Meet the pack ?
Martin Huntley
The boss, ex sound recordist, does a lot of cooking at the office and spends a lot of his time in Florida, Spain and his garden.
James Bailey
Self confessed nerd, always tinkering with tech, built this website and knows his IT stuff, spends time with his wife, walking the dog and working on super nerdy things.
Andrew Davis
Our resident Director of Photography, highly technical he can make anything do anything, spends time with his lovely wife and two children.
Craig Hale
Former salesman turned Cameraman, our in house Drone Operator. Highly motivated and physically fit, spends his time traveling the world and enjoying life.
Craig Hookings
The youngest member of the team and former Maddogs apprentice, still learning like a sponge. Kitroom Technician and Camera Assistant. Spends his time with his family and now free of his moped, in his car on the open road.
Jazz Halstead
The leading lady of Mad Dogs TV, handling all accounts and production tasks involving clients, crew and kit to ensure all runs smoothly. Spends her time performing in the theatre and playing football, she simply doesn’t stop!
Sam Piper
A Kitroom Technician who is active and keen to get out the door and apply his knowledge practically. Spending his down time with family and friends, having a good laugh enjoying the little things.
Marc Palmerino
Our newest Kitroom Technician. An aspiring Sound Recordist/Camera Assistant who enjoys ‘Fixing’ anything and everything. Loves a good trip to the pub.
From high end broadcast, live and OB to independent and short films
Whatever your needs we have the skills, expertise and equipment to make your next production a success. From a simple easy to operate camera such as the Canon XF105, to a high-end digital cinema camera in the Sony F55 we have it all.
About Mad Dogs Television
Founded over 25 years ago by sound recordist Martin Huntley as a sole trader the company has gone from strength to strength over the years and we’re now one of the biggest facilities houses on the south coast with clients all over the UK and around the world. From our brand new bespoke built offices at The Dog House, the company has seen massive growth in recent years, taking on new staff, new equipment, new clients and more. We’re better placed than we ever have been to support your next production, our staff are also crew and know what the day to day requirements of production are, our vast knowledge and experience serves to provide insight into technical, logistical and practical issues, in essence, we’ve made the mistakes so you don’t have too.
We’re a friendly broadcast facilities house and crewing company, we want to be your local independent butchers rather than your faceless groceries warehouse; aiming to offer a friendly and professional service whatever your needs. We specialise in experienced professional broadcast television crew and equipment hire and camera rental. We offer top quality service at competitive rates and our constant investment in new equipment ensures that we have quality kit to suit any production requirements.
Over the years our cameras crews have travelled the world, filming in remote and hostile locations such as the North Pole, the Kenyan plains, the frozen depths of Alaska and Lapland too the hottest deserts of Dubai. Our crews are highly experienced and motivated, having experience filming in a number of formats. From 16 and 35mm Film, SD, HD, 3D and now even 4K as well as in a wide array of practical challenges. From trekking up a mountain, flying in a helicopter or diving underwater we have a vast list of specialized camera operators, sound recordists, camera assistants, data wranglers, riggers and technical supervisors who ready for your next project.
In addition to broadcast and cinema camera equipment our in-house staff we have over 30 years’ experience with specialist cameras, minicams, covert filming and bespoke engineering. Our minicam department has extensive experience in fabrication and installation of cameras for any scenario. With over 100 minicams we have the tools and expertise to provide footage to suit any situation, the more extreme the better!
To find out more about what we do, and what we can do for you please contact us, we’re happy to quote for any job, or if you’re not sure what you may need, we can suggest suitable equipment, crew and sort logistics. Our advice is always free and we’re on hand to help around the clock.
You can call us any time on 02380 813847, or use the contact pages to find all the other ways to get in touch with us.
