Media Parents

Lorraine Heggessey is a TV powerhouse. Trailblazing as the first female controller of BBC1, then Chief Exec of TalkbackThames, she is now heading up Boom Pictures, a new group of companies which houses, amongst others, Indus, Oxford Scientific Films, Boomerang and Delightful Pictures, and will soon welcome ITV’s Laura Mackie and Sally Haines.  Neither womanhood, nor motherhood, has held Heggessey back: “I never felt that there was any barrier to me as a woman, and I always felt that there were people encouraging me.”

Lorraine Heggessey on her career: “I never felt that there was any barrier to me as a woman, and I always felt that there were people encouraging me.”

So how has she acheived all of this, and had a family too? She laughs “I just got on with it!… I’m quite a full on person – I think that I’m very lucky in that I’m quite an energetic person – and I’m a very positive person.” Married to a musician, he gigged in the evenings and looked after the kids in the day. They had a part time nanny, then over time “Mr. Heggessey” took over the childcare “like a stay-at-home wife”. When she moved from a staff job to work freelance for an indie Heggessey agreed to do it on her own terms: “I said ‘you’ve got to guarantee me nine months’ work out of the year at least’. I had to negotiate – I was the major earner. Don’t be afraid to ask for what you want.” You’ll never know if you don’t ask, or don’t try: “Don’t circumscribe your own ambition – go for it – you might not get it – but go for it.”

"Don't circumscribe your own ambition..."

That’s certainly been Heggessey’s motto, although she describes herself as not having had a career plan, “zigzagging” from job to job. “I’ve done a lot of different things. When I got to BBC1 that made sense backwards.” She took the jobs because they interested her. “I think it’s really important to be yourself and pick jobs that suit that self. If you force yourself to be a square peg in a round hole you’re never going to be that happy… I think life is too short to push yourself to do jobs you think you ought to – just do jobs that make you happy, because if you’re happy the likelihood is you will do your job well and be successful.”

Heggessey’s career is like a Who’s Who of TV. It’s patently obvious that she is loyal to people whose talent she respects, and that she loves her work: ”I bridle slightly when people talk about work life balance because it’s not like work isn’t part of your life.” She doesn’t feel she has made sacrifices for her career: “I’ve always looked at is as making positive choices rather than making sacrifices – I’ve made choices about being a parent.” She has described running the BBC Children’s Department when her children were young as the next best thing to running Hamley’s and talks warmly about her children’s visibility in her workplace, their set visits to their favourite shows.

Despite her confidence and drive, Lorraine Heggessey is also somehow humble, her Wiki page mentions getting on to the BBC Trainee Scheme second time round, she has publicly said “everybody has something to learn from everybody” – and she really means it. She is open about working with an executive coach when she was exec producing: “She was the one who made me think more about progressing up more of a managerial career ladder… I would recommend using a coach. I think mentors are really good too… It’s really good for people to have positive role models… Suddenly things become more possible once someone has done it already.”

Wanting to start a family shouldn't hold you back - or be put on hold. "There's never a right or wrong time to do it - your career will work around you having children."

So how did she feel about taking on the BBC One Controller role? “I was terrified – I think I quite like being terrified. If I’m not terrified I get a little bit bored. I am the kind of person who likes to be stretched…  Whether it’s taking skills from current affairs and then becoming a science producer … Or running a children’s department then running a channel… Commissioning and launching a show like Strictly Come Dancing was a proud moment – it may not seem like it now but at the time putting ballroom dancing on primetime TV was a bit of a risk.”

And she is also adamant that wanting to start a family shouldn’t hold you back – or be put on hold. “There’s never a right or wrong time to do it – your career will work around you having children.” When she had her second child she negotiated a contract as a freelancer with Peter Salmon. “I had the baby in December, and we went into pre-production in January. I went back one day a week in January, two days a week in February, in March, three days. I could take her into work because I wasn’t in every day. I was staff when I had my first baby, freelance when I had my second so I just had to get on with it… I’ve never tried to hide the fact that I had  family, you’ve just got to be yourself.”

Heggessey makes the point that a career break need not affect you, not when we will all be working ’til we’re seventy. Will she have to? “I don’t think I will want to stop…” For now she is excited by the prospect of Netflix commissioning original programming and creating its own content, and the implications for Boom Pictures: “Hopefully that market will continue to grow for me and other companies… Boom is a follow on… Chief Exec of Talkback was my first properly commercial experience… I got to the stage where I thought ‘I want to do my own thing – I want to do something in my image with my values.’” In her own image and with her own values, Boom could not be more aptly named.

If you have 3+ years TV experience please join us at www.mediaparents.co.uk for great jobs, networking and events.

