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!

Tickets for this year’s TV Fast Train are being made available on three separate occasions, so that everyone has the chance to get a place at the UK’s largest free freelancer training day.

The tickets will be released via EventBrite at different times and dates in the run up to the event on 16 May to accommodate people’s varying availability to go online and book.

The dates are:

10am Wednesday 25 April

9pm Wednesday 2 May

11am Saturday 5 May

Sarah Wood, executive producer of Fast Train, said:  “Last year’s Fast Train was so successful that all our tickets were gone within an hour of them being available on the EventBrite site – this left a lot of very disappointed freelancers who missed the very small window of opportunity to secure a place.

“This year I want to make sure everyone has the chance to join us at the UK’s largest free freelancer training day and festival so we are going to release tickets during the day, at night and even at the weekend.”

A host of top industry names have already been confirmed for this year’s event, where attendees will once again get the chance to sample a wide range of training and masterclasses with industry leaders.

They include Danny Cohen, BBC1 controller; Zai Bennett, BBC3 controller; Karl Warner, executive editor BBC Entertainment; Google’s Peter Barron; Andrew Jackson, commissioning editor, Channel 4; Ruth Wrigley, All3Media and Colette Foster, from Endemol’s Remarkable Television.

For more info go here : http://www.bbc.co.uk/academy/news/view/tv_ft_tickets

The idea for www.mediaparents.co.uk came as a result of the BBC / TRC Media Series Producer Programme.  It’s a long story for another time, but if you’re a regional Series Producer, or would-be Series Producer, please read on, and tell your colleagues about it… If you’d like to learn more please contact Denis Mooney through the link below or on the Media Parents NETWORK, or respond to the discussion on the watercooler at www.mediaparents.co.uk

SERIES PRODUCER PROGRAMME 2012

Applications are invited from experienced network television producers based in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the North of England for the 2012 Series Producer Programme (SPP), a strategic partnership between TRC media and the BBC Academy.

The SPP is a blue chip training initiative designed to hone the skills of network TV producers to the level of series producer. Over the course of 10 months, the SPP will provide a range of top flight masterclasses and specialist training in series producer skills and offer unprecedented access to commissioning editors and key decision makers within the BBC.

The programme begins on 23 May 2012 and is open to freelance, independent and BBC staff producers with a strong track record in network television. It is aimed at indigenous talent in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the North of England and those who wish to relocate to live and work in these regions.

Download details and an application form from www.trcmedia.org

Closing date for receipt of applications is Thursday 15 March 2012

SERIES PRODUCER PROGRAMME 2012

These guidelines for the Series Producer Programme (SPP) have been drawn up to help you decide whether this high-end talent initiative is appropriate for you.

The SPP is a strategic partnership between TRC media and the BBC Academy aimed at developing the skills of network television producers outside London to the level of series producer. It is open to talented freelance, independent or internal BBC producers with a strong track record in network television production. Applications are invited from Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the North of England.

The training scheme is comprised of 10 sessions lasting one or two days per month which take place in centres around the UK. The programme will deliver a range of high-level masterclasses which will focus on honing skills across key areas including below:

Creative ideas

• Writing programme proposals

Audiences

• Diversity

• Multi-platform

Pitching skills

Legal, ethical and editorial

Performance management

Access to BBC decision makers

WHO IS ELIGIBLE TO APPLY?

Television producers with a track record in network programming based in the Nations and the North of England (or wishing to relocate) are eligible to apply. This covers experienced producers, producer directors or new series producers.

WHAT ARE THE SELECTION CRITERIA?

The scheme is intended to support and grow production for the BBC in the Nations and North. Final decisions on the scheme will be taken by TRC media and the BBC. Choosing which candidates to invest in is a challenging process and the selection panels will consider a combination of related factors including:

• An assessment of the applicant’s potential to take this step up in their programme-making careers
• Network credits and experience
• The mix of candidates in terms of genre and location
• The needs of BBC production centres as a whole – in-house and indie in accordance with the Corporation’s network supply strategy – priority will be given to talent in these areas/genres.
• The scheme aims to attract a diverse range of participants.

HOW TO APPLY

Submission is by application form (see foot of this document) and your submission should cover the following areas:

• Why do you want to participate in the SPP?
• How do you feel your experience equips you for the programme?
• How will your participation on the scheme support your company/department/region?

In addition, for those candidates who plan to relocate to the Nations and North we will look for evidence of a commitment to live and work in the chosen area.

STATEMENT OF SUPPORT

If in current employment we will need a statement from your line manager supporting your participation on the programme and acknowledging the time commitment involved. If you are not in current employment a previous employer or referee should give a view on your suitability for the SPP.

HOW IS THE PROGRAMME FUNDED?

The Series Producer Programme is 100% funded by BBC Academy. Reasonable travel costs for attendance at the sessions will be reimbursed. Overnight accommodation is provided by the SPP.

TIME COMMITMENT?

The programme will require the successful candidates to commit to sessions lasting on average one or two consecutive days per month for the 10 months of the scheme. In applying to the scheme, producers should be aware that attendance at each of the sessions is not discretionary and consideration should be given to how the monthly sessions will be factored into working schedules.

WHO WILL RUN THE SCHEME?

TRC will be responsible for the design and management of the programme working in partnership with the BBC Academy.

TIMETABLE

The deadline for applications is 12 noon on Thursday 15 March 2012. Applications will be assessed by a selection panel and a shortlist will be drawn up of candidates for interview. Interviews for shortlisted candidates will be held on the following dates at the locations listed below:

• 17 April – Salford
• 18 April – Glasgow
• 19 April – Belfast
• 20 April – Cardiff

NB: Unfortunately we cannot pay travel expenses for interviews

The 2012 SPP will start on Wednesday 23^rd May and the inaugural session will be held at TRC media’s Glasgow office.

ANY OTHER QUESTIONS?

We hope we have given you most of the information you need to help decide if the Series Producer Programme is right for you at this stage in your career. However Denis Mooney who leads the programme for TRC will be happy to answer any further questions you may have. Contact denis.mooney@trcmedia.org.

TRC is an independent charity working in partnership with international and UK broadcasters, creative producers and public agencies to provide training, research and business support to the creative content industry. To find out more about our work visit www.trcmedia.org

SERIES PRODUCER PROGRAMME – APPLICATION

Name	Address
Mobile Number	Email
Occupation (i.e. Producer / Director)
Current Employer	Employers Address
Nation/Region you choose to work in (Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, North of England)
CV and Programme Credits
Please attach a CV that includes details of your most recent network credits including programme titles, production company, date of transmission and the network as well as the credit you received.
Experience and Suitability
Please outline why you want to take part in this training programme being specific about how your experience makes this right for you. Please also outline how you believe the programme will be of benefit to you and your future employers.

Statement of Support

Please include here a short statement in support of your application from your current employer together with their contact details or – in the case of freelancers not currently working – please do the same thing but with your most recent employer.

Send together with your CV to: TRC media, 227 West George St, Glasgow, G2 2ND or email apply@trcmedia.org. Remember the deadline for applications is: 12 noon on Thursday 15 March 2012.