DAVID POSTLETHWAITE IS HoP AT TOUCH PRODUCTIONS

David Postlethwaite is Head of Production at Touch Productions

Overseeing the smooth running of all of Touch Productions’ output, David is responsible for everything from budgeting to crewing, HR to contract negotiations, post-production to delivery.

Having previously worked with the BBC and other major broadcasters and production companies, David has a comprehensive knowledge of the television industry and international co-production.

David ensures the Touch team functions safely, effectively and happily in Bath and on location.

‘Pos’ as we like to call him has been encouraging Media Parents from idea stage, works flexibly with talent when he can at Touch, and is keen to hear from people new to the company who are happy to work in the South West.

To sign up for the Media Parents CV Event on October 7th from 5 – 7pm in North London please click here http://www.mediaparents.co.uk

Steve Wynne is Joint MD at Rival Media

Also coming to the Media Parents CV Event on October 7th is Steve Wynne, Joint MD of Rival Media.

Steve Wynne is an award winning executive producer with over 15 years of production experience in television, radio and emerging technologies.

Steve’s career in the media started at the age of 15, when he became a presenter for his local ILR station in Wrexham, UK. His move from radio to television came in 1994 when he joined Orbit in Italy – the world’s first digital international television network broadcasting to over 30 countries across the Middle East, Africa & Europe. During his three years at Orbit he produced over 200 hours of original music, kids and entertainment programming.

On return to the UK, Steve worked at Channel 5 and Buena Vista Television. In 1999 he became a producer of the phenomenally successful series SMTVand CD:UK, hosted by Ant & Dec and Cat Deeley. That year, the show won a RTS Award & two BAFTAs, setting a new standard for Saturday morning television.

In 2000 Steve was appointed Executive Producer at The Disney Channel where he led a team of 40, producing factual, entertainment, sports, music and live programming for a variety of broadcasters including Sky One, Five and the international Walt Disney Television network.

During his time at Disney, Steve produced the BAFTA Award winning show The Disney Channel Kids Awards 2000 and the BAFTA Award winning series Star Ticket Active in 2003. In 2004 he was executive producer of another BAFTA nominated show, Madabout. He also notched up three further New York Festival Finalist Awards and was named a Broadcast ‘Hot Shot’.

In 2005, Steve joined Warner Brothers International Television as Director of Production. Whilst at Warner Brothers, he was responsible for the development, production and supervision of all Warner television formats created outside the US. Genres ranged from sitcoms to reality, from factual to entertainment. He rolled out ABC’s The Bachelor internationally and was at the forefront of WB’s move into scripted formats such as Perfect Strangers, Suddenly Susan and Full House.

Steve has been a vocal supporter of Media Parents since its inception, and spoke up for parents and flexible working at our first ever meeting at BAFTA in June.  Rival Media works flexibly with freelancers and parents where it can, so please do approach Steve. With some caution.

The Media Parents CV Event is in north London on October 7th from 5 – 7pm.  Please contact us at http://www.mediaparents.co.uk to reserve your place.

JO TAYLOR IS HEAD OF LEARNING AND 4TALENT AT C4.

Jo Taylor is Head of Learning and 4Talent at Channel 4

4Talent’s aim is to develop and support creative talent at different stages of their careers, reflecting multicultural Britain and a multi-platform industry. Jo is responsible for C4 talent management strategy which includes developing and delivering their recruitment strategy, learning & development, succession and retention strategies. She also leads on internal diversity for her organisation.

Jo joined Channel 4 in 2007 having worked previously in a variety of roles at the BBC and in the Independent production sector. Most recently as Head of Production Talent at Optomen Television, Jo was responsible for recruiting and head hunting talent for the portfolio of productions.

Prior to these roles Jo’s experience has mainly been in the genre of Factual Television and has worked a Managing Editor of the Documentaries and Contemporary Factual dept at the BBC which involved the management and career development of the 500 staff employed ranging from Exec Producers to researchers. She started her career as a Production Manager and Production Executive of the Consumers and Investigations unit which produced programmes such as Watchdog, Rogue Traders, Rough Justice.

