Media Parents

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.

Media Parents Series Producer Gaby Koppel writes here about ageism in the TV industry, and her piece on inherited cancer appears in today’s Independent, see link below.

Gaby Koppel and her daughter Sarah. Photograph Graeme Robertson. Gaby Koppel is in the TALENT section of www.mediaparents.co.uk

My first response when I heard that Miriam O’Reilly was taking action against the BBC for ageism was a groan. After all, I reasoned, women who go on the telly as presenters enter into a pact with the devil when they do their first piece to camera.

The deal is this:  what you look like, sound like and act like matters.  Having good teeth and good hair matters, and whether or not you have wrinkles matters too. That’s why TV ‘faces’ can earn several multiples of what the humble producer does, not to mention the sideline of a column in the Redtop News, to fund the five star hols or whatevs where they can lie on the beach and moan about the paparazzi.  It won’t last, so you get paid more for a shorter shelf life.

OK, looks matter in a different way for men and for women, none of the girls could get away with looking like John Sergeant and still earn a living. But that’s what you signed up for, so quit moaning.  And not just Miriam O’Reilly.  All of a sudden there seemed to be a chorus of prominent TV s’lebs, many of whom have traded on their glamour and their looks for years, now cross to find they’d been dropped.  Often in favour of someone who looked a bit like they had when they were younger.

Let’s be straight.  I worked with one of the people complaining loudest.  And nobody ever hired her for her rigorous line in questioning.  Of course, like most producers, I’ve had the usual run-ins with tricky presenters, so it’s only human to feel they deserve what comes to them.

It’s always been different for producers, I told myself.  We’re the ones hired for ability and experience, for our great CVs and our probing intellects.   Really?  Well it’s time to get real.  Between 2006 and 2009, nearly 5,000 women left the television industry as opposed to 750 men.  The older they were, the more pronounced the effect, so that each year there are fewer and fewer older women left in the business.  The female TV producer over 50 is practically a threatened species.

What we look like and the date on our birth certificates matters every bit as much as it does for a presenter, and that’s the connection between those in front of camera and those behind.  It’s not us and them, we are all in this together.

Which is why Miriam O’Reilly’s victory over the BBC matters, and not just for the select bunch of highly paid front women.  The television screen is the shop window both for our industry, but also more importantly for the world we live in.  The women on telly represent us and what we aspire to.  It’s not stretching the point to say that they are ultimately the role models for womanhood and professionalism.  That’s why we need to see older women on telly.  Because they set the expectations of how we all can be.

So bravo Miriam, roll on the grey haired anchorwomen of tomorrow and let’s hope they hold the doors open for the rest of us to follow.

Gaby Koppel is in the TALENT section of Media Parents. www.mediaparents.co.uk for great networking, talent, jobs and information. To join us at our first birthday party in central LONDON on July 12th please email events@mediaparents.co.uk

Gaby Koppel is a freelance journalist and TV Series Producer of landmark, prime-time programmes including Child of Our Time.

She is a graduate of the MA programme in Creative Writing (Novels) at City University, where her work in progress won the Christopher Little Literary Agency Award 2010.

She blogs as Jew Bitch:  http://lockshenhara.blogspot.com/

Please click here to read Gaby’s article on inherited cancer, published in today’s Independent : http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/cancer-the-flaw-in-our-family-tree-2306945.html

Thanks to all those who took part in the Media Parents networking event in BRISTOL on Tuesday, photos here shortly!

PARTY

As a small thank you for all your support over the last year please come and celebrate with us at the Media Parents 1st birthday party on July 12th in central London (roof top barbecue in Noho c/o ENVY).  Feel free to bring friends (children welcome in the afternoon), and email events@mediaparents.co.uk to get on the guestlist.  See the blog for photos of our latest SOCIAL event soon.
We’ll also be celebrating a year of Media Parents by adding great new functionality to the site – we’ll let you know about that when it’s ready.

www.mediaparents.co.uk – please tell your friends about Media Parents!

