Media Parents PD Evy Barry writes about her experience of pitching at the BBC’s FastTrain Event, a free training day for freelancers on May 16th. Plus top five pitching tips from the speakers at the event listed at the bottom of Evy’s post.

If you’re a freelancer or talent manager attending FastTrain please stop by and say hello to us on the Media Parents stand. #FastTrain @mediaparents if you’re on Twitter.

Amy Walker, Series Producer and Media Parents Director will be at FastTrain, accompanied by Claire Brown, Media Parents Employer Liaison, and Claire Seeber, a Writer Director on the Media Parents site – please scroll down this page to read Claire’s brilliant blog piece.

If you miss us at FastTrain please join us for a drink on Thursday 17th May from 6:30pm in central London – details of the venue for this can be found on the Media Parents watercooler or you can contact us through www.mediaparents.co.uk for more info.

Media Parents PD Zoe Fryer writes about returning to directing as a working mum, and her new production World’s Scariest Animal Attacks TONIGHT on Channel 5 at 9pm. #worldsscariest

I have been working in television for 14 years on a variety of different productions that have taken me all over the world and given me privileged access into many people’s lives, for which I am honoured, and always grateful to experience.

I took almost a year out of work after having my daughter Amber Rose (now 2) and at first was very daunted about returning to production and being able to balance television contracts and bringing up a child.

Media Parents has been invaluable in making that transition easier, just the fact that an organisation like this exists to support us all and raise awareness that different ways of working are possible really helps. Having a family doesn’t mean you have to leave the job you love.

While this will always be a juggling act with its tough moments, I have found that if you talk to production companies, they can actually be a lot more accommodating than you might think.

My first job back was for Rockabox Media on a series called First Homes with Gaby Roslin. It was meant to be a full time post, but when I looked at the schedule and their budget limitations, I proposed working on a part time flexible basis, which turned out to suit us all. Ok, some weeks I might have been working six days all over the country, but some weeks were only two days so I had all that extra time at home with Amber Rose.

Through Media Parents I then got involved with the ‘Worlds Greatest/ Scariest…’ series at Mentorn Media.  This was full time but in pre-production I was able to come in early and leave earlier in the evenings so as to get back in time for the childcare. This has been incredibly valuable in enabling me to juggle all my commitments and means that my child care ‘team’ are brilliantly flexible and accommodating when I say, ‘Oh by the way I am going to Japan next week for five days, is that OK?’

I have enjoyed working on this series as it’s a new genre for me and I have learnt a great deal. In the first series, I worked on ‘World’s Greatest Heroes’ which was tough for many reasons, but luckily I was working with an amazing and supportive team at Mentorn Media. A great testament to that fact is that the majority of the PDs from series 1 were back for series 2 recently, and I have also been able to learn a lot from their amazing talent. Although I worked on ‘World’s Scariest Animal Attacks’, all of us (Jules Seymore, Jim Shreim and Jamie Matson) worked collaboratively across the series to span the globe and cover the best stories possible.

Fully armed with many lessons learnt from series 1, series 2 has had increased expectations but ‘World’s Scariest Animal Attacks’ has been incredible to work on, I have really loved every minute.

You’ll be pleased to know that these animal attacks are very very rarely unprovoked – people generally end up doing something to put themselves in these situations, so respect wildlife and you should be fine – although I have particularly enjoyed debates about which animal various members of the production team would rather be attacked by… Tune in to channel 5 at 9pm TONIGHT, Sunday 13th May to see what you think.

Media Parents drama director Jill Robertson’s new episode of the series Lip Service TXes on BBC3 TONIGHT at 9pm and next two weeks with series finale on the 25th!

Media Parents networker Gladys San Juan produced this short film on Penge for the MyStreet Film competition.  http://www.mystreetfilms.com/#/films/watch/532 Applications are still open, details are below.

MyStreet is an exciting opportunity for you to tell your story about your area, through film. Share with the world where you are, who you are and how you live. To enter the competition simply upload your video (1 to 10min. long) at www.mystreetfilms.com by 22nd May 2012.