Jo has been supportive of Media Parents from the get go, and has invited Media Parents members along to the C4 Editorial Ethics Masterclasses, as well as attending the Media Parents CV Event to offer advice to people who might be thinking of transferring from production to other TV jobs.  If you are interested in the Media Parents CV Event please contact us through http://www.mediaparents.co.uk

The Media Parents CV Event is happening on Thursday October 7th, in North London from 5 – 7pm. If you would like to reserve a place then please email us through http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/

The Media Parents CV Event is a great opportunity to get CV advice and network. If you are thinking of moving from production to office-based TV, if you are a parent coming back into work after a while, or if you are just someone who thinks their CV could do with a revamp but don’t know what works most effectively, then this is the event for you.

The event will start at 5pm with a welcome to everyone, introductions and top CV tips.  Freelancers are then welcome to bring along copies of their CVs to discuss with our experts below – so get there early!  Details of the location will be emailed to you when you contact us through http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/

Media Parents is really grateful to the following people for their help and advice:

Jessica Sharkey, Director of Production, Hat Trick Productions

http://www.hattrick.co.uk/about-us/company-members/?mem_id=4

Kate Wilson, Director of Operations, Hat Trick Productions
http://www.hattrick.co.uk/about-us/

David Postlethwaite, Head of Production, Touch Productions
http://www.touchproductions.co.uk/Our_Team.html

Helen Matthews, HR Director, Tiger Aspect
http://www.tigeraspect.co.uk/?page_id=2261

Vikki Barron, Talent Manager, ITV Studios
http://www.itvjobs.com/sf/asp/content/default.asp

Julia Waring, Head of Production Talent, RDF
http://www.rdftelevision.com/executives.aspx?Type=Recruitment&OuID=4

SADLY JULIA IS NO LONGER ABLE TO ATTEND BUT WOULD LIKE TO COME TO OUR NEXT MEETING

Jo Taylor, Head of Learning and 4Talent
http://4talent.channel4.com/about

Steve Wynne, MD, Rival Media
http://www.rival-media.com/wynn.html

Rebecca Mulraine, Head of Production, Factual & Features, Tiger Aspect
http://www.tigeraspect.co.uk/?page_id=2179 

CAN NO LONGER ATTEND DUE TO ILLNESS

This event is FREE and you don’t even need to be a subscribing member (although it would be great if you were! http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/signup ) just bring a pen and several copies of your CV so that you can get different comments from different people and also hand some out if you want to.

See you there!

All of the C4 speakers were keen to stress that these guidelines act as an accompaniment to the Independent Producer Handbook, so please click on the link to that at the bottom of this page for more comprehensive info.

Mark Lambert, (C4 Senior Lawyer, Legal & Compliance)

Even RECORDING some footage, whether it’s transmitted or not, can be seen as infringement of privacy.

Any potential infringement of the privacy laws must be WARRANTED – you must justify it by disclosing information that affects the public.

We all have a right of privacy but this DIFFERS FOR ORDINARY MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC AND CELEBRITIES or people in the public eye – Mark gave an example of exposing hypocrisy amongst politicians who make a stand on public values.

When it’s PRIVATE IN PUBLIC – Mark gave the example of CCTV footage of someone trying to commit suicide in a town square.  This was in a public place, but a private situation, so it would not be acceptable to transmit footage like this.

SECRET FILMING – anyone planning to film secretly for C4 must make a SECRET FILMING APPLICATION to C4.  (There are also notes in the Producers Handbook on this).  Permission is granted when the footage is necessary to the credibility of a story, and if the action in it could happen again.

DATA PROTECTION – use information fairly and lawfully and KEEP IT SECURE.  Shred documents containing personal data and encrypt files.  Pretend it’s your own personal data or treat it like MONEY – don’t lose it or get it stolen.

