Media Parents

When I go into a production office or when I look at the staff page of production companies I am constantly dismayed to see the lack of diversity, writes Petal Felix.  Some seem to be entirely staffed by white people and that feels quite off-putting to see nobody who looks like me. If women are under represented in the media, then that is an even greater problem for black women.

Petal Felix with Media Parents' Joanna Gretton at Back to Work Drinks

When there was such a furore about the gender paygap I read with interest the features in the newspapers but, the reality for many like me, is if we can’t even get through the front door it is immaterial what the pay is.

There is a very clear cultural disconnect between the people who make TV programmes and the millions who watch them.  Creativity needs diversity in thinking and for that to manifest onto the screen you need a diverse workforce, which I just don’t see at the moment.

Petal with HoP Mags Scholes and Skillset HETV Drama Returner Fred Archer, celebrating his placement at Tiger Aspect

After several years out I have decided its time to go back to doing the thing I trained to do and the job I loved - TV production. Most of my working life has been spent as a journalist, first in radio and then TV making films for the BBC and independents. But I haven’t worked in TV for ten years, and although the experience can’t be taken away, aspects of production have changed. Although I am happy to upskill I already feel at a disadvantage

A friend said I must join Media Parents. So I go to the Media Parents ‘Back to Work’ drinks, which is initially daunting but turns out to be hugely enjoyable and gives me a boost.    Meeting people who are in the same boat as me, having taken time out for family, albeit most have young children where I am at the other end, having just seen the last child off to college.

There’s another chance to network, a  Media Parents CV event,  hosted by Shiver and there are a number of other production companies represented there. I talk to the companies I think best suit my interests and skills and the following day email the contacts I made.  I have been given  good advice on how to rework my CV  and also been told I have good experience and my training as a Journalist should stand me in good stead.

Petal Felix talks to the Raw TV talent team at Media Parents CV Event

Still, getting my CV ready to send out, it looks woefully inadequate compared to the many I see with very recent TV credits.  It does feel good networking, entirely different to years back when I would avoid any work-related social event. Now I am much more confident and also eager to speak with others going through the same experience.

I have started emailing production companies and meet with Heads of Production, Creative Directors and Talent Executives. All seem interested in my experience and are generous with their time, but there is still a slight nagging feeling, which I am constantly battling with.

Eventually, after meeting with the Managing Director and Creative Director of Factory Films in Brighton I go in, initially for two weeks unpaid work.  I am given several programmes to work on  for the  BBC and Channel 4, short films and documentaries.  I love it and it reminds me I can do this. It’s the week before Christmas and they ask me to stay on for another weeks paid work. I am ecstatic, and its not about the money.

So  here we are in January. I am applying for jobs and I don’t mind taking a job below my Producer scale but I also know I’m more likely to be successful if I can get across the threshold and meet people face to face. I have great skills and experience  and am always full of ideas so I hope TV can deliver for me.

https://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/15825/petal-felix

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Warm thanks to everyone who attended our Bristol Media Parents at BBC Bristol at the end of November. The evening was kindly sponsored by Wall to Wall Television / Warner Bros Television Production U.K. Head of Wall to Wall West, Emily Shields, Deputy Head of Production Emma Fenton and Head of Talent Susie Worster met freelancers, and Wall to Wall’s Media Parents Back to Work Scheme mentee Melissa Bishop is Bristol-based and attended the event. We’d also like to thank Outline Productions for sponsoring and attending, the EndemolShineUK team and PACT. Thanks to Seadog TV & Film and RDF West for supporting too. Here are some photos from the night, the majority kindly taken by Clare Adams https://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/15905/clare-adams.

"It was great to meet new people and to reconnect. I met some people in person for the first time who I'd wanted to meet for a while." Emily Shields, Head of Wall to Wall West

Helen Veale, Creative Director, Outline Productions: "I just want to say a huge thank you for the Bristol event. We met so many such great people who we’d love to work with. And it was a really fun evening. We’re so grateful to be hooked into your network and thank you for organising things so brilliantly."