Please read more inspiring tips on management from Lorraine Heggessey here: http://kickingassets.co.uk/how-to-motivate-your-team-l

On the 5^th March 2012 an online video was launched that, within hours, was on its way to becoming the then most watched viral video of all time. In less than 6 days it reached a hundred million viewers and #KONY2012 dominated twitter worldwide. A year on, Media Parents PD Sam Farmar writes about filming the only interview with Joseph Kony that exists to this day.

PD Sam Farmar is in the TALENT section of Media Parents. He writes below about tracking Joseph Kony, LRA leader.

The controversial 29-minute video was designed to make Africa’s most wanted war criminal, Joseph Kony the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) infamous so that he might be captured and tried for crimes against humanity. The film was met by a furious backlash from the international media and within days President Obama was being badgered by his own children into taking action. Within a month a hundred US elite Special Forces commandos were sent to track down Joseph Kony. They were not known to be successful.

In June 2006, working freelance and without any sort of commission in place, I set off to interview Joseph Kony on camera and challenge the Lord’s Resistance Army leader on the massacres, mutilations and mystical spirits that make him Africa’s most wanted man – to this day it remains the only interview Kony has ever given. Below is the account of how the meeting came about.

One of the LRA gunners sent to escort PD Sam Farmar through the Congolese jungle.

I first heard of Joseph Kony and the LRA in 1995 when I was working in a sprawling refugee camp in Northern Ugandan before heading to university. One night Kony’s forces stormed the camp, attacking and looting the already impoverished refugees and leaving many dead. I wasn’t caught up in the immediate attack, but as morning broke I soon became all too aware of the sweeping fear that engulfed the terrified crowds. Tales of atrocities proliferated: massacres of whole villages, mutilations, children abducted and forced to kill and even eat their victims.

The LRA combines the fanaticism of a cult with ruthless military efficiency, and while its apparent aim is to impose the Ten Commandments on Uganda, its means could scarcely be more evil. It was on hearing these tragic stories that I made it my mission to track down Kony and confront the man behind the attacks, putting out feelers wherever I could. It seemed an impossible task but with the help of Mareike Schomerus an indefatigable researcher and academic we set about making contact with everyone and anyone who had ever had any association with Kony; family members, former negotiators, politicians, LRA escapees, aid workers, military advisors…. After a year of tirelessly pushing door after door and racking up thousands of pounds in satellite phone calls, all on our own personal budgets, we finally got word: Kony will meet us.

Sam Farmar about to film with Joseph Kony and the LRA. http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/5341/sam-farmar

I literally couldn’t believe it. After what had become a grueling test of perseverance an dogged determination it just may actually happen. I raced home, high-fived my flat mates, sunk a curry, booked a flight and packed my camera. Within twenty-four hours I was in Nairobi airport. I was met by Dennis and Ray, undercover LRA commanders who certainly did not look like bush fighters. Dennis wore a boy-band denim cap, Ray a tight Ben Sherman shirt.

As we flew on to Juba, Ray explained why he had joined the LRA. “I had no choice,” he said. “They just came and abducted me at 14. Many times I tried to escape but it was not easy — they can punish you badly. If you are unlucky you may lose your life.” Tears welled in his eyes. Ray introduced me to Sunday; a comrade who said he had been abducted at the age of 7 but now regarded the LRA as family.

We waited for a week as the LRA men checked me out. They were so suspicious that they had originally proposed buying us new cameras lest ours were fitted with devices that would betray Kony’s location.

"We waited for a week as the LRA men checked me out" Sam Farmar, PD, the only person to have interviewed Joseph Kony.

I wasn’t actually scared, with so much over the phone planning before this point I felt pretty confident that Kony wanted to meet us as much as we wanted to meet him. In his mind he no doubt hoped that we could be manipulated and charmed enough to give the LRA some positive PR, at a time when they weren’t as strong as they would have like to have been.

I was also confident that we had put in place all we could to mitigate the risks; for our own security we had told very few people what we were doing – if our location had got out then Kony himself may have felt compromised and could potentially act irrationally. Besides, it is said ‘worry doesn’t empty tomorrow of sorrow but empties today of strength’ – and we needed every last ounce of strength we could get.

Finally Riek Machar, a former Sudanese warlord with a degree from Bradford University, and the vice-president of southern Sudan, arrived. Mr Machar announced that he would come with us to meet Kony. The next day, accompanied by 40 Sudanese soldiers, we boarded a charter flight to Maridi; the closest Sudanese airstrip to the Democratic Republic of Congo.

LRA Leader Joseph Kony.

