What is a Sound Assistant?
Although the hours are often long and fairly intensive, working within the sound department is a good opportunity to gain a foothold in an entry-level position within the industry. Working under the supervision of a good production sound mixer can be the perfect platform to gain practical experience whilst developing your craft as a sound recordist.
The ProductionBase team got their gladrags on at The Hospital Club last night for the inaugural Broadcast TECH Young Talent Awards, which honour those under 30 working in the fields of broadcast craft and technology. There were 11 hotly contested awards up for grabs covering a range of disciplines.
ProductionBase were proud sponsors of the Runner of the Year award, which featured some top nominees from across the industry. Congratulations to Jack Whitney (@Jack_Whitney) of 5A Studios, who came out on top for his creativity and efficiency, also impressing top clients with his sound design and track laying skills. Jack’s next assignment will be his first musical composition, for Discovery series Mercenaries. We’ll be featuring a full Q&A with Jack in our next Word of Mouth newsletter, so look out for that in the coming weeks.
Also highly commended was Mark Hills (Soho Square Studios) who was nominated in part for his work on the short film, Rabbit Foot, due to screen at next years’ Sundance Festival. For a full list of winners visit Broadcast TECH.
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.
Samuel Thornhill takes a look at how media undergraduates can expand their knowledge and improve their career prospects by taking advantage of the opportunities on offer from the likes of the BFI, BAFTA and The British Council.
‘It all starts here. Every line of dialogue and piece of action first appeared on the blank page of the screenwriter.’ Or did it? Was the ‘blank page’ actually covered in creative murmurings scratched onto post-it notes? As an undergraduate, there’s a limit on how much you can learn in a conventional university environment. It’s important to learn from the best and a great way to do this is by attending guest lectures and seminars from successful industry personalities to get the inside scoop on their working methods as unconventional as they may be sometimes.
In recent weeks, BAFTA has played host to a series of screenwriting lectures by some of the industry’s finest screenwriters which has somewhat lifted the lid on the method and the madness behind creating a successful screenplay. The five part series has featured guest lectures from comic book enthusiast and the man behind Christopher Nolan’s Batman franchise, David S. Goyer; Oscar nominee and writer of Erin Brokovich and The Soloist, Susannah Grant; the creative force behind the Bourne franchise and Michael Clayton, Tony Gilroy; Hossein Amini, one of a select few that beautifully construct screenplays through stunning visual direction and Richard Curtis, one of the cornerstones of quintessential British romantic comedy.
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!
Samuel Thornhill takes a look at what film festivals can offer undergraduates looking to break into the industry, and looks ahead to some of the highlights coming up at this years’ BFI London Film Festival:
One way to get an idea of the industry you work within is to get out there and experience the best (and worst) that is currently occupying the market. Film festivals present a unique opportunity for undergraduates to meet some of the professionals and contemporaries that are making inroads into the industry at that moment whilst promoting your own work and standing within the industry. If you’re not equipped with a project that you’re looking to gain distribution for, festivals can provide a real insight into marketing and distribution strategy too, with panels and seminars being regularly added to festivals to make them even more appealing.
For undergraduates, it’s not just about working towards your first step after graduation. Film festivals can be hugely beneficial in an academic sense too. Film festivals are often able to exhibit work that would otherwise not be shown for a prolonged period of time or at all in conventional screenings. For those of us who are (sadly) stuck deep in a rut in their analysis of counter cinema or foreign language markets, surely there’s no better place to view such films than in a festival environment with like-minded people who may well be interested in your study.
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.
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.
Oscar winning actor, and star of Netflix political drama House of Cards, Kevin Spacey, recently defended ‘TV Binges’ and called for innovation in storytelling as the boundaries between film and television are being broken down. Spacey used his address at the annual MacTaggart Lecture during the Edinburgh Festival as a rallying call to develop new and emerging storytelling talent, saying that not enough is being doing to support new talent across the industry.
Referring to innovative figures such as Steve Jobs and Henry Ford, Spacey urged Television personnel ‘to be that innovative. In some ways we need to be better than the audience. We need to surprise, break boundaries and take viewers to new places.’
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.