Work Experience

Work Experience Analyses

During my work experience I came to several conclusions about my possible career course within the media industry.
My experience at Heart FM was interesting and while I think corporate radio stations are going to be around for a long time, its not really an area I am interested in enough to pursue a career in. An independent station could hold more promise, but there is so little money in it that I am not sure I could really afford the indulgence right now. Although I would love to write a radio play, so that's something to consider.

Endemol was something of a revelation. I would never have considered looking for a job in daytime TV, let alone a game show. But having spent a week there I can honestly say I would be very happy in that environment, and not just for the free lunch. The crew morale and the atmosphere generally was so enjoyable and possitive that staff rarely left, jobs were sought after and Deal or no Deal has a great deal of respect in the industry, certainly from an employment perspective. Shakespeare it isn't, but neither is it standing around in a drafty field at 5am for weeks on end. So for me it has opened up a whole new set of possibilities.
Of course I loved my time with Across the Pond, which is still on going. I have found that the best lessons learned are usually when you are in at the deep end. Every time we begin our own projects we grow as individuals and learn more about film making, ourselves and the world around us.

I hope to keep making films and next year I will make my own short film and I will draw from all these working experiences and hopefully the film will be the better for it and so will I.
Until then I will probably see you in the drafty field at 5am...

www.heartbristol.co.uk
http://web.mac.com/javierronceros/Site/Welcome.html

http://picasaweb.google.com/acrossthepond.pilot

http://www.dealornodeal.co.uk
http://www.endemoluk.com

Critical comentary of Media Event

'The Main Event'

"Your Media Your Future" was the title of the event and it became a guide for us while we worked on selecting materials and speakers for the day. I sometimes had to remind myself that the concept for the event was to educate and inform 15 to 17 year old's. At least my son, who is 16, could help remind me what this age group are interested in and how to connect with them.

I think having the interactive element within the event was key in relating the concept of working within the media industry to our audience. This age group are used to a high level of interactivity through online networking sites such as facebook and twitter and also with digital game playing. I large proportion of their leisure time is spent either in front of a computer or TV screen or on the phone, mostly texting and viewing downloads. The short and informative films on the imacs worked really well in giving the audience the perfect delivery for their digitally minds. Also the quizionaire was an ideal way to include them in the process of the theme. They had to read the posters and watch the films in order to take part and this meant they had to retain information that we gave them whether they planned to or not. We had already prepared their minds to absorb and consider information before the speakers even began!

Running the speakers reels went further again, continuing to stimulate the interest of the audience and putting them in the familiar position of viewer before involving them again with questions and answers, much like the quiz. We can see from the results of the surveys that they were open to learn and interested in the delivery of the information as well as its content. The delivery being as important as the content since media was the theme.
From our survey we gathered the following information from the event:

1. 100 % of the audience felt the event met with their expectations
2. 80 % of the audience found the event interesting, giving it 3, 4, & 5 out of 5 as a grade.
3. 90 % of the audience would recommend the course to others
4. 86% of the audience felt the event inspired them to seek a career in the media (3,4 &5 grade)
   

We did have to change the sequence of events last minute, not having the actors, either Adams drama group or the Children's workshop group that Kim contacted as a backup. Although I think it would have added an element of fun to the proceedings, it would also have made the event too long for the audience and without careful rehearsal and planning it could easily have been a bit messy.

The banners were a bit disappointing, small and dull looking, but since the printers were contacted so late due to the financing uncertainties, they were good enough for the day. It would have been better I think to have had a speaker from the film making world, especially a local to give the students some real in site into starting out in film, but the speakers we did have were at least interesting, local and relevant. A lack of fluidity on the planning made it difficult to know where the project was at any given point, and although the meetings were adequate, I feel they should have been longer and more often. I understand that our timetable prevented this, but had the event been scheduled either after or well before our work experience, we would have had more opportunity to communicate regularly and form a more cohesive team.

But the event itself went almost flawlessly I think, due mostly to the sense of trust we have with one another. After two years of lectures and filming and open and honest communication, we have become very close. Trust play a very important role in any relationship, and we have been able to rely on each other and support each other and this has built the trust we now have. Going into the third year with this wonderful and capable group of people is an amazing and secure place to be. I feel sure that whatever the projects we all choose to develop, each of us will be available for the other to help and support and most importantly to offer honest advise and guidance. We are an unstoppable force!!

