This is it!

So this is it. I'm now in my 3rd and final year of my degree. It's scary to think just how fast these past 2 years have gone and even scarier when you think about how fast this year is going to go. Before I know it the end of my time at university will be up - my course will be over and I'll be graduating! This year I want to do as much as I can - getting involved and gaining experience - and really make the most of my final year of being able to call myself a 'student'.

[Keep reading my blog and you'll find out just how it goes!]

Don't try to make money out of me ITV!

ITV have a new money making scheme and I'm not too impressed with it.

Part of the fun of watching a series where episodes are split into more than one part is the wait for the next episode. Well now you don't have to wait a week any more. I was watching the first episode of the new series of Whitechapel when I got to the end of it and ITV informed me that I could now pay to watch the next episode online! Safe to say I wasn't too happy about that.

ITV are making money out of people who are just too impatient to wait for the next episode to be aired on TV. How long is it before other channels start to follow suit?

Blakeway North

During August, I spent 3 weeks on work experience as a Research Assistant at a TV production company called Blakeway North, based in Manchester.

As a Research Assistant my main job was to look into different programme ideas. As the company worked with factuals, this was the genre that I was working towards. I had to research possible contributors and locations for filming at (along with useful contact details) for ideas that they were already working on ready to pitch to commissioners as well as trying to find interesting stories that could potentially be made into factual programmes.

In order to carry out this research I spent a lot of time on Google but also got to use a site called Lexis Nexis which is an archive of newspaper reports from all over the world. I also spent a day going through the national newspapers to try and find new stories.

Another site I got to use was Broadcast Greenlight. This is a database that lists all of the programmes on UK TV channels that have been approved by commissioners, therefore, given the green light. The basis of many programmes are re-used years later and repackaged into something new, maybe for a different channel. I was using Broadcast to go through all of the programmes that have been shown over the past few years to see if there was anything that I thought Blakeway North could repackage or take ideas from. This site is updated daily so you can see what has just been commissioned long before it goes out on TV.

One of Blakeway North's biggest programmes is Benidorm ER (Channel 5) and they were just coming back from filming and getting ready to go back out for another series when I was there. All of the interviews that they filmed had to be transcribed so that it was easier to work with the clips in the edit. I spent a few days transcribing some of these interviews - 2 with Spanish doctors and one with a German doctor. It was quite a painstaking task and it did take a while but it gave me a chance to see what goes on with the raw footage before it gets into the edit and it made me more aware of just how essential the task was.

When pitching to commissioners you have to create a document that explains exactly how your programme is going to play out. Blakeway North make programmes for the Perspectives strand on ITV1 so I was able to read through a pitch for one of these as I was asked to proof read it. I also helped to put one of these documents together as I had to write a short synopsis about each of the contributors.

This was the first time that I had really spent any time in Manchester and in my last week I was brave enough to venture into the city in my lunch breaks. I've decided that Manchester isn't so bad after all and I kind of like it now.

There was also a cupcake shop just round the corner from the office (which is dangerous for me) and I'd managed to be really good and avoid going in there over my 3 weeks. But on my last day, the girls in the office bought me a cupcake to say 'thank you'. Lucky me!

Blogging for Digital Polish

At the moment I am on an internship with Liverpool based company Digital Polish as a Digital Marketing Intern. Over the duration of the internship, part of my job is to write posts for the blog. This week I wrote my first blog post and now it's been published to their website!

Content Matter! Top 5 apps for content creation

Impressed!

It's been a while since I did a general blog post about something that interested me that didn't involve an event or uni, so here's a little one.

Tonight I saw the new advert for The X Factor on ITV for the first time and I can safely say that I was pretty impressed with it. So to whoever created the mash-up - well done! Whether you like The X Factor or not, the full video is definitely worth checking out!

The Murder Trial (Channel 4)

Being a television first, I thought this would be an interesting watch as a media student. On the other hand, it's a subject that I'm interested in.

I thought it was a really good idea to be able to see into a court with a real-life case as it's an experience that many people don't get (thankfully) and the only insight we do have is usually through TV dramas. These fictional events are obviously based on the real procedure but they are often exaggerated for the purpose of the story, and they're scripted.

Having read the article about the programme beforehand in the Radio Times, I was a bit wary of what it was going to be like but was surprised to find just how much I was able to get into it and I really enjoyed it. The case really drew you in and made you evaluate the evidence for yourself and keeping asking "did he or didn't he" throughout. I came to the conclusion that he was guilty but was still surprised that the jury came to this conclusion as well since I thought they wouldn't have a verdict either way. I also thought that the farmer knew more than he was letting on but the interviews with him conducted after the court case, where he had the benefit of hindsight, told another story about him and we were shown a side to him that suggested he was innocent.

I think Channel 4 done really well by not having a narrator to tell the story but letting it guide itself through the the way in which they edited it together. By having interviews with the accused daughter outside of the court proceedings, the programme felt more balanced and took into account the human side of this story.

It was really nice to be able to see the barristers in between sessions as this took the tension away from proceedings and meant that the audience got a break and chance to relax with them. They were able to make light of their work and you got an insight into the real person instead of just the profession.

