GTC Award Winners 2022

This year, our first in-person meeting for 3 years was made even more special by our 50th Anniversary.  The GTC's 2022 Awards were presented on Sunday 27 November at STEAM, the Museum of the Great Western Railway in Swindon, Wiltshire.

The overall event was orgainised by a group of GTC Council members ably led by Peter Rance who, along with Hazel Palmer, organise the main GTC awards, whilst Alan Duxbury and John Tarby organised Bill Vinten University Awards.

The exhibition space was managed by Clive North.

As always, the master of ceremonies for the event was our chair, Graham Maunder.

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Introduction

GTC Chair Graham Maunder welcomed everyone to the 2022 GTC Awards evening and spoke about the achievement of 'FIFTY YEARS', and how lucky we all are that all those years ago John Henshall and Dick Hibberd wouldn’t take no for an answer and had the determination to persevere with their goal. 

Graham started the evening with a "State of the Industry" address highlighting key events and the Guild’s achievements in the last year:-

• Our industry has rebounded very well from the Covid pandemic
• Work for most people has picked up this year
• New studios being built to replace the many that closed down
• The return of world sporting events
• The difficulties since our exit from the EC
• ATA Carnet deal for our members continues
• Our popular Workshops will return next year
• Zerb and In-Focus continue to be a great source of information our website and social media platforms
• Our membership has increased year on year again, welcoming more students than ever
• A big thank-you to the current GTC Council members for their continued hard work

After Graham's summary of the year, he went on to introduce the awards and to thank the GTC Awards Team:

“There is a tremendous amount of work involved in our awards each year and I want to take this opportunity to thank Peter Rance who took on the bulk of the work this time, along with Hazel Palmer. Many thanks as always.”

 

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GTC Awards for Excellence

 

Nominations were submitted by GTC members through this website and the nominees then selected up to 10 minutes of material from the programme that they felt best represented their work to submit to the judging panel.

As with the last few years, there were no categories in our awards so every nomination could be assessed on it’s own merit.

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Europa League Final/Champions League for BT Sport, BT and CBS
BatCam - Andrew Lawrence, Mike Foyle, Alastair Souter and Jack Turner

The nomination was for the FPV Drone work for the BT Sport opening sequences shot at 3 different locations for the coverage of the Champions League and Europa League finals. 

Judges mentioned the complex and tight navigation involved whilst using new technology in an exhilarating way and maintaining great framing throughout.

Unfortunately, the BatCam team were in Qatar working their magic on the World Cup, so Joseph Dobson and Louis Tozer accepted the award for them.

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Phil Lynott: Songs for While I’m Away – Kate McCullough, BBC
Director of Photography: Kate McCullough

Kate McCullough was nominated for this programme for the BBC; the nomination mentioned the imaginative treatment and the inclusion of some street art around Dublin illustrating Phil Lynott’s influence on the city. The judges agreed and also praised the lighting of the interviews. The most common word in their notes was "gorgeous".

Sadly Kate couldn’t accept the award in person so she kindly recorded a video which was played on the night.

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Eurovision Song Contest 2021, BBC
The Camera Crew

The next award was for the Camera Crew for the Eurovision Song Contest 2021. Judges commented about the diverse range of styles used in the show utilising green screen, cinematic techniques and hand-held shots. The judges agreed and also noted the seamless nature of the shooting whilst noting the concentration required for such a long live show with very few rests for any camera. 

We were absolutely thrilled that some of the crew travelled over from Amsterdam to be with us. Rather than show a clip from the show, a "Behind the Scenes" video was played giving a fascinating insight into what went into a live broadcast of this scale.

The award was accepted by Ivo Palmen and Jochem Timmerman from NEP and Bart van Rijn from EMG.

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It's a Sin, C4
David Katznelson

This programme dealt with the fear and miscommunication that accompanied AIDS in the 1980’s and quite poignantly was transmitted during a pandemic. The nomination referred to the atmospheric recreation of 1980’s London and the hand-held and Steadicam work that kept you involved with the characters. 

David Katznelson’s nomination for It’s A Sin on Channel 4 was noted by the judges for the effortless cinematography that sucked you into the world that the characters were living in and the powerful emotions they were feeling. Sadly, David wasn’t able to join us but was able to send us his acceptance video.

