BLUE EYE FX UNDERWATER FILMING, EGYPT

I have just got back from two weeks diving in the Red Sea which was amazing - the dive sites and the wildlife there were fantastic - so much coral and animal life on some of the worlds best dive sites. Some of the highlights include stingray, turtles, giant moray eels as well as hundreds of species of fish and coral. I didnt see any sharks though :-(

Wreck Dives, Night Dives, Drift, Navigation and deep dives are just someof the speciality dives I did.

As well as getting some diving practice in achieving my PADI Advanced Open Water Certificate I also did some training in underwater filming with Deborah Metcalfe of Blue Eye FX Productions using a PD100 in housing which I later edited into an underwater film of my own, diving on Ras Mohammed National Park on Anemone Reef.

The course was brilliant as it really gave me a taste for all the facters involved in underwater filming, not least the actual art of diving itself, being confident in the water and getting your byouancy spot on. I am hoping to go back in April to train with Debbie who will be training this years Rolex Schollars.

TELESGOP TELEVISION

I will have been at Telesgop Television in Swansea for about 3 months this Friday (26/1/07)when I finish :-( Its been great here as I have had the opportunity to go out with the crew shadowing cameraman Geraint Jones filming for 'Ffermio' and 'Bwletin Ffermio' each week and I have also been out filming on my own with the producer/director for Bwletin as well. This was great as I had the chance to shoot my own footage on Digi Beta for use within the weekly farming programme. I also went out with Richard Rees (Big Boss!) filming for 'Clefid Y Llwch' a Documentary about the Miners Disease Pneumochoniosis. This was great as I got to go to the Anatomy department at Cardiff University and see up close and personal diseased human lungs within a torso (as well as other pickled body parts and numerous dead bodies under sheets, donated to medical science. It was like something out of CSI! Maybe morbid, but so interesting!).

As well as the hands on filming experience I have been staying in the office to use the Avids when there has been no filming. This was great as I also love editing, so had a lot of time to get to grips with the systems, digitizing, doing audio cuts and helping to cut the bwletins, I also got to do some of my own editing and have been working on my own Film that I shot in Cameroon on the Bushmeat trade, focusing on the Gorilla and Chimpanzee orphans.

I will be sorry to leave Telesgop as I have really enjoyed my time here and feel like part of the family already, not to metion the opportunity to get some real experience and not just be an observer/assistant.