All Saints’ Academy alumnus Nick Davis recently had the fantastic opportunity to be a camera operator for the UK’s biggest gaming festival, Insomnia 62.
The budding filmmaker had the chance to work on the live stages, operate production equipment and help the stage shows run smoothly at the NEC in Birmingham. Nick worked with the director, producer and other live stage production crew. The event featured high profile YouTube personalities such as The Yogscast, Syndicate and Casper Lee to name a few.
Nick graduated All Saints’ Academy Sixth Form in 2016 and is now in his 2nd year of Television Production at the University of Gloucestershire. Whilst at All Saints’ Academy Nick studied Media, Music, IT and Hospitality and Catering and also took part in many extra-curricular filming projects, commissioned by Gloucester Diocese, Pink Elephant PR and for the Academy. Mrs Edgar, PR & Communications Manager said ‘Nick was always so enthusiastic about filmmaking. He was always eager to learn new skills and put them into practise. It became quickly evident that he had a real skill for directing, editing and camera operating. I'm so glad that he is continuing to progress his television/film career by gaining further experience in the industry at such high-profile events.’
Nick was happy to talk about his experiences, ‘My friend at university has been working at the festival for four years and was constantly saying I should apply to take part in the event. I am so grateful that he pestered me now! Learning about live studio production at university and building an understanding of what works and doesn't certainly helped me during the event. When you go live it’s obviously very tense and although the director sometimes tells you what shots he wants as things happen, initiative and an ability to read and pre-empt situations are very important and can be the difference between a fantastic shot and a mundane one. My team leader was really happy with my performance at the festival and I was pleased to hear the director had said ‘I had an eye for this’.
‘What is great about the opportunity also is that some of the content is going on the channels of the YouTube creators. The Yogscast channel have already put their D&D game I filmed on their Twitch account. Yogscast were the first YouTube channel in the UK to reach a billion views and have over 7 million subscribers currently. Technically I have camera operated for a Yogscast show! As a long-time fan I was stoked when we were just backstage chilling together, this was definitely a highlight.’