"Thanks for organising it. There seemed to be a good mix of people there" Susie Worster, Head of Talent, Wall to Wall Television

"I wanted to say a huge thank you for hosting the Bristol event. I’ve felt very ‘out of the loop’ over the last few years and realised I’d lost a bit of confidence about working in TV. The Media Parents event was such a tonic for me, I bumped into a few friends, chatted to people who said they’d felt the same and all your representatives were really friendly and encouraging. It has really lifted my confidence and I really enjoyed it." Carolyn, Returner

Tanya Gottlieb, Talent Manager Endemol Shine "We crew across the board in Bristol in factual, fact ent and specialist factual (for Tigress) so it's great to meet talented grown-ups."

"Just wanted to thank Media Parents for putting on this event, and thanks to Wall to Wall and Outline and the other companies for taking part. It was a brilliant evening. I met so many new people and as Ive only been in Bristol a couple of years it was really useful for making contacts with South West media companies as well as fellow workers. Really excellent night! Thank you!" Graciela Watson, Edit Producer

"We had a great night. We'll definitely be using Media Parents at Seadog when we're next crewing up" Linda Stephens, Head of Production, Seadog TV & Film

"Thank you - it was definitely worth the journey from Wiltshire to be a part of the evening." Donna Bernard, Presenter

"As a Bristol-based Exec it was great to meet people outside my network and catch up with other freelancers I know. There was so much talent in the room, it was brilliant." Katy Fryer, Exec Producer, Outline Productions

"What a brilliant night, and what a great organisation Media Parents is. I'll be telling all my friends!" Philip Jones, Story Producer

"Thank you for organising the event, it was great to catch up with my Back to Work Mentor Emma Fenton from Wall to Wall, and also other Bristol production companies that were new to me." Melissa Bishop, Returning AP / Researcher

"I made some really great contacts and have signed up to Media Parents". Maddi Knibbs, Series Producer

"It's always great to come to your events, thank you, it's so good to meet the talent". Emily Knight, Talent Manager, RDF West

"Thank you so much for connecting me to other freelancers at the event. We have already been in touch and are talking about collaborating on a project". Jon Nicholls, Composer

Thank you to Rob and Jasmine at BBC Bristol Club, David Postlethwaite and Matt Holden for all their help at the event. Thanks also to Clare Adams for the wonderful photos. Until the next time!

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Join us and be merry at Media Parents Christmas Drinks, kindly hosted by Clearcut and sponsored by Alias Hire! Hurrah! We’ll be joined by freelancers and companies including the BBC, Dragonfly, Merman, Kantar Media, Renowned Films, Lime Pictures, Outline Productions, CTVC, Maverick Television, Raw TV, Rawcut TV and Media Parents. No CVs this time, just drinks and chat.

Thank you to everyone who joined us at Media Parents Christmas Drinks last year - we will raise a glass to Trevor Showler this year!

Drop us a line c/o www.mediaparents.co.uk to join us at Media Parents Christmas Drinks

Alias Hire is a multifaceted company providing excellent service across three divisions; Equipment Rental, Training and Live Services.

We’re based in the ever-expanding creative world in Hackney, East London, where we service local, greater London and national clients. We supply cotemporary camera stock and associated equipment as well as provide in-house training on a wide range of technical, production and post-production courses. We boast the highest-spec for live streaming and we can stream from ANYWHERE there’s a mobile phone data signal

Alias Hire really is a one-stop shop for all your production needs!

Click image to join Media Parents www.mediaparents.co.uk for great jobs, training and events.

Media Parents presents a brilliant FREE opportunity for freelancers to network with companies hiring in Bristol and South Wales on Thursday 29th November, thanks to support from production companies.

Major sponsors Wall to Wall / Warner Bros Television Production UK Ltd are keen to meet experienced factual, specialist factual and fact ent freelancers working in production and editorial in Bristol – SPs, (shooting) PDs, edit producers, PMs, LPs and more. Head of Wall to Wall West, Emily Shields, Deputy Head of Production Emma Fenton and Head of Creative Talent Susie Worster will attend to meet freelancers.

