by Gareth

Edinburgh Fringe

I’ve just got had a knackering but brilliant few days up in Scotland at my first Edinburgh Fringe! I was basically there for 57 hours, getting home late last night, and in that time managed to take in a total of 13 shows! It was pretty intense!

I’d only decided last weekend to head up there, so the guys at Gag Reflex got me some complimentary tickets for some of the shows they were producing, and I then found some other shows that still had tickets available that would fit around them.

Kate, Dean and Hannah in the Gag office.

Lee loves his spreadsheets.

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by Gareth

Jess’ music video

I spent last Saturday with Jess Torry and loads of her friends making a music video! It was her birthday last month, but rather than have a regular birthday party, she had a music video party, which involved them all dancing and singing along to Justin Timberlake’s ‘September’ track from Trolls.

James directed and operated the main FS5 camera, and I had the Sony A7s on a gimble rig to get some smooth moving shots (although I’m not that practiced in using the gimble, so it was a bit of a steep learning curve!).

We filmed them in a nearby park, then in a cul-de-sac of an industrial estate, and finally back in their back garden where they performed in various bits of fancy dress.

It was quite chaotic at times, but the kids had a blast, and James even edited it overnight so that they could all watch it the next day!

by Gareth

The Joshua Tree

On Sunday I was down in Twickenham for an amazing gig – U2 celebrating 30 years since The Joshua Tree was released! I’d bought a few extra tickets, so Tom Musgrove travelled down with me (we drove down to Feltham and then got a train from Feltham to Twickenham), and then met my Bristol friends Ali and Chelly nearby, before all heading to the stadium.

As we arrived around 7pm, the support act was already playing – Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds! They were really good, but it was kind of weird seeing Noel Gallagher playing as an opening act, because the stadium was still filling up and not everyone was paying attention!

U2 came on stage around 8.15pm, and opened with a few songs from earlier albums (including ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’ and ‘Pride’), then launched into all the songs in order from The Joshua Tree.

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by Gareth

A catch-up

I thought I’d do a bit of a catch-up of what’s been going on the last few weeks.

At the start of last month, we had a bit of a crazy weekend shooting a TV commercial for Transform, which involved a mix of interior and exterior locations. We were really banking on the weather being good, and we were so lucky that the rain didn’t materialise until Sunday afternoon, because by then we’d filmed all of the outside stuff. We shot it all on the FS5 mounted on a Ronin stabiliser, and the shots looked great.

The week the shoot saw us having to get it edited and through Clearcast clearance to allow it to be shown on TV, and it was pretty tight, but we managed to get it on air without too much trouble!

Then, a couple of weeks ago, I went to the Lowry to see ‘The Elis James and John Robins Experience’ – I started listening to their Radio X show and podcast back in September, and I heard them mention that they were doing a tour, so checked online and saw that there were just a few tickets left for the show! It was really funny – there were some references that I didn’t get that obviously would be known to a long time listener, but it just made me want to check out more of their back catalogue!

Elis James & John Robins.

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by Gareth

The Edges Of These Isles


Last week saw the the culmination of a project between Simon Bray and Tom Musgrove with an exhibition at the Whitworth Gallery, and as part of the night, a short film documenting the process was shown to a packed out room.

The idea behind the project was to look at how a photographer and artist saw various UK locations differently, and me and James had travelled with them to Lindesfarne back in August 2014 to film them both, and then earlier this year I went with them to Northern Ireland to get footage of them at the Causeway Coast, and then I also filmed them back in Manchester to get extra material to use alongside some stills and footage they’d taken themselves at some of the other locations.

I was really pleased with how the final documentary came out – I think it tells the story really well, and it got a really good response on the night. The completed film (which includes footage from the Whitworth exhibition) is now up on YouTube, and you can watch it here:

by Gareth

Ireland holiday

Last week I got back from a week’s holiday in Ireland, staying at Mai & PJ’s house in County Kerry. I took an overnight ferry from Holyhead, so it took a couple of hours to drive there, arriving in plenty of time for a 2.30am sailing. Because of knowing how hard it is to get to sleep from my trip last year, I booked a cabin, arrived in Dublin just before 6am, having had a few hours of decent sleep.

My mum, Vikky and the kids were flying over from the midlands, and they weren’t due until the evening, so I decided to do a bit of a tour on my way to the west coast to make the most of my day.

So, after leaving Dublin, I drove south down the coast, and stopped briefly at Wicklow, but as it was only just after 7am, everywhere was still closed!

Wicklow.

