Media Parents

On Tuesday 13th November Media Parents’ Claire Brown will be at BVE North.  Claire will be offering CV tips and advice on returning to work – FREE! Why not come along to meet us at this free event.  Here are more details of how to apply for a FREE pass. http://www.bvenorth.co.uk/

Claire Woodward, right, at the Media Parents Summer Party.

Following the overwhelming success of last year’s inaugural event, BVE North 2012 returns to Manchester Central on 13-14 November 2012 with even bigger plans to inspire and educate broadcast and media professionals in the Northern regions.

With the continuing growth and development of MediaCityUK as the major hub for the region, opportunities for business have never been better and the run-up to BVE North is reflecting this optimism.

The show organisers are also pulling out all the stops to provide the expected 3000 visitors with more topical, informed and valuable free seminars, presented by the UK’s leading broadcasters, content creators and technicians. Visitors will be able to get the inside track on media industry trends, pick up insights into future broadcast technology and how this affects workflow, and learn key production and post-production skills from the practitioners at the top of their game. All seminars are free to attend and seats are allocated on a first-come, first served basis.

The Broadcast Theatre covers IT, Audio and Post Production issues, examining the latest infrastructure and tools for delivering broadcast quality images and audio in the new digital landscape. Visitors will gain valuable insights into the new tapeless workflows and how digital content is being delivered, how the lines are being blurred between production and post, and the new skillsets required by post professionals to integrate IT into everyday workflows.

Speakers include Tim Sargeant, Head of Technology, BBC North, examining how major broadcasters are developing their workflow and infrastructure around the challenges of managing data, moving assets around and working at scale;

Mike Thornton, Audio Meister, hosting an essential workshop session on handling audio post production for self-shot film, identifying the necessary tools and providing key tips and tricks for getting better results, faster; and Andy Wild, Technical Director, CauseandFX, discussing the crucial issues of managing meta data, from where it fits in the workflow to the benefits it brings for commercialising assets.

In addition this theatre will host sessions on the technical and commercial considerations of remastering projects, the issues surrounding the preparation of audio broadcasts, and the evolution and continuing challenges of best practice digital workflows and delivery.

For those interested in Production issues, the Production Theatre offers content creators a plethora of strategic and practical sessions, with experienced professionals from the commissioning world through to on-set and post-production professionals sharing their experiences and advice on how to create compelling, beautifully shot and highly marketable content.

Speakers include Louise Brown, Multiplatform Commissioning Lead, Channel 4, examining the implications for broadcasters of multi-screen viewing, Connected and Smart TVs and what content creators need to take into account when creating content for future audiences; Nicola Shindler, Chief Executive, Red Production Company, presenting a fascinating insight into what production companies look for in a script and how to develop your story while taking production considerations into account; Claire Brown, Media Parents, discussing CVs and Lynne McCadden, Head of Development, CREATIVE ENGLAND, Hugo Heppell, Head of Production, Screen Yorkshire, and Nicola Lees, TV Mole and WFTV share their considerable expertise on how to get the green light for projects, identifying new sources of funding and examining successful and innovative financing models;

In addition there will be sessions on LED lighting techniques, recreating a filmic look with digital content, and new creative opportunities offered by the latest digital cinema technology.

The IOV Theatre combines valuable practical advice with expert insights into current industry issues.

Speakers in the IOV Theatre include Richard Laurence, MD, Innsight Television, examining the opportunities available to videographers from the 21 newly granted local television licences; Jeff Wood and Rich Daly sharing their experiences and tips for good wedding cinematography; and Matt Hubbard, Director, Reels In Motion discussing the growth of video marketing and how to maximise the potential market of corporate videos. On the practical side, Adobe Certified Instructor Simon Walker will be taking a look at Premiere Pro CS6 and demonstrating some improved workflow strategies.

Something new for BVE North 2012 is the Skills Zone. These informal one-hour sessions are designed to give BVE attendees the chance to get valuable advice from expert practitioners in the industry. The topics up for discussion will be essential, everyday business concerns, from running your own business to career advisory sessions. Each session can be attended by 10–15 people at a time, and visitors will be able to express interest in advance or drop in on the day.

And of course, BVE North also offers a great opportunity to network with fellow industry professionals, catch up with old friends, reaffirm business relationships and make new contacts. 2,500 professionals from all stages of the broadcast workflow visited BVE North 2011 and that number is set to grow to over 3000 for 2012. No other show north of London offers the chance to meet so many key industry people all under one roof.

