Summer 2021 had arrived and bookings for events were still in short order due to the lingering pandemic so it was time to ‘pivot’. Upon the advice of an old friend and colleague I duly sent my CV to one of the larger D.I.T agencies and was sent out on my first job as a trainee no less than a week later.

On the first job I was working under a young woman who had just stepped up to the operator role. We worked together for two weeks completing the final scenes of a sub par UK HETV show. She was as rude as hell but I bit my lip and learned what I could from her.

The second job was a much bigger production for a large US streamer. The video operator who I was working under was very experienced and we got along really well. Two weeks into the shoot and a fellow crew member was ‘pinged’ by the NHS covid app on her phone and had to go home to isolate. I was asked to step up and operate her rig for the remainder of the shoot thus proving to myself that I knew my way around the software and hardware well enough to take on the next challenge.

Next up I spotted a call for an operator for a commercial shoot and applied as a freelancer. It was a nice little job in a South London park and I had to quickly gen up on the compositing abilities of the software. I went out with an Ovide system for the first time which was interesting to say the least.

I was sent out one more time by the agency as an operator for a medium budget feature film which was a really trashy rom-com. The atmosphere was horrible and the crew were under a lot of pressure, I witnessed some really bad health and safety violations and was glad to leave before the production ended.

My last shoot of 2021 was as an operator for a couple of days on the coast near to Malahide in Éire. I had been recommended by someone whom I’d never met but I had once contacted for rig hire, he had my CV and a level of trust which I admire. Even though my input was minimal it’s good to see that show nominated for an award or two.