Take inspiration from our brand new trailer http://www.mystreetfilms.com/#/films/watch/462
What will happen next?
1.  We will review your film, send you a submission confirmation and your film will appear on our site.
2. The 10 best documentaries will be screened at Open City Docs Fest from the 21st- 24th June 2012

3.  At the festival the shortlist will be judged by the Open City Grand Jury, chaired by Nicolas Philibert.

First prize this year is £500 cash For our second prize winner there is a set of state-of-the-art Steady Wings as well as the enviable opportunity of a one-on-one film consultation with award-winning film maker and juror Marc Isaacs. Our third prize winner will receive a tour of the ITV Newsroom with ex-Editor and Chief David Mannion as well as an ipod doc made by Soundfreaq http://soundfreaq.com/SFQ-02RB_Features.htm. All three winners will also receive membership of Shooting people and a subscription to Little White Lies magazine.
We’re looking forward to watching your MyStreet film and hearing what you have to say.
More about Open City Docs Fest here: www.opencitylondon.com

Get involved and spread the word.

After directing World’s Scariest Near Misses for Series One,  through Media Parents for Mentorn Media, I was delighted to be invited back to work on Series Two.  The film I made, World’s Scariest Weather, TXes this Thursday 10th May at 8pm on Channel 5.  Making it took me into a world of tornados, dust storms and flash floods.  

Because of the nature of the subject matter - UGC (user generated content) on weather – there was a huge amount of material out there, but getting hold of the combination of footage, interview and story,  proved to be difficult.  Extreme Weather is a competitive area, and finding original stories and footage we could afford wasn’t easy.  Luckily I worked with a very talented team:   Researcher Sophia Lightfoot tirelessly chased clips and stories, AP Faye Gilbert (also from Media Parents) added her shooting and directing skills, and Alison Hunt seamlessly put it all together in the edit. 

We ended up with a set of strong stories and heart stopping footage featuring some of the most visceral and damaging weather events ever captured, plus Japan’s worst natural disaster, last year’s tsunami. 

Sophia managed to track down a fantastic and untold  story of a couple who survived  a devastating Tornado that hit Joplin, U.S.A.  Producer/Director Jim Shreim shot a great interview with the couple involved which brought the drama and horror of the event to life.  It shows how we all had to work well as a team and trust each other in order to complete a demanding world-wide filming schedule in a short space of time.

After a short break I’m about to embark on something completely different - a  Celebrity Antiques Road Trip for BBC2. Diversity is the spice of life, and in many ways this is what makes production work so attractive, it’s good to be faced with a whole new set of challenges. I’m sure it will be a whirlwind trip and very busy but I’ve worked with some of the team before and feel confident that we’ll be able to pull it off. 

It’ll take me away from home for most of the eight week shoot, but I’ll be back in time for the family summer holiday to Cornwall, where hopefully the Weather won’t be anything like the sort I’ve been witnessing over the last few months!

I’ve been a PD for over twelve years, working on a wide range of different productions from ob-doc to archive, and I’ve filmed in variety of different locations from fishing boats to prison cells.  A personal highlight was following the “puppy police” as they deliver justice to the animal mistreaters of the Bronx.  

After many years as a typical production nomad, with stints in London, new York and Liverpool, 4 years ago I decided with my family to move to west Cornwall. My six year old daughter now wouldn’t want to leave and while maintaining a career in what is a very London centric industry requires a bit of juggling, the promise of good surf and even better pasties makes it all worthwhile.  

I’m relatively new to media parents but the idea of short term contracts and flexible work patterns fits with my own lifestyle.

The first series of World’s Greatest/Scariest was my first job through Media Parents.  I edit produced World’s Greatest Daredevils in series 1 and enjoyed it so much I was very happy to return as PD on World’s Scariest Flights in Series 2 following its immediate recommission.