From there, I was back on the road and carried on down to Waterford, about 80 miles away. Basically, it was a place name I recognised because it’s famous for its crystal, and that’s the only reason I ended up there! I had a bit of a walk round – the weather had gone a bit drizzly, so didn’t stay there for loads of time. I had a stroll along the harbour area, and also around a bit of the town. I was starting to get a bit wet, so went back to the car, and hit the road again.

Cork.

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by Gareth

Filming on the Causeway Coast

I’ve got a couple of mates who are in the middle of a long-term art project called ‘The Edges of These Isles‘, where they’re looking at the differences in how an artist and a photographer capture the same location – and back in August 2014, me and James filmed them visiting Lindisfarne, and you can see that video here.

Well, we’re looking to produce a short film to tell the story of the whole of Tom and Simon’s project as they travel the UK, using some video stuff they’ve shot, along with footage that we’re able to get at certain points.

So we found out they were going to be travelling to Northern Ireland to visit the Causeway coast, so it was organised for me to go with them to film what they got up to! I had to travel really light, because the best flight Simon could find only had a really small bag size for hand luggage, with a weight allowance of 10kg, which would include both my clothes and all the kit I needed! Small items could be stuck in my pockets, but unfortunately I wouldn’t able to take any kind of camera support, or the Canon 70-200mm lens since it’s pretty heavy!

Tom and Simon.

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by Gareth

#batemantakethiswoman

This weekend I’ve been up in North Yorkshire – specifically Selby and Thorne near Doncaster – for Dave Bateman’s wedding to Abbie – hence the hashtag #batemantakethiswoman!

Me and Jimmy drove up first thing yesterday morning, grabbing a quick McDonalds breakfast nearby because we were a bit early, and then arrived at the church in Selby where we sat with Rob & Jenny, Chris & Debbie, Tom, Ralph & Laura, and Penny. Of course, John Roberts was there too, but since he was best man, he got to sit down the front with Mr Bateman!

Abbie and Dave.

It was a really nice service, and afterwards the rain stopped just long enough to take some photos in the churchyard, and by the yellow VW camper that was taking Dave and Abbie to their reception!

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by Gareth

Malta with Annie Mac!

Me, Annie Mac and James.

The last week has been a really busy one, producing a video trailer for next year’s Lost & Found festival in Malta, hosted by Radio 1’s Annie Mac. The job came in pretty last minute, and with very little time for planning, last weekend me and James were on a plane leaving Manchester at 6.30am, heading to Malta! We met up at the airport in Malta with Oli from The Warehouse Project, and Wilf who’s a Manchester-based promoter who I think runs and produces a lot of the stuff for the festival.

Oli and Will were staying in a hotel in Sliema, whereas we carried on in the taxi for about another 40 minutes to Bugibba, where we checked into the Topaz Hotel. What with it being early afternoon, it was now incredibly hot, and since we had to wait for our room, we ended up sitting in the shade by the pool, eating ice lollies for lunch!
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by Gareth

Back in Ireland after 35 years!

I think the last time I was in the Republic of Ireland was 1980, so my memories of our two visits to visit family over there are pretty hazy – but there are some bits that I can still recall even though I was so young!

So, a couple of weeks ago, I was back in Ireland for a holiday with my mum, sister, Brandon & Chloe (who all arrived a week before I did) – all staying at my mum’s cousin’s house!

I took an overnight ferry to Dublin from Liverpool, setting sail at 3am, and the facilities were really basic. I sailed with P&O, and I quickly realise they were really catering for the freight industry, but also take regular passengers too. I tried to get a bit of sleep sitting in a pretty uncomfortable chair, and I finally got off the ferry into Dublin Port at about 11am.

It took about 3½ hours to drive over to Listowel in County Kerry, and after arriving at Mai & PJ’s house, I went with mum, Vikky and the kids to the beach!

The nearest seaside town is Ballybunion, which is about 20 minutes away from the house, and I do have some memories of going there as a kid. Even thought it was later in the afternoon, it was nice and sunny, so we spent a couple hours on the beach.

Brandon, Chloe & mum on Ballybunion beach.

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by Gareth

A last-minute holiday in Majorca!

Other than my 3 America trips, it’s been quite a few years since I’ve been on a straightforward ‘sunshine holiday’, so at the end of June I booked a last-minute holiday to Majorca! I’d heard that away from the north-east of the island, it’s a lot less commercialised and generally classier(!), so I did a bit of Googling, and ended up booking a hotel and flight for a week later!

I flew out early on Saturday morning, and it took ages to check in – the queue was really long, so I was a bit worried I’d not allowed myself enough time! But I eventually got through, and we took off just before half eight, arriving in Majorca early afternoon. I collected my suitcase and headed outside, and the heat really hit me! I was still dressed for the UK, so was wearing jeans which weren’t the best! And as I was looking for the coach to transfer me to my hotel, I was eating some Polos, and then suddenly I managed to chip one of my teeth! I could feel a bit had broken off, and it seemed quite sharp, but luckily there wasn’t any pain, so that was a positive. Not the best place to be needing emergency dental work!

