Work Experience

GWR/Heart Radio
With Ben Mark, Station Producer

I spent three days on consecutive weeks with Ben, who is very nice.
I was impressed with GWR, which became Heart Radio during the time I was there.

Ben is the Station producer, his main roles are maintaining the studio's while the breakfast show is running and composing the station's jingles. He explained to me that he is given a strict set of rules to compose by and is sent the vocal parts from the central corporate offices each week.
He can use whatever music he feels is appropriate, but always tries to keep to the profile of the Bristol station. he is careful not to use music that is to niche specific, preferring instead to use middle of the road, easy listening type music.






















Ben talked to me about his career path into this position. He began by taking a BTEC in music technology at Weston College, he was actually one of the first student on the course and has very fond memories of it. From there he worked as an independent music producer and engineer, making his own Afro-Caribbean blend of high energy dance music. He knew he wanted to get into radio production and contacted GWR directly to ask for a work placement there. It took 18 months of begging and tenacity, but eventually he got a placement with the tech department and once he was in the door he began to make himself indispensable.

What began as a one day a week placement quickly turned into every day form 7am to 5pm while he worked in a bar at night. He described it as "exhausting but amazingly rewarding". He developed his skills as a radio engineer and became the 'go to' man at the station for all things technical. "Make yourself irreplaceable and you will make a job for yourself", which he did in 6 months. The engineer he was shadowing moved on and he was offered the job. He worked for free for 6 months and committed totally to the station and was rewarded with a good job that he has been able to make a great job by expanding his role and developing the stations signature style through his energetic and creative promos and segment intros.

Since I am already interested in sound and music production it was wonderful to watch him at work, quickly putting together segment links that would probably have taken me days to complete in a couple of hours. Ben uses protools for all his production and has a huge catalogue of CD's in his office with every different kind of music imaginable. Most of the music he uses are from CD's produced specifically for use by sound engineers for film or radio or TV and the are all licenced. But occasionally he will use a well known song or something iconic. When he uses unlicensed music he fills out a PRS claim form online so the writer will receive the royalty payment. Apparently this is usually worked out in increments depending on the length of the section of music that is used.

Over all I really enjoyed my time with Ben and got a real insight into the job role. I am still interested in Radio as a possible career, but I know I would never be quick or patient enough to do Ben's job on my best day as a sound engineer!

www.heartbristol.co.uk/

Event planning

Production Schedule

As producer I had the task of putting together the production schedule, please see below!
I have also included photo's of 'work in progress' charts made during our classes concerning the event. Hopefully we can keep to the schedule and keep developing our skills. Time is running out and I am a little concerned that major tasks have not been resolves such as posters and speakers and art work. As everyone's work experience draws to a close we should be able to re focus our efforts and the event will take on a more positive shape!

Week of Mon 9th February
Meeting 1, planning event, assigning roles
Week of Mon 16th February
Meeting 2, planning and follow up.
Week of Mon 23rd February
Meeting 3, planning and follow up
Week of Mon 2nd March
Meeting 4, planning and follow up
Week of Mon 9th March
Meeting 5, planning and follow up
Week of Mon 16th March
Meeting 6, planning and follow up
Week of Mon 23rd March
Meeting 7, planning and follow up
Week of Mon 30th March
Prepare & send info to sub contractors
Week of Mon 6th April
Easter
Week of Mon 13th April
Easter
Week of Mon 20th April
Prepare & confirm work with sub-contractor
Week of Mon 27th April
Prepare & Send out Marketing info
Mon 4th May
Prepare event areas
Tues 5th May
Event!!!!!
Wed 6th May
Celebration Party!
5th 6th 7th June 2009
Volksfest, Bristol



link:www//httpyourmediayourfuture.co.uk

Work Experience

A Week at Endemol

Day 5 Schedule

Friday 6th March

09.00 – 13.15

Report to Phil Noall, Art Director assist with boxes/props/tasks (art dept/running)
Lunch

14.00 – 16.00

Report to Stacy, Gallery/Office Runner and assist with tasks

Report to Annalise for 1:1 feedback and completed forms.

Ahh, the art department! How my son would love this place!
Apart form resetting the boxes under the scrutiny of the shows lawyer to keep everything fair and legal, these's guys have more fun than anyone else in the production. They make sets, and build castles and dragons and Christmas trees and whatever else they need for whichever themed show is due next. When I was there they were busy making props for the seaside themed show due to shoot in a few weeks. They have made sandcastles and painted them, they looked incredibly real and also a huge over sized candy cart, with ice creams and sweeties. I helped paint and fat sea captain figure, his arms around a mermaid for the set, which was fun, although I managed to get paint all over myself. This is a wonderful job, all the guys there were university graduates with degrees in fine arts and design and paintings in the back they were working on in their lunch hours. They all loved their jobs, I can't blame them. they get paid, all be it not a huge amount, to mess around with paints and build crazy set pieces they design themselves and everybody wants to be them. Especially me!





