Refer privacy issues EARLY to Comm Ed and the Legal & Compliance Dept.

Leonie Jameson (Producer, Wildcard Production)

PRIOR PUBLICATION does NOT justify infringement of privacy.

Every person in a controversial story should CORROBORATE THE EVIDENCE used in a film.

Leonie cited a biography of Moses which involved filming people in public or semi-public, at private moments. When filming in a Church for example, notices of filming must be posted, as in any enclosed public building.

SUFFERING AND DISTRESS

Leonie talked about an interview with Gerry Adams, to be included in a film about a man whose wife was killed by an IRA bomb.  The programme lawyer advised the production team to tell the widower that the footage of Gerry Adams would be used in advance of TX.  In the same film it had been intended to include footage of an interview with the victim’s mother, given at the time of the bombing. It was decided to omit this footage, although it had been in the public domain, because it intruded into private grief and the retransmission would have caused distress.

Tamara Abood (C4 Commissioning Editor, News & Current Affairs).

When filming in secret you must CONVINCE C4 that PUBLIC INTEREST JUSTIFIES THE INVASION OF PRIVACY.

You need to SHOW EVIDENCE OF WRONG-DOING, explain why you can’t obtain the footage conventionally, and show the public interest justification.  You can’t go on a “fishing expedition”, you must have sufficient grounds or evidence before you start.

When filming a series in schools, the decision was made to only use footage of kids talking about their school lives, not homelife.

CONSENT FORMS – it may be necessary to agree the wording of these with the Commissioner.  Be aware you may be sowing the seeds of an Ofcom ruling if these are misleading.  The paper trail in your programme-making is very important as an investigation may look at transcripts of interviews.

OBTAIN RELEASE FORMS IN A PUBLIC AREA IF THE SITUATION IS SENSITIVE – i.e. in a church, a hospital, a school.

Note that PRIVACY LAWS VARY ABROAD – essentially the restrictions depend on the jurisdiction of the country of broadcast, but France, for example, has stricter privacy laws – it’s ok for UK broadcast but you will need to check if your programme is being distributed overseas.

At what point is privacy invaded?  RX or TX?  It’s probably ok to film something and then check afterwards, but not always.  OFCOM states that a breach of privacy can be committed in the filming itself, so it’s worth talking to the legal team early on about your methods and approach in notebooks too.

Channel 4 & 5 Handbook : http://www.independentproducerhandbook.co.uk/

Ofcom guidelines: http://www.ofcom.org.uk/tv/ifi/

BBC Editorial Guidelines: http://www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/editorialguidelines/

If you would like to attend the next Channel 4 Editorial Ethics Masterclass on October 6th from 9:30am – 4:30pm please email us through the site.

1. introduction

1.1 This website (“the Site”) is operated by Media Parents Limited (Company No. 07221757) whose registered office is at Unit 56 Ditton Priors Industrial Estate, Station Road, Bridgnorth, Shropshire WV16 6SS (“we” “us” “our”).

1.2 We provide a platform for TV professionals to connect with other TV professionals and to promote flexible working opportunities in the media industry.

1.3 These terms and conditions (“the Terms”) apply to the use of the Site and shall be read in conjunction with the Privacy Policy and any other incidental agreements listed on the Site which you may be required to agree to from time to time (“Supplemental Agreements”) and shall together form the agreement between you and us (“the Agreement”).

1.4 It is important that you read and understand these Terms and the Supplemental Agreements before using the Site. By accessing or using the Site you agree to be legally bound by these Terms, as they may be modified from time to time. If you do not agree to these terms and conditions, please do not use the Site.

1.5 We reserve the right to change these Terms and the Supplemental Agreements at any time. Amendments will take effect when posted on the Site.

1.6 You acknowledge and agree that if you are an individual then once we have commenced the provision of our services you shall not be entitled to cancel the Agreement under the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000 or by such other consumer regulation as may apply from time to time.

