Tag / Work

by Gareth

Random update

I’m really, really tired. I could really do with some kind of holiday, but now that I’m freelance, I just don’t like turning down work, which means I never seem to get any time off. Maybe in a few months I can grab a break, otherwise I’ll end up running myself into the ground!

I’ve been down in London this weekend filming some stuff for NuSkool. It was a performance of urban dance in Acton Vale so that I can produce a promo for them at some point. It was a very long day, but the kids seemed to get a buzz from it, and the community centre was packed on the evening which was great. I stayed at Prince & Laura’s flat last night, and then drove back today, stopping for Sunday lunch at mum’s on the way back up!

Today, the annual 10K run took place in Manchester, and I’m so glad I didn’t enter it this year! I found the training really tough both times before, and it really stressed me out in the lead up to it last year, although on the actual day I suppose I was glad I’d done it again. I guess the main issue is that the reason I did the run in the first place wasn’t really for the right motives… the only reason I signed up to do it the first time was to try and impress a particular person, and to give us something in common – and that obviously worked really well! And then the next year I just ended up doing it again and my heart really wasn’t in it for various reasons. Oh, well… I’m older and wiser now. Maybe.

Other stuff… last weekend I finally got round to fitting new skirting boards in my dining room around the chimney breast, and I think I’ve done a pretty good job even if I say so myself! Hopefully I’ll get a chance to paint them this week, although I know it’s going to manic with work for at least the next two. I need to get round to sorting out a kitchen extension as well because I’d really like to try and get that moving before the autumn.

by Gareth

‘Freedom Of The Seas’

Well it’s been a pretty busy couple of weeks for me. I got back yesterday from doing a 3-day shoot on the world’s biggest cruise liner, ‘Freedom Of The Seas‘!

‘Freedom Of The Seas’.

I was second camera for filming a First Choice conference, as well as general shots of everything on board, and we travelled down to Southampton on Sunday night, and then boarded the ship first thing on the Monday morning.

It was its first sailing with passengers, and just did a trip around the channel islands, but we were kept really busy with work (18 hour days!), so it didn’t really matter where we were to be honest. The scale of the ship was immense, and it had so many different things on board. As well as a massive ‘Promenade’ high street, it also had a theatre, ice rink, sports pitch, surfing pool, crazy golf, a casino, and even a climbing wall!

Also, for the time we were on board, we didn’t have to pay for any food and drink, and it was all of a really high quality. It was a great experience, but to be honest, I don’t think a cruise would be the kind of holiday I’d go for at all. Just my taste I guess.

Check out the photos I took whilst on board here.

Just before all that, I went down to Tamworth for the day on Saturday because it was Steve and Julie’s engagement party, and I also went to see Vikky’s new house which she and Damien have just bought, and I think it will end up being really nice. It’s a good size, and it’s got a really massive garden – miles bigger than mine!

And then today me and James have been filming some interviews for the Preview DVD, so it ended up being another long day… I could really do with a bit of a rest sometime, but I’ve not got a day off until next weekend!

by Gareth

Manchester Passion

Another whole month gone! I’ve been really busy with work and not done much else – so nothing’s changed then!

In the last month, I’ve bought some lighting equipment which I’m hoping will be a really good investment. It’s cost me quite a bit of money, but they’re the sort of things which should last for many years. Doubt this will mean anything to anyone, but what I got was a 3 lamp Dedolight kit, and a Starlite lamp with softbox. You’re impressed now aren’t you?

Not much else to put really. Like I said, my life is just really my work at the moment.

Oh yeh, it’s Easter Day isn’t it? Kind of feels like an ordinary weekend because I’m working both Bank Holiday days. But I did watch the Manchester Passion on tv on Friday night. The BBC did a live retelling of the Easter story on the streets of Manchester using music from various Manchester bands. It was really well done, and I know some people who went down to see it live said it was a really good atmosphere, but it still came across well on tv. A bit rough around the edges, but I think that was part of the reason it worked.

by Gareth

Seeing football for real…

It’s funny to think that I worked at MUTV for 6 years, but today was the first time I’ve actually seen a Premiership match for real! I’d been at Old Trafford loads of times during games, but always in the depths of the stadium, with thousands of fans above me!

The reason I got to see a match is that I’ve recently been doing some camera work for Channel M, and I was down at the City Of Manchester stadium for the City v Wigan game, getting some vox pops with fans before the game, and after the game, to film interviews with City’s manager Stuart Pearce and one of the players in the tunnel.

City actually lost one nil, which wasn’t ideal really! And it wasn’t a particularly exciting game in general – so my first proper taste of seeing a football match wasn’t the greatest!

by Gareth

New car!

Well after nearly seven years, I will be saying goodbye to my little red Fiesta this week. I was down in Tamworth today, and I went to have a look at some Ford Focuses and ended up buying one!!

Basically my current car’s MOT is due at the end of the month, and I’m pretty sure it won’t pass (I only just managed to get it through last year) so I thought it would be best to look at getting another car before spending any more money on it.

