Media Parents

Tim Hincks, Endemol's Chief Creative Officer will be at the Endemol Meets Media Parents event on October 11th

On Tuesday 11th October, Endemol, Darlow Smithson, Remarkable, Initial etc will open their doors to Media Parents talent.  Here are some of the Execs and Talent Managers from Endemol who will be attending:

Tim Hincks: Chief Executive Officer

Tim Hincks is Chief Executive officer of Endemol UK. Endemol UK is one of the largest independent production companies in Britain and annually produces over 2,000 hours of output. It incorporates a number of production brands including – Remarkable Television, Intial and Zeppotron.Credits include BBC One’s new hit series Total Wipeout, popular factual entertainment series Supersize vs Superskinny (Channel 4); Gok’s Fashion Fix (Channel 4); Coleen’s Real Women (ITV2); and The Sex Education Show (Channel 4) horror series Dead Set (E4, Channel 4); hit game shows Deal Or No Deal (Channel 4); Golden Balls (ITV1) and 1 vs100 (BBC One); reality blockbuster Big Brother (Channel 4; E4); and comedy series  8 Out of 10 Cats (Channel 4); Would I Lie to You? (BBC One); and Charlie Brooker’s Screenwipe (BBC Four; BBC Two)

Tim began his television career in 1990 when he divided his time between producing BBC Two’s Food and Drink programme for Bazal (now a part of Remarkable Television) and working on current affairs programmes such as Newsnight and BBC Westminster.Tim became Creative Director of Endemol UK in 2002 and stepped up to become Chief Creative Officer in January 2005. He was appointed Chief Executive Officer in January 2008.Tim sits on the Endemol International board; He is also the Executive Chair of Media Guardian Edinburgh International Television Festival.

Bella Lambourne is Global Head of Human Resources at Endemol, and can be found in the NETWORK section of www.mediaparents.co.uk

Bella Lambourne: Global Head of Human Resources

Bella Lambourne originally joined Endemol UK in 1993 and took responsibility as group Head of Human Resources in 1997. Bella was promoted to Human Resources Director for Endemol UK in 2002 and working with the Director of Operations also oversees the administrative functions of the group.In addition to her UK role, Bella was promoted to Global Head of Human Resources at Endemol Group in March 2011.Bella is a member of PACT Council, chair of the PACT Diversity Committee and she also sits on the Industrial Relations Committee.

Colette Foster, MD, Remarkable

Colette Foster joined Endemol UK in 2007 to executive produce Channel 4’s hit factual entertainment series Supersize vs Superskinny (Channel 4).  She went on to oversee production on the company’s immensely popular run of features series including Gok’s Fashion Fix (Channel 4);  The Sex Education Show (Channel 4) and Extreme Male Beauty (Channel 4).As Joint Managing Director of Remarkable Television, Colette continues to executive produce series as well as developing and overseeing many other factual programmes.

Prior to joining Endemol UK, Colette was behind some of the UK’s most popular and groundbreaking feature programmes including 10 Years Younger, Embarrassing Illnesses and How to Look Good Naked.

Colette started her career at BBC Birmingham, working on flagship programmes for BBC One and BBC Two including The Clothes Show, Tracks, (which launched the career of Ray Mears), The Chelsea Flower Show and Gardener’s World.

Julian Ware is the joint Creative Director for DSP working closely with top broadcasting commissioners in the UK, US and around the world. Credits include The Falling Man, Rome Wasn’t Built in Day, The Beckoning Silence; Blitz: London’s Firestorm.

Julian joined DSP in 2004 as Head of Special Projects and was appointed as Creative Director in 2011. Previously he was Director of Programmes at ITN Factual.

Ben Bowie, Joint Creative Director at Darlow Smithson productions will be meeting Media Parents talent on Tuesday

Ben Bowie, Joint Creative Director, Darlow Smithson Productions

Ben Bowie is the joint Creative Director for DSP working closely with top broadcasting commissioners in the UK, US and around the world. Credits include Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking; Seconds From Disaster; I Shouldn’t Be Alive.

Ben joined DSP in 2001 as a producer becoming Executive Producer in 2005. He was appointed as Creative Director in 2011.

Ulla Streib, Director of Operations at Darlow Smithson Productions will be meeting Media Parents talent on October 11th

ulla streib, director of operations, darlow smithson productions

Ulla Streib manages DSP’s output. Her expertise is in achieving maximum onscreen value and efficient delivery. Ulla joined DSP in 1997 as part of the production team. She became Head of Production in 1998 and Head of Operations in 2002 and was made Director of Operations in 2011. Prior to DSP, Ulla was Staff Production Manager in charge of TV Production at Uden Associates.

