Profile: Dennis Lennie
Lennie’s learning curve
DENNIS LENNIE Founder, F-Stop Academy and DoP
An award-winning veteran, Lennie’s 17 year career in television production includes credits as lighting cameraman, DoP, producer and director. He’s worked with broadcasters, production companies and filmmakers from all over the world, filming in nearly 50 countries. After working at hire companies Procam and Mitcorp he set up his own company F-Stop Academy
After nearly two decades behind the camera Dennis Lennie is teaching the next generation how to get the most out of their kit
T
here’s no doubt that Dennis Lennie is a man who knows his cameras. In a 17 year career crammed with producer, director,
director of photography and lighting cameraman credits on award-winning documentaries, travel programmes and music videos starring celebrities such as Tom Cruise, Ewan McGregor and U2 to Bon Jovi, Kylie Minogue, Robbie Williams and Christina Aguilera, Lennie has certainly done his time behind the lens.
FILMMAKING EXPERTISE Now he aims to share his expertise with the next generation of videographers with his own training organisation F-Stop Academy. As Lennie explains, his transformation from filmmaker to camera expert and educator was something of an accident – literally. When filming on one job in mountains he broke his ankle and was told he’d have to give up being a full-time film cameraman. Next
stop was a spell at hire companies Procam Television and Mitcorp, where he
learned about the technical capabilities of a wide range of professional cameras and started making training videos for Mitcorp’s own Group TV channel. He was at the forefront of file-based camera development on shows such as Paul Merton in China and Scrapheap Challenge, and made a series of training videos about using the new breed of HDSLR video cameras. Last year Sony made use of Lennie’s unique
combination of practical experience and technical know-how when he was invited to talk to the manufacturer about developing a new small form factor camcorder with a large sensor which would appeal to a wide audience of music video producers, professional, corporate and educational videographers. The result was the NEX-FS100E, launched
in the space of a year and incorporating much of the feedback from Lennie and a number of other camera operators. Lennie recalls that Hangman Studios’ James Tonkin, a director who specialises in music and commercials and who was a fan of
16 theproducer Summer 2011
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36