Lebanon’s geography means it’s blessed with water but in the capital, Beirut, and its surrounding areas more than a million and a half people suffer from serious water shortages. It’s a story of chronic mismanagement in a country that has so many problems… Economically, financially and politically. Martin Patience reports.
On August 4th the Lebanese capital Beirut was hit by a man made disaster. An explosion so devastating great swathes of the city were destroyed. In this strange mid-pandemic world deploying to a disaster isn’t as straight forward as it used to be 2 flights and 2 covid-19 tests in 24 hours and I was finally there to join the gathering team. This was the first major foreign deployment since the pandemic started and we were all feeling our way through it.
Due to the lockdown as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic the world of newsgathering has changed dramatically. Social distancing, quarantines and lack of worldwide travel has meant that we are relying more and more on Zoom, Skype and Facetime for interviews and verified UGC for a good portion of our meaningful content. This is an example of many stories from around the world that we are having to cover from afar.
After being stuck in lockdown for a while now it was great to be shooting again. I was tasked to join a team to film at the former military rehabilitation centre at Headley Court in surrey which reopened recently, not as a recovery centre for the limbless or the battle scarred, but as a recovery centre for the patients of Coronavirus. The Seacole Centre as it is now named has opened to cater for Covid patients and others who need help with their recovery.
This was one shoot that I’m particularly proud of and very lucky to have been asked to contribute to. BBC News Correspondent Sophie Raworth traces the story of her pioneering grandfather who was one of the brave pilots who flew in the RAF during the First World War. I had the pleasure along with Julius Peacock of filming some elements of this lovely documentary directed and produced by the amazing BBC correspondent Robert Hall.
The Cross channel ferry Herald of Free Enterprise capsized minutes after leaving the Belgian port of Zeebrugge on the 6th March 1987. The tragic events that night resulted in 193 passengers and crew losing their lives in what was the biggest peacetime maritime disaster since the Titanic. Commemorations were held this weekend in both the ports of Zeebrugge and its intended destination of Dover and I was tasked by ITV News to be their shoot edit to cover both events over two days.
I had a wonderful experience earlier today filming the London Philharmonic Orchestra for ITV News with Producer Lucia Walker and Correspondent…
Last Wednesday I was tasked by BBC News to cover the final departure of the Royal Navy Aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious from her home port of Portsmouth as she sets off for a scrapyard in Turkey. She has been sold for a measly 2 million pounds and will follow the fate of her two sister ships and be broken up for scrap metal.
The ‘extreme’ side-effects of antidepressants was a piece that went out on the Victoria Derbyshire Show to highlight the suffering that some people are going through with these drugs.
Yesterday I was sent down by BBC News to the lovely town of Battle to cover a reenactment of the Battle of Hastings, commemorating the 950th Anniversary of that fateful day. I arrived at about 2pm to find that Tim and Duncan had organised a mock battle just for me to film for our piece and the action made up a major part of our edit.
BBC’s Business Correspondent Kamal Ahmad reports from Blenheim Palace on the introduction of the new five pound note. This short VT was shot and edited by me in one afternoon on location for the Six o’clock News back in June 2016.
The BBC’s Defense Correspondent Jonathan Beale reports from Estonia about Nato Exercises on the North East flank of the alliance’s borders with Russia. This report was shot by me with Jonathan in June and we edited using FCPX back in the UK for it to go out ahead of the Nato Summit in Warsaw in July 2016.
Last weekend I was deployed by BBC News to a gloriously sunny Geneva where the Americans and Russians were talking ceasefires…
Gunmen attacked western tourists and local workers in the Radisson Blu Hotel, in Bamako, Mali… I was called the morning after the attack and I was flown out that very night by the BBC to meet up with the team to cover the story. Our West Africa Correspondent Thomas Fessy had flown out from Dakar and was already in the city by the time I arrived.
Earlier this year I was tasked to meet a team from Newsnight in Calais to cover the possible clearing of the Migrant Camp called the Jungle. While waiting for the authorities to confirm the start of the clearing process we decided to film our first nightly piece concentrating on another camp just a few kilometres away in Dunkirk.
Last year I had the pleasure of working with the BBC team covering the Iran Nuclear Talks in the wonderful…
I have just returned from nine days in Switzerland working for Thomson Reuters on their Davos Today TV program. The…