Jo McGrath is Head of Factual and Features at Tiger Aspect

Jo McGrath, Head of Factual and Features, Tiger Aspect

Prior to her move to Tiger Aspect, McGrath was Head of Daytime and Features at Channel 4, where she was responsible for commissioning a number of enduring Channel 4 classic brands including, A Place In The Sun and 10 Years Younger. Since her arrival at Tiger Aspect in 2004 McGrath has created a number of hit formats including, three series of Diet Doctors for FIVE (accompanied by two books) and the popular Cook Yourself Thin for Channel 4 which also became a best selling book and one of the Channel’s most successful on-line brands. A second Cook Yourself Thin book was published in January 2009. The Cook Yourself Thin format has also recently been acquired by Lifetime in the US and 20 episodes are currently in production with a TX scheduled for spring 2009.

McGrath’s remit is to focus on winning returning formatted series with domestic and international appeal.

Chloe Samwell-Smith is the Production Talent Manager at Endemol. She is in the Media Parents NETWORK and will be meeting Media Parents talent on Tuesday.

Nyree Clarke is the HR Manager for Endemol UK, Tigress and Darlow Smithson. Nyree is in the NETWORK section of www.mediaparents.co.uk

Also joining us on Tuesday are Nick Mather, Head of Entertainment for Endemol, Nick Metcalfe, Executive Producer from Darlow Smithson, Jo Kay, Production Exec for Comedy, Kitty Walshe, Series Producer for Fact Ent and Features at Endemol, Maria Keaveney, Tiger Aspect’s HR Manager, Nicky Hughes, Head of Research and Development for Endemol, Cat Lynch and PM Sarah Holt, from Endemol Development, Tom Blakeson, LE and Entertainment, JohnPaul Chapple, Consultant Producer at Endemol, Catherine Welton, Executive Producer for Specialist Factual at Endemol, and Annette Clarke, Executive Producer, Remarkable.

I’m delighted to announce our next event –Endemol meets Media Parents.

Tim Hincks, Endemol's Chief Executive Officer will be at the Media Parents networking event on October 11th

This is an exclusive opportunity for Media Parents subscribers to meet Creative Heads, Executive Producers and Talent Managers from Endemol, Darlow Smithson, Initial, Remarkable, Tiger Aspect and Zeppotron  on Tuesday October 11^th in West London.  If you work in Kids, Features and Factual Entertainment, Light Entertainment, Comedy, Drama, Reality or Specialist Factual then Endemol would like to meet you…

Interested?

There are 50 places available for Media Parents talent to meet Endemol Execs both in an informal networking session and a timed appointment set-up on the evening which will run from 6pm to 8pm on October 11^th.

What next?

If you would like to attend this event you’ll need to email your CV and covering letter for selection. Your email should be titled with your full name, job title and the genre you work in. Please send to the address on the Media Parents watercooler ASAP.

This event is for subscribers to  www.mediaparents.co.uk and Endemol are kindly covering the cost of administration of this event. Endemol are inviting experienced talent from across the board to come and meet them – PMs, PDs,  directors, SPs, execs, production execs, EPs, APs, co-ordinators,  – so please do send a CV marked with your full name, job title and genre to take part in this great event.

Media Parents thanks Endemol for their support for this event –  www.mediaparents.co.uk – yeah!

www.mediaparents.co.uk for great networking, talent, jobs and information. to join us please go to www.mediaparents.co.uk

Tom Lown is a Composer in the TALENT section of www.mediaparents.co.uk

Tom Lown is a composer, producer and Dad of Felix (2) and bump (due Nov) in the TALENT section of www.mediaparents.co.uk. When his ‘composer’ hat is on he writes music for TV and commercials and when his ‘deep house producer’ hat is on he releases his tracks through labels such as Lost My Dog, Sudup Recordings, KAPA Music, Warmth and 3am Recordings.

This summer sees 3 different EP’s on 3 different labels all see the light of day as they’re released over a period of 3 months. Early August, his Cloud Surfer EP was released and featured 3 original tracks and included 2 remixes by New York producers Woo Hoo and Gaby Dershwin. Late August his track ‘The Short Straw’ will be included on a 5 track label compilation on Lost My Dog Records which has already been played on Ministry of Sound and Proton Radio. And in October, Tom will release his debut EP on 3am Recordings which will include remixes by Mark Jones and Jota Wagner. This has also already had some airplay on the House Sound of Hamburg Radio.