We arrived and piled into a convoy heading straight into the jungle on a rutted track of deep red mud. Two days later my satellite phone showed that we had crossed the border into Congo. After a short while we stopped and two LRA fighters armed with Kalashnikovs jumped in. Their eyes were blank and bloodshot, their hair in dreadlocks, and strings of bullets hung around their necks. We looked at each other and said nothing. Outside, another fighter called ‘Knee of a Dog’ talked on a satellite phone, juggling our meeting place until the very last moment. Finally we reached a clearing where we found ourselves surrounded by camouflaged LRA combatants carrying M16 rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. They never let down their guard, and they clearly lived in constant fear of Kony, to whom they attributed mystical powers. Sunday said that if he tried to escape, Kony’s spirit would seek him out to harm him. When I asked whether the LRA would disintegrate if Kony died, he struggled to comprehend the question. “Kony would never die,” he said. “I’m sure he cannot be killed.”

There we waited until Knee of a Dog received another call. We walked single file along a narrow path hemmed in by impenetrable vegetation. I began to wonder if I would recognise a man of whom there are so few pictures.

For more than two and half decades Kony has thwarted every effort to capture him, but now he was in front of me, in green Ugandan army uniform, and surrounded by a ragtag group of heavily armed guards who regard him with manifest awe. He wore a blue beret, a red sash over his shoulder, and green Wellington boots.

He was taller that I expected — perhaps 6ft 1in (1.8m) — and looked younger than his 46 years. He grinned at me, exposing two chipped and blackened front teeth, then shook my hand:

“I’m a freedom fighter who is fighting for freedom in Uganda,” he tells me. “I am not a terrorist.

We only spoke briefly that night; our real conversation was to take place the following day – before long he left, I set up my small green tent and exhausted fell asleep.

Joseph Kony being interviewed by Sam Farmar.

Early the next morning I was taken to another, smaller clearing where Kony had spent the night on a ‘mattress’ of cut grass. He was wearing a T-shirt, sitting on a brown plastic chair, drinking tea from a pink plastic cup and eating a ‘mandazi’, a sort of doughnut. He greeted me in English: “Come on, Sam. Eat breakfast!”

But the cheeriness vanished when we tried to attach a microphone. He had never seen one before, and feared that it was a tracking device. It was a rambling conversation, with Kony speaking in poor English, but for someone giving his first interview he seemed remarkably natural. “I am a human being like you,” he declared. “I have eyes, a brain and wear clothes, but they are saying ‘we don’t talk with people, we eat people. We are killer’. That is not true. Why do you meet me if I am a killer?”

He insisted that he was not the monster his reputation suggests, that the atrocities of which he is accused are trumped up to blacken his name.

Asked about the killings, abductions and mutilations perpetrated in his name, he replied: “That is not true. It’s just propaganda by Museveni, the Ugandan President, he went into the villages and cut off the ears of the people, telling the people that it was the work of the LRA. I cannot cut the ear of my brother, I cannot kill the eye of my brother.”

Youths joined the LRA voluntarily and were never abducted, he claimed. “I don’t have acres of maize, of onion, of cabbages. I don’t have food. If I abducted children like that, here in the bush, what do they eat?” Asked about the International Criminal court charges against him, he insisted: “I am not guilty.”

He was guided by spirits, he said. “They speak to me. They load through me. They will tell us what is going to happen. They say, “You, Mr Joseph, tell your people that the enemy is planning to come and attack”. They will come like dreaming, they will tell us everything. You know, we are guerrilla. We are rebel. We don’t have medicine. But with the help of spirit they will tell to us, ‘you Mr Joseph go and take this thing and that thing’.”

Perhaps the spirits are still protecting Kony because despite the unprecedented attention and rumors that he is dead, Kony is very much still alive. Only last month I was in east Africa and although I didn’t speak to Kony personally I am in touch with many of his closest commanders and his arms dealer and he is continuing to ruthlessly kill and abduct children. Kony 2012 may have been controversial and a surprising viral sensation but the core message is good and remains true to this day. Stop Kony.

Below is a link to an extract of the short film I produced, directed and shot about meeting Kony and later sold to BBC Newnight and numerous other broadcasters around the world.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdBcypx1DfE

http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/5341/sam-farmar

Sam Farmar is an experienced freelance self-shooting PD, living in London. He helped initiate and worked as the development producer on BBC3′s ‘Our War’ – that last year won a BAFTA for Best Factual TV Series. He shot, directed and produced a few of Channel Four’s critically acclaimed  ‘Unreported World’s and worked on Louis Theroux’s latest series.  He holds a valid conflict and hostile environment certificate and a US I Visa. Sam Farmar can be contacted through the TALENT section of http://www.mediaparents.co.uk

http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/5341/sam-farmar

If you have 3+ years TV experience please join us at www.mediaparents.co.uk for great jobs, networking and events.

ITV Diversity Manager Miranda Wayland phoned me and asked me to be on a panel of industry women discussing women in TV for International Women’s Day. I was honoured – they’d had a cancellation…

In the Daybreak gallery... freelance studio director Jo Johns at the controls.

