London Kills

Work as Director of Photography for my ongoing personal development and graduate employment for students.

4 seasons , 40 episodes of a US funded TV drama series. Shown on AcornTV USA, purchased and shown by BBC1 and Amazon Prime 2023/24

As a lecturer in Cinematography across the BA and Practice lead for the MA it is vital that I can teach from a perspective of current industry practice. This practice research enabled me to have direct and current access to current working practices.
I chose to accept a short term contract working for a professional production company, Longstory as Director of Photography for 4 seasons of an American funded (AcornTV.USA) crime series produced in London.
I had previously worked with the producers. Paul Marquess and Donna Wiffen. They had asked me to design a shooting method particular to this series that would allow them to cover with a shooting style that allowed for ‘360 degree’ use of the set.
In essence what this meant was moving away from the accepted convention of covering a scene in single character focus to a method that could cover multiple characters with dialogue in a single recording. In addition the scenes had to be lit in a way that did not require adjustment when shooting into different areas of the set/location.
I had to rethink the traditional methods of TV drama. My director , Craig Pickles, had extensive experience in multicamera live performance. Combining his ability to monitor 3 separate camera feeds I selected three experienced documentary camera operators to work on the project.Their experience in fluid situations and their ability to ‘ find’ a shot undirected meant , with careful positioning, the cameras could record simultaneous action during a given scene. The success of the initial 10 episodes in season 1 led to a recommission for a further 3 series of 10 episodes each.
I have been able to bring this knowledge of a new direct practical experience into my teaching. New lighter, more sensitive cameras have meant faster production turnaround, with that comes lower budgets which can be realised with a similar approach of multiple cameras and a ‘realism’ in the lighting style.
U was able to employ two graduates in the September after their graduation. They were camera department trainees for seasons 0ne and two and have both gone on to continuous employment as a direct result of their roles on this project.