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Dispatches: Undercover in Africas Secret State, C4
Andrew Thompson

Andrew Thompson’s nomination for his work on ‘Dispatches: Undercover in Africa’s Secret State’ for Channel 4 mentioned the powerful and shocking film that was a great piece of TV journalism. Note was made of the risks involved, the minimal resources available and yet how well interviews were lit and the beautiful landscape shots together with Andrew’s ‘natural eye’ for a good shot throughout the programme.

Andrew accepted the award on stage.

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The Mating Game: Oceans: Out of the Blue, BBC
Doug Anderson and Jeff Hester

The next GTC Award for Excellence took us to the wonderful world of nature where we have been blessed for so long with amazing series after series. The nomination for Doug Anderson for his work on ‘The Mating Game: Oceans: Out of the Blue’ for the BBC provided the viewer with an incredible insight into the world of the humpback whale. 

This was another fantastic series but the nomination thought that this episode was particularly impressive given the rarity, size and pace of these magnificent creatures. The judges agreed and noted the great use of different camera angles from both under and above the water particularly noting the difficulty in providing great narrative shots underwater whilst keeping pace with these gigantic animals.

Unfortunately, neither Doug nor Jeff could make the evening, but fortunately, Hal Hampson accepted the award on their behalf.

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The Green Planet Tropical Worlds, BBC1
Time-lapse photography: Tim Shepherd and Todd Kewley

Our final GTC Award for Excellence went to Tim Shepherd and Todd Kewley for their simply stunning time-lapse photography on The Green Planet Tropical Worlds. 

This programme took time-lapse to a whole new level and used the absolute latest technology to show plant life moving at different speeds and was so extraordinary. A painstaking process that was executed superbly.

Many congratulations to Tim & Todd, who, unfortunately, couldn't attend, but kindly sent an acceptance video, we were also honoured to welcome Graham Horder, who accepted their award and gave us a brief insight into the world of wildlife photography and 40 years of the IAWF.

 

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GTC Dick Hibberd Award Winner

 

Andy Portch

This year's winner of the GTC’s most highest and prestigious award, the GTC Dick Hibberd Award (formerly the Television Cameraman's Award or TiCA), went to editor and team leader at Sky News, Andy Portch.

Andy has been gathering news for over 30 years. During that time he’s covered elections, earthquakes, tsunamis and wars to name just a few assignments.

For a while, he was based in China where being arrested frequently became something he was used to and he was also credited as being the 1st person to use an iPhone for a live international broadcast whilst covering protests there.

Now based back in the UK, he still travels and is constantly looking at new ways of telling the stories he’s asked to cover, often utilizing new and untried cameras to achieve this.

Andy accepted his award in person and gave the audience an insight into his work.

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GTC Honorary and Fellowship Awards

 

Honorary Membership
Terry Abrey

An Honorary Membership is awarded to someone who in the opinion of the GTC Council has given outstanding service to the Guild. This year Council were really happy to be giving an honorary membership to Terry Abrey who has been the Guild's accountant for 40 years.

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Fellowship
Simon Roe

The first Fellowship was for another ‘money-man’ who worked alongside Terry for over 10 years as the GTC treasurer, Simon Roe.

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Fellowship
John Tarby

The next Fellowship is to recognize the work that has been done over many years whilst being a Council Member by John Tarby. Apart from organizing a lot of the awards weekends over the years, John also helped scan many of our publications to create our on-line archive as well as being behind the software used for the Bill Vinten awards.

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Fellowship
Peter Rance

Our final Fellowship was very difficult to keep as a surprise from it’s recipient as he has been so involved in the GTC Awards event. He was also the GTC secretary and has always been one of the first to volunteer for any jobs that needed doing in the GTC. The final Fellowship was given to Peter Rance.

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John Henshall

The Final Award for the evening was presented to our longest serving member who together with Dick Hibberd founded the GTC 50 years ago, John Henshall.

John’s forethought, determination and passion to not only start the GTC with Dick Hibberd but to continue to be involved and so active in making sure that there are at least another 50 years of the GTC to look forward to.

In recognition of the massive part John has played in making the GTC not only what it was but what it is today, the current GTC Council on behalf of all the GTC members presented him with a unique solid gold GTC pin to add to his collection.

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