All the information you need about the show is available to view at www.bvenorth.co.uk

Why did I think having children would be the end of the line for working in broadcast? I can’t answer that, I just did. After 13 years of working with presenters on location, spending hours in the cutting room, hanging contestants from helicopters, placing cameras in every possible place and interviewing and meeting dozens and dozens of contributors, I shifted into corporate and charity work. It felt like the zeitgeist had moved on from me.

I wish there was a fitting translation for the word zeitgeist. A moment in time when everything is brilliant, the coming together of all our hopes and dreams and then amplified beyond our hopes.

http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/4115/loretta-farrell

I continued to write, shoot and edit. I even directed a multi-camera music DVD at the Dominion Theatre and flew to Kenya, India and South Africa filming projects for a global charity. I also started a craft and gift market and organised a Health, Beauty and Fitness charity fundraising fair. My time management skills became well-oiled, juggling working around the kids. But something was still missing, something not quite right.

It was not until a few @lorettalikes twitter DM’s with a friend that I took the plunge and started the process of returning to broadcast. My friend tweeted: “Man Up, you’ve had kids, not a lobotomy”.  The gauntlet was down.  I set about the search for work with new skills acquired from motherhood: being a mother teaches you to enjoy every moment whilst it lasts, do what you love and be very very flexible.

With no family in the UK my husband and I decided to hire a full time live in au pair to look after the children to give me the freedom to shoot overseas for a few weeks at a time, take a last minute role or stay late to finish an edit without feeling guilty or be stressed about leaving on time.  A great plan, but I just needed a job to pay for it!

Fortunately I got my first returning TV job by following @MediaParents on twitter.  I joined the Media Parents site and less than 10 days after signing up, I had two interviews and the au pair had a start date, now I just needed that phone call.

Loretta Farrell got her first job in TV after having children through Media Parents. She followed @mediaparents on Twitter. http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/4115/loretta-farrell

Mentorn were the first to call to say they would like me to join a team on a pilot for Channel 4. I admit that I did jump up and down a little (albeit quietly in public) but I was relieved. I was also chuffed and then a little bit sick, the kind of butterflies you get with a positive result on a pregnancy test. You know that you want it – but now it’s real.

It was a whirlwind seven days at Mentorn, my office days, aka meetings and location searching went fast.  I was nervous on the first shoot day as I was no longer used to having people around, but there was no need to be as the team were amazing. My camera arm got a good work out plus coffee and food were always on hand.By the last day of the shoot I could feel that the past had not forgotten me and was starting to breathe new life.

I’m now looking to put my 13 years experience into gaining more experience edit producing and AP self-shooting. l would also like to work more in development and am keen to pitch my ideas – so if you want to hear them, let me know.

If you have more than 3 years' media experience see www.mediaparents.co.uk for great networking, talent, jobs and information.

http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/4115/loretta-farrell

Wildlife Presenter and Fulbright Scholar Bryson Voirin is close to getting his doctorate. He has been studying sleep patterns in large mammals and birds at the Max Planck Institute for 4 years, and he breezes into our early morning shoot looking fresh as a daisy, despite having attended the Wildscreen Panda Awards ceremony for natural history programming the previous night.

PHOTO

Wildlife expert and presenter Bryson Voirin roped up for work in the canopy. http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/collaborator/4474/bryson-voirin

 28 year old Bryson is full of praise for the WildScreen Festival #wildscreenfest, the 6 day natural history film festival that’s just finished in Bristol.  “It’s the first time I’ve been to Wildscreen and it was really fun,” he enthuses, “I wanted to go to connect with natural history people in one central place, and it was great for that.  It’s a good medium to meet people in a social setting, in what is largely an academic field of study. Everyone from the natural history film world is there.”

I’ve met Bryson a couple of times now, and he is a pleasure to work with.  He has a breadth of zoological knowledge, and his love of the subject matter is a delight.  If he hasn’t studied a creature himself he generally knows someone who has, and peppers the interviews he does for our Channel 5 series with interesting examples and a lively turn of phrase.  Great TV.  I get the feeling that this enthusiasm and energy reflects his general approach to life.  When he was 16 years old, growing up in Florida, Bryson told his parents that he wanted more than his easy life in the sunshine, and took himself off to high school in Germany, where he’s been studying ever since.  Being bilingual has helped him to find work on German TV as well as on British and US channels.  “Brits don’t mind me because I’ve been in Europe so long I don’t seem offensively American,” he jokes, “But it seems that to crack American natural history presenting I need to be old and fat with a beard!”  Someone is clearly missing a trick somewhere, and it’s not likely to be Bryson.

