60 Seconds With The BBC’s Robert Price

60 Seconds With The BBC's Robert Price

What was your first big break into the industry?
I regularly checked the websites of some of my favourite production companies a few months prior to graduating from university. When I saw Tiger Aspect advertising for a Drama Runner on PB, I knew I had to give it my best shot. One written application and two interviews later, and feeling I’d flunked it, I got a call whilst at my graduation ceremony to tell me I had got the job.

You’ve worked on a lot of great BBC dramas including Sherlock and Merlin – what do you enjoy most about working on location?
Often the production office works from a central location, and supports the production and crew from there. So I find it’s important to get out to location when I can, to speak to the crew to get all the information I need to do my job. It also brings a refreshing change from the four walls of the office, and it’s great to see everything you’re working for coming together.

60 Seconds With Keo Films’ Ciara Spankie

60 Seconds With Keo Films' Ciara Spankie

How long have you been a production coordinator at Keo Films?
I have worked at Keo for exactly 2 years.

Have you always wanted to pursue a career within the television industry?
I studied Marketing at university, however I always had an interest in media. My first job was a production secretary for a broadcaster in Glasgow and I’ve never looked back since. I love the film and TV industry!

What preparation did you do for your interview at Keo?
It’s always important to do your research – that meant reading up on what Keo’s flagship programmes were, and recent commissions. I spend a lot of my spare time watching documentaries, so I believe it helped I had a passion for this genre of film making Keo are known for.

Q&A With Runner Of The Year, Jack Whitney

We talk to BroadcastTECH Runner of the Year winner, Jack Whitney, about his career so far and his aims for the future.

What made you want to pursue a career within post production?
I’ve always wanted to work in sound in some shape or form, and so I decided to move down to London 2 years ago to find a job that involved working in audio. I was really curious to see how the TV & film industry worked, so I applied and got a job as a runner at a post production facility and there I learnt about the many avenues of Post Production. But since being at 5A Studios, I have learnt about the ways in which audio is used in post production, and this has really made me want to pursue a career in audio post.

What do you think made you stand out to be nominated and win Broadcast Tech’s Runner of the Year Award?
I don’t know, maybe it’s because I’ve done quite a lot during the short time I’ve been working in the industry. I’ve been quite hungry for it, and have managed to juggle quite a few other roles whilst maintaining a good standard of running.

TV & Me with DoP & Director Joe Dyer

This week, we chat to veteran DOP and Director, Joe Dyer, on working with music superstars and BAFTA nominated TV shows.

How did your career start?
I started at the BBC and Granada in the north of England working as a freelance camera assistant filling in for staff crews who were unavailable. I assisted cameramen to do interviews, documentaries, and anything we could for the TV companies. I often worked on shooting football matches for news bulletins – sensing when you thought there may be a goal, running the camera with the hope that you were right! The film was then rushed on a bike to the labs and put through video transfer to go on the news still wet! The quality was embarrassing!

You’ve worked with a lot of high profile talent including Annie Lennox, Kylie Minogue and Bryan Adams – how do you work with them effectively, so they can take direction from you?
With directing Annie Lennox, the secret I believe, was always that we were able to get inside each other’s heads and see that we understood the same sensibilities. Annie has very strong views and visual ideas and I found my role was to make these dreams a reality. With artists like Kylie Minogue and Bryan Adams, when working with them as a DOP it was more trying to understand the needs of the director (Kevin Godley) in the case of Bryan Adams and feel the hugeness of the idea and be very, very brave! Art is my background and those times were about art not technology.

TV & Me with Twofour’s Sue Kenderdine

This week, we chat to Twofour’s Head of Talent, Sue Kenderdine, on producing multi-media content and working in extreme conditions with members of the royal family.

How did you get your break in TV?
I came to TV quite late after writing speculatively to a small Indie that was expanding, my timing was good and I became PA to the MDs.

Twofour also have offices in Abu Dhabi and Los Angeles as well as London and Plymouth – do you regularly collaborate with them?
Being based in the head office in Devon, I split my time between there and the London office and with Leeanne Vinson, our Talent Exec, we work alongside the other bases to try and ensure the right people are on the right teams’ radar!

60 Seconds With Pioneer Productions’ Shaheera Ali

60 Seconds With Pioneer Productions' Shaheera Ali

Pioneer creates a lot of factual and ob doc programmes with quite fast turnarounds. How important is it to keep up to date with the news?
It’s really important – obviously so with fast turnaround documentaries about very recent events. But it’s also important to keep up to date with current affairs in general, and advances in scientific research and theories. It’s important to have a holistic approach to this, as ideas can be generated from many different, often at first glance unrelated, events in the news.