Miranda Wayland, Diversity Manager for ITV, which is also running the CDN (Creative Diversity Network) this year.

ITV is hosting the Creative Diversity Network this year (see link below) so the discussion intended to inspire women in their TV careers is one of Miranda’s innovations. The filming took place on the Daybreak set, and will be shown on ITV’s diversity page Move On Up, and on the Creative Diversity Network’s site too. Being in front of the camera for the first time was one of the most terrifying experiences of my career to date. It was definitely payback after 15 years of persuading other people to do it.

Fortunately I was in great company. The discussion was led by ITN reporter Ronke Phillips, who recently won an Amnesty International award for journalism – she had dashed out of an edit to be with us.  Carol Russell, writer and founder of Fresh Voices which presents the work of experienced black British writers to an invited industry audience was also on the sofa, with SP Alison Martin.  Alison had been working upstairs at ITV where she is series producing Martin Lewis’s Money Savings Expert, and has written on women’s issues for the Media Parents blog here: https://blog.mediaparents.co.uk/2010/12/tv-no-career-for-a-woman-rts-debate/

I am passionate about this subject so I think I might have ranted, but although I came over a bit more Arthur Scargill than Glenda Jackson on the day, when the film comes out I hope the discussion makes people think, and gives women more confidence to ask for what they want/deserve in the workplace.

On screen at last!! Amy Walker, Carol Russell and Media Parents' Amy Walker.

SP Alison Martin, left, and Ronke Phillips prep the piece on inspiring women in TV.

Creative Diversity Network : http://www.creativediversitynetwork.org

If you have 3+ years TV experience please join us at www.mediaparents.co.uk for great jobs, networking and events.

Media Parents is delighted to announce that Cineflix Productions, makers of Claimed and Shamed (BBC1), Channel 4 goes mad, Pet School (CBBC), Air Crash Investigation (National Geographic) and Salvage Hunters (Discovery) will be hosting a networking evening with Media Parents on March 26th.

They’ll be throwing open the doors of the Cineflix Productions HQ and would like to meet up to forty Media Parents members who are

Exec Producers, SPs, PDs, PDs (Self Shooting), APs, APs (Self Shooting), Production Managers, Production Coordinators, Casting Producers /APs from the following genres: Factual, Specialist Factual, Fact Ent and Docs.

Please read details of how to apply on the Media Parents watercooler. You may wish to book the babysitter now, as we may not be able to confirm places until March 22^nd.

If you have 3+ years TV experience please join us at www.mediaparents.co.uk for great jobs, networking and events.

I want to start to with a confession… writes Producer Andrew Fenner.  I don’t have children.  There it is.  It’s out there.  Please don’t hate me.  I do always feel a fraud when I go Media Parents events.  People will smile sweetly at me and ask “What have you got?” or “how do you cope with childcare issues?” and I just mutter a bit, look at my shoes and try and change the subject.  The thing that attracted me to Media Parents was that on the home page it says it’s for “anyone who wants to work flexibly to balance the demands of media and other commitments”.

Having spent 15 years working in the media, filming all over the world, working weekends, nights and even Christmas day I decided it was time to concentrate on those “other commitments” and get my life balance in order. As well as my full time job I was a trustee of a charity, helped my wife run her training company and being a lay preacher I had church commitments meaning that I spoke all over the country.

Andrew and Karen Fenner

When I left the BBC the idea of a female Producer with children working part time was acceptable (if tricky to organise); a male Producer with children working part time was considered curious, but acceptable (but still tricky to organise); a male producer with no children wanting to work part time was considered…well..lazy!  So 4 years ago I decided that if I wanted to focus more time on my other commitments and less on being a cog in the corporate machine then I would have to go freelance.

I’m glad to say that attitudes are now changing and certainly I have recently seen in BBC North a successful job share of a development producer between a young mother and a male colleague who like me, just wanted more time to do other things.  Attitudes towards what needs doing and where you need to do it are also changing.

One of my first jobs back at the BBC after I went freelance was on Songs of Praise (which I had worked on before I left).  This Sunday tea time institution is a joy to work on, partly because of the healthy the work/life balance ethos that the management have.  Approximately 90% of the staff have children ranging from infants to teenagers and their working patterns reflect this.  PC’s are allowed to do paperwork at home if required, Producers can script anywhere and there is a “grown up” attitude of as long as the job is done well, on time and on budget, then you are allowed to work flexibly. (This is in stark contrast to some productions which I have worked on where the PM would have been happier if they had a clocking in machine on their desk and ankle tags on us all so they knew where we were at all times!)