Bryson Voirin is an expert in the BBC series The Dark: Nature's Nighttime World

“I also got to meet the head of just about every major natural history channel. Wildscreen publishes the delegate list ahead of time, which is brilliant because it meant that several people got in touch with me to set up appointments when they saw my name, and the rest came about organically.  I met people from Icon Films, Discovery, Nat Geo, Nat Geo Wild, Wildscreen US…”  And those are the ones he can remember. “The Icon Films after party was pretty legendary”, he grins, clearly debating whether to tell me that it took two days to recover. (click here to see Icon Films’ Harry Marshall networkign with Media Parents https://blog.mediaparents.co.uk/2011/09/media-parents-networking-bristol-2/).

“Wildscreen was a great experience,” says Voirin, “I’m really hoping some of the projects discussed and projects I pitched will come off. I also met some really inspirational people from developing countries whose films I would not ordinarily have seen, and learnt tons about how TV works in sessions about filmmaking and scriptwriting.  I found it really exciting to learn about everything that can be done with GoPros.”  The series we are working on relies largely on UGC, so we too have a healthy respect for the GoPro’s quality and versatility.

The best part of Wildscreen "a surprise appearance by Sir David Attenborough!"

“I would definitely go to Wildscreen again.  Hopefully next time around I’ll be nominated for a presenter award,” he smiles.  The previous night’s partying doesn’t show, and Bryson has been smiling, engaging and delivering great lines and information throughout an on-camera interviews that take nearly five hours and cover ten different natural history subject areas.  I shake his hand at the end of the filming day, and congratulate him on a good day’s work.  “Not bad considering I got to bed at 5, eh?” Bryson smiles as he leaves to catch his plane.  I guess that’s a PhD in sleep research for you.

If you have more than 3 years' media experience see www.mediaparents.co.uk for great networking, talent, jobs and information.

Huge thanks to DLT Entertainment and 2Act Films for inviting Media Parents members to attend Friday night’s Leicester Square screening of The Academy, starring Sir Ian McKellen and Frances Barber.

DLT Exec Michaela Hennessy-Vass talks to Media Parents Development Producer and Voiceover Artist Emma Hyman whilst Sir Ian McKellen talks to a fellow cast member.

We were delighted to spend the evening in the presence of Sir Ian and many of the cast and crew, including the film’s writer, producer and editor Peter Hinton, a Media Parents Networker.  The film was transmitted in four parts with live entertainment from Sir Ian and other cast members in the intervals – a wonderful surprise that complemented the film brilliantly.  The film has been piloted but is yet to find a broadcaster.

Click on the following link to hear Sir Ian McKellen on Frances Barber.

The Academy's Writer, Producer and Editor Peter Hinton takes a bow. Peter is in the NETWORK section of www.mediaparents.co.uk

If you missed the screening, you can see the promo by clicking on the image below.

www.mediaparents.co.uk for great TV jobs, networking and information.

Six years at Art College, and it all boils down to comedy underpants!

A typical washing load for Karen Hobbs - The Queen and Maggie Thatcher's smalls.

Microscopic swimming trunks; enormous running shorts; designer thongs; a dance support for an Alien; ‘courtesy’ pants for  an  S.A.  covered in mud; plus Pippa Middleton’s bottom recycled – and that was just my latest job!

Having studied Fashion, Theatre and Costume Design at Central I started my career in the costume making workshop of English National Opera. High art indeed. This was interspersed with small design jobs in theatre and other costume making capers.

My first TV job came in Australia, but more of that later.  Fast forward a few more years of working in TV from Avalon to Zeppotron, plus theatre and styling photo shoots, thoughts turned to raising a family – as we all know not an easy prospect in our industry.  The highs and lows of working freelance was indeed good preparation for what was to become an extraordinary journey.

A piece from Karen Hobbs' current Saatchi project on Adoption. Karen is a Costume Designer in the TALENT section of www.mediaparnents.co.uk

Adopting an older child is not for the feint hearted, and being forever equipped for uncertainty does have its advantages. Having initially taken time off to settle in, I am happy to report that most of the production companies that I have encountered since have been very supportive.  In particular VERA Productions who virtually held my hand through the whole experience!  Inspired by my experiences as an adopter, my costume project to raise awareness of Attachment issues may be viewed at Saatchi online – the link is at the end of this piece.

Our teenager realises that my job is not one that many Mums do. In spite of embarrassing her when out shopping by stocking up with Extra Large Men’s sparkly thongs when I spotted them on sale, she is the first to brag to her mates about which celebrities I’ve been working with.

http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/2632/karen-hobbs

As my two worlds collided, I explored  job sharing, and recently worked as Assistant Wardrobe Supervisor on a huge show at Bristol Old Vic. It was a nice opportunity to return to period costume and theatre.