Tom Lown and Felix

Tom will be DJ’ing @ ‘UptownBoogieDown’ at Fluid (next door to Fabric) on September 30th.  If you’d like to get tickets for the reduced price of £6 please add yourself to the Media Parents guestlist on the watercooler at www.mediaparents.co.uk

All these releases mentioned can be previewed here: http://goo.gl/eto5I

Recent guest mix Tom recorded for the Lost My Dog Podcast: http://tinyurl.com/4xscc65

Tom’s music for TV can be previewed here: www.tomlown.com” and Tom’s profile is at www.mediaparents.co.uk in the TALENT section.

Gladys San Juan is in the TALENT section of www.mediaparents.co.uk  Here she writes about the making of her latest short film, and invites you to the screening on Sunday 18th September.

Swoosh screens on Sunday 18th September at Curzon Soho. For more information please contact Gladys San Juan through the TALENT section of www.mediaparents.co.uk

I do get apprehensive when making short films these days and  honestly, it’s about the immense work that goes into planning one – with what money? And, we may wonder, for what reason?  Well, short films are a great way to learn what goes into making movies. Call it a taster teaser if you like for the bigger ones. They still cost money and no one out there will give you the money so you got to put it out there yourself or find some good collaborators that will contribute. People will have to believe in your project.

The production work is equally as hard. I’ve worked on over a dozen short films and I have met a lot of nice people who cared enough to get their dreams made on their credit cards and then send it off to festivals hopeful of recognition.

One interesting short film which I had a lot of fun working on as a Co-Producer and Script Supervisor (two roles I’ll never do at the same time again) will be screened YAY! this Sunday the 18^th at the Curzon in Soho from 11am to midday. The short film is called ‘SWOOSH!’ and it’s about  a group of nerdy bogus super heroes who are in a self help group trying to find their way.

The film was written and directed by Sabina Sattar an industry professional for over 15 years. The film was made on a good budget with a great team of collaborators. So, if you fancy coming out this Sunday into London consider yourself invited to this screening at the SOHO Curzon and lets have a chat afterwards about the making of a short film on a shoe string budget. Anyone can do it and it could be loads of fun!  Who knows you might hire us to make your next film? ; )

Gladys San Juan (left) with Sabina Sattar at the Media Parents summer barbecue. For more information about the screening of Swoosh please contact Gladys through the TALENT section of www.mediaparents.co.uk

Gladys’s career her own words:

My versatile career background ranges from Museum Studies, Social Research, Teaching to Office/Project Management to currently Film Production which I enjoy.

I am currently available to work as a freelance Script Supervisor and ideally I am looking to work with a production company in it’s development development. I’d like to know more about commission and sales.

I’m fluent in Italian and Spanish which can help when working on co – productions.

Media Parents would like to thank Chris Hutchins and Helen Hagelthorn from BBC Bristol for both meeting talent and hosting this event, Kath Moore from Tigress, Mark Hill and Jane Lomas from RDF West, Julia Waring from RDF Television in London, Angela Oakhill, Steve Rankin and Lucy Carter from Diverse West, Harry Marshall from Icon Films, Ali Bradburn from Parthenon Entertainment, Bernard Walton from Aqua Vita Films, Richard Higgs from Big Squid, Kaia Rose from World of Arthur Cox, Maggie Walsh for hosting the event on behalf of Media Parents, and all of those Media Parents members who came along and made or remade connections – it was great to hear from RDF West that within days of the event they had taken on someone from Media Parents.  Please enjoy the photos below, and for more information on the companies involved see https://blog.mediaparents.co.uk/2011/06/media-parents-networking-bristol/  Media Parents will soon be organising an event in London which gives Media Parents members the chance to meet companies under the Endemol umbrella.

a Media Parents freelancer meets the BBC's helen hagelthorn

When Harry met... Harry Marshall from Icon Films, Kath Moore from Tigress and Kaia Rose from Arthur Cox meet talent from www.mediaparents.co.uk in Bristol

TALENT from Media Parents at the Bristol networking event

Diverse West Exec Producer Steve Rankin

richard higgs from Big Squid and chris hutchins from BBC Bristol amongst Media Parents talent