Editing a story to be filed from Tanzania for Heaven and Earth. http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/1478/andrew-fenner

At the time of my return the programme was preparing for its move from the crumbling Oxford Road to their new home in Media City UK in Salford Quays.  Working in a building which is being decommissioned is a strange experience.  Rooms, departments and entire floors would be cleared and tape put across the door like a police crime scene with signs saying “Decommissioned – Entry Forbidden”.  As a result of this, they didn’t have a desk for me.  Very quickly it was decided that I should work from home as all I really needed was a phone, computer and access to my BBC e-mails.  So for the next 6 months I did just that.  I went in for editorial content meetings with the Series Producer, went out filming and to the edit.  The rest of the 3 programmes I made for them were all set up and scripted from my desk in the back bedroom (saving me time commuting and money on petrol and parking).

Andrew Fenner setting up cameras in a church in Stockport. One taster tape was edited from his back bedroom, and copy was submitted for Songs of Praise from home.

A couple of years later I did a similar collaboration when an exec wanted a taster tape cutting (I have FCP at home).  He was in London; I live in Ormskirk in Lancashire.  We could have met in Salford, but it was much more efficient for us to chat via phone/email and then for him to send me clips via Dropbox and me drop the film back to him the same way.  When I was edit producing in London last year but had a hospital appointment back up North, again a simple export of the editors rough cut onto a memory stick was all I needed for me to write my VO for the episode I was working on in between appointments.

"Where is the focus button again?"

Technology is changing so fast that there are more roles (not just admin ones) which can be done from home saving time and money.  But there does still seem to be a suspicion that if you are “working from home” that you spend all day playing with your children or in my case in front of the TV with a cup of tea and a packet of chocolate Hob Nobs. (There may be an element of this; I call it “research”).  Occasionally working from home away from the distractions of the office can lead to you achieving more in your work and your home life.  I think some elements of the industry need to treat us as “grown-ups” and embrace new working practices.  At the end of the day (to coin and footballing cliché), it’s my name that appears at the end of the credits, so surely it’s in my interest to make the best programme possible?

I appreciate that not all productions can work like this but if you are tied to an office at least ask yourself the question “Do I really need to be here?”.  So if anyone wants to see if it is possible to produce their programme from a back bedroom in Lancashire, then I’m available for hire, details on my profile page. Oh, and by the way, yes, I have been writing this blog in my PJ’s, with a cup of tea and a chocolate Hob Nob by my side.

Andrew Fenner is in the TALENT section of www.mediaparents.co.uk

http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/1478/andrew-fenner

How do you make a fully-fledged, prime-time science doc in a month? I was wondering the same thing when I got a call to Edit Produce “The Year Britain Flooded”, showing tonight at 9pm on Channel 4.  “First of all – get a helicopter,” says Bob Strange, the exec. “Just get to the scene as quick as possible and get up in the air with an expert. That’s the opening sequence of the film.”

"How do you make a fully-fledged, prime-time science doc in a month?" asks Phil Stein, PD. “First of all – get a helicopter,” says Exec Producer Bob Strange, “Just get to the scene as quick as possible and get up in the air with an expert.”

By the time my Editor Chris Roberts and I started cutting, someone had shot that scene but not much else. There was no script to speak of, few contributors lined up, and some rough back-of-napkin sketches for the graphics. What we did have, however, was a clear sense of the story we wanted to tell…and some extraordinary YouTube clips.

When it comes to extreme weather, nothing beats a person in the street with a smartphone. The quality is often rubbish, but who cares? Someone screaming his head off while a wall of water rushes towards him conveys the drama of a flood better than any graphic or talking head. We knew those clips would be the heart of the film and we spent most of the first week viewing, categorizing, and labeling them. Rain clips, flood clips, lightning clips, landslide clips, animals trapped in water clips – hundreds of them. Then rushes started to…flood…in. By the end of the week, I could see the outlines of a show.

"When it comes to extreme weather, nothing beats a person in the street with a smartphone." PD Phil Stein is in the Talent section of www.mediaparents.co.uk

In week two, Edit 2 started up, and two days later Edit 3. By the end of the second week we had four suites running ten hours a day. At first, we all just picked theoretical sequences off a list and started cutting them, not knowing how long they were supposed to be or what was coming before or after them. Scenes bounced from one edit to another as they moved from part 1 to part 3 to part 2 and back again. But somehow, order started to emerge from the chaos – by the start of week three, every suite had one part of the show. By the end of that week, two of the suites were stood down and I had half a film to work with. And then, in the last few days, it was just Chris and I again: this time with a one-hour documentary, complete and ready for online.

Did it work? Please watch and let me know!

“The Year Britain Flooded”, is showing tonight at 9pm on Channel 4.

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-year-britain-flooded/video/series-1/episode-1/the-year-britain-flooded

http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/1006/phil-stein

PD Phil Stein, Media Parents Talent

If you have 3+ years TV experience please join us at www.mediaparents.co.uk for great jobs, networking and events.