Drop us your CV c/o the address below to sign up for this FREE event

Outline Productions wltm factual PCs, PMs, SPs, shooting PDs and edit producers, as well as freelancers working in other roles in South Wales or Bristol. MD Laura Mansfield and Creative Director Helen Veale will attend with Executive Producer Katy Fryer and Production Executive Emily Freshwater.

Tigress Productions’ Production Executive Isa Snow Campbell and EndemolShine‘s Talent Manager Tanya Gottlieb are looking for PDs and DV Directors with natural history / story telling experience, as well as experienced edit producers.

PACT will be represented by Media Parents Director Amy Walker, if you would like your CV passed to Anjani Patel, Head of Diversity please let Amy know.

The event will be kindly hosted by the BBC. Due to unforeseen circumstances no BBC staff are able to attend, but freelance Series Producer Jane Lomas, currently working at the BBC will pass on CVs.

Seadog TV & Film Productions‘ Head of Production Linda Stephens and Operations Director Suze Scott will attend. Seadog are not currently crewing but are keen to meet freelancers for future shows. RDF West‘s Emily Knight will also attend. Freelancers should bring paper copies of their CV and email them in advance to events@mediaparents.co.uk.

Media Parents Director Amy Walker (right) with freelancers at a Media Parents event in Bristol

To support Media Parents please join by clicking the photo below.

Click image to join Media Parents www.mediaparents.co.uk for great jobs, training and events.

Huge thanks to ITV Shiver‘s job sharing talent managers Ros Malthouse and Emma Astaire for hosting Media Parents’ October CV event, and to everyone who attended for creating a great buzz on the evening. BBC Scripted Production Exec Jacquie Glanville and Talent Manager Noelle Bartlett met scripted talent, along with Kindle Entertainment‘s Production Exec Keri Atkins. Back to Work Scheme sponsors Raw TV were represented by Nicky Searle and Didem Gormus, Expectation Factual‘s Anna Bonnadio joined us unexpectedly, in addition to Two Four‘s Vanessa Colosi, Fremantle‘s Jenny Spader and of course the Shiver and Media Parents teams met freelancers. RDF West’s Emily Knight was unable to attend due to problems at Paddington but she has sent a PDF of RDF’s CV tips that can be downloaded at the end of this article. Here are some photos and testimonials to give you a flavour of the event if you missed it. Click here for more CV tips from the attending companies.

Thank you to ITV Shiver's Ros Malthouse and Emma Astaire, job sharing talent managers, for hosting the event and meeting freelancers "We really enjoyed meeting lots of new people and have been following up..."

“Thank you for the event last night, it was really useful and I made a couple of good contacts.” Petal Felix

Thanks for arranging last night’s CV event. It was a great opportunity and for me to start mingling again. A lot of the work I do these days is solitary, so it was great to put faces to names. It was also good to get so much positive feedback about my CV. Thanks again for this event and I look forward to coming to another one in the future. Justine Sullivan, Celebrity Producer https://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/10118/justine-sullivan

"Media Parents has completely changed the way I look at my CV. Thank you" Ash Smith https://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/3309/ashley-smith

Back to Work Scheme Winner Melissa Bishop with TwoFour. https://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/14397/melissa-bishop

Media Parents Back to Work Scheme Winner, Coordinator Jenny Madalura with Shiver. https://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/15655/jenny-madalura

"Thank for you, for a very busy and interesting evening last night! Think the collective noun for Freelancers must be a swarm." Shanti Ramakuri, PM https://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/14771/shanti-ramakuri

Returner Hannah Williams was celebrating her new flexible job at Merman. https://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/11460/hannah-williams-lovell

Please click here for RDF West TV CV Tips. For information about Media Parents next event please sign up to our email list or see our watercooler at www.mediaparents.co.uk

Click image to join Media Parents www.mediaparents.co.uk for great jobs, training and events.