Hello,  We’d like to invite you to the Media Parents networking evening in Bristol on Tuesday 28^th June, it’s going to be a great opportunity to meet top end editorial TV production talent, and we are pleased to announce that Nick Shearman, Knowledge Commissioning Exec, Network will be joining us.

What is Media Parents?

www.mediaparents.co.uk is a new jobs and social networking website for experienced media people.  The Media Parents site showcases experienced talent, lists flexible and standard TV and film contracts, it has a blog, a chat forum and a thriving network, like a mini LinkedIn for media.

What happens at the event?

The networking event will take place from at BBC Broadcasting House on Whiteladies Road, you must be on the guest list to come along.  Execs introduce their companies and colleagues, and then station themselves at tables to chat with freelancers for approx 8 minute slots.

Freelancers bring a CV to discuss, and without the direct pressure of a job interview it’s a great opportunity to put a face to a name in a relatively informal setting.

Herefollows a short biog and photo of all execs attending, they can all be found and contacted through the NETWORK page at www.mediaparents.co.uk:

BBC :

Nick Shearman is Knowledge Commissioning Executive Producer, Network, Wales in a role aimed at bolstering commissions in the Nations.

Nick Shearman

began his career in TV in 1984 when he joined the BBC as a researcher working on programmes including Crimewatch, before moving on to produce films like Great Railway Journeys, Great Journeys, and Byline for The Tales From Prague season. He also made drama-docs and set up a series called War Walks with Professor Richard Holmes.

In 1995/6 Nick was at the forefront of the docu-soap boom when he made Vets School and turned it into the long-running series Vets In Practice, following it with series such as Holiday Reps, and Bath Rugby Club.

In 1998, he left the BBC to set up a Bristol office for Tiger Aspect. Here, Nick helped to develop and oversaw numerous projects, including the award-winning Foot ‘n’ Mouth Diaries for Channel 4 and Bailiffs for BBC One.

Nick joined RDF as an Executive Producer in 2002, making shows for all the terrestrial channels. These included Holiday Showdown, which won an RTS award and was nominated for a BAFTA; Ladette To Lady; Rock School; the first two series of Oz & James’s Big Wine Adventure; Anthea Turner: Perfect Housewife and The Truth About Size Zero.  He left RDF for Eyeworks At It and then re-joined the BBC in March 2008.

Nick is coming along because Media Parents feels it’s really important for Comm Eds to meet high level talent, and vice versa.

Chris Hutchins, Head of Talent for Factual and NHU, BBC Bristol.

Chris Hutchins

is Head of Talent for Factual and the NHU at BBC Bristol.  He is a vocal advocate of flexible working, and spoke in favour of this at the Media Parents flexible working meeting in Bristol here:

https://blog.mediaparents.co.uk/2010/12/media-parents-flexible-working-meeting-bristol-–-who-said-what-1/

Helen Hagelthorn

has worked as a Talent Manager and Talent Executive at Bristol BBC since 2009, looking after production talent for both Factual/Features/Daytime as well as the Natural History Unit.  Before this Helen worked at RDF West as Production Resources Manager, again hunting out the best freelance talent productions. She has also worked as a Project Manager at post production house, Films @ 59.  Before Children, Helen was a South West based Assistant Producer working on a variety of output covering all topics:history, cookery, household management, child rearing and football!

Pete Lawrence - Features and Daytime Exec, BBC Bristol

Pete Lawrence

is an Executive Producer in Daytime and Features at BBC Bristol.

Jude Gray, Head of Human Resources and Development, BBC Wales.

Jude Gray

Jude trained as a chartered accountant with Coopers & Lybrand before joining the BBC as a Personnel Trainee. Delivered strategic HR advice in several Divisions (Factual & Learning, Radio & Music, DEC, Nations & Regions) and in four locations (London, Scotland, Bristol and Wales).

Her key interventions include culture change, restructuring, employee relations, talent management and she has a particular interest in how to develop high performing teams.