But my spiritual home is Costume Design for TV comedy, and I am thrilled at being so well supported by those around me, including Media Parents.

Recently on  Alan Carr’s Summertime Specstacular  2, I was privileged to dress Olympian Fatima Whitbread and rub shoulders with medal winners from Team GB.  Basking in their glory was yet another highlight of my varied career.

Never, ever a dull moment.

http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/2632/karen-hobbs

My first experience in television came in Australia, as mentioned.  I planned to take on casual work and see the country and started off with a couple of theatre jobs when I first arrived in Perth. Travelling solo meant that I could move around, explore, and work where I landed. The South Australian Opera seemed tiny after ENO,  and I sweltered it out costume making for the Victoria State Opera that Christmas.

Back in Adelaide, a  tv mini-series was in production. Set in 1930s, I started work on the beautiful costumes and I had my first wardrobe standby job on location.

New to the scale of TV compared to theatre, it amused me to be instructed to sew ‘as rough as guts’, an outfit that needed making on set. This has served me well ever since and one of my early UK TV series design jobs was secured during the pilot, by whipping up a copy of a 1970s dress on set, using an old sheet from the production manager’s car boot.

Volunteering at the National Film and Television School introduced me to colleagues and friends I still have now, and allowed me to concentrate on Costume Design for the screen. Working with tiny budgets was a theme that would run and run!

Serious TV drama was punctuated by light entertainment shows and a spate of Drama Docs. One of which took me to Cairo, to film in the scorching desert.  Having painstakingly researched and reconstructed an Early Egyptian pleated dress (perming lotion and muslin, twisted in the bath, since you ask), I could only stand by speechless as my wonderful assistant, a local tailor, Mr Abdul, took a large swig of water, spat the lot over the fabric, and ironed it completely flat!

Around 45 local (pre Arab Spring) youths were recruited to play the parts of slaves, and wear traditional loin cloths. Without exception, they arrived sporting long football-style branded shorts, so Mr Abdul was dispatched to source some discreet underpants to preserve their modesty. On wrap, I was helpfully handed steaming carrier bags full of sand encrusted y-fronts!

http://www.saatchionline.com/karenhobbs

http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/2632/karen-hobbs

If you have more than 3 years' media experience see www.mediaparents.co.uk for great networking, talent, jobs and information.

How do you get a TV Career? Do you need Family or Friends on the inside? or should I have been born an Aristocrat?? asks Lisa Palmer, budding TV Presenter.

http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/2507/lisa-palmer

A few years ago I lost my job as a “fuel finance controller” for an airline, although at the time I found this financially difficult, it gave me the time to pursue the career I had always dreamed of as a child; becoming a household name on national television.

When I was younger, I never really had the opportunity to pursue my dreams. My Parents used to buy, renovate and sell properties, so we were often moving. Nowadays I’m passionate about property, I really enjoy watching property shows such as Property Auction and 60 Minute Makeover and feel I have the right personality to interview people for these types of shows. I have a great understanding of property, I am hands on with DIY and have modernised many properties and I love helping my friends with decor and ideas for their properties. But moving so much growing up was a big distraction and time just passes you by. I suffer with dyslexia and was not taught grammar at school, which really lets me down sometimes. I have had a lesson with a friend who works as a teacher but it can still be a battle. Still, not to worry though because I could charm them all with my glowing personality!

I am one of those people who do not want any regrets in my life, I want to look back on life and feel I did everything I wanted! Believe me the bucket list is long (jumping out a plane etc… mustbemad.com)

So, with support from my parents I went and filmed a showreel with my redundancy behind me, to be honest I was very green and lacked confidence. I started applying for jobs in TV but to be honest if you have no experience, you are a nobody and how on earth do you get anywhere??? I thought I would apply for internet presenting jobs, ok I had to pay my own expenses and it was not easy, but, it did help as I started to build my confidence and knowledge of how it all comes together.

Lisa presenting. http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/2507/lisa-palmer

Once I got more footage, I began to apply for TV jobs and started to get my foot in the door. I got picked for ITV This Morning’s Garden Party where we filmed over 4 days and I had one of the best times ever! It was so much fun and the crew were a great laugh and guess what? I WON and got to meet Her Majesty! (Well a great look a like!!)