2. our services

2.1 We provide registered users with the platform to create their own profile on the Site.

2.2 We provide registered users the opportunity to contact and connect with other registered users and to contribute to the Media Parents forum and message board.

2.3 We provide users with the opportunity to browse the Site.

3. changes to service

We reserve the right to improve, amend, or suspend the service provided on the Site at any time without notice.

4. registration

4.1 If you wish to create a profile page as a freelancer or an employer you are required to pay the subscription fee and to register with us by completing and submitting the form on our “registration” page, and you warrant that you are over 18 years of age.

4.2 Once you have registered an account with us, you can log into your profile page using your email address and a unique password which will be sent to you by us via email.

4.3 For the purposes of verifying your identity we shall use the data provided by you to establish the veracity of all the registration details you have provided when registering with the Site, and your entitlement to use the Site and the services.

4.4 If you register your details you are solely responsible for the accuracy, legality, currency and compliance of such detail and will be solely liable for false, misleading, inaccurate, infringing or other actionable material contained or referred to therein.

4.5 We reserve the right to terminate suspend or restrict accounts without notice to you should you commit any breach of the Agreement or in our reasonable discretion we believe it is your intention to commit a breach of the Agreement or we believe you are acting contrary to the spirit of the Agreement.

5. payment and fees

5.1 We must receive payment of the whole of the subscription fee before the services are available to you.

5.2 You can make secure payment for subscription fees via the Site. Such charges can be made via your PayPal account or by cheque or bank transfer payable to Media Parents Limited. You can contact subs@mediaparents.co.uk for more detail.

5.3 We reserve the right to refuse any subscription application at our discretion. In the event that we reject a subscription application after we have received the subscription fee we shall within fourteen (14) days from the registered date refund the fee.

5.4 If you are an employer subscriber accounts last for a period of one (1) year from the date of registration. If you register a talent account the account lasts for one (1) month or one (1) year from the date of registration subject to the payment of the relevant fee.

5.5 Subscription accounts will renew automatically and we shall be entitled to charge the then prevailing rate for each new period unless you choose to terminate your account by clicking the “unsubscribe” or “delete” buttons on your account prior to the end of the then current period.

5.6 You shall be entitled to cancel your subscription at any time but you shall not be entitled to a refund of your subscription fees (or any amount thereof which corresponds to an unexpired portion of your membership) in the event that you no longer wish to be a registered user.

6. general conduct

6.1 Registered users may only create and maintain one profile page.

6.2 All registered users must have a bona fide interest in connecting with other media professionals and must have at least three (3) years professional experience within the media industry.

6.3 We grant you a limited licence to access and make use of the Site, but not to modify it, or any part of it, or otherwise exploit it for any commercial purpose or gain except for those specific purposes set out in this Agreement or otherwise with our express written consent.

6.4 Registered talent users may only apply for jobs advertised on the Site directly through the Site.

6.5 You must not use the Site in any way that causes, or is likely to cause, the Site or access to it to be interrupted, damaged or impaired in any way. You understand that you are responsible for all electronic communications and content sent from your computer to us and you must use the Site for lawful purposes only.

6.6 You must not use the Site for any fraudulent purposes, or in connection with a criminal offence or other unlawful or immoral activity, to send, use or reuse any content or material that is illegal, offensive, abusive, indecent, defamatory, obscene or menacing or that will infringe copyright, trademark, confidence, privacy or any other right; or is otherwise injurious to third parties, or objectionable, or which consists of or contains software viruses, political campaigning, commercial solicitation, chain letters, mass mailings or any “spam” – to cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety.

6.7 You must not use the Site in any way which may disrupt the Media Parents community or cause problems for other users and Media Parents staff, which may be detrimental to the Media Parents business and or generally use the Site in any way which in our reasonable opinion is inconsistent with the spirit of the Agreement including without limitation sharing information on the Site with non-registered third parties.