Lastly I would like to thank Kim Brooke.

Kim has been really wonderful this year with her help and her guidance through the course. She has offered some wonderful advice and worked very hard to help us with not only the event but in every aspect of our college life. I wish her well and hope she will pop by to see us in Bristol from time to time.

An article written in the Weston Mercury
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link:www.thewestonmercury.co.uk/
Link: www.weston.ac.uk
link:www//httpyourmediayourfuture.co.uk

Work Experience

Across The Pond

Javier Ronceros, the Writer and Producer of Across The Pond, talks about his role in the project and how his career path lead him to become a film producer.



The following is an except form a production diary that Javier kept for the duration of film production.

Production Diary, Across The Pond

Friday, January 16 – Weston super Mare 12:00 noon We went out in the streets of Weston to shoot some exteriors. Later I went to get a haircut for my role on Saturday. That night Samantha decided to make pasta with milk. I became violently ill the night before we were to shoot.














Saturday, January 17 – Weston super Mare 7:00 a.m. I woke up deathly ill. It was a combination of Samantha’s gastronomic catastrophe and the flu. We started early and the weather was very cold. We started in Grove Park shooting the character James’ intro to the pitch. 10:30 a.m. Our second location was on Upper Church Road in front of The Florence Guest House. This is where our hero finds accommodations and enters the guest house. I was very cold and nauseated.














Our third location was at the bus station. Baker-Dolphin Bus Lines were kind enough to provide a drive by for no charge. 6:00 p.m. The day went well despite my illness. The crew was cracking good and for a first day.it went surprisingly well, until we viewed the rushes. It seems that the audio channel we were recording on, was defected. We had no usable audio. Our sound person Jo, was very apologetic and embarrassed. We decided to reschedule this day
















Sunday, January 18 – Weston super Mare 10:15 a.m. Our second day started out pretty much like the first day, except for two things; I was sicker and it was colder. We filmed at Grove Park corner with our ‘Hamlet.‘There was some confusing on the set as Gabe was upsetting Brendan. 1:00 p.m. Our next location was exteriors of the Blakehay Theatre. Gabe insisted we shoot his prologue. I decided to shoot two versions of every scene. 2:00 p.m. We returned to The Florence Guest House to re shoot yesterday’s scene. This time we made sure all the audio channels were working properly. As we were walking to the location, Brendan and I stumbled across a news advert declaring that the Blakehay was in trouble. We added the character of James, walking past the notice.


















Javier has taught me to keep notes about absolutely everything. His excuse is that he has a bad memory and needs to keep extremely organised in order to get anything completed. But I think its a good habit to get into whatever the reason. We made a point of having a stills photographer on set every day and even went so far as to hire a young filmmaker, Corey Raymond, to film the filming! In fact this process of diary keeping and cataloguing every moment of the shoot has led Javier to the idea of the show evolving into 'The making of Across The Pond'. A series about the making of a low budget film. We are in the process of writing the script for the show using emails from the project and our memories and pictures.
The story could work even better than the original idea. There were so many times during the filming when we turned to each other and said "you couldn't write this stuff", about the actual film making process and the characters we came across and the situations that evolved because of the shoot.

http://web.mac.com/javierronceros/Site/Welcome.html

http://picasaweb.google.com/acrossthepond.pilot

Work Experience

Across The Pond

This is a demo preview piece that Javier has put together from some footage made during the shoot. The idea was to use it as an introduction to the series idea. Kind of like a filmed pitch in a way. Although this is a basic version, I think it shows the beginnings of an idea, it was also felt that this could show the catalogue of locations in Weston and introduce several characters that may not be seen in a pilot, or first episode. e felt that it was important to show the town as an additional character rather than just the background. Part of our pitch for the idea was that making a series in Weston was unique and that the town itself could support a semi permanent film crew in every way.
Thinking up ideas to try and sell the project was something I enjoyed. In such a competitive market with so many production companies tussling for so few spots and an ever shrinking pot of money, whatever you can do to convince the powers that be that your idea is better than the next is extremely important and well worth spending time on.

