Media Parents

Want to actively do something to support diversity in TV? Adeel Amini from The TV Mindset has shared three calls to action that anyone can implement in TV teams, writes Media Parents Director Amy Walker.

The TV Mindset‘s webinar on Racism in TV has been watched by nearly 5,500 people in  a week. You can view it here. Producer Amini says “I’m pleased to say that The TV Mindset is now advising many institutions on their next steps” contact him through the facebook page.

Are you hiring in your own image or comfort zone? Advice I was given early in my hiring career was, two CVs being equal, choose the candidate which brings greater diversity to your team. It grates on everyone to think that a decision is made based on the colour of a person’s skin. Equally, how are we going to improve diversity and inclusion? Networking is a great place to start. If you’re looking for places to advertise jobs to diverse candidates you can choose Media Parents and you can read more about other platforms and resources here.

If Media Parents can help you with crewing or casting, contact us here.

Thanks Adeel for your clear calls to action. For info on mental health support in TV, go here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thetvmindset/

Join us for Media Parents events, jobs and training at www.mediaparents.co.uk

“What is your company doing to to ACT and not just say #BlackLivesMatter on social media?” an African American friend asked in discussion about George Floyd. So here follows a list of companies offering TV diversity training in the UK, platforms you can search or join for greater diversity and a link to donate to BLM causes, writes Media Parents Director Amy Walker. Also take the time to click here to read and sign this BAME TV Taskforce Letter and, if you are a person of colour, join the BAME TV Task Force. Additional resources have been provided by writer Sarah Page and can be found on twitter here.

Credit Emily Rickets @ewr.portfolio

Media Parents Director Amy Walker has won diversity awards for crewing and casting, so if Media Parents can help with the diversity of your teams click here to contact us. If your company is looking for diversity training then read on.

BLM protest Cornwall credit: Chris Yacoubian

The TV Mindset‘s webinar on Racism in TV has been watched by nearly 5,500 people in  a week. You can view it here. Producer Adeel Amini says “I’m pleased to say that The TV Mindset is now advising many institutions on their next steps” contact him through the facebook page. Amini has also created some straightforward calls to action that anyone can implement at work, read more here.

BLM protest London credit: Alison Hunt

Industry training body ScreenSkills diversity training offer can be found here. Media Parents is proud to say that the Media Parents ScreenSkills Return to Work Programme out-performed ScreenSkills diversity targets, and that the Media Parents Back to Work Scheme has 35% diversity in intake over the years.

Trainer Addie Orfila is recommended for industry diversity training, as is Femi Otitoju, who delivers training on unconscious bias. You can take a Harvard unconscious bias / explicit association test by clicking here. Media Parents’ Amy Walker participated in Otitoju’s unconscious bias training thanks to BFI subsidy.

BLM protest Tunbridge Wells credit Emily Ricketts @ewr.portfolio

MAMA Youth‘s inclusion awareness workshops are experience based and tackle issues at the forefront of diversity and inclusion in the workplace. Offered exclusively to corporate and patron partners, these workshops are now open to the wider industry.  Please contact info@mamayouthproject.org.uk for more information. Mama Youth’s alumni talent pool is also a useful diverse talent resource.

BLM protest London credit: Alison Hunt

Creative Access recruits under-represented talent to the UK’s creative industries. In addition to using them to recruit, they have a diversity training offer for companies.

Click any of these hyperlinked organisation names to find out more about their offers in diversity and inclusion: IconicSteps; @PrincesTrust; @SaraPuttAssoc; @CSparkworks; @artsemergency; @Film_London; @DiVA_Creative; @FourCornersE2; @thinkbigger_org and @BAFTA offers various training opportunities and schemes. And here is PACT’s diversity website.

BLM protests London credit: Alison Hunt

Simone Pennant’s TV Collective has reported on Channel 4′s recent commitment to be an anti-racist organisation, which you can read about here. You can also follow Channel 4 News Identity strand on facebook here. The TV Collective also organises networking events and promotes job opportunities to the BAME TV community. See also @TriForceEvents; @cinesister; @BritBlacklist; @RaisingFilms; @104Films; @bbcwritersroom; https://bbcstudios.com/writersacademy; @DANC_MANC; @illuminatrixLDN; https://womenbehindthecamera.co.uk/

https://profileperformers.com/ and @ProjectNoirHub, a creative collective for people of colour working to make the creative industries more culturally diverse. Channel 4 also lists a collection of industry talent schemes here: https://careers.channel4.com/4talent/industry-talent-schemes/4stories

BLM protest Cornwall credit: Chris Yacoubian

If you would like to share any other recommended training sources for diversity and inclusion in TV please contact us. You can also click through to this BBC article which links to UK and US charities, including The Stephen Lawrence Trust, promoting equality which you can support. Be the change!