A second series brings with it a fresh set of challenges.  The format and shape of the series has been bedded down, but the bar has been raised interms of the quality and strength of the stories featured. Several weeks of searching through the archives for just the right content was to follow, searching through hours of aviation accidents as a few themes began to emerge, and if the main message coming though as this stage was to avoid flying on second hand Russian cargo planes in tropical storms then that at least was something…
 
It’s a demanding and complex series, with four episodes shot on three continents, and it requires a large amount of cross over and trust between the teams of PDs and APs.  My own episode featured material shot in Florida, New york, Michigan,  Amsterdam, London and Tokyo by five different PDs (Media Parents talent Zoe Fryer, Jim Shreim, Phil Broadhurst and Jules Seymour)  but, thanks to the close collaboration between teams, it all cut together seamlessly. 

All I had to do now was not to let the material itself turn me into a nervous flyer and all would be well.  The inference of our show is that despite the high drama and jeopardy of the incidents we feature there’s always some chance for survival.  It’s a reassuring message, in amongst the screams and explosions of the material I had been viewing and editing, so I was able to sit back and enjoy my daytrip to Amsterdam to interview the survivors of a hot air balloon crash. Though I did have my camera phone ready, just in case… 
 
It was an enjoyable, and enlightening, series to work on.  I hope you enjoy watching it, and remember, please pay attention to the inflight safety briefing.

http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/2904/jamie-matson

Phil Broadhurst, PD and Camera Operator writes about his latest job through Media Parents, reversioning a new programme for Discovery and shooting for World’s Scariest Flights which TXes tomorrow night at 8pm on Channel 5.

I have been working as a director/cameraman on specialist factual and natural history documentaries for over 10 years. Always keen to gain more edit experience, my first job with Mentorn Media (via Media Parents) was as PD reversioning World’s Scariest Plane Landings, originally shown on Channel 5, for Discovery USA. (Originally produced and directed by Eoin O’Shea). Already a tight show, crammed full of aviation incidents, the brief was to ramp things up for a US audience – specifically to replace some of the British voices with American contributors, and generally up the jeopardy stakes.

While shooting the replacement interviews in the US, we were able to pick up further stories for World’s Scariest Flights (series 2 – Thurs 3rd May, 8pm, C5), working to brief from the other production team. After taking the reversion through an intense 7 day offline edit, the production team for series 2 asked me back to shoot a further week of interviews for World’s Scariest Flights, Animals and Weather. Another full-on week filming across New York, Michigan and Florida, and again working to briefs from 3 separate production teams.

The whole team at Mentorn were a pleasure to work with and I’m really looking forward to seeing the new shows starting tomorrow. The support I’ve received from Media Parents too has been relentless!!

www.fishfilms.co.uk  http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/327/phil-broadhurst

The first Welshman to reach Number 1, Ricky Valance’s life has been defined by one monster hit: Tell Laura I Love Her. But what is like to be known for just one song when personally and professionally you feel you are so much more?  His fans may be aging and the venues may be smaller but, whilst he has his voice, he still takes to the stage 52 years on, determined to dispel the one hit wonder label.

BBC1 Wales, Sky 972 & Virgin 864

Tuesday 24th April 10:35pm

(and on iplayer as “They Sold a Million: Ricky Valance” until April 30th)

A Quintessence Films Production for BBC Wales.  www.quintessencefilms.co.uk

Quintessence Films is in the COMPANIES section of www.mediaparents.co.uk

This London blogger is part of the Media Parents site, but blogs anonymously.  Her blog, Not a Notting Hill Mum, has been nominated for a blogging award, so if you’d like to vote for her after reading, please see details below.  If you’d like to write for the Media Parents blog, anonymously or otherwise, please contact us through www.mediaparents.co.uk

Deaf and Dumb or Sex in the Swimming Pool

Posted by Not a Notting Hill Mum

Why do people go to the gym? To exercise perhaps, to make new friends or even to find a new significant other?

Until yesterday I’d never thought about it – I would simply have said exercise. The only chance I get to swim and use my gym membership is really during my children’s swimming lessons when I do as many lengths up and down the pool as I can manage. And then I  squeeze in a couple of extra length while my kids shower off at the side of the pool. Each time I get to the end of the pool I check the kids are OK and whether or not they are ready to get out of the shower.

