3G internet connections for the rural parts of this country, at a speed that can cope with the modern digital data that is in every day usage right now.  Until then, the TV News has to wait for a courier.

Paul Martin is @ukcameraman on Twitter

www.media-attention.co.uk