Zodiak Media Group:

Julia Waring Head of Talent, RDF

came to RDF to work as part of a production team for a C4 programme, and joined permanently in May 1997, as Head of Light Entertainment and Features for RDF Rights. Julia started in the TV industry in 1984 as a secretary in drama and worked her way up to Series Producer via a mix of factual entertainment, features, travel and cookery shows at various indies. After working on the LE and Features Desk until 2000, Julia was then put in charge of in-house production after which she became involved in recruitment at RDF. In 2004 Julia became Head of Production Talent working mainly for RDF TV, but contributing to recruitment across the Zodiak group.

Mark Hill Head of RDF West

joined RDF Television in 2006 from the BBC where he was Deputy Head of Network Factual in Bristol, creating and executive producing some of the BBC’s most successful shows across Daytime, BBC1, BBC2 & BBC3; including Bargain Hunt, Flog It, Antiques Roadshow, Holiday Swaps, 20th Century Roadshow, Antiques Inspector, The Curious Gardeners, Fresh Food & Desperate Midwives. Prior to the BBC, Mark worked in the independent sector for Pearson and for three ITV companies, including GMTV and five years at LWT Factual.

Jane Lomas Exec Producer, RDF West

joined RDF from Diverse where she was executive producer on Man vs. Wild (Discovery/Channel 4), Mission Everest (Discovery/Channel 4), Tribal Wives (BBC Two) and Mission Africa (BBC One). Prior to Diverse Lomas was at BBC Bristol from 1998 to 2004 with credits including; DIY SOS (BBC One), The Bachelor (BBC Three) and Flog It! (BBC Two).

Lucy Carter

Who Do You Think You Are? executive producer Lucy Carter has joined Diverse in a new role leading the development team.  Diverse is part of Zodiak Media.

Angela Oakhill, Head of Production for RDF West and Diverse

Angela Oakhill

Head of Production at RDF Television West and Diverse Television (biog to follow).  Pictured here at the Media Parents flexible working meeting in Bristol, Angela Oakhill is a practical advocate of flexible working and has employed production staff flexibly through Media Parents.

Steve Rankin

Executive Producer, Diverse (photo and biog to follow).

Icon Films:

Harry Marshall, Joint Founder of Icon Films, Creative Director, Executive Producer.

Harry Marshall

Joint Founder of Icon Films, Creative Director, Executive Producer Harry Marshall was born and brought up in India where his father taught him how to catch elephants using binoculars, tweezers and a jam jar. He won an open scholarship to read English at Oxford University has traveled extensively through Asia and in particular the Himalayas where he learnt it is a bad idea to turn your back on a yak.

In 1990 Harry founded Bristol based independent Icon Films with his partner Laura Marshall.  In addition to directing key productions, Harry acts as executive producer across Icon’s output and directs the development team.   Much of his time is spent identifying new talent, both on-screen and production staff.

Shows Icon Films have produced include River Monsters, Headhunters of WWII and Monster Crocs.

Parthenon Entertainment:

Alison Bradburn

Head of Production, Parthenon Entertainment, Bristol (photo and biog to follow).

Aqua Vita Films:

Bernard Walton, Executive Producer, Aqua Vita Films.

Bernard Walton’s

Executive Producer credits for Aqua Vita films include  “Braving Iraq” PBS/WNET “Gorilla School” ANIMAL PLANET, narrated by Kevin Spacey “The Bearman” FIVE, and “A Man Among Bears” NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CHANNEL, ITV GLOBAL “The Wolfman” FIVE and “A Man Among Wolves” NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CHANNEL, ITV GLOBAL  “Farming Matters” with Jonathan Dimbleby; “Rural Matters” HORSE AND COUNTRY TV.`

Bernard Walton is Creator and Series Producer of BBC ONE primetime series “Time Machine”  “Talking With Animals”  BBC ONE  “Cousins”  BBC ONE.   Bernard is also the originator and producer of over 20 WILDLIFE ON ONEs with Sir David Attenborough, BBC ONE SPECIALS and NATURAL WORLDs and PD of BBC productions ie “Survivors”, “Tomorrow’s World”, “UK Safari”.

Big Squid:

Richard Higgs

Emmy Award Winner Richard Higgs is MD of animation company Big Squid. (Biog and photo to follow).