Tune in tonight to watch Channel 5′s Model Railway Challenge, from Media Parents Executive Producer Pat Doyle and the Knickerbocker Glory team.

https://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/4934/pat-doyle

Our next event, on October 17^th, is a CV event, kindly hosted by ITV’s Shiver, in which freelancers discuss their CVs with employers, partly for advice and partly to network. Scroll down this blog to find out who is coming and read their CV tips, we’re also delighted to be joined by Raw TV in addition to those named below. There will be employers who are keen to network and employers who are looking to hire – hiring particularly factual Edit Producers and SPs, production roles and factual development people. Scripted employers looking to meet 1st ADs, Coordinators and Line Producers, people who want to cross over from factual and people who are interested in Scripted Development, with or without experience. Sound good?

Channel 4's Deborah Lane Winter at a Media Parents CV Event "If you've had a career break, avoid the suggestion that that's a problem in your cover letter or CV - it might not be a problem."

Jenny Spader, Fremantle CV tip : watch TV!

If you do nothing else between now and Wednesday, choose your top person to meet and watch their output so you can demonstrate an interest. Read how returner Jaime Caruana prepared for her meeting here.

Meet Fremantle Talent Coordinator Jenny Spader

media parents CV tip : focus on the top 1/3 of  the 1st page

we all read CVs digitally these days. if you don’t have anything relevant to the job or company your interested in at the top of your CV the employer may not bother to scroll down. Front load your CV like pretitles.

Amy Walker (right) at a Media Parents CV event in Bristol

ros malthouse, shiver CV tip: don’t rely on your cover letter

I don’t usually send on cover letters to execs or SPs, just your CV with a couple of lines, so make sure that any information you want to get across is on your CV – don’t put all the relevant info in your covering letter.

Shiver's Ros Malthouse

Sue Kenderdine, TwoFour cv tip: check your email address

ensure your email address is your name, i.e. not sexygirl@gmail.com  rather, firstnamesurname@gmail.com. If you have changed your name with marriage, be consistent so people can find you.

Vanessa Colosi, Talent Manager TwoFour

TwoFour's Sue Kenderdine (centre) meets Media Parents talent at our BBC CV Event

Media Parents cv tip : Include your name, contacts and job title at the top

Signpost.  Also save the document as your name, job title, CV (and maybe the date). Send it in an email titled with your name and job title for max discoverability.

Noelle Barnett, BBC Scripted CV tip : tailor your CV

CVs lead with skillset and most relevant experience to the role you are going for. If you’re looking to move into a new area of work, then note the transferrable skills/experiences that you have that will help you establish yourself. You might have come a long way, but kill your darlings – it demonstrates that you can select relevant detail which is important in any TV job.

BBC Drama's Noelle Barnett (left) at Media Parents recent Job Share Event

Keri atkins, kindle entertainment CV tip : use your CV to network

Including the names of managers / commissioners you have worked to (or talent you have worked with) enables your CV to start networking for you before you get into the room.

Keri Atkins at Media Parents Job Share event at Tiger Aspect

Jacquie Glanville, BBC Drama CV Tip : keep it to 2 pages

Keeping details brief, concise and informative helps when passing your details on to hiring managers. Your CV should read like a good menu!

Emily Gale, Fremantle : Make sure your interests are interesting!

On a CV a no no for me is when I read the person’s’ ‘Interests’ are  :Eating, Reading, Travelling…  Come on… those are universal interests!  What makes you unique? What do you bring to the party? I love meeting people who have rich and diverse interests and who I can learn from. The best meetings I have are the ones where I frantically scribble down all the recommendations the freelancer has given me. Isn’t that after all why we work in this industry because we are always learning something new?

Fremantle's Emily Gale is unable to attend the event but Fremantle Talent Coordinator Jenny Spader will be there to meet freelancers

Emily Freshwater, Outline Productions CV tip : spell check

It’s not rocket science, mistakes can lose you a job and can stay on your CV for years. Get a friend to proofread or ask Media Parents for a CV M.O.T.