So, I’m just a few working days into my latest job, on a new Channel 4 show – Bedtime Live. As ever, schedules are tight, pressure is high and everyone’s working hard to make the show the best they possibly can.

http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/4770/emma-hill Emma Hill is in the TALENT section of www.mediaparents.co.uk

I’m Senior Producer for digital/interactive/social media/online/whatever-other-name-you-care-to-throw-at-it. I got the job after I saw a vacancy with Twofour on Media Parents. Next thing I know, I was drafted in to quickly take the reins on the content for the digital and interactive elements of the show. A white knuckle ride, but hugely rewarding. It’s a freelance contract that will keep me busy until the show ends in April.

There’s a lot to get my head around – we’ll be using social and online media to find contributors, promote the show, engage our users and pull comments and stories in from viewers about their own experiences.

We’ll also be providing stacks of online and interactive information and entertainment around our subject matter. There’ll be tips and hints from experts too, leading me neatly on to my next point – what is the show about?

Now, us Media Parents know that working and getting the kids in bed (and to stay asleep) at night are often two conflicting aims. Bedtime Live – spearheaded by child psychology expert and TV regular Professor Tanya Byron – aims to help the parents of the nation get their kids settled and secure for the night. It also focuses on the problems sleep deprivation can cause for parents and kids alike.

The team have been speaking to parents from across the UK who have particularly difficult sleep situations to deal with and the show’s experts will be helping some of those parents get their kids into a bedtime routine that works for all the family.

How lucky am I to be working in a job that reflects some of my life? Emma Hill talks about the job she heard about through Media Parents.

How lucky am I to be working in a job that reflects some of my life? Being a working parent and trying to make sure everyone in the family gets enough sleep is a challenge all of us face at one time or another. (I know I need all the help I can get!)

The show’s team are still looking for contributors. So, if you have a child with sleep problems – or know someone who does – do get in touch. We’d love to hear from you.

We’re on Twitter @BedtimeLive24, Facebook and you can call us on 0207 438 1809 or email us at sleep@twofour.co.uk.

Bedtime Live premieres on Channel 4 from mid-March.

http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/4770/emma-hill

Emma Hill

I have worked as digital/interactive/online producer for high profile broadcast-related projects and within digital design and build agencies. As a freelancer, my clients have included: Channel 4/Endemol; BBC; Disney; Discovery Communications and Granada Media.

In addition to this, I am an emerging drama scriptwriter and I am currently a participant on the Street Voices 4 scheme, taught by Mark Catley and run by Freedom Studios.

40 Media Parents members enjoyed a bit of networking before Pro Motion Hire staff informed and entertained us at Thursday's Technical Catch Up

Huge thanks to Caroline Bingham and the Pro Motion Hire team who hosted, informed and entertained 40 Media Parents members at Thursday’s technical catch up in Lambeth. It was great to hear advice on cameras and workflow, and tips on which cameras cut better with which, the easiest way to corrupt a data card (and how to avoid it) and Alain’s wisdom on which cameras suit which jobs and which budgets. Thank you to Production Manager Jessica Goodman for taking photos of the event, and to PD Evy Barry for writing the text below.

Caroline Bingham, Business Development Exec, Rosie Radnor and Jude Prior, Business Support for Pro Motion Hire at Thursday's event. If you would like to contact Caroline please use the Media Parents Network, here: http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/collaborator/4861/caroline-bingham

The technical catch up at Pro Motion hire was an incredibly useful run through of all the need to know developments of the last twelve months, writes Evy Barry, Shooting PD.

Katie Thomas: The Canon C300 has been the most popular camera recently.

Katie Thomas explained that the C300 had been the most in demand and hired camera of recent times.  As a development from the Canon DSLR cameras like the 7D and the 5D Mark II it has the beautiful shallow depth of field we all love – enabling really cinematic pictures –  but the thing to remember is that because it is based on a stills camera – it takes people with a bit more expertise than other video cameras like the Canon XF305 to operate.  A knowledge of lenses in particular is important.  Amateurs stay away!

Outline HoP Susie Dark and ITN's Production Exec Bella Barr were amongst the audience of Media Parents members. To join us please go to www.mediaparents.co.uk

Technical Manager Alain Lolliot demonstrated a range of cameras at Pro Motion Hire.

Alain Lolliot then rolled through the technical advantages and disadvantages of some of the other cameras.  The Canon XF305 has been the camera many production companies have invested in because it shoots true HD at 50mb/s and because it is on the BBC list of approved cameras.  The downside though is that because its sensor size is only a third instead of a half inch it doesn’t operate well in low light conditions.