Nick Shearman, Commissioning Executive from BBC Wales meets Media Parents talent.

chris hutchins, Head of Talent for the NHU and Factual at BBC Bristol (left) meets Media Parents talent

Media Parents networking in Bristol

Mark Hill, Head of RDF West meets Media Parents talent in Bristol

see www.mediaparents.co.uk for great networking events

Executive Producer kath moore from Tigress at Media Parents Bristol networking

RDF Television's Head of Talent Julia Waring talks to a Media Parent in Bristol

Media Parents networking in Bristol

Helen Hagelthorn from BBC Bristol kindly helped to organise this event at BBC Bristol

Media Parents Freelancer Sophie Elwin Harris

a big thank you to everyone who participated in this Media Parents event in Bristol

www.mediaparents.co.uk for great networking, talent, jobs and information. to join us please go to www.mediaparents.co.uk

Here, Ade Rawcliffe, one of Channel 4′s Creative Diversity Managers writes about the progress of The Alpha Fund.

Ade Rawcliffe, C4 Creative Diversity Manager is in the NETWORK at www.mediaparents.co.uk

You may have seen the recent article on Channel 4’s Alpha Fund in Broadcast magazine, so I thought that now would be a good time to give you more information.

It’s now 6 months since David Abraham launched the Alpha Fund at the Nations and Regions conference in Salford, using his keynote speech to declare that Channel 4 must protect its identity and uniqueness. The fund is designed to support new creative talent with an expressed commitment to commission more companies from Britain’s black and ethnic communities.

Channel 4 is working with more BAME companies than ever before. This is remarkable and challenges many people’s predictions about what is a competitive and consolidating industry.

To give you some top line figures. To date, we have engaged with 320 companies and have put 54 projects into paid development, of which 22 have progressed to full commissions.

More details are attached in this PDF Alpha Fund Update – August 2011

www.mediaparents.co.uk for great networking, talent, jobs and information. to join us, or contact Ade Rawcliffe through the NETWORK, please go to www.mediaparents.co.uk

Ade Rawcliffe Ade’s role as Media Project Manger at Channel 4 is driving the commissioning of content from new, diverse, grassroots talent throughout the UK. Prior to joining Channel 4, she worked as a Producer across both the BBC and the independent sector with credits including Big Brother, Right to Reply, and The Big Breakfast. She is always looking for ways to develop diverse talent and plays a key part in Channel 4’s ongoing commitment to reflecting the diversity of contemporary Britain in all its variety. Ade is a Nigerian from Macclesfield and has worked in the North West of England, where she maintains close contacts.

A big thank you to ENVY for hosting the Media Parents 1st Birthday Party in July, and for hosting many events over the course of our first year.  Thank you to everyone who has supported www.mediaparents.co.uk from the beginning, and helped us to put great people into great jobs.  I’ve met more brilliant people during the last year of involvement with Media Parents than I have during 14 years of working in TV, and I hope I continue to.  Here are some pics of our 1st birthday party, thanks to everyone who came along.

The lovely Dominic Briere-Edney from ENVY, with Media Parents Director, Amy Walker

Jo Rowan and the team at Evolutions generously hosted the Media Parents Summer Barbecue in June, here are the photos… Thanks to everyone who braved the British summer to attend!

The lovely team at Evolutions : Darren Musgrove and Jo Rowan who can be found in the Media Parents NETWORK section

Media Parents Director, Amy Walker doing some extraordinary networking with Vera's Head of Production Rebecca Parkinson. Rebecca is in the NETWORK section of www.mediaparents.co.uk and Amy Walker is a Series Producer in the TALENT section of Media Parents

Media Parents Director Amy Walker with Maggie Walsh and Alex Evans, all of whom are in the TALENT section of www.mediaparents.co.uk Thanks to all who attended, more captions coming soon...

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

Presenter / Producer Hayden Turner is in the TALENT section of www.mediaparents.co.uk

Media Parents TALENT Hayden Turner, Presenter and Producer, invites Media Parents members and their families to hear about his latest Nat Geo series.

I would like to invite you to a talk that I am giving about the series, ‘Hunters of the Lost World’ that we have just had airing on the National Geographic Channel.

Come and join us for an evening of incredible, passionate, inspiring adventure stories from the field with me, Hayden Turner, wildlife specialist and ex-zookeeper.  I’d like to share my adventures and passion for passing on information to the next generation.