http://web.mac.com/javierronceros/Site/Welcome.html

http://picasaweb.google.com/acrossthepond.pilot

Work Experience

Across The Pond

Casting

We cast mostly from Casting Call Pro, an actors and film makers networking site that Javier belongs to. It has proved an extremely useful resource for us, and the actors who belong to the service are content to work for no pay, but for food, lodgings if necessary and an opportunity to work in film.
After weeks of sifting through possible actors and Javier contacting several of them himself we arranged a two day casting in Bristol. I booked out the Amoeba Cafe in Clifton, they have a downstairs room they kindly allowed us the use of, and we set up 40 or so appointments with actors. I had also sourced some hopefuls from the Misfits Directory given to me by Oliver Purches, a local filmmaker. This directory has information on local filmakers and crew and actors living and working in the Bristol are keen to help out on low budget projects. In fact we cast our leading lady from there and found a couple of wonderful crew as well, the cinematographer and the sound engineer.
It was absolutely freezing in the cafe, as they have no central heating and January was bitterly cold this year, so we brought our space heater and promised to buy everyone tea or coffee just for showing up. We had a remarkable turn out in fact, with some actors coming as far as Kent, which is quite a schlep, and even Scotland!.
We cast four of our actors on the first day which was wonderful, Josh Golga , Pheobe Beacham, Tom Carter and Jo Jo Burdett. We also ate our weight in Bacon sarnies, but we had to fight the cold somehow!






































www.castingcallpro.com
http://web.mac.com/javierronceros/Site/Welcome.html

http://picasaweb.google.com/acrossthepond.pilot

D - Day!

Your Media Your Future!

Finally, the day has come and gone!!
I think it went really well in the end, very smoothly and there were no huge mess ups, which was a relief.
I was the host, which I was a bit nervous about really, mostly because I would be speaking in front of professional TV producers and I didn't want to look a complete twit. Hopefully, I didn't!
Everyone did exactly what they were supposed to do, even Adam!
Tom had camera 2, the roaming camera and filmed everyone constantly, lots of strange close ups of cups of tea being stirred etc. Kim was on Camera 1, which was stationary and also ran the live feed to the TV screen in the lobby. Kate manned the reception with Alecia, and Keely ran between the IT crew and me. Adam was the photographer for the day.
Everyone started arriving early and on time which was a shock, but we were ready for them.
I greeted the speakers as they arrived and escorted them to the cafeteria for their complementary breakfast, they all seemed to be pleased with that and settle down at a table to get to know each other. I was in contact with Keely via text and stayed with them until it was time to start the event. I had put together a short bio of each of the speakers by way of introduction and had consulted with them as too their running order.
After welcoming the audience and explaining the schedule briefly and the questionnaire and prize I introduced Valerie as our first speaker and let her have the floor.
We ran Valerie's show reel for her on the big smart screen and she talked through her career and
experiences in the TV business. She also took some questions form the audience and I asked her a couple of the questions we had previously collected from the students.
We then had Cormac speak. As he is in Radio it was a nice change of pace and her ran his audio reel and explained his role at Heart radio as New Editor. He also gave a breakdown of his career path and took questions from me and the audience.
We then took a 25 minute break for tea and cookies and to give the audience a chance to complete the quizzionnaire and us a chance to collect and mark them.
After the break we came back with Jason Holmes, a popular speaker due to his involvement with the Extreme Fishing show. Jason showed us some excerpts from Coast, a show he worked on last year and then talked about his route into the business. He took questions, mostly about Extreme Fishing, and was very interesting!
Last but by no means least was Laura Abrahams. Laura's career has been spent in the UK and in Australia working on, among others, I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here. She was interesting and thorough, and her reel was fun and aimed at the younger media crowd, which was a nice touch. After Laura took questions and spoke at length about her experiences I wound up the event.
I announced the winners of the quiz and people were very happy with their experience, from the information they were kind enough to fill in on the quiz for us. After we had personally thanked the speakers and the additional crew we utilized, Rob and Kim, we tidied up the space and removed all the posters form the hallways for use at the Volksfest. We were exhausted and had a celebration lunch with Laura and Valerie in the cafeteria.
Please enjoy a selection of pictures of the event!