BLM protest London credit: https://www.antoniamaguire.com/

Join us for Media Parents events, jobs and training at www.mediaparents.co.uk

Your broadcast or other media products, whether commercials, factual documentaries, online or on TV, need a professional voice, writes voice actor, and ex-RAF Officer, Kerry Hutchinson.

Voice Actor Kerry Hutchinson at work

As a father of three children, Kerry knows life can get busy, even in lockdown. “But,” Kerry continues, “If I can help you, let’s chat. As a professional voiceover and voice actor with my own broadcast-quality equipment, I could help you if you need a voice for your next project. Contact me via Media Parents or via the link below – I’d be delighted to provide you a free sample read of a script to help you decide”.

So, how did I get into voiceovers? I used to be a Training Officer in the RAF and someone said I had a good ‘Radio 4’ voice – would I mind voicing some instructional videos? And someone else later said I should do voiceovers full-time.  I was lucky with a new agent who had a gap my vocal tones would fill on their gallery.  Having German as a second language helped me gain the attention of German-speaking companies and agencies, and being able to mimic accents has also helped with my vocal ‘shop front’.

Once I’d got an agent, I started investing in upskilling courses, especially, several years later, I decided to go independent.  Not a leap for the timid, because competition among indie VOs is pretty ferocious. And you have to upskill to keep on the ball.  Social media courses have really helped, especially when learning about techniques to reach out when networking and marketing for possible voice job leads.

And having been injured in combat when a serving infantry Officer in Afghanistan, the compensation helped me realise a long-held dream of not just launching as an independent voice actor, but having a professional, broadcast-quality studio set up, which I now have. The image below shows me (on the right) ‘resting’ on a combat patrol with the Gurkhas, with whom I had the honour to serve, in Helmand, Afghanistan.

Among the many things I have learned is to pitch for jobs that fit my vocal range – and with a voice that seems suited to documentaries, corporates and one-to-one style deliveries that engage with a ‘listener of one’ that’s what I play to. Of course, being able to sustain accents such as gravelly Slavic angry, fearsome and similar, I have started helping indie game developers voice their 2-D characters.

Kerry Hutchinson on manoeuvres in Afghanistan

I think. It is a fact that web presentations, explainers and e-learner need a trained, professional and believable voice to bring your product, presentation and training to life. And not just on TV – more than 1.3 billion people use social media – that’s a rise of 88% over the last five years, and equates to more than 8 new users every second. So how could my voice help you penetrate the above target audience with your broadcast voiced project, marketing and branding campaign, or in-house training?

Well, video slots often have complex messages that only have a short time to deliver their message – and the right voice can explain new concepts and deliver information persuasively and compellingly. And a compelling, plausible documentary or narrative voice is instrumental in selling your audiovisual story and encouraging viewers to watch future episodes. Your audience, indeed the wider public, make fast judgments on voice tone alone.

So the right voice – believable, persuasive – can attract traffic to your series, product or brand if the voice infers it is respectable and of value to them, and therefore worth listening to and watching. Especially for a major multinational like NATO, who employ me as their consistent ‘brand voice’ – even when I go to Afghanistan on short term contracts. Here’s an excerpt from a promo video I did at the start of 2020: https://vimeo.com/393166864

The right voice can inspire trust and confidence, with a perfectly rendered narration that is lively and engaging, delivering a high-quality message. And for more commercial considerations, if your product has a voice component it could boost Google rankings and increase social media shares.

Contact me at https://www.kerryvoice.co.uk/ – as they say – “it’s good to talk.”

https://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/16452/kerry-hutchinson

And here we are – at home, writes Media Parents Factual Exec and SP Jonathan Schutz. Working from home. Hmm. Let’s be honest: for most of us, even the least sniff of work has evaporated. Channel 4 has suggested it will be “reaching out” to freelancers. The BBC and Netflix have made donations to the Film & TV Charity, ITV has made a fund available for indies. It’s all very nice, though perhaps not all that useful for those of us who are just about grinding along.

