Working as a Lighting Camera Operator on a Corporate Shoot for Advertainment Media

Jordan, the head of production for Advertainment Media, got in touch with me through my website about working as a lighting camera operator and recording sound for a series of corporate interviews they wanted to shoot for FFNews Show, which they produce.

It was great working with a production company with a clear vision of what they wanted to achieve. The process was straightforward: I was provided with a sample video and we discussed the technical requirements of the shoot and the equipment needed.

Taylor, the producer, did a great job of providing call sheets and securing the locations, which allowed my team to fully focus on our job.

We filmed the interviews at some of the leading financial institutions in Cambodia. The scheduling gave us time to arrive in advance to prepare the locations and set up lighting, cameras and sound before the talent arrived.

We went with a 3 camera set up (1x Sony a7siii and 2x Sony a7ivs), to give us a wide and a close up of both Douglas, the presenter. and the interviewee, 2 x Aputure LS 300D II lights and a radio mic each, with a backup in case there were any interviews with 2 people at the same time.

Below are a few behind the scenes photos Taylor kindly took:

Here are the 3 videos Advertainment Media edited from the shoot. They were happy with the final results. It’s always good to see the final product when someone else has done a good job with the edit.

You can see more examples of my work as a lighting camera operator here.

On location in Phnom Penh as a lighting camera operator for ITN Productions and Everland

ITN contacted me to work as a lighting camera operator in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on a shoot they had for Everland. They also asked me to recommend a journalist to write and present the piece and conduct the interviews.

Everland help to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in Kenya, Democratic Republic of Congo and Cambodia counties the REDD+ initiative. Hopefully, giving Cambodia carbon credits to not cut down their trees will preserve the natural forests and their ecosystems, allow people living traditional lifestyles in the forests to continue do so.

The scheme will hopefully have a positive impact on the environment as a whole. Unfortunately, the reality of the situtation is that there’s too much money in the timber in the forest, so the only viable option is to provide a financial impetus to conserve the forests.

Everland partner with a local production company here, so they kindly provided me with a sound recordist for the day while we shot all the Phnom Penh footage and I worked as a lighting camera operator for the interviews and pieces to camera for the intros and outros.

The studio intro was shot at the ITN studios in London, where I had the privilege of working for a few months when I was based in the UK.

On a personal level, it was an interesting project as I’ve spent extended periods working with indigenous Bunong in Mondulkiri while working on Last of the Elephant Men and have since worked with the mahouts at Elephant Valley Projects for Wild Animal Protection and on a self-funded pilot for a travel show.

A link to the final video is below.

Lighting camera operator on corporate shoot with CEO of Forte Insurance

Ooshot contacted me to work as a lighting camera operator on a corporate video shoot with the CEO of Forte Insurance Cambodia as the main interview on some branded content for Scor, a global reinsurance company. I also filmed b-roll of the CEO in their offices in Vattanac Tower and interiors and exteriors of the office space.

The brief was clear and Ooshot provided me with a good samples of what they wanted.

It was a 2 camera, 4k set up with 3-point lighting using Aputure 300c MKii lights. One of the cameras was locked off on a Miller DS10 tripod and the other was on a Zhiyun Crane 3 gimbal to add movement and dynamism to the interview.

We worked as a 3 person team with me acting as the producer, director and lighting camera op. The other team members were a lighting/ camera asssitant and sound recordist.

For the sound recording the we used a shotgun mic on a boom stand and a radio mic as a belt and braces approach to make sure we captured optimal sound.

For the lighting, we used the hyper reflector and the 2x fresnel mount through scrims to maximize the brightness of the lamps to balance the light with the bright outdoor conditions.

You can see more of my work on corporate videos as a lighting camera op here and more of my work as a camera operator here. Below are are sample of images we captured.

Covering the UNDP IP Conference as an events photographer and videographer in Chiang Mai, Thailand

I was assigned as an events photographer and videographer to work on the UNDP Indigenous Persons Conference, which was actually 2 conferences, the YECAP Indigenous Fellows Training and the Youth CO:LAB Regional Dialogue on Indigenous Youth Social Entrepreneurship conference.

While a lot of the indigenous youth face pressure and uncertainty in their lives, both conferences were conducted with a genuine sense of collaboration and conviviality. I hope my photographs and videos do justice to this.

At the CO:LAB Conference, participants were mentored on entrepreneurship with people giving presentations through the final day. Young indigenous entrepreneurs presented their ideas to the group. It was great to see participants so eager to listen and to learn about how best to develop their ideas and their skills and to see how open everyone was to the constructive criticism and feedback that they received.

The YECAP Conference was conducted with a similarly convivial atmosphere. The participants learnt about some of the issues they face and the steps they can take to mitigate the impacts on their communities.

One of the highlights was the group project that looked at the issues indigenous youth across the Asia Pacific are facing. Groups worked together to explain the issues and look at the solution.

The final results where a collaborative drawing made up from contributions from each of the groups.

You can see other examples of my photography work here and other examples of my videography work here.

You can see a selection of the photos I took below:

Fast-turnaround project as a video editor for United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

I worked as a video editor for UNDP and UN Women on the joint project to address stigma and discrimination experienced by women with disabilities.

The videos were posted on UNDPs social media channels to coincide with International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPWD).

The projects was done on a very tight turnaround and it was a great team effort to get all the videos done and signed off in time to be launched on IDPWD.

As the project is in the initial stages, it would be great to see it gaining traction and shining a light on a subject that is often overlooked and that it contributes to reducing stigma and discrimination for women with disabilities across the world.

It was a pleasure working with the team at UNDP. In terms of clarity of vision and understanding how to be optimise and publish the videos on social media they were among the best I’ve worked with it.

It was also great to work with the team from University College London who are clearly experts in their field and are working very hard to get this project out of the block.

You can see more of my work as a video editor here and other example of short clips I’ve edited for publication on social media here. Below is one of the clips that was published on various agencies social media channels to help promote the project.