Chris Davies - Video Cameraman, Editor & Producer

Chris Davies

Cameraman, Editor & Producer

Congratulations! You’ve found me!

This website is intended to illustrate my skills and experience as a video cameraman, editor and producer of some 27 years standing. As such I have worked on a wide range of subjects for an extensive list of clients, on staff, freelance and for my own production company, Theta Productions.

Having grown up in the video business editing on-line all the time in tape based suites, the advent of computer off-line edit systems opened the door to a new way of working and new skills in editing and motion graphics.

I was an early adopter of the Media 100 editing system because it was the first computer based product that allowed you to produce on-line quality pictures and finish your programmes without having to go back to a traditional tape based suite. For me, image quality has always been paramount.

As the technology of computer based edit suites continues to evolve, I have added a Final Cut Pro based edit suite alongside the original Media 100 suite. Inevitably this has meant learning new programmes for graphics and DVD authoring, an ongoing challenge that I very much enjoy.

Early interests in photography and motor racing fuelled my journey to the present. By the time I left college (qualified both as a Quantity Surveyor and to run a Road Haulage firm!), I had built up a part-time business as a freelance photographer, travelling the length and breadth of the UK shooting motor racing at weekends.

Rather than facing the prospect of spending the rest of my working life locked in an office, immersed in plans, papers and calculators, I gave myself 3 years to make a success of my photography. On the way, I diversified into commercial photography and portraiture.

As the end of those three years approached, I was travelling all over Europe photographing Formula 2 racing, and getting involved with video filming for the first time. I could see the writing on the commercial wall for stills photography, compared with the future of video, and so I started working with Brian Kreisky at VideoVision Broadcast.

Brian (the original “video nasty”!) gave me an excellent schooling in how to work under pressure as a cameraman and editor. Over the next 3 years, we made television programmes on Motor Sports worldwide covering cars, bikes and powerboats (basically anything that had an engine and went fast, with the possibility of crashing!). In my time at VideoVision, I made a total of 117 films, the details of which can be found here.

Towards the end of this period we had graduated to Grand Prix racing, doing work for the TV rights holder, Bernie Ecclestone. A couple of years later, I was recruited to run his Formula One Constructors Association (FOCA) TV Unit, where I stayed for a further nine years. During this time I was responsible for the shooting, editing and production of some 816 television programmes, which were broadcast around the world. You can see a summary of them here.

I was also involved in the development of on-board cameras on Grand Prix cars, fitting the first video camera to a Brabham-BMW at the British Grand Prix in 1984. Later in my FOCA career, I exploited the opportunities afforded by miniaturisation to mount remote cameras in unusual locations: inside the team garages, in the pit wall signalling area, on the podium, hidden in guardrails and on the hydraulic jacking systems used during pitstops. All these cameras added atmosphere to the live coverage, but probably the most successful was the camera mounted on the end of a microphone boom. This has since been further developed into today’s Polecam products.

In 1993 I set up my own company, Theta Productions, making sports, documentary and corporate programming, more details of which you can find on this website. I also work on a freelance basis as both and editor & cameraman, in post produced and live productions.

Recently I have picked up stills photography again, the advent of the digital age makes it a different experience to the days of film. It is interesting just how much the two disciplines of moving and still pictures compliment each other artistically.

In an age of rapidly evolving technologies, I continue to relish the ability to learn something new every day.