Producer Jonathan Schutz in edit at home

In the meantime, some indies are helping out by rehiring and furloughing recent freelancers so they can avail themselves of Rishi Sunak’s seeming bounty. Many of us however (including those with Personal Service Companies) plummet between the cracks of the Chancellor’s help package. BECTU, Martin Lewis and some helpful MPs and journos – are making noise about this, but we still don’t know if that’s going to have any effect.

All the channels, terrestrial and otherwise, will soon be desperate for content – and not just shows about the virus. It’ll be on a budget as commercial broadcasters face a fall in advertising income, and those broadcasters who rely on ad-sales driven production will be hit doubly as sponsors retreat as well. I personally have two 6-hour series in development with interested sponsors who have gone extremely quiet!

But quality production on a budget? That’s good news: my whole business model for Curly Lizard Films is based on it. Frankly, my life – juggling Daddy Duty with Specialist Factual production – has been a bit like lockdown for some years now anyway. I was writing, developing, producing, editing and delivering productions from home long before all this kicked off. Last year’s main Curly Lizard production was a reversion of a very glossy Chinese series for NGC, all made from the spare room.

Some companies are managing to get commissions – you can watch Swan Films MD Joe Evans talking about his latest socially distanced commission with Talented People’s Kimberley Godboldt by clicking here, and your family can take part in Grayson’s Art Club here – but there are a lot more of us still looking for work.

Who are any of us really working for anyway?

So, dear broadcasters and indies – here’s a thought that could get us all busy right now. Pop down to your friendly distributor – online, of course. They have plenty on their shelves from around the world. Or see what you have in your own archive that could be repurposed. Send it over to me, and I’ll script something up and edit it together for you. And should you be up for some history – there are plenty of untouched subjects from all over the world, with archive accessible online. Wouldn’t it be a nice surprise if we suddenly developed a wider world-view while shut away in our houses?

Because when you come down to it, what’s the one thing better than setting up funds and relying on the government’s largesse? Getting productions started again and getting us all back to work. So now: over to you!

https://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/14396/jonathan-schtz

Huge thanks to everyone who attended Sunday’s IWD event and made it such a great success. Event organiser Lisa Harmer curated a programme of 10 films by female filmmakers in the Hastings area, which were screened to a full house at Kino-Teatr. BBC England Head of Commissioning Aisling O’Connor shared her thoughts on content she’d commission and flexible working in TV which will be summarised for this blog shortly.

With thanks to Lisa Harmer (left) and the BBC's Aisling O'Connor

It was a great opportunity to celebrate the achievements of women on International Women’s Day, and to connect with people in the different spaces of the atmospheric cinema.

Director Bindu De Stoppani screened trailers of her two most recent feature films

Films ranged in length from 1 to 15 minutes, and included shorts, art pieces and trailers. The youngest filmmaker, Calypso Cragg, was just 15 years old. Media Parents’ next event will be a negotiating masterclass on April 29th, run by video conference so that people from all round the UK can join, virus or no virus. Please keep an eye on the blog and site emails for details.

Money was raised for women's refuge Turner House. If you would like to donate, or are in need of refuge in Hastings please contact the organisation here: https://saha.org.uk/

Join us for Media Parents events, jobs and training at www.mediaparents.co.uk

On March 8th Media Parents will be celebrating International Women’s Day by supporting a festival of short films made by local women at the Kino-Teatr in St. Leonard’s on Sea, Sussex. Click here for the IWD Media Parents Event Film Programme, and see below for biogs. Click here for tickets.

Lisa Harmer

Writer / Actor Lisa Harmer has curated this collection of films by women filmmakers for IWD.

Lisa has curated the films for Sunday’s event. She has worked as an actor since her late teens, having trained at The Anna Scher Theatre and Actors Centre, London.  She has appeared in various continual dramas such as EastEnders, Casualty, The Bill and can also be seen on All4’s repeat showing of the iconic drama Metrosexuality, playing Peggy.