After appearing on ITV it definitely helped, as I got to appear on other shows. I got to appear on The Vanessa Show where I would sit on the sofa and give my honest opinion on various topics. I was in my element! It was a great studio environment as I could talk and well, I love to be centre of attention!!! I became a regular and this definitely helped as I have done lots of TV bits and pilots since.

However, I still felt I needed more confidence talking to the camera or chatting to celebs, I started to feel self-conscious of my appearance, which was hindering my performance. After I had my little boy over 9 years ago I never really lost my baby weight and if you’re like me, you will still have got those bloomin clothes you can’t bear to chuck out, at least they have come back in to fashion!

Lisa Palmer with her son Brad. http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/2507/lisa-palmer

I was lucky to see an advert for Fabulous Magazine – “want to lose weight” hell yeah!! Believe me you must follow this diet; I lost all my baby weight and more in 6 weeks, although it did help having a rather fit personal instructor! Having to bare all is a memory I don’t want to relive – awful!!! I hope you don’t see the magazine as the ‘before’ picture is damn right awful he he!!

I now have my body back the way I wanted it and my confidence is sky high. I now feel I’m ready to live my dream of being a down to earth, opinionated and fun loving mum, who loves to talk. So watch out you lovely loose women, budge up and make room for me!!!

You can see Lisa's presenting credit list here: http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/2507/lisa-palmer and at www.lisapalmersmith.com

A EUROZONE FAIRYTALE

Once upon a time there was an Emperor who lived in a far off golden land, bathed in sunshine and surrounded by deep blue seas. It was a place everyone wanted to go to – especially those whose lands were dark and grey most of the year. When it was time to holiday they spent lots of golden nuggets in the sunny, beach-strewn Land of Yoghurt and Honey which made the Emperor and his people very happy. Theirs was a life of complete delight and beauty and the Emperor got very lazy  – playing board-games and sitting in the hot sun for most of the day – while the women, like women everywhere, cooked and cleaned and looked after the children without battering them, and slaved. Occasionally a man went off to sea to catch a fish.

The people in the dark and grey lands were very clever people and worked extremely hard. The sun rarely shone on their faces and the only holiday they were allowed,  apart from Christmas and a couple of weeks in the summer, was spent in the Autumn in big tents with girls who had great big muscles in their arms from carrying big mugs.  The people mostly though, strove all day, all year-long, making loads of toys which children all over the world bought, and they became very successful, making lots and lots of golden nuggets.

They had so many golden nuggets they didn’t know what to do with them. In fact it was getting to be a bit of a problem because, for one reason or another, their nuggets became very valuable and no-one could afford to buy their toys anymore.

So one day they decided they needed to form a really good club and swapped all their golden nuggets for millions and millions of silver ones which they gave to all the members when they joined.

But the club was a very exclusive club and only let in people who were really well dressed. The rules and regulations were very strict indeed.

The Emperor wanted to join the club very much because the idea of having lots of silver nuggets – literally growing on trees instead of the sour little green fruity things that were just everywhere – was awfully appealing.

He thought and thought about how he could get into the club. He didn’t have much of a wardrobe.

But then he met a nice man from the Land of Tall Buildings and ‘Wilderness’ who said he would help him.

The Land of Tall Buildings and ‘Wilderness’ man said he’d weave the Emperor a robe in gold and he’d make a crown of platinum, encrusted with diamonds. The Emperor was ever so pleased but when it came to putting them on so he could travel to the land of grey clouds and wind and rain, he said, ‘but all these things aren’t gold, or platinum or diamonds, they’re nylon and cheap base metal and glass’. The Land of Tall Buildings and ‘Wilderness’ man said that it didn’t matter.

Nevertheless the Emperor looked absolutely splendid and his dream came true. He became a member of the very special club.

Things were so good and his people were so happy, there was much delight – for suddenly all the Emperor’s children could buy lots and lots of toys that they’d never had before. It was truly wonderful.

But as time went by the Emperor’s robe started looking a bit ropey. The golden thread frayed really badly. His crown melted in the sun and all the glass stones fell out.

http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/1093/louise-bates

The club owners weren’t at all happy. But just imagine their dismay when one day the Emperor turned up at a very important meeting in the Land of…Land of…Not Very Much Except Snowy – stark bollocks naked! All his beautiful clothes had just dropped off him. It was just terribly embarrassing and the people of the cold land were very cross indeed.

But, however embarrassing it was, all the club’s terribly strict rules and regulations went out of the window and very reluctantly – for the sake of the toys (and the silver nuggets) – the Emperor was allowed to stay on. But he was told in no uncertain terms that because he’d been so naughty as to dress up in clothes that were just tat, all his people had to take their clothes off too and spend a lot of time naked like him.