I will be sharing some stories about our adventures at
National Geographic Store   83-97, Regent Street, London, W1B 4EW.     RSVP : 4th September 2011  please use the email address on the Media Parents Watercooler
Time:         6.30 – 8pm

I would love to see you there, its open to all – Please feel free to bring any guests, family, kids and interested people.

Please meniton this invite to anyone you know that may be keen to come and RSVP through the Media Parents watercooler so we can cater for a glass of wine or two for everyone.

Really look forward to seeing you if you can make it.

thanks

HT

TV Presenter – Producer – Private Safaris
www.haydenturner.com

http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/364/hayden-turner

Media Parents TALENT Lauren Pushkin is a Director, Editor and Promo Producer and can be found in the TALENT section of www.mediaparents.co.uk  She writes here about her new project, Becoming Mum, a documentary series that follows six first time mums as they begin their journey with a new life from birth to six months.

Lauren – The Idea

It all started with a photograph. Jacob, my darling son, was seven months old and I had arranged, along with my new mummy friends, to have a photo session to celebrate passing the six month mark. Due to crying, tired and over excited babies, we only managed to have one group photograph, but when I saw the result the idea for this documentary came immediately.

Mums and babies in Lauren Pushkin's circle : the photo that launched a documentary.

Over these first few months my life had changed immeasurably and before Jacob was born I knew it would be hard, but the reality was so, so different to my expectations. When I looked at my friends in the photograph I knew that it had been the same for them. Yet their journeys had been so different to mine. We all came from similar backgrounds, all had similar set ups and support networks, but each of us had faced such diverse challenges, different tears and different joys. Someone’s baby had had a hernia at three weeks old, and then an emergency operation.  Another’s had severe reflux and had been constantly back and forth to hospital, doctors and specialists. On the other hand one’s dream baby hardly cried, and another’s baby slept through from three weeks old. For me, I had such a terrible birth that it stopped me immediately bonding with Jacob. For the first month I had gone into survival mode, just trying to get through the days. It wasn’t until Jacob was five weeks old that the tears came in floods and I finally realised how much I loved him.

I could see all of our our stories before my very eyes and I realised that if I followed and filmed another group of women these stories would be there for all to see.

But what I also wanted to capture was the truth. The seven of us had been so truthful with each other, something you find quite alien in the world of baby olympics. I wanted to show the challenges for what they are, and wanted my documentary to say to mums and mums-to-be ‘Don’t worry, it’s OK for it to be hard’.

So the idea was born, I would follow and film four to six new mums on their journey with baby from birth to six months. All I needed now was a collaborator.

Melissa and Emilia

Melissa Cortizo was the ideal person, not only because we had worked together on so many projects over the years, but also because she was a strong, and ambitious, new-mum like me. In fact when Melissa had found out she was pregnant she decided to leave the security of a job she had been in for years and start her own company. Not a very conventional thing to do, but this showed that she was a passionate person who had belief in herself and her ability. On my part, she had been through the same things as me very recently. Her baby Emilia was six months older than Jacob. Both of us understood the subject matter from the inside, something I felt was vital for this documentary.

MELISSA -TURNING THE IDEA INTO REALITY

Emilia was an easy baby. She ate, she slept, she cried and then she smiled.  Yet my relationship with my husband changed overnight and so did my relationship with myself. Nothing at all can prepare you for motherhood, the ups and downs, the pressure, the guilt, the resentment, nor the overwhelming love and responsibility you have for this helpless baby that you’ve brought into the world.

It was when Emilia and Jacob were becoming acquainted over a rice cake that Lauren announced “I’ve got a brilliant idea!”.  My first thought was that she was crazy – how on earth were we going to find the spare time to follow six new mums when I was running my own business and had a child to look after that had just taken her first steps?  But Lauren is a great storyteller, and I’ve always valued her opinions and never doubted her judgement or ambition. So whilst I worried about the workload, I was also excited about the story, and the idea of us working closely together on such an intimate and challenging project, something we new about all too well.

The search for our contributors was on, and before we knew it we were writing adverts to place in doctors’ receptions and hospitals, emailing everyone in our contact books, getting the word out on forums, and even organising focus groups of new mums to discuss some of the highs and lows they had experienced.

Our next step was The Baby Show, a place we new would be swarming with new mums so we contacted them and they were completely behind our project. Armed with press passes and our camera equipment, we pitched up amongst the finest breast pumps and the like to see who was willing to share their remarkable journey with us.

After a month of work, we ended up with a list of over 30 mums-to-be, all from different backgrounds, all with different support networks and of different ages.