Her film Lady What Does, co-written and directed by Sara Jordan, is a dark-comedy short exploring the great bond of two Women in their 50s who, despite their differences, share a dark secret and share the load when things get messy. Lisa continues to write and act and is currently developing Lady What Does as a TV series.  https://www.lisaharmer.com/

Aisling O’Connor

BBC England's Head of TV Commissioning, Aisling O'Connor (picture EdTVFest 2019)

Aisling is Commissioner for all BBC England-funded non-news TV which includes regional current affairs, and a slate of network and online content for the four BBC channels. Aisling has been a BBC Daytime Commissioner, a Music and Arts Commissioning Executive for BBC Two and BBC Four. She Executive Produced the BBC’s flagship investigative current affairs programme Panorama, and was a Senior News and Current Affairs Adviser in BBC Editorial Policy. She lives in Hastings.

Amy Walker

Media Parents Director and Founder Amy Walker

Amy champions diverse creative talent, and set up Media Parents to facilitate that. She is a factual TV Series Producer and Talent Exec and has just completed a 2-year EMBA sponsored by Channel 4. Her most recent series for Channel 4 was BAFTA-nominated. She lives in Hastings. https://www.mediaparents.co.uk/

Bindu de Stoppani

Bindu wrote and directed her first short film in 2000, THINGS I NOTICE, THINGS YOU SEE starring Michael Fassbender, followed by three other shorts including GESUNDHEIT!, THREE, and THE KISS. In 2012 she wrote and directed her first feature film JUMP (Hugofilm/Manmade Films/RSI) which won five BIFFs at the 2012 festival including Best Director and Best Feature Film. Bindu’s second feature FINDING CAMILLE premiered at the Rome Film Festival in 2017 to great acclaim and she is in now in the early stages of development on her next feature 40 AND CLIMBING (Hugofilm) which is set to shoot in 2020. http://www.bindudestoppani.com/

Calypso Cragg

Calypso is a fifteen-year-old actress, director, writer and clothing designer.  She is home educated, and lives in the South East of England. Calypso has recently released a short film called What I Saw, which she wrote, directed, edited and performed in. It has received a highly commended laurel by the Black Country Horror Shorts Film Festival and has been selected for the Lift-Off Sessions Festival.

Cheryl White

Cheryl White is a multi-award winning Writer/Director whose films have screened around the world. Her most recent film, A Lighthouse in Breaking Waves is a part-animated short which won the Fan Award 2018 at the White Whale festival (USA), and Best Sussex Short 2017 at the Crossing the Screen festival (UK).

Cheryl was a recipient of Arts Council funding for her full length play Highly Inflammable which ran as part of the Hastings Fringe Festival 2017. She is currently co-directing a feature documentary about a 92 year-old rebel and his coffin.

Claudia Kappenberg

Claudia is a performance and media artist with a background in dance, and Principal Lecturer at the University of Brighton, UK. Her work has been shown internationally across Europe, the US and the Middle East in the form of screen-based work, participatory events and site-specific performance. At the heart of her practice is an interrogation into that which makes us human. Her film Honey Hat features in the IWD Making Moving Images collection.

Recent writing has been published in Performing Process: Sharing Dance and Choreographic Practice (2018), Syncope in Performing and Visual Arts (2017), The Oxford Handbook of Screendance Studies (2016), and Art in Motion: Current Research in Screendance (2015).

Helen Jacey

Helen is a screenwriter, author and story consultant and the Founder and Creative Director of Shedunnit Productions, which develops female gaze content across film, TV and fiction. Shedunnit also sponsors the Women Over Fifty Film Festival Best Script Award.

Helen has worked extensively as a story consultant, working on projects with leading talent including Julia Roberts, Ben Elton, and Emma Watson. Among her many writing projects, Helen’s BBC Radio 4 Play for Today Miracle Postponed about Jean Rhys was nominated for a Mental Health in the Media Award.

Helen is the creator of Elvira Slate Investigations, featuring the first feminist 1940s detective. Jailbird Detective (which features in the Making Moving Images collection) and Chipped Pearls have been recently published by Shedunnit, and Helen is currently adapting the series for TV. www.shedunnit.com

www.shedunnit.com

Jody Sabral

Jody is an international best-selling author (I Never Lie, June 2018), award-winning crime writer (CWA Debut Dagger, 2014) and recently turned film director with her short film The Wrong Car (Oct 2018) featuring Sinead Matthews (Black Mirror, Jellyfish, The Crown) and Bill Fellows (Broadchurch, Alan Partridge, Vera).