Not surprisingly the Emperor ran back to find the man from the Land of Tall Buildings and ‘Wilderness’ to tell him of his plight – but he’d buggered off to the Land of Chocolate Cows That Went Ding-a-Ling-a-Ling.

Some club members held secret talks and whispered among themselves that they thought the Emperor should be thrown out of the club.

The Emperor’s people meanwhile, who were very slowly and reluctantly removing their clothes as per their punishment, had no more thoughts of toys. They didn’t even want to go out. There’s no blinking point in toys if you can’t show them off to your friends, is there?

Those sour little green fruits were no longer in abundance either and people started to miss them….a bit.

But even worse -  no-one came on holiday anymore, spending nuggets golden, silver or whatever – it was a crying shame. The sun still shone, the sea was still blue but the bestest and most beautiful land of all was not even a pin-prick of vacational possibility on the minds of all the sun-free, pale-skin  peoples of the windy, rainy places – not even in the Land of Strong Liquor, near the Land of the Mad Dogs. Everyone just started going on holiday next door, to the Land Which Bought Toys With Tinsy Winsy Coins That Decorate The Bellies Of Ladies Who Dance With Pointy Shoes That Turn Upwards.

The Land of the Mad Dogs, who were also pale and pretty miserable in the main -except when they got lobster-red in the sun and splashed about in the sea on a banana for two weeks a year – stopped coming too. They were just too busy congratulating themselves on not even wanting to join the club. They always knew they were badly dressed and they much preferred buying toys with slivers of tissue paper with an old but very nice Lady printed on them. They couldn’t swap their tissue paper for many silver nuggets anyway.

Things got worse and worse and worse….

To start with the Emperor managed to cover his unmentionables with a bit of cloth the   club-owners lent him. But as time went on his nakedness and the nakedness of his people became a very big problem indeed. So big, their nakedness ceased to embarrass the club members and they just got used to it.

There they were turning up time and time again in the Land of….Snowy – naked from head to toe – and all the other club members thought – well, if a man like the Emperor can be naked, then we might as well go naked too. The people in the Land of the Little Green Man, for example – reigned over by a midget who was always slobbering over this useless bit of stone – got so willingly naked, the club management gave them a rousing round of applause and lots of silver nuggets to say thank you. And soon everyone in the club realized that getting naked wasn’t such a bad thing afterall. So long as the silver nuggets were there, somewhere – anywhere – then everything was fine.

But it wasn’t. It wasn’t at all….

All the people who were not in the club got very worried. They still wanted to see people in the world with clothes on. And they especially didn’t like to think these club members in the cold Lands of Beer Tents and Mad Dogs and the warm, passionate Fiery Land of Clappy Hands and Knock on Wood (Ole!!) and even the Land of Nutella With the Odd Tomato: they didn’t like to think they were all happy with the situation. And that’s not mentioning the Land of the Great Onions for God’s sake!! These club-members had been leading the way for ages – they’d even invented things like the guillotine for crying out loud!

They knew if they didn’t do something about this pretty quick it could get contagious and everyone would start going around completely starko – even them. They knew better than anyone what it was like being cold with no clothes on and it wasn’t fun at all.

They started putting a lot of pressure on the club managers and saying things like ‘this isn’t a game of futbal for goodness sake, this is about the children of the world, and  toys, and making toys, and selling toys – everywhere’.

No-one knew what to do. No-one. People talked about it on the telly and on the radio incessantly. Even really, really big-brained people like Paul Mason on BBC Newsnight and Robert Peston on the News were at a complete loss.

But one day a really beautiful Fairy called Hazel flew down and said ‘I know what you can do’.  ‘No’, they said, ‘you don’t’.  ‘But’, she said, ‘I do know. I was Harold Laski’s star pupil at the LSE!

‘Tell the Emperor to give you back the nuggets and give him double the amount of’ (wait for it) ‘Nugget-inis. Give him time to make some new clothes and when he’s got some socks and shoes on, swap his Nuggetinis for loads of Nuggettins and then when he’s got some pants and a vest on, swap them for some Nuggettis and when he’s fully dressed give him back his silver Nuggets. It may take time and several monetary and fiscal phases’, she said, ‘but – way to go!’

And that’s what happened. The Emperor saw that the little sour green fruit trees had leaves on and they were brittle and very opaque once sewn together – no sneaky previews of his unmentionables with this fabric! He and his people wove a few garments here, a few garments there and gradually, bit by bit, slowly but surely, they covered themselves from head to foot in a lovely home-grown fashion – almost in the Grecian style.

