User:Paul A Gavin

PAUL GAVIN Cinematographer and Director of Photography

I have achieved wide recognition as a documentary cameraman, working all over the world from Tihar Jail in Delhi (Asia’s largest jail) and the war zones of Angola (BBC’s DEAR BILL with Lord Bill Deedes) to filming dancers in Havana’s exotic Tropicana Club and experimental theatre in the African bush for World Wide Fund for Nature.

In the UK I worked with brothers Andrew MacDonald (Trainspotting, The Beach) and Kevin MacDonald (Touching the Void, Last King of Scotland) on the ITV series SHADOWING and subsequent BBC documentary DIGGING YOUR OWN GRAVE, in which director Kevin followed his brother Andrew’s attempt at producing his first film, Shallow Grave. A working partnership with director Francesca Joseph led to the hugely successful BBC docusoap DRIVING SCHOOL followed by BBC’s PICTURE THIS, an RTS Award winning programme, FOUR TARTS AND A TENOR with the late great Pavarotti.

In ‘97 I moved into television drama, filming BOMBAY BLUE, a £2.2 million detective drama series, which was Channel 4’s largest commission in Scotland at that time. It was one of the first high-profile drama series to be filmed on digital format, and Sony exhibited my work at industry events to illustrate the benefits of originating television drama on digital as opposed to film. In 2003 I was cinematographer on the BAFTA-nominated (Best Short Film category) 35mm short CANDY BAR KID with director Shan Khan, for which I received a Kodak BAFTA Swan Award.

I went on to film the 13-part series HOLLYWOOD DREAMS, an entertainment series for Cineflix International following young hopefuls looking to make it big in Hollywood. This series screened primetime across US, Canada and the UK. I was DOP on BBC Scotland’s soap RIVER CITY, completing some 100 episodes, and I recently filmed the documentary series BUILDING THE BIGGEST, filmed on HD for the Discovery Channel.

My drama work continued with the full-length feature film GAMERZ, filmed in Scotland on HD and enjoying success at film festivals around the world. GamerZ has been twice nominated for a Méliès D’Argent Award, has secured distribution in both the US and UK, and had its UK theatrical release in February 2008 via Cineworld.

In 2008, as DOP, I completed the 60min drama EILBHEAS (ELVIS) for the launch night of BBC’s new Gaelic channel, filmed on location on Lewis in the Western Isles. This was nominated for a BAFTA in the “Best TV Drama” category. I have recently completed the eleven-part series DANNSA for the launch of the new BBC Alba freeview channel.