7. water cooler

If you believe that anyone has infringed your or a third party’s copyright on the Site, if you have infringed a third party’s copyright or you find any material on the Site offensive or otherwise in breach of these Terms then you must inform us immediately in writing atfeedback@mediaparents.co.uk.

8. information and content provided by you

8.1 Any information and content posted, uploaded, or otherwise sent by any means by you to the Site shall be legal, decent, honest and truthful, shall not infringe any third party’s rights, shall not be obscene, blasphemous or defamatory and shall not contain any viruses or other malicious computer programming routines. Without limiting the above, all information you provide shall be accurate and complete

8.2 You agree that you will not publish your contact information or any other information or data in the publicly-accessible parts of the Site. You agree that you will not publish the contact information or the information of any other person in the publicly-accessible parts of the Site (whether or not such persons are users of the Site) or elsewhere, or communicate such information to any other person whether in electronic or any other format.

8.3 Any information provided by you to us will be used by us in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998 and our Privacy Policy.

8.4 You waive all moral rights you have in any content and information provided by you to the fullest extent permitted by law.

9. employer feedback

9.1 Without limiting any other provisions of these Terms, registered employers which have via the Site, engaged the services of any freelancer(s) shall be entitled to leave feedback on the relevant talent profile page(s). All such feedback must relate directly to the freelancer or freelancers in question and to the work undertaken.

9.2 Users with a talent account may not edit or adapt any employer feedback which is posted in accordance with the provisions of clause 9.1 but may “opt out” of the services or may remove any such feedback in its entirety.

10. your licence to us

By submitting content and information to us as described above you agree to grant us a non-exclusive license and all the necessary rights throughout the world to reproduce, edit, change, copy, adapt and otherwise make such content available on the Site.

11. copyright and other intellectual property controlled by us.

11.1 All content and all compilation of content included on the Site which is not provided by you, including but not limited to text, graphics, logos, icons, photographs and images, audio clips, digital files, data compilations and software, is our property or is licensed by us and is protected by copyright, database and trade mark right laws in England and internationally.

11.2 You may download, extract and/or re-utilise parts of the contents of the Site subject to the Terms.

11.3 For the avoidance of doubt you may not utilise any data mining, robots or similar data gathering and extraction tools to extract (whether once or many times) for re-utilisation of any substantial parts of the Site without our express written consent. You may not create and/or publish your own database that features substantial parts of the Website without our express written consent. You will indemnify us against any loss, damages, costs, expenses (including reasonably legal fees) or other claims arising from any breach of the above warranties you commit.

12. links

12.1 We have no control over the content of third party sites and cannot guarantee the reliability of any links to third party sites nor can we provide any guarantees or accept any liability in respect of the content on such third party sites.

[12.2 You may not create hyperlinks to the Site without our prior written consent. All such permitted hyperlinks must make it clear that the hyperlink is to our Site and that it is in no way affiliated to any third party.]

13. security

13.1 You are solely responsible in all respects for all use of and for protecting the confidentiality of your account and password which may be given to or selected by you for use on the Site. You must immediately notify us of any unauthorised use of them or any other breach of security.

13.2 Any losses incurred or sustained by you in transmitting information shall be borne solely and exclusively by you and in no event shall any such losses in whole or in part be borne by us. If you are using a public computer, you must sign out when you have finished using the Site.

14. compliance with laws

You agree to comply with all applicable laws, statutes and regulations concerning your use of the Site.

15. suspension and termination of membership.

We reserve the right to terminate or suspend any aspect of your membership without notice or refund to you should you commit any breach of the Agreement or in our reasonable discretion we believe it is your intention to commit a breach of the Agreement or we believe you are acting in a way which is contrary to the spirit of our networking group.

16. liability

16.1 We accept no liability for any failure to maintain the Site. We shall not be liable to you by reason of any representation (unless fraudulent) and all warranties, conditions or other terms, implied by law are excluded to the fullest extent permissible. We shall not be liable for any loss of goodwill or reputation, profit or any indirect, special or consequential loss, damage, costs, expenses or other claims (whether caused by our negligence, servants or agents or otherwise) which arise out of or in connection with the provision of the material by you.

