Blakeway
North: A Professional Development.
This summer I spent three amazing weeks working for
a television company based in Manchester. Blakeway North, the northern branch
of Blakeway Productions, provided me with a valuable insight into the industry
I hope to one day work in. To be completely truthful my ideal work placement
would have been on a drama or film set learning more about the production side
of things. At my time at Blakeway I would not learn anything new about filming
or editing, even though I did sit in on an editing session which was a great
insight into how to work more professionally. The things I did learn however
were perhaps far more insightful. This is because they gave me new career
options which I did not know I would have been interested in pursuing.
I love film making and storytelling, and visual
narrative is something I love working with, and this is why I originally felt
the obvious choice for a placement would have been on a set. However my
experiences on placement broadened my areas of interest in the industry. Blakeway
is a multi-award winning factual content production company. They make a wide
range of TV shows for most of the major channels. The office I was based in, was
used for content development, this meant the producers there would come up with
creative ideas for new shows. The other primary role for the office was for it
to be used as a hub for the current projects. When this happened it became a
place for the production team to plan for their upcoming activities. In both of
these areas I was able to help the team and gain experience at working on a
professional level.
On the first day at Blakeway I was asked to do some shredding
of old documents. This was not exactly what I had hoped for out of the
placement. However I felt that no task would be too small and I did my utmost
to be the best shredder that Blakeway had ever seen. I would implore all people
on placement to share this attitude as it certainly worked to my advantage.
After filling three bin bags with shredded paper in twenty minutes the machine
over-heated and stopped working. It’s a rather daunting task to have to inform
somebody you are supposed to be impressing that you have just broken a piece of
equipment after being on the premises less than an hour. However, I was kindly
informed it happened quite often and I was given a much better job. I was asked
to do some time-coding for one of Blakeway’s current TV shows Benidorm ER. This was enjoyable responsibility
and gave me my first taste of time-coding a script. The next day I was asked to
do more time-coding by Production Executive Alison Lewis. This was for a
beautiful documentary about Emile Sande’s journey to Mexico, where she discovered
information on her inspiration, artist, Freda Kahlo. 
There was plenty of other things to do whilst on
placement other than getting advanced screening of up and coming shows. Research
was an ongoing task throughout the placement. This would be set by different
producers that needed information on a new subject matter which potentially
could become a new show. I really enjoyed the research aspect in my role as it
kept me busy in between tasks. I won’t dwell to long on research as the
subjects Blakeway will be covering in new show are best kept a nice surprise. One
of the things that most stood out for me Blakeway was my meeting with the boss,
Sarah Murch. She invited me into her office for a chat and to give me the
opportunity to discuss any of my ideas. Forming ideas is something I can do
well, especially if it is in my areas of interest. As my ideas for potential
documentaries would largely concern social-economical political themes and their effects
on society, Sarah felt that many probably wouldn’t suit Blakeway. However she
felt I would be more suited to a current affairs type programme. Sarah was very
inspirational person. You could almost instantly tell she was a driven, focused
and intelligent individual who knew how to run a team of media professionals. In
fact the entire Blakeway team was a collection of inspiring individuals. For a
start they all seemed so happy to be in their jobs and they worked with a
really sense of purpose. They all had great industry experience and knowhow and
were happy to share it.
For the last two weeks of my placements I mainly
worked with a production team, who arrived mid-way through my first week. They
had a brief to create a show about people partaking in house swaps. By the
start of the second week I was primarily being used as an assistant producer
helping to find people who wanted to be part of the show. This involved working
closely with the team and observing them, which was very helpful in learning how to
work in a professional manner. Unfortunately by the time they started going on
location to shoot I had just finished my placement, so I missed out on that
side of things, which was disappointing. However it will be nice to see the
final product on the BBC when it is aired next month. At the end of my last day
we had a brainstorming session where everybody attended and put forward ideas
to be pitch to various channels. This was conducted by another fabulous
producer Georgina Madley, whose effortless enthusiasm was always a source motivation
whilst on placement. As Georgina was also in charge of development so I was always
keen to observe her methods and working practice. It was really insightful to see
progression of an idea of subject matter being transformed into a primetime television show.
I had a brilliant time at Blakeway and gained real
insight into how much production planning is needed to make something to
industry standard. The hard work starts long before you touch the camera or
enter the edit suite. Without the development stage you would not have a
quality narrative to form an entertaining television programme. The knowledge I have gained will
hopefully improve my future endeavours.