The Wrong Car picked up second prize at the Los Angeles Television, Script and Film Festival this June 2019 and was also selected and screened at Pinewood Studios as part of LIFT OFF festival (March 2019). Jody has since written and directed her second short Helpline (June 2019). Jody is also a BBC News Editor.

Kate Grey

Writer & Director Kate Grey graduated from the London College of Printing with a BA (Hons) in Film & Video and from Goldsmiths University College with an MA in Feature Film.

Whistle…I’ll come to You is the first film in a series of short films shot in East Sussex that will form a portmanteau feature film; When Kate adapted the story for Whistle…, Kate changed all the characters to female, who, in the original short story by MR James, were men. She is currently in pre-production for the second film in this series Charlie Mawkins shooting in July 2020.

Lisa Clifford

Lisa Clifford is a British journalist and documentary filmmaker. Her film Militia Man about a Congolese warlord and his flawed trial at the International Criminal Court has screened around the world. Lisa’s latest documentary, Dad’s Coffin, is a joyful look at one unique man’s joyful stroll towards the inevitable.

https://www.facebook.com/militiamanfilm/

Nadene Ghouri

Nadene is a screenwriter, award-winning journalist and author, with two New York Times bestsellers under her belt.

When Sky Was Sea won a total of 12 festival awards including two for best drama. Https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8523740/?ref_=ttawd_awd_tt

Olga Mamonova

Olga is the creative director of Kino-Teatr and has lived in St. Leonard’s for over twenty years. She set up the cinema in 2015 with artist husband Russell Baker, and their twin daughters Dounya and Antonia are now also involved in Kino-Teatr work. A former 1913 cinema, it is now a local cultural hub.

As Kino-Teatr’s Artistic Director Olga programmes films, Documentary Festivals, Irish Film weeks, classical concerts and live theatre. A published author, Olga is also a documentary maker, and made the first documentary on the work of Russian/British artist Oleg Prokofiev, son of composer Sergei Prokofiev.

Sara Jordan

Sara has now returned to her love of the arts and is concentrating on writing and directing as well as acting after giving up a career as an actress to have a family and get a proper job.Sara co-wrote and directed Lady What Does with Lisa Harmer, and they are currently developing this film into a TV series.

Her films Pic N Mix, Planning The Funeral and The Tea Break have won awards at festivals including Best Short at the Welsh International Film Festival. The latest, Jitters, covering a woman’s struggle with anxiety, is about to hit the festivals.

https://www.flintsparkproductions.com/

Join us for Media Parents events, jobs and training at www.mediaparents.co.uk

In celebration of International Women’s Day (IWD), Media Parents is sponsoring a celebration of women’s filmmaking on Sunday March 8th, and we’d love you to join us. As part of the event, Media Parents Director Amy Walker will be interviewing BBC England’s Head of TV Commissioning, Aisling O’Connor.

BBC England's Head of TV Commissioning, Aisling O'Connor (picture EdTVFest 2019)

Aisling is Commissioner for all BBC England-funded non-news TV which includes regional current affairs, and a slate of network and online content for the four BBC channels (see biog below). Aisling will be discussing both her BBC England brief, and, as it’s IWD, we’ll cover flexible working and the impact of motherhood on career.

The event, which features 10 shorts by regional women directors, has been curated by Writer / Actor Lisa Harmer. To download the full programme click here IWD Media Parents Event Film Programme, click here for tickets.

If you would like to join us for lunch at Kino-Teatr in St. Leonard’s on Sea before the film programme, please email events@mediaparents.com. Please purchase your tickets for the cinema event separately.

Aisling O’Connor

Head of TV Commissioning, BBC England

Aisling O’Connor is the recently appointed Head of TV Commissioning for a newly re-structured BBC England, with a brief to re-invent the TV offer for the BBC England audience. She is based in Birmingham but works across England.

Aisling oversees BBC England’s non-news TV portfolio including long-running current affairs programme Inside Out. She will also develop opportunities to commission more TV and online content for English audiences by working with other parts of the BBC.

