Media Parents is once again proud to partner with Alias Hire for our Camera Workshop on Tuesday 15th March. Please join us for a fun and informative evening which is free to members. See who is attending below.

The Alias Hire Team will be out in force to answer your questions.

Alias will be giving demos on the most contemporary shooting kit of the Sony FS7 and the Canon C300 mkII. You want to use them and Alias Hire will show you how! Alias Hire taff will be on-hand to demonstrate how to…

Shoot – Framing, colour balancing, Checking Audio levels etc

Guides and Techniques – Learn quick and easy techniques to make sure your shoot is as good as it can be

Manage Media  – How best to back up media and have it ready for ingest

Every year it seems there’s a new ‘Must Have’ camera and now you can beat the rush and learn how to use them BEFORE you have to use them!

To sign up for tickets please use the link below, in conjunction with the password on our watercooler at www.mediaparents.co.uk and in our site email.

http://mediaparentsaliashiretechcatchup.eventbrite.co.uk

This event is free to Media Parents subscribers. Non members are asked to pay £15 to attend, redeemable against your first month’s subscription.

Alias Hire’s Alias Academy is also offering FREE training to Media Parents members. Please see our watercooler for details.

GUEST LIST

Aaro Akin Journalist/producer Freelance Alex Bottomley Production Runner Knickerbockerglory TV Ltd Alison Mee Producer Director (self shooting) UBM Alison Rooper Executive Producer In Focus Productions Amy Walker Director Media Parents Andrew Evans Editor Aceditor@aol.com Andrew Fineberg Freelance Edit Assistant Fremantle Media Ann Booth-Clibborn Executive producer freelance Ann Hawker producer freelance Anne Monnehay Editor Freelance Annie Arnold Shooting producer freelancer Ben Flower Production Exec Endemol Shine Ben Lawrie Director Freelance Brigitta Szaszfai Development researcher Knickerbockerglory TV Ltd Carolina Bodmer Production Coordinator Scripps Networks International Caroline Law caroline@cloudedits.com Cloud Edits Ltd Cath Longbottom director, self shooter Flying Duck Limited Catherine Fox-Kirk Production Manager Raw TV Chris Purcell director/camera Right Angle Films Ltd Clare Burns Producer Freelance Claudia Hodes Researcher The Garden Productions Daniella Byrne Production Runner Knickerbockerglory TV Ltd DAREN TILEY EDITOR DT EDITING SERVICES LTD David Coward Producer Director Pathfinder Diana Hinshelwood Producer Freelance Donna Harry Shooting AP/Producer Freelance Ed Booth Series producer C5 Elizabeth Lawal Runner Raw TV Elli Josephs Producer Freelance Fiona Calvert PRODUCER / DIRECTOR FREELANCE (BBC) Fionna Moore Researcher Knickerbockerglory TV Ltd FRED HEPBURN EXECUTIVE PRODUCER NUTOPIA Gaby Koppel Edit/Series Producer Freelance George Bland Editor – Director Fire Rabbit LTD Gilberte Phanor Producer Sky News GINA mahoney Edit Producer Freelance GINNY BING PRODUCER/DIRECTOR FREELANCE Graciela Watson Edit Producer / SP Freelance Harriet Scott Series Editor Remarkable Television Harry Connolly Film Editor Harry Connolly Hayley Smith Series Producer Director Freelance Hazel Palmer Cameraman freelance Helen Walker Editor freelance Hermina Campbell Shooting PD Passionate Productions Ian Greaves Producer / Cameraman BigBlueWorld Jane Bevan Production Executive Raw TV Janet Midian Producer freelance at Discovery Jeannine Dowling-Jones PA/EA/Office Manager Mettle Jeff Bannis freelance freelance Jens Wikholm General Manager eva – the video social network Jessica Northcott Raw TV Runner Jo Azzopardi Production Exec Endemol Shine Joan Cuffy Production Manager Freelance Joanna Gretton Producer Freelance Jody Collins Production Exec Endemol Shine Jules Seymour Series Producer C5 / freelance Kate Dooley PD The Garden Kate Hampel Edit Director Freelance Kim Duke Producer/director; series producer Freelance Lara Oheimer Production Assistant Wild Pictures lauren Pollock Researcher Knickerbockerglory TV Ltd Leisa Fisicaro Producer / Director / Edit Producer Freelance Lina Caicedo Researcher Raw TV Lorraine Molloy Producer/director freelancer Louise Orton Producer/Director Freelance Lucie Kon Executive Producer Blakeway Productions Maria Vazquez-Medina Video editor/ Self-shooter Director freelance Martha Baileu production assistant in focus productions Matt Currington PD freelance Matt Holden Executive Producer Endemol Shine Meriel Beale Exec/SP Freelance Michelle Brooks Producer Show patrol Michelle Reynolds Producer / Director Freelance Miriam Ryan Producer Knickerbockerglory TV Ltd Morgan Phillips Producer/Director Freelance Nicki Stoker Producer/Director Freelance Nicola Asamoa Talent Manager Endemol Shine UK Nicola Waddell Series Editor Boxty Films-Waddell Media Octavia Landy Line producer MTV Paola Vera Digital Media Freelancer patricia emery producer/director sole trader Pauline Roenisch Production Manager Freelance Petet Demetris Producer/Director Freelance Phil Stein P/D, SP, Edit Producer freelance Rebecca McAllen ITV Recruitment ITV Richard Warburton Exec Producer MTV Rita Kaye Video Editor Golden Age Films Robert Cranham Casting Researcher/Researcher Freelance Rocio Cano PD PepaLtd Rosemary Laryea Producer/Presenter Rosemary Laryea Productions Ryker Mitchell Jr Researcher Freelance S Charlton Director-Editor Fudge Tiger Design Agency Sabine Pusch edit producer freelance Samuel Lumley Researcher Knickerbockerglory TV Ltd Sandra Smith HoP Endemol Shine SHANY STEPHANY PRODUCER NEWSPROMEDIA Sharron Ward Producer/Director Katalyst Productions Ltd Silvia Galeazzi Assistant Producer Freelancer Stephanie Stafford Runner Knickerbockerglory TV Ltd Steven Brown Freelance Video Producer Freelance Video Producer Suki Javle AP Knickerbockerglory TV Ltd Suna Yokes Journalist/Runner – Tamsin Curry Producer Freelance Tom Heycock Editor Camden Television Training William Shaylor Shaylor PM Freelance ZOE BROOKS Promo Producer freelance Zoe Popham Producer Freelance