link:www//httpyourmediayourfuture.co.uk

Work Experience

Across The Pond

I became involved with this project initially last summer when Javier Ronceros, my boyfriend, came over to stay with me and brought with him an script for a short film he wanted to make.
The film was called Five Minutes and it was the first draft for Across the Pond.
We had such a positive experience filming this short piece in Weston that we found ourselves dreaming about a bigger project and expanding on the characters already created, the storylines seemed endless.
Below is a press release for the film written while we were shooting earlier this year. It echos the feelings of everyone involved the filming and resonates with me still.
I have learned so much form each and every experience with film. Usually I take on the role of Producer, which I enjoy because I am really in control of the film in the end. Because the films are so low budget every role within the production automatically become more creative. Producing gives me the best position to remain creatively involved in the writing or the directing and certainly in the editing, but it also allows me complete control of the budget and therefore the locations and the crew and cast. I have learned how to select crew, not just because I like them but more importantly because they will work hard and get on with the project without complaining we are running long or they have somewhere else to be. Recognising real commitment from crew or cast is a well learned skill. A committed cast and crew can make the difference between a project completed and a project stalled.

Press Release


For Immediate Release:

Contact: Samantha Simmonds, producer
0754 507 7033 (mobile)
Acrossthepond.pilot@googlemail.com

Hollywood journeys “Across The Pond” to create a television pilot in Weston-super-Mare

Weston-super-Mare, Somerset – On 17 January 2009, a quartet of Los Angeles-based independent television producers, teamed with a pair of producers from Somerset, will begin filming a television pilot for a proposed series called “Across the Pond” to be aired on British television. A “prologue” to summarize the vision and scope of the entire project, the 10 minute short will be shot over an 8-day period entirely within the town of Weston-super-Mare. Working outside of the studio system, the untraditional project is funded entirely by donations from family and friends.

The story centers on James Newhouse, a Los Angeles-based actor. When he is offered a job as artistic director of a theatre in the UK, he is shocked to find himself not in the West End, but in Weston. This fish-out-of-water tale will include a large cast of colorful characters, as James negotiates his new life in a foreign country. The show is thematically linked to the classic American series “Northern Exposure” with nods to the British hit “The Vicar of Dibley” and will unfold in a five-year arc.

“Across the Pond” is directed by Javier Ronceros with Sam Morris as director of photography, and is produced by Samantha Simmonds, Brendan Flannery, Estrella Perez and Gill Warren, with screenplay by Javier Ronceros & Gabriel DellaVecchia. Shooting locations include the landmark Blakehay Theatre, the charming Florence Guest House, and a pair of private residences in Weston. Post-production will be completed by early February.

The producers hope this prologue of “Across the Pond” will help them secure a commission from a British network or from an independent production company, as they feel that the story of this particular man in a peculiar place will appeal to a universal audience. Says producer Brendan Flannery, “The more we develop this project, the more we feel that this little universe already exists and that we are simply revealing it to the world. It’s almost magic.”

The producers plan to film the series in Weston-super-Mare during their traditionally slow winter months, giving the area a much-needed economic boost. They also plan to base the series at the Blakehay Theatre, a historical landmark that has recently seen a planned refurbishment cancelled due to the declining world economic situation, and hope that if the pilot goes to series, the financial infusion will help to ensure the future of this important local cultural institution. Says producer Estrella Perez, “Our entire crew and the majority of our cast are from right here in Somerset. We want to shine a spotlight on this overlooked corner of England, and to do our part to increase production outside of London. We think this town is a hidden gem, and we’d like to promote that for the benefit of our show and the benefit of the town itself.”

Initial response to the show has been incredible. US-based recording artist Lauren Hoffman has agreed to provide the show’s theme song, and international watch brand Giantto has signed on as the first sponsor. The entirely volunteer crew includes members with credits working with high-profile profile companies such as Aardman Animation, 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros Pictures, New Line Cinema, and Touchstone Television.

Says series co-creator Javier Ronceros, “We have come to England on a wing and a prayer… We have been overwhelmed by the generosity and assistance we have received from everyone along the way. With such amazing support, we cannot fail.”


link;http://web.mac.com/javierronceros/Site/Welcome.html
www.imdb.com/name/nm1242146/
http://thedangersquad.com/Performances.html