The one I’ve bought is 9 months old, with just 12,000 miles on the clock, and I’m going back down at the end of the week to pick it up. I think it will be quite weird because I’m so used to my Fiesta, but I’m really looking forward to getting it!

It’s been a pretty busy week – I’ve been doing a few different jobs, and yesterday I was down in London with James with the rest of the Preview team about the DVDs we’ll be producing every 4 months. It’s going to be quite intense at first I think as we sort out exactly how it’s going to work, but after we’d had the meeting, I felt a lot more confident about it – which is a good thing!

Also, I’ve got someone who’s going to do me some plans for an extension to the kitchen, and I’ve got to sketch out all the dimensions and take a load of photos for them to do it. It’s being done as a bit of a favour, so it’ll take a while, but it should hopefully mean I can get all the work done by the summer!

by Gareth

Shelves take two!

You may remember that about a year ago I had a slight disaster trying to put up some shelves in my dining room, and I managed to pull out chunks of plaster, and basically mess up a recently finished wall.

Anyway, in the last few weeks, I had a go at trying to patch up the wall (which has just had holes in it for all this time!), and then repainted it all, and now you can’t really tell that there was a problem there.

To be honest, the wall is pretty rubbish – it’s pretty crumbly underneath the plaster skim – so I managed to find some shelves that weren’t as heavy as the ones I tried to put up before, and that had a bit more support.

So this weekend, I attempted for the second time to put up shelves in my dining room, and it seems to have been a success! I’ve used much longer screws and better raw-plugs, so hopefully they should stay up! I’m not planning on putting anything too heavy on them, so it should be okay.

I’ve still got loads of stuff that needs doing on my house – but I have started getting things done after a long period of doing nothing! I want to get my kitchen extended this year as well, so I need to get some plans made up, then will try and get all the rest of the work that needs doing done at the same time.

Also, had a really good time down at VideoForum with James. I saw so much cool kit (that I would really like, but can’t afford!) And we also went to some seminars on lighting and I learnt loads. Now just need to save up some cash so I can buy loads of video stuff!!

by Gareth

Ali’s 30th

I went down to Bristol this weekend for Ali’s 30th (I find it quite amusing that she’s now back in the same decade as me!) and in true Ali-style, it was a barbecue… in February!
It wasn’t the hottest of nights(!) but they had a bonfire and fireworks, so you didn’t mind spending time outside.

Me and George.

I didn’t know most of the people there, but two others from uni were there – George (minus Hazel because she wasn’t well) and Helen were both there, so it wasn’t too bad.

I drove back up yesterday afternoon – but because of roadworks managed to miss the turn off from the M4 onto the M5 and I nearly ended up in Wales! I managed to get off just before the Severn Bridge and turned round to head back the correct way!

I’m off down to London this week with James to go to an exhibition and conference called VideoForum. It’s not costing too much either – we’ve managed to get train tickets for £25, and the uni are paying for a room in a Travelodge for James, so I’ll be able to crash in there with him… so it’s worked out loads cheaper than I expected. I reckon we’ll find it really useful – we’ll be working together this year producing DVDs for a trend forecasting project, so I think it will be good to see what kind of kit is out there, and also to get to some of the seminars too so we can get the DVDs up to a higher standard (hopefully!!)

by Gareth

Old jobs and new jobs

Was doing some freelance editing at Channel M, and they had a copy of Broadcast lying around (a tv industry newspaper), so I flicked through to the jobs section and the first one in there was for my old position at MUTV! I had heard that they were going to advertise in there, but it was still weird seeing it in it! Actually reading it, it makes what I used to do sound quite professional!

Anyway, as I said I’m doing a few days work for Channel M this week – it’s weird with freelance… up until Friday lunchtime, I had all this week off but now I haven’t! I’ve got a 7am start there tomorrow so I probably do need to get to bed pretty soon!

Also, I put my new freelance website live tonight – www.garethharrisonproduction.com – it’s not flashy at all, but I think it does the job I want it to.

And me and James finished the IR Awards sting last Thursday – due to the tight deadline and because we started it over Christmas, the first time they saw any of it was actually last week, so it was quite a relief to hear on Friday that they seem happy with it. I think we did a pretty good job to be honest considering we did it all in 3 weeks – less than half the time we had to do last year’s! You can see what the finished piece looks like here.

by Gareth

Just chucked away £40

Pretty hacked off ‘cos I’ve basically just gone and wasted 40 quid.

I designed myself a business card late tonight and uploaded it to a website to get a load printed, with the more expensive option of a glossy front. However, I just looked at it again, and noticed I’ve made a mistake with my phone number, so I went to the site to make the alteration, only to discover there is no way to change the order or even cancel it.

So I’ll have 500 business cards arriving through my door soon, and they’ll be heading straight into the bin… great.

by Gareth

Busy weekend

Stayed in bed for most of today! I was so tired because this weekend we were filming our ‘Enemy Of The State’-inspired shots for this year’s IR Awards opening video.

On Saturday, I was up at 7.30am to get the videos for the computer screens finished, and then headed over to Bolton for midday to start putting the set together. We started with an empty white-walled room, so had to totally transform it to look like a surveillance control room, and I don’t think we did too bad a job to be honest!