So yesterday I’m powering up and down (OK taking it easy with some leisurely breast stroke)  and there’s a guy standing at the end of the pool in the water doing some limbering up. And each time I talk to the kids in the shower, he says something to me which I can’t understand, because I’m deaf and he’s not English.

But I take it to be something along the lines of: “Aren’t your kids cute” or maybe: “I’ve got a son that age” and so I smile politely and kind of nod and swim back up the pool.

So the final time I stop next to him and say, “Ok kids it’s time to go, let’s get out now” and this guy is still limbering up and he says, clear as a bell:

“You know, I really, really fancy you.”

I stutter slightly and am truly lost for words.

Remembering my manners after what seems like ages I reply:

“Er, I guess I should take that as a compliment. Ummm. Thank you.”

And he says: “Are you single?”

And I say , apologetically “No, I’m married and I have two children.” And I point at the children whom he cannot have failed to notice, given that I have been talking to them on and off ever since he got in the pool.

( Please note, if you read yesterday’s post, that I point out that I am attached nice and early!)

“Oh,” he says looking really quite crestfallen,  which I cannot understand, given that he is quite attractive and unbelievably fit  (I know this as he is only wearing a pair of swimming trunks) – and I am almost certainly older than him – and  a lot less fit than almost every other woman who uses the gym – because I don’t actually use it.

So I try to cheer him up.

No, I do not give him my phone number – lesson learned and I should point out that ” boyfriend” and rival of shoe-shop boy became “husband” many years later!

But I tell swimming boy that I have lots of single friends – and smile in an optimistic, give-me-my-medication- now kind of way.

“No,” he says I think rather more sorrowfullly than is necessarily, “I’m only interested in you. Adding perhaps a little more realistically: “I don’t know why. I don’t know what it is.”

I can only agree. Because those of you who have met me will know that although I may look Ok in low light with makeup on, I am not the fresh faced mannequin that you see at the top of my blog. And on this occasion I am almost naked ( not in a good way) with slightly red eyes from the chlorine and deep goggle marks round them as if I was being marked up for a eye-lift. In addition, I am wearing a saggy swimsuit where the lycra has given up and the foam cups have gone off message, so by the end of a swimming session I look as if I am the victim of a junior surgeon’s first attempt at breast implants.

And yet he repeats “I just fancy you so much.”

At this I recover my senses,  say “It’s nice to have met you” and “come along children”, and climb out of the pool trying to pull my drooping swimsuit down over my thighs- until I realise I’m now exposing even more of my boobs and their foam companions.

Now I know you are thinking: he must say this to everyone he meets and sometimes it must work – and I agree – but if I’d taken him up on it he would have had to shag me! No? What was he thinking?

Or maybe someone, who knew I was feeling a little bit down, paid him.

Whatever,  once I was safely out of sight I laughed and laughed. Not at him, poor misguided man ( maybe he wears glasses when he’s not swimming and I was all a blur) but more at myself and the very rare event of me being absolutely speechless!

http://www.notanottinghillmum.co.uk/2012/01/deaf-and-dumb-or-sex-and-the-swimmers/

“Not a Notting Hill Mum” has been nominated/ longlisted for a blogging award which is all very exciting except that to become a final finalist I need votes – (and then if you get enough you are judged – I think.)

It’s a bit odd (my daughter told me asking for people to vote for you on the school council was “ against the law”) – but  apparently we are supposed to ask people.

So if you ever  have a quiet moment before the deadline of April 30^th ( unlikely I know) perhaps you would be able to do this ?!

You click on the link -  which takes you to  the Britmums brilliance in blogging award list http://www.britmumsblog.com/announcing-the-bibs-shortlist/

and scroll down to the laughter list and you will see my name Not a Notting Hill Mum sheltering among many others. ( quite far down – 16 or something I think!)

Or This takes you straight to the voting page http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/bibs_shortlist

You don’t have to vote in other categories in order to do this – but can if you want of course.

If you click on the BIB pink badge on my blog that will also take you there.

A lot of bloggers have very large clique of supporters so I have no idea how many votes I need so stay in the game – but as I blog anonymously I can only ask those in the know, so your votes will definitely make a difference!