A small insight into Dylan’s experience filming in India for an upcoming Spark production.
Since joining Spark in October as Camera and Technical Supervisor, I’ve led camera and technical operations across productions, managing equipment prep, kit logistics, fault diagnosis, and repairs while solely overseeing the kit room.
In April, I had the opportunity to join a small production crew filming the latest Alice Roberts by Train series in India, a genuine career milestone. Over 17 days, we travelled across 11 locations, from Delhi to Aurangabad, shooting in an extraordinary range of environments including fast-paced street filming, remote rural villages, controlled interiors, and moving platforms such as trains, boats, and tuk-tuks.
Originally brought onto the production to manage camera equipment and support the Shooting Director and DOP, my role quickly evolved into operating a third camera and taking on shooting responsibilities. One standout moment came while filming a spiritual river ceremony, easily the highlight of the trip. While the main team followed Alice’s conversation, I was tasked with capturing the atmosphere and world-building moments around us: fire dancers, candlelit offerings drifting along the river, and intimate details of the ceremony unfolding. Being trusted to work independently in a moment like that was incredibly rewarding and something I’m hugely proud of.
The experience was everything I had imagined as someone who grew up dreaming of international filmmaking after watching The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Beyond the landscapes and scale of India, the shoot taught me an enormous amount about reactive, fast-moving documentary filmmaking, adapting quickly, solving problems on the spot, and learning from an exceptional team including Paul Crompton (Shooting Director), Helen Morrell (Head of Production), and John Benam (Director of Photography). It is the most rewarding production I’ve been a part of.