As is always the way, we didn’t get to start filming as early as we’d have liked, so we didn’t get all of it done until about 3am! And then after everyone had gone, me and James had to de-rig the whole thing which took us about three hours (it probably would have been quicker had we not been so tired!!) I eventually got back home at 7am on the Sunday morning, making it a 23½ hour working-day! I managed to grab a few hours sleep before we had to film the introduction section later that afternoon.

So all in all, a productive – but incredibly tiring – weekend!

by Gareth

Bow(l)ing out from MUTV…

Well, tonight I had my official MUTV leaving do, in which I’d decided to go bowling rather than the more traditional route of just going to the pub for the night!

Anyway, we met at Duke’s 92 in town, and it was a good turnout… to be honest, I was kind of worried about how many people would actually come. It was a bit weird though, because I really do feel uncomfortable if the attention is put on me, and this was one occasion where it was difficult to get out of that! While we were there, I got given a card, a HMV voucher and a book – “The Bluffer’s Guide To Football”… though I kind of feel that it may have been more useful six years ago!!

Then 15 of us went down to Parrs Wood to the Megabowl for a couple of games of bowling, and it was quite good fun, and it looked like everyone who went enjoyed it. By some kind of miracle, I managed to win my first game…

  1. GARETH – 139
  2. BRIAN – 122
  3. JOE “THE KID” EVANS – 111
  4. KATRINA – 108
  5. IAN – 66

…but almost came last on our second!! Strangely enough I don’t have those scores!! Ian did a heck of a lot better though, coming either first or second!

There are photos of the night here.

by Gareth

New Year… No Job!

First day of the new year, so the obligatory blog entry…

Well, I suppose the major thing in my life now is that I’m technically unemployed! It was my last day at MUTV on Friday, although I’ve been in this weekend to clear my desk, and dub off some of my old work. It feels a bit weird… I don’t think it’s quite sunk in yet. I’m pretty busy with doing this year’s opener for the IR Awards at the moment, but after that I don’t really have any definite work lined up! Now that’s quite scary!

Christmas was a bit of a non-event really, although it certainly wasn’t anywhere near as bad as last year, which definitely was the worst I’ve ever had. I had to do some stuff for the IR job which meant I was dubbing tapes all the way through both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, as well as converting some footage from US NTSC to UK PAL which took forever! Then on Boxing Day I went into work to get some bits and pieces that needed doing sorted. And then last night I was in the office, and got home about quarter to midnight, so that was how I saw in the New Year. Whoopee.

Anyway, I didn’t really like 2005 at all, so I’m kind of hoping 2006 might be a bit better. Not holding my breath though!

by Gareth

Christmas party #2

Last night I went to my second Christmas party in a week! I guess this was probably the last social event for me for a long while, so I’ve been making the most of these last couple!

Like last year, we had our party along with all of the Manchester United employees, and it was provided by ‘The Christmas Company’ again… the theme this time was ‘Gatecrash The Kremlin’ – so there was quite a bit of Russian music and Cossack dancing going on!

The meal was pretty good, and we didn’t have to pay for our drinks… so the night didn’t cost me anything… which was definitely a bonus (especially since my heating died on Sunday and I’ll be paying to get that fixed this week!)

They had dodgem cars there but I didn’t get to go on them because I couldn’t be bothered queuing(!), as well as a fairground stall where you had to try and hammer a lever to get a rubber frog into a container – though after about 10 failed attempts I gave up!

You can see the party photos here.

by Gareth

Christmas party #1

Leighton and me.

Last night I was at Airplay‘s Christmas party (I’ve done various freelance work for them over the last year) and it was a pretty good night.

They’d invited all of their freelancers along as well as the regular staff, so I knew a few people there, but there were quite a few faces I’d seen around their offices who I spoke to for the first time at the party!

Leighton even came up from Birmingham for it, and everyone seemed to enjoy the night… he was slightly the worse for wear by the end of it! There was a free bar until half midnight, and Dave Walker made the mistake of buying a drink at 12.40am… and ended up buying a single Malibu and Coke for £7.50. He was well hacked off!!

There are a load of photos from the night here.

Got my second Christmas party – the Manchester United one – on Monday evening, and that one should be really good if last year’s is anything to go by.

by Gareth

“And next on ITV1…”


Last night saw my first proper work go out on ‘normal’ telly!

I’ve recently been working on the titles, graphics and sponsor bumpers for a one-off documentary that went out on national ITV1 at midnight. It was a programme made by a guy I know called Rob Hallam who went out and filmed the Cannonball 8000 weekend – where over 100 really cool cars travelled across Europe, driving from London to Rome!

I went to the Sports Bar in town to meet up with the others who worked on the show, along with a load of Rob’s friends to watch the ‘premiere’ of the show as it went out! It’s being repeated on Men & Motors on Boxing Day in the early evening and on New Year’s Eve as well. I thought it was a good programme, although they didn’t use all of the 3D graphics I produced for it, and they were pretty good (even if I say so myself)!!

Oh well – I can still use them on my showreel when I get round to making it!