The afternoon was spent with the lovely Stacey, part of the audience team, her role this week of runner for the gallery and maintainer of Noel's dressing room. I spent the time following her around, making coffee for the gallery and straightening up Noel's spotless dressing room. She was also in charge of ordering the train tickets for the contestants for the weekend, so after she has ordered them online we went to the station to pick them up, all 25 of them from the ticketing machine. I also helped her make up boxes of supplies for the audition weeks coming up. Groups of researchers go to several destinations around the country auditioning contestants for the show and they have boxes of supplies that travel with them. It was a nice way to end the week, a visit to almost every department, which gave me a chance to thank everyone and say goodbye.
I was sad to leave them all, cameramen, researchers, editors, runners, producers, and everything in between. I would especially miss the free lunch, which was always delicious. Annalise was wonderful and very encouraging, although I think I may have encouraged her to give up her job and go and sail around the world, but that's another story.
I did a complete turn around, having sworn I would never work in TV least of all of a rubbish game show that I couldn't even sit through. I found myself a little tearful at leaving it. Perhaps I should make my own rubbish game show, surround myself with lovely funny and extremely competent people and be happy!

Link:http://www.dealornodeal.co.uk
link;http://www.endemoluk.com/?q=taxonomy/term/1&tid=1

Work Experience

A Week at Endemol

Thursday 5th March

09.30 – 13.45

Report to Liz Bowley – Post Production (edit/vision mix)
You will observe/work with an Edit Producer and Editor
Lunch Unit A

14.50 – 16.45

Report to Dan Winterburn, Vision Mixer in Gallery



In the morning I was escorted to the editing department.

Blackdog is a editing company based in London with an office within the Endemol building specifically dedicated to Deal or no Deal. This means that the show can be filmed and edited at the same location and the edits are usually three to foru weeks behind the shoot, which is usually 6 weeks behind airing. Because the tapes are literally walked from the gallery directly to the edit suites by the online editor working with Blackdog, this avoids tapes going missing or being destroyed en route in some way, it also maintains Endemol's control of its product. They aim for a four day turn around, from shooting the show through editing and up to head office in four days for each programme. Its a very tight schedule leaving no room for error. Although I was told by Cal, the editor I was placed with, that there have been some very down to the wire experiences, " with minutes to spare" was the direct quote. They edit in the first two 1/1 days then the editing producer previews the show and sends it back for changes and then it goes up to the producers where without any further changes its goes on the Channel Four ready for broadcast.
According to Cal the most difficult shows are the most boring ones. When no one wins and no one is funny and Noel is trying is hardest to make something happen. "Its hard to make something funny or interesting when it just isn't" he said.
"Then we just have to work really hard and make something look interesting with edits when it isn't".



























It was very interesting to me to watch something being edited in Avid instead of Final Cut.
As the show is basically a live event that's edited afterwards to get it to fit its time slot, Avid is far more practical since its designed more for live TV.
Its more instantaneously responsive than Final Cut, although Cal did admit that Final Cut was slowly taking over the editing field and certainly any editor would need to be able to use Final Cut as readily as Avid to work.





















The afternoon was spent back in the Gallery with Dan Winterburn a vision mixer. This shows again how 'live' Deal or no Deal truly is. Dan vision mixes the show as it films doing basically a live edit. He watches the monitors and picks each camera as is shoots for the main mix. Clearly this is more than tidied up afterwards in the edit, but it does go a long way to give the show it's 'live' feel and complements the camera work, especially the handycam. Deal or no Deal has twice as many cameras as any other game show and plays up its trademark sweeping camera moves and close ups of cast and audience to great effect creating the tension and drama tha show is famous for. Much of this is accomplished in the gallery during shooting by the vision mixer.
I can imagine that vision mixing can become addictive. Its all about spontinaiety and confidence and style, and could be quite the power trip. I would love to have a go, but I'm not sure I have the nerve for it.