Outline Productions' part time Production Exec Emily Freshwater at our April CV event

Emma Astaire, Shiver TV CV tip : keep the file size small

Some CVs are stored in inboxes and deleted if they are too large. Keep your formatting by saving as a PDF.

Shiver TV's Emma Astaire

Emily Knight, RDF West – is unable to attend due to train disruption at Paddington today – sorry! Feel free to email us with a CV to pass on to Emily.

RDF West's Emily Knight is keen to hear from freelancers who will work out of Bristol and Cardiff.

To attend this event see the watercooler at www.mediaparents.co.uk. Can’t make it? Email us for CV advice via our contact button.

Huge thanks to the lovely team at West Digital for sponsoring and hosting our Media Parents Back to Work Drinks at their facility in West London. We were made really welcome in Shepherd’s Bush by Joint MDs Peter Zacaroli and Darren Cock, and by General Manager Paul Wilkes and the FOH team. We celebrated our Back to Work Team and were joined by more returners, Back to Work Scheme sponsors and freelancers for the last summer drinks in a leafy urban garden. Our next event will be at Shiver on October 17th, see www.mediaparents.co.uk for details.

West Digital's General Manager Paul Wilkes (left) and MD Peter Zacaroli with some of the Media Parents Back to Work team

Maverick TV's PM & Head of Talent Tamara Durnford, met freelancers and represented Back to Work Sponsors All3Media

Endemol's Back to Work Scheme mentor Melissa Clay Peters met returners

West Digital MD & Lead Editor Peter Zacaroli was all smiles

Cheers to all the returners who made it - quite a few people's first night out!

Thanks to Warner Bros' Jo Norris for coming along

West Digital MD Darren Cock meets freelancers with Exec Producer Matt Holden

Making Waves HOP Mags Scholes meets Screen Skills / Creative Skillset HETV Drama Returner Fred Archer celebrating his placement at Tiger Aspect

Thanks to Media Parents' Joanna Gretton for all her hard work!

Celebrating returner Jo Larmer's first day back at work on Comic Relief, and Hannah Williams' new flexible job at Merman

CTVC's Neil Barnes was on hand to cheer on the returners

Thanks for making it a great evening.

Our next event is a CV clinic on October 17th at Shiver, please see our site emails for details. Click image to join Media Parents www.mediaparents.co.uk for great jobs, training and events.

We’re delighted to be joined by our Media Parents Back to Work Scheme winners, mentors and a host of supporting companies for drinks tonight (see our watercooler at www.mediaparents.co.uk for full guestlist). The evening is being kindly hosted by West Digital in West London, so join us for the last of the summer wine in a lovely garden. We look forward to seeing you there!

Media Parents Back to Work Scheme winners 2018 at Edinburgh TV Festival

West Digital is an independent, boutique post house based in West London that has been providing creative and innovative picture and audio post production to broadcast, theatrical and corporate clients for over 15 years. Our talented creatives and amazing support teams have a wealth of experience working across factual, features, documentaries and entertainment. We pride ourselves on the quality of our work and our genuinely supportive company culture.

West Digital team (from left) Paul Wilkes, GM, Darren Cock and Peter Zacaroli, Join MDs. Photobombed by Harriet

We provide a complete post production solution, based in our modern, relaxing facility. All of our cutting rooms are spacious with a contemporary finish, natural light and air con; we have great sound and picture finishing suites and lovely breakout areas such as our cafe-bar reception and our peaceful garden. We’re able to offer production companies office space within our facility and we also provide fully managed ‘pop up post’ solutions.

Recent credits include:

‘Chris Tarrant: Extreme Railway Journeys’ (Ch5), ‘DHL: Delivering the World’ (Ch5), ‘The Last Testament of Lillian Bilocca’ (BBC4), ‘A Place in the Sun’ (Ch4), ’Railways of the Holocaust’ (Ch5), ’Coast v Country’ (Ch4), ‘Inside the Storm’ (CNA), ‘People and Power’ (Al Jazeera), ‘Brilliant Ideas’ (Bloomburg), ‘Uncovering Venus’ (BBC4).

