Background

Everything about the job & production – bingo, channel 861, buying tickets through the red button, an 8 hour live broadcast each night, 12 hour shifts 14.00-02.00 – sounds absolutely dire on paper, but here’s the thing, it was an absolutely fantastic learning job which paid pretty well and gave me tons of time off to do my own motion graphics and skate video projects.

I worked with 2 highly skilled, motivated and keen directors from whom I learnt shitloads about how to handle myself behind the lens / in the gallery and much about the shenanigans of the TV industry.

Deal Or No Deal was recorded in the studio next door for 9 months of the year and our production often had some of their top dog cameramen come in and work with us, who were invaluable when helping us shoot chromakey footage, setting up shots, arranging scenes and so on.

When I first started there, I was a graphics operator.  Literally just playing titles, stings and motion graphics by hitting a spacebar when cued by the directors.  Design work was limited to occasional photoshopping; meanwhile i kept pestering the powers that be to get me a PC with AE, PS, AI, etc. to do as much AE work as possible for features, seasonal promotions, new game ideas, etc. as I had the skills and work going on with personal and freelance projects to justify the cost.

Eventually, Endemol shut down their Edinburgh operation and sent us down a semi-decent edit PC with AE, PS and Avid to make some stuff, which made me into a bit of a big deal, as they generally preferred to outsource when needed.

In autumn 2008, Gala gave Endemol 3 months severance notice – the operation was being cut and handed over to another company for less, based in London.  At the end of January 2009, at the absolute depths of the recession, we were made redundant and so ended my time in live TV, taking the chance to switch to freelance motion design

selected work 2006 – 2009

Here’s a short montage of some promos I worked on while at Endemol West as a graphics operator/motion graphics goon and assistant studio director. The production was a live digital TV gambling channel, Gala TV, broadcasting live on Sky channel 861 from 6pm – 2am every night.

Valentine’s Day

Edit and design 5 promos based around voxpops taken around Bristol city centre along with designing a Valentine themed animated background for use with menu slates, winning tickets and other displays.

Galabingo.com comes to life

Co-edit & design of ads/promos introducing Gala’s online players to Gala TV’s big prize games, jackpots, callers, presenters and contact details.

How to play along online

Co-direct & edit of chroma-key promo on how to play along online – this promo, along with some others I’ve done, were played constantly on daily transmission, online at www.galatv.co.uk and on evergreen.

General info

Gadgets used:
Live to air – proprietry graphics loading/rolling/display software for playing idents, stings and other interstitial graphics. Thomson Grass Valley vision mixer for output to TX.

Promo editing – blade & tape, wax crayons, effortless style.