Anyway, I took the coach across to the other side of Majorca and and got dropped outside my hotel in Port de Pollença. I stayed at the Hotel Eolo, which to be honest was pretty basic, but did have a balcony and decent view. I realised straight away that somehow I’d managed to bring the wrong UK plug adapter with me, but when I went down to the hotel reception to ask where I could buy one, they actually lent me the type I needed!

View from my balcony.

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by Gareth

Day in Northern Ireland

This week, I was over in Northern Ireland for work – I’d never been to the north before… I went to County Kerry on the west coast of Ireland a couple of times as a kid, but that was about 35 years ago!

We needed to shoot a customer testimonial for a client, and it needed to be done at a showroom in Belfast, so I went over there with Andy Fidler on Thursday.

Because we were flying, we weren’t able to take much kit with us – I needed 2 cameras for the interview, but we didn’t have any economical way of taking a couple of tripods with us, so I had to try and find somewhere to hire from. Obviously, in Manchester it’s pretty easy to find a hire company for pro kit, but I really couldn’t find anywhere in Belfast that we could use! I eventually found I could hire a couple of tripods from Calumet, but they weren’t quite what we were after since they didn’t have proper video heads, but they would have to do! Oh, and annoyingly, the bank decided to cancel my work debit card the day before (fraudulent activity supposedly!), so I had to hire both a car and the kit (along with deposits!) on my own card!

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by Gareth

Family holiday in Florida

Last month I had an awesome time in Florida with family, so I thought I’d do a bit of a catch-up of what we got up to!

I drove down to Tamworth on the 2nd November and stayed at the Travelodge there to get a few hours sleep before a really early start the next morning. So at 4am, we all got in a taxi minibus from mum’s at 4am to take us down to Gatwick, and it has to be said, it wasn’t the most comfortable journey! There was me, mum, my sister Vikky and the twins, my brother Steve with his partner Ameena, and her daughter Amelia.

One particular lowlight of the taxi journey was when Chloe threw up whilst we were in traffic on the M25! She was sat next to me, so basically I had to catch it in my hands which was gross! I managed to transfer most of it into a plastic bag, but some of it ended up on my hoodie and smelled pretty bad! We had to pull over on the hard shoulder for her to get rid of the last of it before carrying on to the airport!

After a bit of a clean-up at the airport, we got on our flight about 1 o’clock. We flew with Virgin Atlantic, and it’s the biggest plane I’ve been on – it was a 747 and had an upstairs, which is where our seats were! It’s quite a long flight, and then when we got to Orlando, there was a massive wait to get through immigration, which isn’t ideal when you’ve got a couple of tired kids with you! We finally got through at about 7.30pm local time (which of course felt like it was after midnight because we’d started the day on UK time). It took a bit more time to collect our two hire cars – me and Steve were both driving Chrysler Town & Country 7 seaters, which is a bit bigger than I’m used to! We has had to take a bit of a trip to get an envelope containing a code for the keys for the villa in nearby Kissimmee where we were going to be staying. Eventually we got everything sorted, and finally were able to crash out!

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by Gareth

Birmingham (still) Live!

Peter, Ashley, me, Karen, Michael, Ava and Ian.

Last weekend I was down in Birmingham for a re-union with some of the people I worked with in my first full time job at Birmingham Live TV.

It’s been 14½ years since we’d all seen each other, and I was a bit worried that it’d be really weird, but it genuinely felt like hardly any time had passed at all!

There were seven of us in all – me, Ian, Michael, Karen (who now lives in America), Ashley, Ava, and our old boss Peter (who was also my boss later at MUTV!)

It was a really fun night, and hopefully it won’t take almost 15 years for us to meet up again!

by Gareth

Wedfest

I spent last weekend camping up in north Yorkshire at the Camp Hill Estate for the event of the year – Wedfest!

Rather than opt for a regular wedding, Darren and Claire opted to make a whole weekend of it, and include camping, and get married in the open air! Luckily the weather was perfect for the whole weekend, so no wellies were needed!

We all arrived on the Friday afternoon to pitch our tents… I was camping near to Rob, Clare and Tabitha, along with some of their friends who were really nice. The first night we had a barbecue in the woods, followed by late night consumption of alcohol back at our tents!

Then on the day of the wedding, after a breakfast of bacon rolls, we all chilled a bit before getting changed into our smart clothes (something that isn’t a particularly easy thing to do in a tent!). Then it was time to head over to the wedding area.

Darren and Claire.

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