Media Parents

This Thursday Media Parents is holding a Summer CV Bash at ENVY. We’re being joined by a host of indies, ITV and the BBC. Plus about 60 talented and experienced freelancers. The plan is to put faces to names and to see how freelancers can sell their expertise better on paper. And someone from the BBC Academy is also coming along to advise people on the best ways to present themselves on social media. Some of the freelancers will be parents returning to the workplace, others will be experienced freelancers, not necessarily parents, who see the value in meeting employers. Here follows a list of everyone who has sent a biog back so far.

Alice Lister, Head of Production, ClearStory

During ten years in the industry, Alice Lister has managed and produced projects in the UK, New Zealand and the Middle East for a variety of international broadcasters including BBC, Discovery, National Geographic, Disney, Channel 4, Channel 5, TVNZ & Al Rayyan. Her recent production credits include prime time series such as Out of Empire presented by Jeremy Paxman, The Seven Ages of Britain presented by David Dimbleby and Michel Roux’s Service.

Amy Walker, Director, Media Parents

Media Parents Director Amy Walker has seen a million CVs and heard a lot of CV advice. She is well-placed to advise on what different indies like to see on CVs. Amy continues to work as a freelance Series Producer as well as overseeing Media Parents. Currently making a series with Kirstie Allsopp for Channel 4 that starts airing at 8pm on July 8th, her previous series is airing on Discovery UK, fronted by Bear Grylls. Amy has worked for all the major broadcasters, in the UK and across five continents for many years. Read more here: http://www.theguardian.com/women-in-leadership/2013/aug/01/parents-working-in-tv

Cat O’Gorman, Head of Production, Rockabox Media

Cat started out in TV in 2005 at RDF working on a variety of shows including Shipwrecked, Wifeswap and The Monarchy: The Royal Family at Work.  She continued in reality TV working at some of the top indies – Talkback Thames, Endemol and TwoFour. In 2010 she went back to RDF (Zodiak) to work in the digital department as in house PM for 3 years on multi-platform projects including Being Human for BBC 2, Gadget Geeks for Sky 1 and co-pro branded content for Renault TV, BBC Worldwide, Tourism Australia and Domino’s Pizza. Cat then spent 6 months helping set up the AudioVisual Department of PR agency Hill and Knowlton.

In April this year Cat joined Rockabox as maternity cover for the Head of Production. Most recently she has managed the global campaign for Monsoon’s Autumn Winter Collection as well as overseeing operations for the in house design studio.

David Postlethwaite, Media Parents

David Postlethwaite comes from a background in production. He was a production executive at the BBC, working across a wide range of programming,  before becoming Head of Production at a number of independents. He has worked with Amy and Media Parents since its inception and realises the importance of flexible working in the modern world.

Ezim E-Agwuegbo, Recruitment Advisor, ITV

As a Recruitment Advisor within the in-house recruitment team, Ezim takes a proactive approach in delivering a best in class recruitment service to the whole of ITV. From gathering detailed job requirements, effective campaigning, candidate screening, conducting interviews and managing the recruitment process from end to end. Ezim is always keen to connect with professionals especially within her focus areas; Commercial sales, Creative, Competition, Post Production, Marketing, Legal and Internal Communications to discuss your potential career at ITV.

Josh Moore, Head of Client Services, ENVY

Josh is the Head of Client services at ENVY. Part of his responsibility is the hiring of the junior post production staff, and mentoring them from runners until they move on to technical positions within the company.

Overseeing training alongside the heads of each technical department to ensure runners are being developed as skilled employees who can further their career within the company.

Kerry Jones, Media Parents

Kerry Jones (nee Scourfield) is celebrating her first anniversary with Media Parents> She covers jobs and talent in the North & Scotland. After working as a Style Director at TONI&GUY, Kerry moved into TV as a Hairdresser and Makeup Artist. She worked on a variety of factual programmes from Watercolour Challenge to The Big Breakfast. Kerry moved into feature films and worked with Danny Boyle, Mike Leigh on Vera Drake, and a variety of British directors on quality period features.

Kerry left TV and London to bring up her two girls in Liverpool, but is now looking forward to working flexibly in yet another different area. She is excited to be helping parents to juggle the logistics of childcare and parenting with TV.

Gavin Ricketts, Director, Napoleon Creative

Gavin runs Napoleon Creative, a video production company and animation studio. We work doing short form videos for corporates and also doing graphics for TV shows. We’re looking to meet production managers and directors. Gavin has also written a book called Clearly Creative CVs, which helps crews win more more work.

Nikki Tilley, Head of Production, Pioneer TV

Nikki left the world of drama to join Pioneer in 2000 as a researcher and has gone on to work on numerous hours of programming across the genres ever since.  Her directing credits include Million Dollar Machines (Travel Channel) and two series of Extreme Homes (HGTV). From there Nikki went onto manage projects such as How The Earth Was Made (The History Channel),  Worlds Deadliest Places (NOVA), Birth of Europe (NGCI), Megafactories (NGCI) Secrets of the Manor House (PBS) and The Year The Earth Went Wild (Ch4/Discovery).  Nikki was made Deputy Head of Production in 2011 where she became heavily involved in all elements of production within the company whilst supervising a major new eight part series for Discovery Science (How the Earth Works). Nikki became Head of Production in 2012.

Paul Birmingham, Production Manager, Brook Lapping

Paul has been a Production Manager at Brook Lapping Productions for over a year now working on documentaries for ITV, More 4, PBS and Sky. Before that he was a PM at Mentorn mainly working on a presenter led BBC Three documentary and a science commission for Discovery, with a number of years prior to this as a Production Co-ordinator both inside and outside the BBC. The majority of Paul’s career has been working on arts programming.

Paul Buller, Editor, BBC College of Production Website

Paul Buller is editor of the BBC Academy’s College of Production website, a site packed with skills, tips and know-how for anyone working in or wanting to work in the broadcast industry.

Paul has worked in broadcast for over 17 years, producing programmes for all the major broadcasters, and regularly hosts masterclasses and sessions on how to sell yourself online.

Petra Von Schalien, General Manager, Springshot Productions

With a background working primarily in Sports and News Broadcasting, and having managed FA Premier League client accounts for Nordic broadcasters Viasat, TV2, SBS/Discovery and Canal+/MTV3 as well as produced and overseen all onsite (live/pre-recorded) productions for three seasons. Also helped set up a crewing services supplying specialised broadcast freelancers and kit to cover breaking news, sports as well as corporate events (UK Election, G20 Summit, Champions League etc), and has worked on a variety of media projects (from corporate and e-learning to documentaries) as project manager or a consultant.

Currently freelancing as a Media Consultant and acting General Manager for a London-based production company, overseeing the production of a feature length BBC-commissioned documentary.

Rachel Platt, Series Editor, Reef TV

Rachel started out as a print journalist before working in live television for about 4 years. She has since worked for RDF, Endemol, Topical, Real Life and now Reef. At Reef Rachel have worked as a series producer / series editor/ exec producer for the past two years. Productions include Sarah Beeny’s Selling Houses, Selling Houses with Amanda Lamb, French Collection, Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is.

Sarah Cox, Production Manager, Leopard Films

Sarah has been working in the media industry for 14 years, mainly in factual and factual entertainment programmes, initially as a production co-ordinator and then for the last 8 years as a production manager. Sarah has worked within various companies such as Prospect Pictures, Optomen, Blast Films and currently at Leopard Films.