BBC England includes all the BBC’s regional and local services in the English regions such as local radio and regional TV.

The Head of TV Commissioning role for BBC England was created to develop a new approach to content commissioning for TV and online and to deliver content across other genres. Currently the BBC only broadcasts current affairs or light factual programmes aimed specifically at audiences in the English regions.

Aisling O’Connor, who began her career at LWT, has worked at every level of TV production including a stint as a presenter of consumer affairs programme Watchdog.

Aisling says: “I’m looking forward to working across England, delivering content which reflects the lives and stories of our diverse audience, from Hull to Hastings, Newcastle to Newquay.”

Helen Thomas, Director of BBC England, says: “We’ve created this role to work within the BBC to find opportunities to create more content for people in England across a broader range of genres.

“With her huge network of contacts, and excellent relationships with senior people across the industry, Aisling brings a wealth of experience, enthusiasm and innovation that will help deliver content that appeals to English audiences and reflects communities right across the country.”

Aisling started her career in television 25 years ago at London Weekend Television and has worked at all levels of production. She has been a BBC Daytime Commissioner, a Music and Arts Commissioning Executive for BBC Two and BBC Four, an Executive Producer on the BBC’s flagship investigative current affairs programme Panorama and a Senior News and Current Affairs Adviser in BBC Editorial Policy.

While a BBC Daytime Commissioner, Aisling looked after 17 series concurrently including The Housing Enforcers, Great British Menu, Wanted Down Under, Heir Hunters and Bargain Hunt. As a Music and Arts Commissioning Executive she looked after programmes as diverse as The Secret of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony for BBC Two and The Quizeum with Griff Rhys Jones for BBC Four.

The two highlights of her career to date were executive producing U2 Innocence and Experience Live in Paris and flying to Chile (economy) to make a speech about public service broadcasting. Aisling is from Dublin and lives in Hastings.

click here for tickets

I’m a director who is about to embark on my first feature documentary, writes Sherice Griffiths, and I’m looking for advice and/or collaborators via Media Parents.

Sherice Williams seeks collaborators for her feature doc on a pregnant MMA cage fighter

I’ve got a wonderful story about a female MMA fighter (Mixed Martial Arts AKA Cage Fighting) who is now 3 months pregnant and plans to continue her martial arts training throughout her pregnancy. I’m planning on following her journey to see what impact the training has on her physical and mental wellbeing and whether or not it can be sustained.

Sofie plans to gradually reduce the amount of sparring she does month to month but wants to stay active until the very last moment. She’s agreed on exclusive access to myself and a small crew, and we’re also able to film at the places she trains. I’m keen to film with her family, training partners, coaches and doctors to get their view on whether they think such an extreme sport should be continued through pregnancy.

MMA cage fighter Sofie will continue to work and be filmed whilst pregnant

I filmed a sizzle with Sofie about a year ago when we made a short video about the relationship between sports and mental health and she’s great on camera. If anyone wants to get involved or find out more drop me a message as I think it’s going to be a really exciting project, and we start filming on 23rd February 2020.

Here’s a link to the 2-minute doc we made with Sofie,  https://vimeo.com/322195307/d6ed0b3346

Log in to contact Sherice Griffiths via the Media Parents network: https://www.mediaparents.co.uk/collaborator/16728/sherice-griffiths

Join us for Media Parents events, jobs and training at www.mediaparents.co.uk

Two Producer Directors, One Toddler

I’m a self-shooting Producer Director who has filmed in some of the most unforgiving parts of the world, writes Cara Bowen (who is currently looking for her next Edit Producing gig). From the unrelenting wilderness of Alaska filming gold miners in search of their fortune on Gold Rush, to the complete chaos the Scottish weather can bring to hapless model railway enthusiasts building a tiny railway across 74 miles of the Highlands in The Biggest Little Railway in the World. I have worked in some of the most sensitive access situations possible, and with some of the most vulnerable contributors around.

PD Cara Bowen on location. https://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/11666/cara-bowen

I’ve shot car crashes, police chases, and resuscitations with specialised police and ambulance units throughout the country. I captured the RSPCA’s never-ending rescuing and treatment of abandoned animals on The Dog Rescuers; and the dedication of the NHS staff undertook to deliver live triplets in extremely high risk circumstances. I’ve witnessed an inmate break down when fully confessing to the crime she committed for the first time on Women in Prison. I’ve followed the disintegration of professional relationships while building a dream house; and I’ve filmed incredible people with disabilities find the confidence to take a step closer to finding love on several series of The Undateables.

