Welcome to The Dojo

Home of Mad Dogs Televisions online training courses.
You’ve found The Dojo! Mad Dogs Television’s new training ground for mastering the art of video production.
Whether you're a fresh pup or a seasoned hound, this is where you’ll level up your craft. The Dojo is a dedicated space packed with practical, no-nonsense tutorials, in-depth video guides, and insider knowledge straight from the set.
From camera skills to sound recording, lighting to data wrangling our pack of production pros will show you how it’s done.
This is a paid-for service designed for those serious about sniffing out professional skills and stepping up their game. Bite-sized lessons, full-length training videos, and downloadable resources await. Think of it as your own private obedience school for the world of broadcast and video.
Ready to stop chasing your tail and start learning? Step inside The Dojo, it’s time to train like a Mad Dog.
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Available courses

Self Shooter Gurus

Do you want to brush up on your camera skills? Are you a researcher looking to step up to AP roles? Are you a content creator or are you looking to become a self-shooter and want to improve your camera skills? Do you want to build your confidence or improve the quality of your camera work and audio capture?

Then this course will have something for you. We offer hands on practical training courses with our most experienced in-house broadcast camera operators. Each session is tailored to your skillset allowing you to focus on the areas that matter to you.

This experience is open to all skill sets from beginners, students and those already in the industry.

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Lighting Masterclass

Do you want to brush up on your lighting skills? Key, Back, Fill. What is the point of 3-point lighting? Master those Master interviews and paint with light Degrees Kelvin, Depth of Field, Dynamic range, Waveform monitor. What is all this jargon?

Step into the light and let your skills shine. We offer training for aspiring lighting/camera operators with our most experienced in-house Directors of Photgraphy.

This experience is open to all skill sets from beginners, students and those already in the industry.

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Why learn with us?

Experienced gurus

3 hours of 1 to 1 guidance with an experianced professional broadcast camera operator

Get hands on

Practical hands on with one of our  broadcast camera kits, or if you have your own equipment bring that too!

Camera confident

Become confident shooting GVs, B-Roll, Vox Pops and Interviews. We'll explain the theory and have a go so you can put it into practice

Relaxed learning

Learning on set is possible, but stressful! Learn with us in a non pressured enviroment and ask as many questions as you need

Testing, one two

It's not all lights, camera, action, we also cover sound from mic placement to recording levels and monitoring

Bespoke learning

Our aim is for you to come away feeling confident and ready to shoot. We will tailor the learning to your skills, speed and interest

Meet our gurus

James Bailey

Technical Supervisor

Blessed with superb technical knowledge and an eye for detail. James has been guiding crews and clients for years on complex shooting techniques. Specilisting in DIT and Data management on complex long term projects he’s also an expert at timelapse, a seasoned multi-cam shooter and director of photography. 

James is both a camera operator and technical supervisor with a vast array of broadcast credits. Graduate of Southampton Solent 2007 Television and Video production BA Hons

Andrew Davis

Director of Photography

With Maddogs since 2004 he has been supporting self-shooters with technical support even before he started shooting himself. From minicams guy to camera assistant, camera and jimmy jib operator, now director of photography who has been surrounded by kit ever since he arrived at Maddogs and he cut his teeth on documentary, reality and entertainment shows. 

A multi-cam shooter and experienced single camera operator with over 20 years experience of shooting broadcast content. Graduate of Bournemouth Uni 2004 Film & Television BA Hons.

Craig Hale

Lighting Cameraman and Drone Pilot

Began as an assistant to Andy and James putting in years of training and shadowing others operators he is now a fully-fledged camera operator and earning his first director of photography credits.

He frequently mixes it up between camera, gimbal and drone work these days having gained extensive knowledge of equipment and shooting techniques. Graduate of Bournemouth Uni 2012 Video production BA Hons

Why learn with us?

We have been supplying experienced crews, broadcast equipment and technical support to production companies & self-shooters for over 20 years. We support our clients to be confident shooters, share our expertise and provide training to all those who use our equipment. We are experienced in sharing our knowledge and tailoring our support for all skill sets. We have quality kit to suit any production requirements.

Frequently Asked Questions

1When do these courses run?
We run these courses on request and are very flexible about when we run them, we like to keep these sessions as one on one or limited to small groups (max 3 people), so run them on demand and can be very flexible on when. This means you get our full attention and the most out of the training.
2Where do these courses run?
The course runs out of our offices in Southampton, as a rental house it means we have a vast array of equipment available to train on and can tailor what we use depending on your needs and experience. It also means we can react to any questions that arise and get extra kit or go off on a tangent if we need to. If you have any specfic equipment you'd like to practice with let us know and we will try and make it available for you. If you've never shot before we go over the basics of all cameras, the most common questions and an overview of basic filming and sound.
3I can't get to Southampton, can I use Zoom?
Yes! But it's not quite a good if we're honest. We can, and have done our courses via zoom but find if you can make it in person, it’s much easier, and more fun, to get hands on with kit! If you do want to learn over zoom, if you can source a camera of your own locally, you'll be able to follow along as we go through menus and settings. Even if you don't have hands on access to a camera, we can share camera menus and screens with you live, and we'll provide materials you can keep and refer to after the session which serve as a useful cheat sheet. Our remote sessions are all run a 1 on 1 with yourself and one of our gurus. As these remote sessions can be a little more complex to run, we don’t offer these as a group booking at this price point. We’ll still tailor the session to you, and your needs to let us know in advance any areas or specific equipment you’d like to cover so we can focus on the information that’s most useful to you.
4Can I bring my own equipment to learn?
Yes! We love when people do that. These courses are very much tailored to you, so let us know what you'd like to learn and if its your camera, or one of ours we'll help you get the most out of it.
5I've never shot before, is this course for me?
Yes! We cater for all skillsets, no previous shooting experience is required. We can cover the very basics and get you confident enough to start shooting.

Not sure if this is for you? Why not have a look at some of the other in person training courses we offer. Or get in touch to discuss your needs and we'll do what we can to help. We aim for everyone to leave a session with us feeling like they've got the most out of the time and more confident in their skills. We're always happy to tailor our training to you and your skill level or specific requirements.

In Person Training Courses

Our address

Maddogs Television
The Dog House
Pound Lane
Copythorne
SO40 2PD

Office hours

  • 9am - 5:30pm