Media Parents is brilliant for jobs, networking and training - see www.mediaparents.co.uk for details. Join us at our next event on March 15th.

It’s 3am, I’m alone, and it is pitch black. The battery in my head torch just went flat and I’m trudging through knee-deep mud. All I can hear is the sound of the Costa Rican jungle. My finger stings from a spider bite on the knuckle, and I’m holding a bottle full of Dame Kelly Holmes’ piss. It can mean only one thing: I was back in TV and I was grinning from ear to ear. The last time I smiled this intensely was when my kids were born.

http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/8221/luke-lovell

Six years previously I was often on location for months, and, as any parent will tell you, it’s not conducive to the early years of marriage and children. I moved to Devon, began lecturing at a university and started a company making TV-style content for a few well-known brands. It fitted perfectly; I had regular hours, and could be there to pick my wife off the floor, or vice versa, when the exhaustion from having two young kids really kicked in (although she’s tougher than me; she worked on Kilroy). But there was something about the camaraderie, the challenge, and the pace of TV that I missed.

http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/8221/luke-lovell

It was time to return. The kids were older now and my wife was very supportive, we were much less sleep-deprived. I was excited, but I’d been naïve; several score of applications later I was getting nowhere. I applied for the Media Parents Back to Work scheme and didn’t get a place. What was going on? I had to keep going. I was still the same guy who had been praised for his TV work. To cut a long story short, after setting up meetings and making friends with the M4, an SP friend of mine recommended me for a new series. I met the show’s SP who, and hats off to him for taking a bit of a risk with me, hired me as story producer.

It was on that shoot that, with a little convincing, Dame Kelly Holmes passed me her warm bottle in preparation for the infamous urine drinking scene in that show. It’s a year or so on from that night in the jungle and I’ve just finished working on the second series; and more work has followed through word of mouth. I’ve also had interviews and an offer of work through Media Parents which I couldn’t accept because I was booked.

It’s largely down to those I had worked with in the past, who knew what I was capable of, that I’m back in the game. Forgive me for quoting Meet the Parents, but there is a circle of trust within TV, a network of experienced EPs, SPs and PDs whose recommendation adds real weight to any CV or showreel I can put together. You can add these recommendations to your Media Parents profile page too. I know from crewing up my own commercial productions that the perceived glamour of the industry, and so the onslaught of applications, makes it harder for employers to take a chance on someone they don’t know.

So my advice for Media Parents readers is go to events, meet the employers, talk to the people who know your capabilities and ask them to spread the word; personal recommendations are much easier to swallow. Your own urine, it turns out, is not.

Back home from location and with the kids.

[Keep an eye on site emails for details of Media Parents next event.]