World of Arthur Cox:

Kaia Rose, Producer, World of Arthur Cox

Kaia Rose

Producer, World of Arthur Cox

ArthurCox is a BAFTA winning Bristol-based animation and production company that specialises in all things moving. We create commercials for broadcast, online content and internal communications and have won awards at film festivals around the world; from short animations and live action features all the way through to archive films and mobile apps, we focus on good design and good stories. With a talented team of Directors who write, design, animate and edit, the studio outputs a broad and strong diverse style of filmmaking, which you can see by visiting www.worldofarthurcox.com.

Maggie Walsh, Media Parents TALENT will be representing Media Parents at the networking event.

Media Parents:

Maggie Walsh

Maggie began her career in theatre, studying acting and costume at Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois, USA.  She has lived and worked in the UK for 15 years: working in Post Production Sound, as the Administrator at De Lane Lea in Soho, and going on to work as a Co-ordinator in Feature Films, TV Drama and Documentaries.  She has worked on multi-million pound projects, with a cast of thousands, and been 1 in a crew of 12 on a very low budget film.

And here are some photos of a couple of previous events – as you can see, it’s a good laugh:  https://blog.mediaparents.co.uk/2011/02/tiger-aspect-meets-media-parents-gallery/

https://blog.mediaparents.co.uk/2011/05/media-parents-met-vera-splash-and-rival-at-envy/

www.mediaparents.co.uk for great networking, talent, jobs and information. To join us in BRISTOL on June 28th please email your CV marked with full name, job title and genre to events@mediaparents.co.uk

A great time was had at the Media Parents SOCIAL event on June 16th, kindly hosted at Evolutions Post Production house.  Despite dodgy weather for a barbecue the turn out was brilliant and we were well fed and looked after by Joanna Rowan (who is in the Media Parents NETWORK section) and the other good people of Evo’s.  These two photos are care of Media Parents member Hazel Palmer (who is in the TALENT section of www.mediaparents.co.uk).  More photos coming soon…

Martin Pennell of Dragons Productions and Media Parents TALENT Gladys San Juan enjoy the sunshine.

5 minutes later, great British barbecue weather hits...

www.mediaparents.co.uk for great networking, talent, jobs and information. To join us at our next social event - the Media Parents 1st birthday party in London on July 12th please email events@mediaparents.co.uk

Lighting Director Rob Horne walked the length of the Thames (183 miles) in memory of his son Elliot, who died in childbirth.  (See article here https://blog.mediaparents.co.uk/2011/05/robert-horne-walks-in-memory-of-his-son/).  Rob has raised £4,120 + £1000 from Jo’s employer.  We’d like to say huge congratulations to Rob for the walk, thanks to everyone from Media Parents who has sponsored and if you’d still like to donate, you can here http://www.justgiving.com/Robert-Horne-Sands until the end of June 17th (TODAY!).  There’s something else that Rob and Jo should be congratulated on – he’s right here:

Jo and Rob Horne's son Peter James Elliot Horne was born a happy and healthy 7lb 7oz. http://www.justgiving.com/Robert-Horne-Sands

Rob Horne's wife Jo, with baby Peter. Congratulations from everyone at Media Parents.

In reverse order, photos from Rob Horne's Thames Walk to raise money for neo natal death charity SANDS. Here he is reaching the Thames Barrier after 183 miles.

Celebrating with crew, family and Media Parents people who turned up for the end of the walk.

Rob and Jo Horne with friends, family and Media Parents. Photos by Rob and Peter Horne unless stated.

The End of the Thames Path (pictured by Media Parents Director Amy Walker).

Rob Horne at the end of the walk, being photographed by brother Peter Horne. (Amy Walker).

Well done Rob. Rob Horne speaks in memory of Elliot Horne.

Getting ready for the big welcome. (Amy Walker).

Along the Thames Path (Amy Walker). http://www.justgiving.com/Robert-Horne-Sands

Joined by a friend on Kew Bridge.

Not what Rob was expecting!

Congratulations to Rob (and Jo) Horne from all of us at Media Parents. http://www.justgiving.com/Robert-Horne-Sands Donations close June 17th 2011.