Meet West Digital and the Media Parents Back to Work winners at our Media Parents Back to Work Drinks on Sept 26th. Click image to join Media Parents www.mediaparents.co.uk for great jobs, training and events.

I am lucky enough to be sponsored on the Media Parents Back to Work Scheme by ITV Drama (thank you ITV and I hope I can repay your faith!) writes Drama PM Geoff Dibben.

PM Geoff Dibben with the Media Parents Back to Work Scheme Winners 2018

Before my career break, I worked for many years as an Assistant Director and then Production Manager on films such as ‘The Dark Knight’ and ‘War Horse’ so at Edinburgh TV Festival, I focussed on things that were relevant to my area of expertise, scripted drama production.

Apprehension was the overriding feeling as I walked into the festival, having never been to anything similar previously. I had always been too busy working or trying to rest between projects, so it is easy to miss such events.  But the magic of the Back to Work Whatsapp group meant I quickly met the rest of the cohort – a very impressive group – then straight in to sessions at the festival.

The first session was the BBC 1 ‘Meet the Controllers’ session with Charlotte Moore who discussed the future of the channel. Listening to commissioners and controllers actively encouraging programme makers to come to them with interesting, challenging ideas was a useful aspect of the festival. I also found it really interesting to hear Charlotte state the BBC is looking to “… do the shows that no one has dare to, to take risks” as well as a push on diversity, and a desire to engage with a younger audience such as bringing ‘Peaky Blinders’ to BBC 1.

After our Media Parents Back to Work networking training it was more from channel controllers, in this case Steve North, Hilary Rosen and Richard Watsham at UKTV. Again, a very impressive session hearing about UKTV’s tremendous ambition; especially with their expansion into high-end original TV drama with ‘Flack’, starring Anna Paquin. They have the desire to create content comparable to the likes of BBC and ITV, providing producers and talent with ‘…opportunities they may not get elsewhere’.

"At every spare moment I was trying to network with anyone who would listen."

At every spare moment I was trying to network with anyone who would listen. I met lots of interesting and supportive people such as Kerry Greenhill from Silver Print and Jason Simms from Sky Vision to name but few.  It was gratifying that everyone I spoke to was positive about me and my return, especially gratifying after such a long time out.

The following day I watched Kevin Lygo from ITV and his session. An interesting hour listening to his approach to commissioning broad and impactful TV drama which seems to have paid off with the channel producing the most watched and the second most watched TV dramas with ‘Liar’ and ‘Little Boy Blue’ in 2017.

One thing I was surprised to hear from Kevin was how hard ITV were finding it to get Producers and Writers to create 1 or 2 hour closed end dramas – ‘Where’s the next Lewis, the next Morse?’ he asked – programmes that have defined ITV drama over the past decades. That is definitely a note I will keep for future reference.

"It took me back, listening to them talking about pulling the pieces of the jigsaw of production together. This only urged me on more to realise my aims within the industry" writes returning PM Geoff Dibben

One of the sessions that resonated most with me was listening to Lennie James and Sky Vision’s ‘Save Me’ team talking about how the production (about a child kidnapped by paedophiles) got off the ground, and how they developed and realised the project’s vision – it took me back a few years, listening to them talking about pulling the pieces of the jigsaw of production together. This only urged me on more to realise my aims within the industry – to return to Production Management and one day Produce.

Hard to admit, but I have been out of scripted drama production for eight years and I am still sure I took the right decision to spend time at home with my family rather than months and months away on location.  But it is hard being away from TV drama and keeping connected to it. My visit to the Edinburgh TV festival has without doubt confirmed in my mind this is the right way forward for me and I am raring to go…

https://blog.mediaparents.co.uk/2018/08/returner-geoff-dibben-scripted-pm/

Our Media Parents Back to Work Drinks are on Sept 26th. Click image to join Media Parents www.mediaparents.co.uk for great jobs, training and events.