GETTING AROUND Speeding down the Thames with 007 (far left), and out on various sets and locations for feature film shoots (left, above)
The Camera Revolution team itself is highly technical; employees come from car mechanics, engineering and other similar fields rather than film schools. “These are the people we need,” argues Speed. New employees spend their first two years in training before being sent out to sets, with the option of going freelance or staying in-house. “We have 23 freelancers and 15 in-house technicians, five of whom are trainees,” Speed says. “Once you’ve earned your spurs, you can do what you want to do.” Barring a few lulls during the pandemic and the strikes, Camera Revolution has seen consistent success over its three decades. “The industry has always been feast and famine. It’s been cyclical since I started,” Speed explains.
“You’ll have a bad year, then you’ll have two good years, then two amazing ones. We’ve generally been very fortunate.”
stabilisation gear like remote heads and rigs. “Certain sports are commanding bigger budgets and starting to use some of this tech that years ago would have been too expensive,” Speed describes. “It’s been helpful this year in keeping us going and the work ticking over,” he adds, guessing that this market will only further expand in the future. Speed attributes Camera Revolution’s success to its technical prowess. “The film industry is a slow-moving beast at the best of times,” he argues. “Traditional rental houses don’t have background in tech development, whereas, because we’re a tech company and not just a rental house, we can ride that wave.”
Entering new arenas These days, the film and TV industries are inspiring other areas of production, like broadcast, which now incorporates high-end equipment to offer coverage in HD and 4K. Speed supposes that streamers have partially led this charge by their releases of originals shot in the same manner as feature films. “It’s all big cameras and big lenses now. In sports,” he continues, “the cameras are tiny but the lenses are massive.” Camera Revolution has entered the sports broadcast realm, renting out
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