16.2 Your acceptance of these Terms also acts as a general release of Media Parents and any of its subsidiaries (and all of their officers, directors, agents and employees) from any liability for any claims, loss, and damages (both direct and indirect, including loss of profits, goodwill and business opportunity) arising out of or in any way connected to your use of the Site.

16.3 Notwithstanding the foregoing, nothing in this Agreement is intended to limit any rights you might have under applicable local law or other statutory rights that may not be excluded nor in any way to exclude or limit our liability to you for any death or personal injury resulting from our negligence.

17. indemnity

You will indemnify us against any loss, damages, costs, expenses (include reasonable legal fees) or other claims arising from any breach by you of any of the warranties and any other term of the Agreement.

18. access to the site

We will do everything we can to ensure that availability of the Site will be uninterrupted and that transmissions will be error-free. However, this cannot be guaranteed. The Site may be occasionally suspended or restricted to allow for repairs, maintenance or the introduction of a new facility or service. We will attempt to limit the frequency and duration of any such interruption.

19. notices

Except as otherwise stated, any notices you wish to send to us should be e-mailed to Media Parents at admin@mediaparents.co.uk. Any notices that we may wish to draw to your attention will be displayed on our Site.

20. confidential information

We and you shall endeavour to prevent the disclosure, publication or dissemination of the other’s confidential information and shall not use, reproduce, distribute, disclose or otherwise disseminate such confidential information except in connection with the performance of obligations under these Terms.

21. electronic communication

When you visit the Site or send emails to us, you are communicating with us electronically. We communicate with you by email or by posting notices on the Site. For contractual purposes, you consent to receiving communications from us electronically and you agree that all agreements, notices, disclosures and other communications that we provide to you electronically satisfy any legal requirement that such communications be in writing.

22. events beyond our reasonable control

We will not be held responsible for any delay or failure to comply with our obligations under these conditions if the delay or failure arises from any cause that is beyond our reasonable control.

23. costs and legal fees

In any action or proceeding to enforce rights under this Agreement, the prevailing party will be entitled to recover costs and legal fees.

24. law and jurisdiction

This Agreement (and any dispute, controversy, proceedings or claim of whatever nature in relation to them) shall be governed and interpreted in accordance with English law and the English courts shall have exclusive jurisdiction in relation thereto.

25. invalidity

If any part of the terms of this Agreement is unenforceable (including any provision in which we exclude our liability to you) the enforceability of any other part of these conditions will not be affected.

26. entire agreement

This Agreement contains the entire agreement between us relating to the subject matter covered and supersedes any previous agreements, arrangements, undertakings or proposals, written or oral, between us in relation to such matters or any statements made to you by any person, including (without limitation) any of our employees or agents. Save for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, we shall have no liability for any such representation being untrue or misleading.

27. assignment

We shall be entitled to assign, transfer or sub-contract or in any way make over the benefit or burden of the Agreement to a third party.

28. no waiver

A waiver by us of any terms of the Agreement in a particular instance shall not be deemed or construed to be a waiver of such term or condition for the future or affect our rights in respect of any subsequent breach of the terms of this Agreement. All rights and remedies contained in this Agreement shall be distinct, separate and cumulative and no action or inaction by us shall operate to exclude or deprive us of any other rights allowed by law.

29. third party rights

No third party shall be deemed under the Agreement to have enforceable rights by virtue of the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties Act) 1999.

30. nature of agreement

This Agreement shall not constitute a partnership, agency or joint venture between the parties.

Media Parents is a website and organisation which aims to pull all the short term, regular hours, job share and part time jobs in tv into one place, to help freelance working parents or anyone who wants to work flexibly to balance the demands of media and other commitments, and to make it easier for employers to find this highly skilled and experienced part of the media workforce.