But the best bit of all was the miserable, pale-faced, puny, white-skinned club members from the Bloody Freezing Lands started taking their families on holiday again – to the beautiful sunny coastlands that belonged to the Emperor – because they could swap their silver nuggets (and even the Mad Dogs, their tissue paper) for lots of Nuggettinis and spend them, not on toys, but on what the Land of Nutella And The Odd Tomato knew better how to do than all the Lands put together – a bit of dollchy veety.

The End.

June 2012

‘A Eurozone Fairytale’ is dedicated to Hazel Everett, BSc (LSE), JP whose tutor was the economist, Harold Laski.

http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/1093/louise-bates

If you have more than 3 years' media experience see www.mediaparents.co.uk for great networking, talent, jobs and information.

Going from Pretender to Developer

Hi there, my name is Ben – I’m 27 and I am trying to make my way in the world of television in either a development role creating formats and ideas, as a contestant or question researcher or generally assisting pre-production. At this point I’m sure that I could go into the countless productions I’ve made tea on, my numerous inspirations I’ve had and how I’m trying to move from my media degree to the industry and how I worked really REALLY hard.

Ben Justice at the Media Parents 2nd birthday party in July. http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/3615/ben-justice

But I can’t.

You see my story is a little…unusual. You see although I have indeed loved TV my whole life, and have always wanted to make shows, my university education was in fact in animation – the traditional kind that Disney does. Now in hindsight, it seems it was a bit of a frivolous decision, but everything is easier in hindsight. Heck, I’d like to be able to set my life PERMANENTLY in hindsight. Options  Select  ‘Hindsight On’  Confirm. The thing is when I took the course, the years before my final year – everyone within…err…..a year had found work. I remember thinking ‘a year?!? – wow they must be rubbish!’ not realising the fate that would befall our year.

A screenshot from Ben's animation graduation film. http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/3615/ben-justice

We made a great animated animated short, it toured the world – got nominated for major animation festivals, what should have been the standard route into the industry. I will spare you the sob stories but safe to say through a mix of recession and a lack of risk taking by the larger studios only five had found work after a year. I wasn’t one of the lucky ones, but after doing a couple of smaller gigs making animated museum tours I finally got a chance to make tea, wash plates and clean up as a runner at a major post-production studio dealing with major movies. This was the big chance! I’d get to train at last! Hurrah!

Then something quite strange happened.

A TV company suddenly got in contact with me totally out of the blue to offer me an interview to be the assistant to their key gameshow creator. ‘Wait? Me?! I haven’t even done TV!’ I spluttered over the dishes I was washing. However as I spluttered, my stomach fluttered. Gameshows have been a huge passion for me my whole life, and it was a dream to make one. The thing is – I just love games, quizzes, puzzles…anything like that. I’d make the Christmas quiz with my Grandad, chuck cuddly toys down the stairs as if they were ‘Gladiators’ (I will point out this wasn’t in the last six months), absorb general knowledge. In later life I’d go on a few gameshows – and my game loving exploits not only lead me to create my own online to captive audiences of messageboard goers, but also become an amateur poker title-holder. I just absorb games like a sponge in the shape of Bruce Forsyth – there are few gameshows I haven’t seen. My development in my own time had led the TV company to contact me and I went for the job against two others. It could have been there and then I got the job of my dreams, but as it was my stomach fluttered a bit too much, and for whatever reason I came second and left cigarless. The spluttering over the dishes that night-shift turned to muttering.

Assistant adjudicator's seat. http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/3615/ben-justice

Unfortunately, I was barely making any money as it was and I made the very hard decision to not only leave, but to give up on animation. I’ll quickly whisk you down ‘Plot Avenue’ by outlining that this was the major shift towards me looking more widely at media.

In-between the time of that and my next major gig, I just worked really hard. I worked as a bookie, as a banker, and a PA (although I assured the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker that their jobs were safe for now) whilst also in that time going back to the company that first interviewed me for a bit of work experience working for Charlie Brooker – making tiny spaceship props and pointing out that ‘Pac-Land’ was definitely NOT ‘Pac-Man’. All the time I kept doing my art and started taking commissions, developing my format ideas and trying them out on accommodating players online and generally trying to start more fires than ‘The Prodigy’.