Then then we whittled it down to our chosen six.

Our mums and mums-to-be are truly diverse. From 38 year old Ngozi who has been desperately trying for a baby for 13 years, to 18 year old and single Georgia who never ever dreamed she would fall pregnant. We have the American Julia who has spent her life forging a successful career (even winning entrepreneur of the year 2010) and Rachel, the Welsh girl who wants nothing more than to be a stay-at-home mother. There’s Mily the free-spirited hippie who wants to do away with vaccines and opt instead for homeopathy, and lastly Sandie, the logical, medical Scot who thinks everything can be solved by a text book.  One thing was apparent to us immediately; although all of these women were very different in many ways, they had one standout thing in common, and this was that their expectations of what motherhood would be like was going to be completely different to the reality … and this is what we would capture.

Lauren – Starting Production

Filming the pre birth interviews was easy enough. (Although keeping our own views to ourselves was a challenge in itself.) But the waiting game for the babies to be born was so nerve wracking. The problem was that although all of these women had agreed to be contributors, we knew (more than they did) how much their life was going to change. We had filmed them talking about natural births and how relaxed it would be, but as we’d been through it ourselves, we could almost guarantee that this would not be the case. We also felt that when reality finally came we would be the furthest thing from the minds of these new mothers. In truth it felt like we were back in the dating game … waiting for the phone to ring, trying to read different meanings into text messages, worried when we didn’t get a response to our emails. We knew that all our efforts had to go into maintaining a relationship with our lovely ladies, so that we would be called upon when the time came. And not long after our first mum had her baby we were there. She had a beautiful baby girl and it was amazing to be a part of her first few hours.

Melissa – How the film is developing

So far we have been there to see three of our mums-to-be become first time mums, and their stories are already taking shape and we have been there at every turn.

For Ngozi, our lady who has been trying for 13 years, it has been a truly horrific first month. After a horrendous birth and an emergency c section, her beautiful daughter was born, but Ngozi encountered more medical trauma. Three days after the birth she was rushed to hospital with bleeding. In her first two weeks she spent so much time going back and forth to the hospital that her relationship with her newborn suffered, the baby that she dreamed to have in her arms all of her adult life. For Sandie, our lovely, strong Scot, things have not been much better. When Bobby was born everything was brilliant. We filmed Sandie at the hospital and captured a very happy new family. All seemed to be going swimmingly until a week later when Bobby was weighed. A midwife was horrible to Sandie telling her that Bobby had lost far too much weight and that Sandie was responsible. And as the next few weeks went on he continued to lose weight, and we have watched Sandie dissipate from the strong, self assured woman she is, to an unsure girl who is stressed and cannot stop crying. Julia is our third first time mum. She is an entrepreneur who has it all. She is a successful business woman, owning her own photographic studios, she is a highly regarded photographer, a journalist and now a mummy blogger. But for her it has been very hard too fit it all in. She has been overly stressed trying to work, blog and breastfeed a baby who will feed for eight hours in every twelve. She is truly exhausted and we can see that for someone with such a strong determination to do her best in all she does, this is the biggest challenge of her life.

Lauren – Future plans

We are already mentally editing together our stories. They are so different and so great and we are still only six weeks in to production with three of our mums still to give birth. Our plans are to edit together some promos once all of our mums stories are underway and then to approach commissioners, or even production companies who could co-produce this with us.

It is a massive project and we have learnt so much in this short space of time. We are using every piece of experience we have accumulated in the twelve years we have been in the media. This project is so different, because we are doing everything ourselves … directing, producing, production managing, editing, shooting, writing etc..

and what we have noticed throughout is how many people are helping us along the way. Every location or press office we have contacted has been so helpful and excited about our project, every health professional, breast specialist, and doctor has been more than willing to contribute and wish the programme well. And as for the mums that we are following, we really feel blessed to be sharing their journeys with them.

For me, the documentary is the first project I feel truly passionate about for many years. I think that having Jacob has allowed me to focus on what I really want to do and to find and capture the stories I really want to tell, and I know that Melissa feels the same.

The only problem for us now, (and our husbands), is that this project is making us feel a bit too broody.

Lauren Pushkin is in the TALENT section of www.mediaparents.co.uk

To find out all of our latest news follow us on twitter @becomingmumtv or go to our website www.becomingmum.tv To follow the filmmakers on twitter ff @laurenpushkin or @media_spaces

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