Andrew Johnstone Talk

On 12/10/15 Andrew Johnstone, the BBC documentary film maker and photo journalist, came to The King's School and gave a lecture about how he got into the entertainment business and how his jobs works.

He has travelled to over 40 different countries for his work as documenting and photographing situations and people. He started his career by making skiing films in France where he would film the skiers and the stunts they performed however he was fired because he had forgotten to tape the camera closed because of this the tape fell out on the snow and was ruined. The next filming opportunity that he was given was one in Yugoslavia where he recorded the civil war in 20, 10 minute films. He then went into photojournalism so that he could more direction in what he was filming, during this time he was in Bosnia photographing the election - these photos were then featured in The Times Magazine. In 2003, the globalisation of photography meant that there were less assignments because "why send a photographer over to India when an Indian person can send the photo to the company?" Because of this he then went back into documentary film making and producing, he now works with BBC Plymouth where he films the Inside Out section. He has recently made a film which linked Napoleon to the South West of England and his film about James Bond has just been commissioned.


After talking about how he got into the entertainment business he then showed us his equipment that he uses when filming. There was a camera, a microphone, a light box and a tripod.

He then talked about a mantra that when filming the skiers in the Alps was given to him - he said it was very helpful, he called it 'The 7 Ps'.

"Prior Preparation Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance."

He also showed us his timetable and how he plans the filming out, with predicting how the interviewee will answer the question - this then helps him stick to a schedule and keep working productively so that he can keep to a deadline. I really like this method and will most likely use it in future.

This visit has made me learn about documentary making and photojournalism, also the amount of work that goes into a film. As well as some techniques that will be very useful in future when film making like the buffering of a microphone.