You recently transmitted a doc about the Oklahoma Tornado. How did you go about gaining access and incorporating sometimes sensitive content?
As Pioneer have long made programmes about such events and the science behind them, we have strong well-established relationships with scientists and experts in the field who often work very closely with authorities in the aftermath of such disastrous events. Most professional and expert entities involved in such events are keen that people are educated about such phenomenon so gaining access is usually relatively easy (though not always!). We ensure our production crews are sensitive, and experienced in dealing with sensitive subjects, especially when communicating with people who’ve suffered first hand. We also have a responsibility to ensure we are always factually correct and work hard to ensure experts in the field can approve of what we say.

TV & Me with KEO Films’ Maddy Allen

This week KEO Films’ Head of Production, Maddy Allen, discusses working across a number of platforms whilst juggling ever decreasing budgets.

How did you get into television?
It was a mixture of luck and determination. Although I had always wanted to work in television, I didn’t do any media courses (I studied German at university). I worked my way through a couple of corporate video companies and became corporate producer at a company that did both corporate and broadcast productions. Then I spent a couple of years learning the skills of production before I moved over to the broadcast side of TV.

As a Head of Production, I don’t necessarily look for people with a media education. I like to have production crew with a variety of backgrounds so whether you’re a media graduate, have spent time travelling or have been working in other industries, all experience is valuable. I’m far more interested in your innate skills and experience than what grades you’ve got on paper.

You have recently produced Skint and Bradford: City of Dreams. How have you seen the demand for factual entertainment television change in recent years?
Trends in broadcasting come and go and obviously how and when people watch TV is changing massively, but I believe that if it’s good TV people will watch it, whatever the genre.

60 Seconds With Endemol’s Chloe Samwell-Smith

You have been at Endemol for a number of years. How has your role of Talent Manager evolved in that time?
I started in HR at Endemol in 1999 and one of my first jobs was typing response letters to people who had sent in CVs! Technology has moved on drastically since then, and we now have an online database, so that’s been a big improvement. I would say that the role has become more challenging over time, because the talent pool seems to have shrunk and it seems harder to find available people that fit the bill.

How did you become a Talent Manager? Was it a chosen career path?
I started as HR assistant and my role evolved into a Talent Manager role. Having studied psychology at University, working with people was hugely important for me, so I feel very lucky to have this role.

We understand that have a new addition to the Samwell-Smith household – congrats! Your time management skills must come to the fore?
Yes, indeed. As a mum of three, you are constantly juggling and good time management skills are essential! Some days can be challenging, but with a good support network anything is possible. I do think mums and dads make great employees, as they are usually very focussed at work and used to getting things done quickly. Parents are constantly problem solving, and those skills are particularly useful in TV.

60 Seconds With ITV’s Liz O’Neill

How did you start working in the HR department at ITV?
I originally applied for a position as an Assistant in the HR Pensions team on the ITV careers page and worked within ITV for a year before moving into the new in-house Recruitment team as a Co-ordinator, to support a new team of six.

Is talent recruitment a career you always wanted to pursue?
Not initially, as I didn’t really know what it entailed. However, since joining the in-house Recruitment team at ITV I love talking to and meeting people, which is the key part of the job, and as a result I would like to develop my career further within recruitment.

How many job applications do you get through in an average week?
Each Recruitment Manager looks after around 20-25 roles, and on average we receive anything between 30-400 applications per role.

TV & Me with Whizz Kid MD, Lisa Chapman

This week, Whizz Kid’s MD, Lisa Chapman, discusses the need for multi-tasking with all aspects of production – from working with comedians in silly outfits to dealing with HR.

How has your previous roles as a producer and executive producer helped in your role as MD at Whizz Kid?
Whizz Kid is an independent production company so as MD I need to be across everything from forecasts and finance to development and HR. My background is as a producer which also involves being across all aspects of a production and communicating with lots of different people so that ability to multi-task and people manage has really helped.

Is a career in telly something you always wanted to do?
Not at all! I left uni with a degree in Philosophy with vague plans of being a photographer. TV is something I fell into, had an aptitude for and loved (nearly) all of it.

What is your daily schedule like as MD?
It is so varied, there is no routine as such. I might be in development brainstorms, pitches or in the studio. It does involve regular cups of tea and coffee though.

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Category: Expert Q&As