Saturday 20 September 2014

Blakeway North: A Professional Development.


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.


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