Meet Dave Sinclair

Dave Sinclair has been behind a camera for more than four decades, and his story starts somewhere most people wouldn't expect: on army exercises.

Dave is the man behind Corporate Motion, an independent film and photography company based in Leicester. He brought that experience, and a lot of good humour, to The Legacy Bench.

A camera in the army

Dave joined the army in 1978. In 1981 he bought his first camera and took it out with him on exercise, filming what the soldiers were doing and cutting together short mini-documentaries at the end. His colleagues loved seeing themselves on screen, and the bug never left him. Throughout his army career, including Northern Ireland training and tours and an 11-month tour of Bosnia, he kept filming.

He has always been a creative person. Art and music were his main passions at school, and as a child he loved model making and painting: the satisfaction of being able to say "I've just made this" has stayed with him ever since.

From a chat over the garden fence to a first client

Dave retired from the army in 2004, with Leicester as his last posting. While he was working for a telecoms and IT company, his next-door neighbour, who knew about his filming hobby, asked for a business card: a friend of his was an area manager for B&Q and needed filming for a new warehouse. Dave filmed at weekends for nine weeks, and B&Q became his very first client.

Since then, he told the bench, he has worked on projects for the BBC, ITV and Sky. He is happy to work with anyone, from one-man bands to blue-chip companies, and has a soft spot for the small boutique shops on side roads that don't get the footfall of the high street.

His advice: stay in the public eye

In the army, Dave said, the idea was to keep the army in the public eye, and he has applied that to business ever since. However big you get, you still need to advertise; the biggest brands in the world still do. For small businesses he recommends short, sharp videos of around a minute: sit down, list 20 things you could talk about, and film them.

Now in his sixties, Dave is starting to think about the next chapter. He loves both photography and videography, but admits the lighter kit of photography is becoming more appealing than carrying tripods, lights and batteries.

Dave Sinclair joined us on The Legacy Bench for "Four People Rebuilding Their Lives" — watch the full conversation.

Read our write-up of the episode: Four People Rebuilding Their Lives: Travel, Recovery, Sustainable Christmas and 40 Years Behind the Camera.