Link:http://www.dealornodeal.co.uk
link:http://www.endemoluk.com/?q=taxonomy/term/1&tid=1

Work Experience

A Week at Endemol

Day 3 Schedule

Wednesday 4th March

09.00 – 11.30

Report to Kevin Sharp, Chief Spark/Lighting (lighting/director/gallery)
Break

11.45 – 13.45

Report to Phil Ingamells, Director in Gallery
Lunch Unit A

14.40 – 16.45 (or when final record ends)

Report to Stacy Heaven, Gallery/Office Runner and help assist with tasks


In the morning I reported to Kevin Sharp, the chief lighting guy, or 'spark'.
He and his two colleagues, Mike and Grahame, are based in the lighting booth in the gallery area of the studio. All these guys have been in the business for many years and work under contract for Deal or no Deal. They have all worked on the show for several years and can do their jobs almost without thinking. I don't know too much about lighting so I was interested to find out a little more about the subject. But to be honest the show is so formulaic and choreographed that the lighting is more a light show than lighting a set or for a mood. There are thousands of low amp lights all over the set and the biggest task seems to be making sure they are all working properly. One man handles the flashing and strobing one the studio lights and one sweeps the set and directs the light as necessary. Its all very planned and although it was interesting watching them work, as experts, I didn't learn too much about the process of lighting. They were very nice though, and funny.


























The rest of the morning was spent in the gallery with the director Phil Ingamells, another very nice,very funny guy.
I basically observed the whole show taping from the directors perspective, trying to stay out of the way again and only ask questions when things seemed quiet, which wasn't very ofter during the taping. They show is shot as if it were going out live, which means the director calls out the camera changes live and mostly there are faultless shots after faultless shots. There is an online editor in the gallery, which is apparently unusual, but necessary with Deal or no Deal because of the quick turnaround. The editor takes notes of the shots captured and any mistake made which will speed up the final edit.
























I was given a pair of headphones and listened in on the floor manager and the bankers comments too which was interesting because their dialogue is of course quite different from the cameramen and the director. Over all it was exciting to be in the gallery during shooting, its the brain of the show and you can really feel the connections between every departments, everyone channelling all their energies into the product. I think I would make an excellent director! Its certainly the most multi tasking I have ever witnessed by a man!

Link:http://www.dealornodeal.co.uk

link;http://www.endemoluk.com/?q=taxonomy/term/1&tid=1

Work Experience

Week at Endemol

Day 2 Schedule

09.00 - 17.00

(Audience Team)
Assist with checking in/briefing/chaperoning. Also assist with admin, booking in quests etc.

I spent all day with the audience team. They are in charge of organising the audience. this covers everything, checking them in, asking them if they have anything that needs to be left in the security box during shooting. This includes cameras, aerosoles, and even lighterss. I helped to stream the audience into studio and assisted in placement. Generally the audience team knows if any of the contestants have friends or family in the audience and they place them at the front so the camers can get to them easily. I checked for logo's on clothing (for copyright infringement) and wardrobe problems including stripes which mess up the digital image and bright colours that are hard to light. Audience members are requested to wear dark clothing, so occasionally people show up in bright or striped or checked clothing and have to be placed in the back of the audience where they wont be filmed or asked to change or cover up. After the show goes to air the audience team leaves the studio. The holding area needs to be checked for trash etc and then they go back to the offices and start work there.






















While the show is on air Iwent through the audience request files and called some of the applicants for audience. I managed to placed 12 people in shows for the next month during the day. After the show finishes airing the audience is lead back to the holding area and either stays there until called back in for the next filming, or is released. This process with the studio is repeated three times a day.

I actually really enjoyed working with the audience team. They are a very lovely bunch very enthusiastic and helpful. they are all graduates who have come to the job through work placements, which is interesting. Endemol seems to use work placement as a method of extended interviewing. It obviously works extremely well, and everyone I met during the week loves working for the company, and hopes to hold onto their jobs for a good long while. I was skeptical about TV game shows as a possible source of work, but I can honestly say that I would enjoy working at Deal or no Deal myself!

Link:http://www.dealornodeal.co.uk

Link:http://www.endemoluk.com/?q=taxonomy/term/1&tid=1

Work Experience

A Week at Endemol

Day One Schedule


Monday 2nd March

12.15
Arrive on-site – report to Annalise:
H&S induction, completion of forms, site tour, intro to mentors etc
(audience/studio floor/cams)

13.15 – 14.45
Sit in audience to view show

15.00 – 17.00
Report to Steve Richmond, Studio Runner, shadow floor management and assist runner with tasks if need be.

17.45 - 19.45 (or when final record ends)
Dinner Unit A
Report to Scott, Cam Asst. – shadow with access to ‘talk-back’ so you can listen in on direction from the Gallery

As this was my first day I was a bit nervous and really didn't know what to expect. But after meeting Annalise any concerns I may have held where quickly dismissed.
She is very warm and friendly and extremely organised. In fact 'organised' is as good a word as any I can imagine to describe Endemol and the Deal or no Deal production team.

With 3 recordings a day five days a week they really need to be running like a well oiled machine, and they are!