The history of Mad Dogs Television
[icon_timeline timeline_style=”jstime” timeline_line_style=”solid” timeline_line_color=”#0085b2″ time_sep_bg_color=”#0085b2″][icon_timeline_feat time_title=”1993 – Company Founder Martin Huntley Starts his Career in Television” heading_tag=”h2″ arrow_position=”bottom”][/icon_timeline_feat][icon_timeline_item time_title=”1993 – Eyewitness Hazardous Facilities” heading_tag=”h2″]
Mad Dogs founder Martin Huntley had just spent three years traveling the world learning to scuba dive, skydive, hitch-hike and all the crazy things you do whilst growing up. He met Cameraman and Inventor John “Slim” MacDonnell at The Green Dragon pub, Brook. Once Martin found out what Slim did, he spent the next three months meeting pestering him every night in the pub trying to convince him to give him a job.
After 3 months Slim took the bait and invited Martin to visit his workshop and underwater film studios, and while there told Martin that he started on Monday![/icon_timeline_item][icon_timeline_item time_title=”1996 – Martin goes Freelance” heading_tag=”h2″]
Having worked with at Eyewitness for 3 years learning underwater filming, secret filming, hazardous filming and more Martin moved to America and California as a freelance sound recordist working with Duane Empey. Martin was lured back to the UK by the prospect of a new series that would take him around the world.
[/icon_timeline_item][icon_timeline_feat time_title=”1996 – Martin starts sole trading as Mad Dogs Television” heading_tag=”h2″ arrow_position=”bottom”][/icon_timeline_feat][icon_timeline_item time_title=”1998 – Martin Converts The Annex” heading_tag=”h2″]
Whilst working on location and around the world so much Martin slowly converted the annex at his mother’s house that he had been living in, into storage for the increasing amounts of equipment he needed. The hot tub room soon became the sound store![/icon_timeline_item][icon_timeline_item time_title=”2000 – Rob Hawthorne” heading_tag=”h2″]
On a local shoot for ITV Meridian Martin met local cameraman Rob Hawthorne, they became good friends and joined forces under the Mad Dogs umbrella to create a local equipment facilities house and crewing company.
[/icon_timeline_item][icon_timeline_item time_title=”2002 – Mad Dogs takes on staff” heading_tag=”h2″]
In 2002 Mad Dogs hires its first member of staff, Greg Pina as a kit room assistant. With more and more work coming in and more equipment to maintain Martin and Rob make their first staff hire. Over the coming years more and more staff were taken on to help handle bookings, accounts and more equipment.[/icon_timeline_item][icon_timeline_item time_title=”2004 – TBA” heading_tag=”h2″]
TBA[/icon_timeline_item][icon_timeline_feat time_title=”2005 – Mad Dogs Television becomes a limited company” heading_tag=”h2″ arrow_position=”bottom”][/icon_timeline_feat][icon_timeline_item time_title=”2006 – Andrew Davis is hired” heading_tag=”h2″]
In 2006, after initially applying for a job as Cinewessex (now Sweet TV) in Winchester, Andys detailed were past to Martin who was looking to hire for a kit room assistant ahead of a couple of big projects on the horizon for the company. Martin, Rob and Andy traveled the world for shows like Scorpian Island, Extreme Dreams, Aero GP and more. Starting as a mere assistant, over the last decade Andy has honed his skills and is still with us now as our in house Director of Photography[/icon_timeline_item][icon_timeline_item time_title=”2008 – James Bailey is hired” heading_tag=”h2″]
In 2008 and with the number of people on the payroll as high as it had ever been, with office staff, camera and audio technicians, booking coordinators the company was as busy as ever. With shows like Top Gear, Countryfile, Animal Park, Celeb Air keeping everyone busy the company hired James Bailey, fresh out of university he became kit room assistant[/icon_timeline_item][icon_timeline_feat time_title=”2010 – Rob Hawthone goes back to freelancing” heading_tag=”h2″ arrow_position=”bottom”][/icon_timeline_feat][icon_timeline_item time_title=”2013 – Martin buys the barn” heading_tag=”h2″]
In 2013 Martin buys “The Barn” a former milking parolour on edge of a farm in Copythorne, just 10 minutes from our offices in Cadnam, and just a stones throw from his home in Winsor. Over the next 7 years work will progress inbetween jobs as the building is renovated and rebuilt to suit the companies growth[/icon_timeline_item][/icon_timeline]