The PMW-200 on the other hand has a sensor of half and inch and therefore performs well in these conditions.  So why wouldn’t you just go for this?  The SxS cards it uses are a lot more expensive (about £300 for a 32 GB) than the canon camera cards – of which sandisk are the most reliable (roughly £60 for 32GB card – depending where you shop)…..

PD Evy Barry far left of frame in the audience at Pro Motion Hire's technical catch up.

Alain took questions from the floor throughout the demonstrations. Here Bella Barr interjects on the tech spec she is asked to deliver at ITN.

One other camera that Alain said he couldn’t believe wasn’t hired more and does amazing things in slow mo is the NEX-FS700.  Good for shooting specific shots like rain falling or any stylised slow motion requirements of a production.   It can shoot at 100 frames per second, 200, and also 400, 800 – although on these last two settings you get quality loss and it halves the field of view.

There was a chance for SP Sally Weale and other Media Parents members to ask specific questions afterwards.

As for the tapeless work flow – you will need plug-ins to transcode the footage into the edit, which you can download for free….. and one top tip – don’t for goodness sake rename the CONTENTS folder as something else or when the system searches for it, it won’t find it….also funny how when we used tape, the archive was stored once – but now we need to save the media twice to be insured…..and apparently storing media on drives should be as short a term thing as you can manage.

Perhaps not difficult to see why we all find tape so reassuring when you think about that moment when you are clearing your camera card and it asks if you want to delete the media and you have to be brave… Shiver…

Zan Barberton has a chance to pass Rosie to someone else and get her hands on the kit.

Linzi Young from Angel Eye catches up with Media Parents' Amy Walker.

Head of Production Kelly Close found the event useful.

Anna Melin, Series Production Manager took time out from making Dispatches for October Films to attend.

Rosie definitely stole the show though. Many thanks to all at Pro Motion Hire, and Media Parents members Evy Barry and Jessica Goodman for text and photos.

http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/385/evy-barry

http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/124/jessica-goodman

If you have 3+ years TV experience please join us at www.mediaparents.co.uk for great jobs, networking and events.

As you know, Pro Motion and Media Parents have joined forces to offer a refresher course for industry professionals returning to work after maternity or paternity leave, or who just want to catch up on developments over 2012. There will be networking opportunities, as well as a chance to get hands on with the industry’s current ‘most popular’ line up of cameras, and a host of personnel to field any questions. Here’s who’s attending from Pro Motion, independent companies and Media Parents talent.

The event is being hosted by Caroline Bingham who is in the Media Parents Network. http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/collaborator/4861/caroline-bingham

The event is being hosted by Caroline Bingham, Business Development Executive, pictured left.

Alain Lolliot

Caroline will be joined by Alain Lolliot Technical Operations Manager, with Technician Lee Follett.

Jude Prior, Business Support Manager for Pro Motion will also join us at the event, as will Katie Thomas, Business Development Manager and Duncan Martin, MD.

Duncan Martin, MD

Joining us from independent companies will be Claire Brown from Media Parents, Jessica Wilson Director of Talent, Cineflix. From ITN : Bella Barr Production Executive, Emma Wood Production Co-ordinator / Manager, Jenny Smith, Production Co-ordinator. Ceri Barnes Head of Production, Double Act, Louisa Carbin PM, Crackit Productions, Susie Dark HOP, Outline Productions and Vics Wilson, PM, Outline Productions. From Twenty Twenty Viv Pheysey, PM and Daisy Harding, PM. Linzi Young, Production Co-ordinator, Angel Eye Media and Anna Melin, PM, October Films.

Katie Thomas, Business Development Manager for Pro Motion will be attending the technical catch up event on Jan 31st.

Freelancers attending the event are listed below and in the Talent section of www.mediaparents.co.uk