And then I had a baby.

Baby meets kit

Our world changed and so did our priorities. My partner, Charlie Clayton, is also a PD and we have both seen the type of work we can do alter. With a new objective of wanting to be at home more often to look after our baby, Wolfie, Charlie and I agreed we would take turns going out on shoots. He spent the summer looking after our little boy, while I filmed farmers across the UK, FaceTiming at bath times and coming back for weekends. Charlie is now on a shoot in America as I look for my next job while solo-parenting now 20 month old Wolfie, who is confusing Duggee and Daddy, (probably a sign he’s been watching too much Hey Duggee).

While taking turns having jobs may be one solution to raising a family when both parents are PDs, there must be other families who have made it work without having to sacrifice half of their salary? I’d love to hear how others have done it. I’m also keen to find a jobshare via Media Parents so do contact me. The most logical solution it seems is to be able to go into the edit more often, and have more than one income coming in. Charlie has been lucky enough to land a couple of edit producing roles recently but, whilst I’ve edit produced a BBC2 hour, filmed and edited several charity films, made tasters and done all the edit producing courses I can find, it’s been harder for me to find the work. I know I can do it, and my BBC references attest to it!

PDs Cara Bowen and Charlie Clayton, with their son. https://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/11666/cara-bowen

I love what I do and I know I have more to offer than either being on location or not working at all. With so much experience and a strong editorial mind, I would love to find more opportunities in the edit, to mould sequences I shot on location into shape, and occasionally be able to get home in time to put my kid to bed. I don’t want to stop shooting, but I want to prove that I have what it takes to be in the edit too, and I would very much appreciate the chance to do so.

https://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/11666/cara-bowen

https://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/11666/cara-bowen

Thank you to everyone who attended our Bristol Media Parents CV Masterclass last week and made it such a worthwhile event. The feedback has been so great that we’re running the masterclass again ahead of our next company networking event so you can get your CV in the best possible shape – and if you’re a jobsharer you can benefit from our new jobshare double CV.

Media Parents Director Amy Walker with freelancers at a Media Parents event

Media Parents February CV Masterclass will take place in Central London on Monday February 1oth, kindly hosted by Clearcut Pictures. Further details and the guestlist link are on the Media Parents watercooler – not yet a member? Drop us a line through the contact button at www.mediaparents.co.uk. Amy Walker will present CV wizardry and there will be the opportunity to get hands on, individually tailored feedback too.

Producer Ginny Bing attended the Bristol CV event: "It was so useful to get a fresh perspective on my CV from Media Parents. We’ve all read our own CVs a million times but what came out of this event was that if you don’t make things clear and concise and if you don’t highlight all your skills, then you’re selling yourself short."

Producer Ginny Bing attended the Bristol CV event: “It was so useful to get a fresh perspective on my CV from Media Parents. We’ve all read our own CVs a million times but what came out of this event was that if you don’t make things clear and concise and if you don’t highlight all your skills, then you’re selling yourself short.”

Cardiff-based Production Coordinator Jess Gow said: “The Bristol CV Masterclass has inspired me to get my new and improved CV uploaded to Media Parents ASAP. The workshop was great because you don’t always see the glaringly obvious! It’s provided me with helpful practical examples and made me appreciate the importance of selling yourself. There were some great networking suggestions too.”

If you’d like to get a head start on your CV before the event, you can read Media Parents CV Tips here: https://blog.mediaparents.co.uk/2018/10/media-parents-cv-tips/

"Thank you for organising the Media Parents CV workshop, the session was excellent and gave me loads of great ideas" Melissa Bishop, AP / Researcher, Bristol & London

Our hosts, Clear Cut Group, comprising of three companies (Clear Cut Pictures, The Edit Store and Clear Motion) are renowned for providing highly creative post-production to a wide range of broadcasters. Offering full end-to-end post-production across four sites in London, plus location and regional services as needed, we offer 4K, HDR and SDR capabilities in bespoke solutions to deliver your content to screen.

Join us for Media Parents events, jobs and training at www.mediaparents.co.uk