EVENTS
A huge chunk of my career has revolved aroud live events which on the face of it sounds like they need no editing - however, nearly every televised live event will need a bunch of pre cut packages that are constantly changing up until minutes before they are needed on air - things like nominations packages at an award show or films explaining or introducing that particular event or they may need a highlights of the night cutting together in order to run them under the credits at the end. Then, on top of that, after the “live” event itself - most get quickly edited to fix any hiccups and cut any dead air that may have occurred on the night in order to be perfect for any subsequent repeat transmissions or “highlight” versions.
With that said though - there was one particular live event which I still consider the pinnacle of my career and which for the first time ever involved completely editing every part of an enormous live event before it ever actually happened - yes, everyone thought that sounded just as crazy then, when it was first suggested, as it does now but when Hamish Hamilton was asked to co-direct the Opening Ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics alongside Danny Boyle, I was beyond thrilled when they invited me to join the team and Hamish came up with the genius idea of filming every rehearsal for all the months leading up to the show and to edit those rehearsals like any other gig we’d cut before - but with the huge difference that we then had the ability to move cameras or change anything at all that wasn’t working in time for the next rehearsal and so by the time the real thing came about, we had a tried, tested and perfected show which had had weeks of editing as a template to work from and which the live team had rehearsed many times before and then proceeded to recreate, shot for shot, live on the actual night.
To see something I spent around 18 hours a day, 7 days a week for over 8 weeks be recreated perfectly and for Hamish’s idea to have worked so brilliantly well whilst witnessing it in person in a stadium of 80,000 people for once and not in a dark room on my own is a thrill that I’m not sure will ever be equalled - but I truly hope it can be! The director himself explains the whole thing much better and far more entertainingly here. Enjoy….
THE LONDON 2012 OLYMPIC CEREMONIES
SAVAGE X FENTY VOL 3 (AMAZON, 2021)
Rihanna’s annual extravaganza for her lingerie brand has quickly become an eagerly anticipated benchmark event in the fashion calendar and this year’s stunning show didn’t disappoint!
DAVID BLAINE - ASCENSION (YouTUBE ORIGINAls, 2020)
I’ve been a fan of magic since I was four years old and so was obviously thrilled to work with David to tell the story of his journey by cutting packages leading up to the big launch as well as being onsite to make the highlights of his unbelievable flight on the day itself. A real treat of a job!
THE LONDON 2012 PARALYMPIC CEREMONIES
Without doubt, one of the proudest moments of my entire career was on the last day of the Paralympics. About 4 hours before the closing ceremony, Creative Director, Stephen Daldry (Billy Elliot, The Queen) asked me to make a highlights montage of the previous two weeks to play over Coldplay during their performance of ‘The Scientist’. Myself and my colleagues Jamie and Leo frantically pulled great shots and I managed to put this together just in time for the show and we had the rare privilege of being in the stadium to hear the crowd’s wonderful reaction live. Still gives me goosebumps. Enjoy..