My experience extends beyond the virtual production and film industry. I have worked as an editor on documentaries for Sky Arts as well as various branded content. I’ve also worked as a Studio Director where I led a team of 5 to deliver work for live broadcast, pre-recorded panel shows and creative tech experiences.
Editing
I’ve worked as an editor on a range of documentaries and branded content. Each of these projects required a unique approach to achieve the result the client wanted.
The Documentary editing was pretty formulaic as it was season 2 of Sky Arts’ Comedy Legends. Myself and another editor handled half the episodes each. Each episode was required to be a broadcast hour (so roughly 43 minutes with ads) and consisted of an intro sequence, motion graphic titles, and then sections that covered the comedian’s career. The editing involved us trawling through footage of 4 comedy experts talking about the comedian and finding relevant talking points to the comedian’s work. These talking heads would form the base and narrative of each episode. We then had to find clips from their work that related to what the experts were saying and cut this into a narrative that told the story of each comedian. Finally, we created motion graphics to introduce each section or stage of their career.
Working on branded content as an editor was fun as it allowed for more creativity compared to editing documentaries. Some of the clients I worked for include: Natwest, RBS, XPRIZE and more. Each had their own set of requirements and styles they wanted for their video. The work depended on the campaign from the client but included explainer videos, panel shows, product advertising, customer testimonials and music videos.
Broadcast and directing
My work as a Studio Director was great fun. It allowed the creative and technical sides of me to come together to create some truly unique content as well as giving me the opportunity to lead a team and work on live broadcasts. I was required to direct and vision mix broadcasts for live distribution along with having to direct pre-recorder panel shows in our multi-cam or Virtual Production studios.
For live productions I would be directing cameras and vision mixing for the live feed during the broadcasts. I would work with producers and clients before we went live to design the stage, lighting, and cameras for each show so they all had a unique feel whilst being in the same studio. I was the director and vision mixer for Edinburgh TV Festival in 2021 when COVID stopped the festival from being held in Edinburgh. For the 3 days I led my team to deliver 8 hours each day of back-to-back panel shows with various hosts, industry experts and celebrities. We also did broadcasts for Yahoo’s news and social channels.
This role was also my introduction to Virtual Production with LED walls and Unreal Engine. Combining live broadcast panel shows with VP enabled us to create some unique proof-of-concept ideas where the panel show talent could fully interact with the virtual environments in UE through motion capture tech. I was required to work with development producers to create unique ideas for TV shows that could showcase the use of VP tech within broadcast and then I’d direct these shows for delivery as a proof of concept where broadcast commissioners would decide if the idea was worth turning into a full show.