After a while, another TV company in Wales got in contact with me out of the blue noting two things – one being that I was a poker player, the other being that I was madly into games and was creating them myself. They offered me a contract working on their current poker show as a new media editor, but also wanted to pick my brains on gameshows they and others were developing. I cannot tell you how exciting this was. In my second week I was sitting in on a genuine gameshow pitch and was asked to voice my opinions openly. I was trusted to be taken into the fold on an internal idea and we looked at it objectively, and having seen it for the first time, spotted a quite game and show-breaking flaw within the first 15 minutes. I might have saved several weeks of development, but the company suddenly didn’t have a show to take forward to show the BBC.

Later that week, I went to the head office and showed a germ of an idea I had to  demonstrate I was coming up with ideas. The concept was basic – an ‘unfair’ gameshow. I figured we had had a lot of ‘mean’ shows – but not one that was quite literally unfair. I demonstrated how gameplay would work and smiled to myself when he seemed to take to it, and did that ‘rubbing your glasses with a cleaning cloth thing you only do when you are considering something.’

‘Lets go with that.’

‘Lets go with…err…what?’

‘Lets pitch this. We’ll give you the time and any support you need, go and develop it for the BBC.’

‘…’

Ben Justice is in the TALENT section of www.mediaparents.co.uk

So after I had taken some smelling salts I got to work and discovered that I was quite good at this developing lark. I came up with several ideas for rounds, question researched myself and generally made a gameshow more or less by myself. Later on I would travel to Bath to meet the creator of another gameshow to iron out some bumps and brainstorm some new rounds. I’d also work on another gameshow working with one of the most respected quiz adjudicators and would learn a lot more assisting him. After much work and quiz researching – ‘The Advantage’ was born – and after being cleared two internal pitches I found myself on a train to Manchester with a huge complement of the company ready to present my final pitch for my gameshow to go on primetime TV at the first time of asking. I would like to say I was better than thinking about all the washing up I had done earlier in my career – but I wasn’t! After arriving in the old studios in Manchester – we pitched our little hearts out – but ultimately after an agonising six week wait – it was all over. The commissioner didn’t feel the theme was ‘strong’ enough and that was that. Gah. I hoped to pitch again to another company but then the latest twist happened.

The people who had trusted me and shown me so much faith retired from the company – and suddenly all my hard work wasn’t going to result in a job. A major reshuffle at the company occurred and as a result I had no chance of getting the career in development with them. Other than the fact it has been several months since then, this is the situation I find myself in – knocking on the glass of the TV industry doing a funny dance trying to get noticed.

My somewhat unconventional route to the TV industry shouldn’t be something that undermines me, heck – it’s what makes me an attractive proposition. I have a natural eye for an edit and storyboarding thanks to my animation background, I have format making skills from testing on contestants online, and I have artistic skills that not many could utilise – and that’s without going into my ‘gamey geekdom’. I want to make entertainment television so bad and have plenty of ideas already in my head ready to share.

Sometimes in this life you have to ‘speculate to accumulate’ – and I think there’s a good chance I could be bloody brilliant. Until I get the chance to find out if I am or not, I’ll keep rolling the dice.

http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/3615/ben-justice

If you have more than 3 years' media experience see www.mediaparents.co.uk for great networking, talent, jobs and information.

Media Parents talent Hazel Palmer volunteered to help out at the Olympics, and ended up being a rollerskating NHS Nurse… If you missed her in the Opening Ceremony, here she is in all her glory… and out on the town with the other nurses afterwards as pictured in the New York Times link.

Hazel Palmer, Camera Operator, spent an evening on the other side of the camera as a rollerskating NHS nurse at the Olympic Opening Ceremony. http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/95/hazel-palmer

http://london2012.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/28/after-the-opening-ceremony-the-nurses-head-home/ New York Times Article.

From Hazel’s profile on www.mediaparents.co.uk:

I have over 10 years experience in TV production and filming (on & off in between bringing up a child).

I’m experienced in many styles of camera work including ENG, PSC, multi-camera OB and studio, plus self-shooting directing of location reports, corporates and documentary. I’m skilled at hand-held, have a good eye for a shot and a good understanding of directing and editing requirements. I have many excellent reports from people I’ve worked with.

Projects I’ve worked on include news, entertainment, music events & videos, reality, sports, promos, short films and documentaries, with credits on Channel 4, BBC, ITV, Eurosport, TVNZ (New Zealand) and various film festivals.
I’m also adept at directing, lighting, sound recording, vision mixing, photography, editing (FCP & Avid) and rigging. I’m familiar with most types of camera (despite new ones coming out almost every week at the moment!)

I’ve a degree in Photography, Film & TV and am member of The Guild of Television Cameramen.  And you can find me on Media Parents here: http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/95/hazel-palmer

See www.mediaparents.co.uk for great networking, talent, jobs and information.