After meeting Annalise she sent me over to the audience holding area so I could sit in on a show being filmed. I must admit I have never watched Deal or no Deal before, I am not a big fan of game shows in general. But I can see the appeal of this one. keeping the same contestant day after day creates and connection for the audience and it runs four days a week so its almost like a soap, a regular part of the day.

After the filming I took a short break and then reported to Steve Richmond, the studio runner. Steve is about 25 and has a degree in media production. He applied for a work experience placement, as did most of the junior members of the production team. After his two week placement he applied for any job that was available and was taken on. The production crew rotate the more junior roles such as runner, researcher, and audience control. Steve was the floor runner that day, which involves making sure everyone on the studio floor has everything they need. I helped him clean up after the last contestants, removing water bottles and rubbish and moving the used boxes back stage for the art department to re set them. We took a log of contestant placement and logged all the values of the boxes that had been opened and made copies of the pg to give out to various staff such as the director and online editor. Steve was also on call for whatever the floor manger needed during the shoot.

After that I reported to Scott the camera assistant to sit back stage with the camera crew and listen in to the directors instructions to them form the gallery. I found this was fascinating. There are 8 camera set up for the show two permanently facing the audience and controlled from the gallery, one floating on the floor, three at the top rear of the studio looking down over the audience and one hand held on a steady cam attached to a harness and carried by and very muscular cameraman. This 'loose' shooting is the hallmark of the show and requires immense trust from both the director and the cameramen, they have to listen to the directors instructions and shoot the show practically in a live format. two shoot three shows a day there must be seamless camera operation and perfect timing and coordination. Each show takes about 1 1/2 hours to film and must be edited to a 30 minute show, so there is little room for mistakes.

I asked a lot of questions about the camera kit, particularly the steady cam. All the cameras are Sony heads with Panasonic and Olympus lenses. the steady cam weighs about 40lbs and is placed in a stand every 5 minutes or so to ensure the cameraman is okay, this is obviously a health and safety issue.
But basically I observed and stayed well out of the way of everyone and tried not to laugh out loud at the directors and the bankers often racy remarks. It was wonderful!

Link:http://www.dealornodeal.co.uk

link:http://www.endemoluk.com/?q=taxonomy/term/1&tid=1

Event

The next meeting was held on March 3rd, I was unable to attend this one as I was on work experience at Endemol. I caught up with the proceeds of the meeting and any decisions made through the meeting minutes. During the meeting, which Aleicia chaired, three main topics were discussed.

1. Budget
2. Posters and promotional material
3. Job allocation for marketing

It was suggested that the posters be produced to cover both promotion of the event throughout the college and local schools and also as informational tools during the event.

It was decided that 30 A5 posters would be produced to promote the event, and we would also produce several banners for the entrance to the campus during the event. The media posters for use during the event would each represent a role in the media industry and be hung around the campus along the route to the performance space where the event would take place.
Tom volunteered to get quotes from local printers for the posters and banners. Aleicia agreed to ask Gill Fowkes, Weston College Marketing Department for printing prices as a comparison.



It was also suggested by Tom that we produce flyer's for the day of the event with media role information on them. It was suggested that the name badges required for the speakers and event supervisors would not need to be elaborated and simple sticky labels would suffice.
It was agreed that each student would take on the responsibility of researching three roles for the event posters

Kim reported that we would have access to four computers for the gallery or entrance to the event. She also suggested that the 'roles' posters be hung along the corridor to the performance space and Tom suggested that we allow enough time before the speakers start for the students to brows the posters and fill in the questionnaire and to also schedule breaks during the morning with refreshments available.
Adam reported that the performance space was usually booked out to Ace and Paul on Fridays but after he had spoken to the and explained our event they were happy to relinquish the spot and would also encourage their students to attend in place of their scheduled lecture. Kim said she would speak to Terrance to book out the gallery space and Adam had contacted Warren Smith to speak but had not heard back and neither had Kim from GWR. Adam was allocated 'sound coordinator' role for the event. Other roles for the event and the production had not yet been allocated and agreed upon. Because many of us were away form college taking part in work placements it was difficult to assign roles at this stage, but it was felt generally that booking the space and organising the speakers took priority at that point. In retrospect the posters should have been a priority too.

Being busy with work placements has certainly hampered our organising of the event. I have found it frustrating to be off site during such a critical time, but with emails texts and phone calls we seem to be muddling through. Although clearly this is far from ideal. I think we could make much more of this event and develop our roles more definitively with a shorter time span but a more complete commitment. Four solid weeks of work would work far better than 12 weeks of sporadic, confused tasking and unrealised goals.


link:www//httpyourmediayourfuture.co.uk