Luke Lovell, PD

http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/8221/luke-lovell

Luke is a freelance shooting story producer/PD for TV but also produces video content marketing the commercial world.

He shoots, directs and produces factual and factual entertainment TV programmes mostly, but has also worked on obs doc and consumer affairs shows for the major channels and independent production companies.

Having worked on shows including DIY SOS (BBC1 Primetime), Bear Grylls Man v Wild (channel 4 and discovery), Bear Grylls mission survive (ITV Primetime), and Seaside Rescue (BBC1 Primetime), Luke has a wealth of experience with different major channels and programme formats.

Last years series of Bear Grylls Mission Survive was recently a finalist for an NTA. Luke is currently looking for a filler job before his next series starts in late April.

Media Parents is brilliant for jobs, networking and training - see www.mediaparents.co.uk for details.

How many of you dress for success? I don’t mean eighties powersuit, Joan Collins shoulder pad style, I mean matching your clothes to suit or alter your mood, asks Emma Hyman, a Development Producer who’s worked through Media Parents.

Media Parents members Emma Hyman (right) networking with Michaela Hennessy-Vass and Sir Ian McKellen in 2012 http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/1927/emma-hyman

Let’s say for example, I’m knackered – I have a choice, I can wear grey and brown so everyone will know and stay away or I can wear bright pink and turquoise to brighten my mood and lift my spirits. Let’s be honest here, nobody really wants to see a morose development producer beiging around. Taupe is not the colour that will inspire Fact Ent hits or a sunshine-filled kids’ format or even a meaty factual series. Taupe is the colour of accountants and tax advisors, taupe can be left in the grown-up corner of John Lewis – I’m heading to the sale section, turns out yellow shoes are always going cheap in January!? Borrowing the words from my first TV mentor, the great Sir Peter Bazalgette “I’m not afraid of colour!”

Sir Peter Bazalgette "not afraid of colour".

I had a baby not so long ago. My hair and back were often covered in a vomitus slime that only parents can appreciate. My eye bags were so heavy that I looked like I’d been carrying my Tesco shop…on my face. But pass me the red lippy and hey presto, I felt a million dollars (well, more like ten quid but you know what I mean!).

Developing ideas when on mat leave : "We meet at BAFTA every few weeks"

I’ve been working from home for a while now, bashing out kids’ formats for Cbeebies and CBBC (taking advantage of my current brain zone) with my lovely work partner Christopher Pilkington – even getting a funded pilot commissioned. We meet at Bafta every few weeks so I can play at being a grown-up. There is obviously much wardrobe deliberation pre-meet. “Does this look ok?” I ask nervously to my over-honest 9 year old, “Hmm,” she says in a Wintouresque tone, “lose the belt!”

The focus has been fantastic, a sanity saver for those more tedious moments of parenting. Don’t get me wrong, looking after kids is extremely rewarding but so is using my brain for something even more creative than what to make from Playdoh today. On those rare mornings when I actually had a chunk of time to write, I would really think about what to wear for the office (my kitchen table). As shallow as it sounds, I found that if I made a bit of an effort: clean clothes, brushed hair, a bit of the Barry M, then I felt more grown-up, more empowered, more creative! I’m in fine company, apparently Magritte used to put on a suit, walk around the block and enter his own front door every morning to get himself into work mode. And he did alright, didn’t he?!

The last few weeks I’ve been challenging myself to get back into the work place. No more working at home, developing ideas in between shovelling rice cakes into my little ones mouth and dragging my big ones to swimming, art etc etc. I need a break. (Just to clarify in case any future employees are reading this – I don’t mean a slacking break, I mean a break from the domestic.) I was lucky enough to find work through a Media Parents networking event so I need to relaunch again, jumping into something other than the local swimming baths. A new challenge. To think in a team, and write with an end and dress to impress someone other than a one year old. I need a new makeup that isn’t left over from my wedding over ten years ago and most of all I need a new wardrobe. To sum up, I’d love a job – a hectic, pressured, fun-packed, brain-turning, worth-dressing-up-for job.

emma hyman development producer

http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/1927/emma-hyman

Having been trained as an Endemol Creative Intern, I spent years developing all sorts of shows for various Indies. I have worked at massive corporations and as part of a two-man team in new companies. I’ve developed everything from fact-ent and factual to quiz shows, Saturday night entertainment, day-time, kids’ shows and everything in between. I get a buzz from sparking off an idea but also love the challenge of cracking a tricky format. I’m a great team-player and really enjoy a good brainstorm but I can also work hard by myself if needs be. I have some big ideas in my head that I’d love to share with a company that is willing to invest in me.

Media Parents is brilliant for jobs, networking and training - see www.mediaparents.co.uk for details.