Credits include: "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix", "Fred Claus", "Eastern Promises", commercials for Stannah Stairlifts, UEFA and British Airways, "Stormbreaker" (features). - 3rd grip, "Dark Corners" (feature) - A camera Grip.
Dave completed the New Entrant Technical Training Programme in 2005 as a Grip.
Before FT2 David says he "Did a GNVQ in media production then a degree in Broadcast digital technology at Ravensbourne college which I dropped out of in the second year after being taken on as a freelance grip trainee which I did for about 8 months prior to joining FT2. To be quite honest the fact I was in the Parachute regiment reserves was more relevant to being a grip than any form of qalification as its just not relevant to my job, nor did it give me an insight into the industry as Broadcast TV and Film are very different worlds.
His advice to potential trainees and trainees:
"Advice I would give to people thinking of applying is get yourself in as sound a financial state as possible before starting the training as the money is just unrealistic to survive on in London, as a result of which I have a £3000 overdraft and £4000 on credit cards. It will all be worth it in the end but I wish I'd had time to save as much money as possible prior to training. Also I'd say a car is a total essential, the 12 hour days are long enough without having to spend 2 hours each way on public transport trying to get to Pinewood from East London (worst case scenario) and you can never guarantee you'll be able to get a lift, even if someone lives near you they may not want someone in their car every morning."
On a work note he warns, "Don't be late EVER, no matter what you may think of FT2 stuffing it down your throat in the induction weeks, people genuinely hate you being late and won't stand for it, if they are there so should you be. I know a trainee who worked for one of my friends, and he likes said trainee, but will never use them for work as they were unreliable and turned up late on numerous occasions. Work your nuts off, should be common sense really but you have 2 years to impress and quite frankly half the people you work for don't want you there cause they'd rather have their own trainee so you have to work extra hard to stick in their memory, I was always always the first person at work and the last to leave from my department, this counts for a lot as a trainee, it means you're at work about 30 minutes more than everyone else but hey its your choice, impress or go home.
He remembers, "One grip I worked for didn't want me there. In the first week, in fact on the first day he would say, its gonna be a slow one today, go home if you like, and this carried on for the first week, there's nothing for you to do blah blah blah. So I just cleaned all the gear, put everything away tidily when they'd gone etc. This carried on for 3 weeks and I thought he hated me, after that time he said he'd been testing how genuine I was and how much I wanted to be a grip and from then on taught me more than anyone else did in the 2 years. I now work for him regularly and we're good friends."