Amy Walker http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/3/amy-walker	SP / Media Parents
Kelly Sweeney http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/2972/kelly-sweeney	HoP
Jess Goodman http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/124/jessica-goodman	PM
John Fitzgerald http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/147/john-fitzgerald	SP / Senior Producer
Maggie Kelly http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/1137/maggie-kelly	SP / Dev Prod
Zarina Dick New to Media Parents	PM
Kasia Uskinska http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/1582/kasia-uscinska	Shooting PD
Jackie Chivers http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/3134/jackie-chivers	PM
Victoria Hollingsworth http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/collaborator/3874/victoria-hollingsworth	AP / Producer
Zoe Fryer http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/23/zoe-fryer	Shooting PD
Sheila Hayman http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/4414/sheila-hayman	SP / Producer
Natalie Barb http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/868/natalie-barb	PD / AP
Haresh Patel http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/4666/haresh-patel	Sound Recordist
Michelle Martin http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/3383/michelle-martin	Editor
Debbie Deeney http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/collaborator/4860/debbie-deeney	PM
Sally Weale http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/1918/sally-weale	Shooting SP
Susan Drummond http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/2352/susan-drummond	PD / Edit Producer
Jodie Gravett http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/4945/jodie-gravett	AP
Lesley Scarff http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/3538/lesley-scarff	PD
Jonathan Allan http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/5027/jonathan-allan	Director/ FCP Editor
Shona Charlton http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/4849/shona-charlton	PD / FCP Editor
Zan Barberton http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/3078/zan-barberton	Shooting PD / FCP Editor
Amanda Ward New to Media Parents	Promo Producer
Adetola Adeola http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/1021/tola-adeola	PM
Evy Barry http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/385/evy-barry	Shooting PD
Lucy Day http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/5107/lucy-day	Jnr PM
Shiroma Silva http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/65/shiroma-silva	Shooting PD
Amanny Mohamed http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/3606/amanny-mohamed	PD
Romy Page http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/2815/romy-page If you have 3+ years TV experience please join us at www.mediaparents.co.uk for great jobs, networking and events. The guest list for this event has now closed but please keep an eye on www.mediaparents.co.uk for more details of future events.	SP

I’ve been an AP for over eight years. Before that I was a researcher, prior to that, a runner, and long long ago I worked nights changing toilet rolls and delivering Pizza Express and Thai green curries in Soho’s deepest darkest edit suits. I’ve filmed in the Nepalese jungle, a landfill site in Croydon, and on a trawler in the English Channel. I’ve worked in development, on prime time flagship shows, on charity promos, on location, and caught a live mouse in the studio seconds before TX while welcoming the controller of BBC One with my free hand to watch the show go out from the side-lines. So, all in all, I’ve gained quite a bit of experience and knowledge, and felt pretty confident in my role. In all that time it never crossed my mind that having a baby might put a whole new spin on that.

Jodie Gravett is an AP looking for work through Media Parents http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/4945/jodie-gravett

After Oliver was born I couldn’t imagine how it would be possible to even attempt working. Life had changed beyond all recognition, we moved to just outside London when Oliver was only a few weeks old, and he was certainly my most challenging project yet! How would it work? Are there any part time AP jobs? Is that ridiculous? And if not, how could I afford childcare and a train fare…. would it be worth it? What about career progression? What if I needed to go to Edinburgh in the middle of the night to collect a contributor who’d failed to get on the right train, or what if the scientist who’d promised to call me back half an hour ago still hasn’t or what if the camera kit still hasn’t arrived at the end of the day, the prospect of missing bed time seemed inconceivable. In fact, the prospect of missing a minute of Oliver’s little life seemed inconceivable.

But over time I noticed that I approached learning about bringing up a baby much like I might approach researching a new development project desperate to get commissioned. I read various books, went to groups – (we did it all, singing, signing, story time, swimming) spoke to experts and then decided to do it my own way anyway. The children’s centre must have dreaded my visits, – “but why exactly should my son have supplementary vitamins ‘til he’s five, what is the scientific basis, is this government advice or independent research or funded by a pharmaceutical company?”. And when the health visitor showed us a video about weaning, all I could see was the poor camera work, mute contributors, monotonous voice over and shocking music.

http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/4945/jodie-gravett

I realised that I had to return, at least for part of my time, or all those years of learning about anaerobic digestion, making friends with the head of national pig association, freezing at midnight filming men fix a hole in the road, and listening to the most hilarious “creative discussions” late into the evening would be wasted and all for nothing. I would not give Creative Skillset the pleasure of swelling its stat of 5000 plus women who’ve exited TV in the last 3 years, compared to just 750 men. (Creative skillset 2010) There must be a way for it to work; the television industry cannot shut out a whole section of its workforce that has a wealth of experience, passion and desire to remain part of it.

So to keep in touch with the industry while I was still breastfeeding and when the maternity pay ran out I set up a transcribing service from home. I could do it while Oliver was asleep and in the evenings and the faster I got at typing the more I could do. Before I knew it I’d branched out into post production scripts and was filling every sleeping hour of Oliver’s with frantic typing. It taught me a lot, it was like working with many different directors in a very short space of time. It was an alternative way of learning to shoot for sequences without actually doing the shooting. What I started for just a bit of extra cash and to keep my hand in, turned out to be quite a learning experience. I then did a couple of charity films with the Media Trust, and sent myself on a sound/camera refresher course. Oliver could go to his grandparents and I could get my head out of “Rabbit’s Nap” and row, row, rowing my boat for a few days.

And now, finally, after fifteen months I feel like I really need to get my teeth into a proper project. Who knows if it will work, if I will be able to afford the train fare and if I will be able to bear missing bed time, but if I don’t give it a go the children’s centre will ban me from all future visits as I’ve definitely over stayed my welcome there!

http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/4945/jodie-gravett