This is something that I would definitely like to see more on TV and think that Channel 4 would suit this well as a platform. The issues surrounding having cameras in court is one that I think could be eradicated in time. Some held the views that people would play up to the cameras but if this became the norm so that every case was filmed regardless of whether it was destined for TV or not would sort this out. Surely having cameras in a court room can only help - safety, education purposes.

Sheffield Doc/Fest 2013 - Interviews

As mentioned in the previous post about my trip to Sheffield Doc/Fest, I have since finished editing together the series of short interviews that I filmed with the Festival Director, the organisers and some of the industry delegates that were attending the festival this year. This in itself has turned into a short documentary now, I think!

Sheffield Doc/Fest 2013

Sheffield Doc/Fest is the first event that I've been to where I've attended as a Delegate instead of working as a volunteer - I'm the other side of the fence this time around. Whilst, in ways, I've missed not being the one volunteering for the event, it's been good to be able to go to the sessions, films and parties and actually have the freedom to pick and choose which ones.

There were 5 Media Professional Studies students that attended the festival from all 3 years - Me (2nd), Lee (1st), Mark (2nd), Chris (3rd) and Colin (3rd).

Wednesday

Wednesday saw the start of our 5 days at Sheffield Doc/Fest. Once we'd arrived and collected our Delegate passes we picked up tickets for the sessions and films we wanted to see, giving us a chance to find out where a few of the venues were and see a bit of Sheffield. On our way between venues, we came across a Scream bar that was offering Delegates 50% off food and discounted drinks throughout the festival - it was soon settled that this was to be where we'd be having lunch everyday! Since we'd just arrived and had all our bags with us, we decided not to attend any films or sessions and instead went to explore the city a bit and begin to get our bearings.

After checking in at the hotel, we all came back out for the BBC Storyville Opening Night After Party.

Thursday

The festival really started to kick off. I went to 3 sessions as well as seeing a film:

The BBC Interview: Janice Hadlow and Sue Perkins - The Controller of BBC Two talking about her work in documentary.

The Best of BUG: The Evolution of Music Video - Adam Buxton gives a taster of his BFI music video show.

Michael Palin in Conversation with Miranda Sawyer - Michael Palin talks about his work as a travel documentary maker.

Smash and Grab: The Story of the Pink Panthers (Havana Marking, 2012)

The Best of BUG was an entertaining whistle-stop tour of music videos with Adam Buxton providing a social commentary. This was a really good session that had the audience laughing the whole way through.

Smash and Grab is the best film that I've seen at Sheffield Doc/Fest. The story of a gang of real life diamond thieves was really interesting and definitely one I'd watch again. This film was shown in collaboration with Disaronno so we each got a complementary bottle of Disaronno and the film was followed by a drinks reception with free cocktails - making for a pretty happy bunch of MPS students!

Friday

Friday consisted of 2 more sessions, another film and a late night party:

The Channel 4 Sheffield First Cut Pitch - 5 film-makers pitch their idea for an hour long documentary where one would ultimately be chosen to be commissioned.

The Channel 4 Interview: Jay Hunt - The Chief Creative Officer talks about her role at the channel.

Allergy to Originality (Drew Christie, 2012) and The Great Hip Hop Hoax (Jeanie Finlay, 2013) with Q&A
Documentary Campus Party with Guilty Pleasures and Hot Gusset

The Channel 4 pitch wasn't something that I had intended on going to but decided on the day that I would. I was quite surprised to find that I really enjoyed watching a real life pitch and it was a good experience to see. Each of the 5 film-makers had to make a short 3 minute taster of a documentary on a given subject - Dinnertime. At the end of the pitches we got to see the panel vote and, as it resulted in a tie, 2 films got commissioned.

The Great Hip Hop Hoax was a film about lies, deceit and making it big in the music industry. It was quite an incredible story that I found played with your emotions. On the one hand I disliked the characters that the guys had become as the film progressed whereas I felt a kind of empathy towards the real people behind the characters as they looked back on their story.

We all very much had a good time at the Documentary Campus Party and it was a chance for us to meet up with the Film Studies students as well.

Saturday

What with the party the night before, we'd all had a bit of a late one so took it easy on the Saturday. I went to the Kitchen Sink Collective present 'Happy Shorts' screening which was a collection of clips from various music documentaries. I also used Saturday to spend some time exploring the city of Sheffield itself as I hadn't had too much of an opportunity to venture too far into it.

Sunday

We had exhausted ourselves by the end of the festival so decided that we didn't really want to see any of the films that were showing. As we'd checked out of the hotel, we had all our bags with us again so really we just wanted to start heading home.

Throughout the festival I managed to shoot some interviews with people who were involved with Sheffield Doc/Fest in various ways as I rather bravely introduced myself to the Festival Director, in order to create a short film.

I really enjoyed being at Sheffield Doc/Fest and it definitely made a change to be a Delegate. I'd like to go again next year but I am yet to decide whether I'd want to attend as a Delegate or work as a volunteer next time around.

Liverpool SoundCity! 2013

Another year of Liverpool SoundCity! has been and gone and again I've been involved as a Runner for the Expo.

So this time the Expo took place in the Hilton hotel, alongside the conference, but was a totally different experience to last year's Expo. Being in the Hilton it was on a smaller scale and much more business focused this time around. It was interesting to be able to see the business side of the music industry and get to know the people within it. The atmosphere was so different compared to that of the previous year that it made for a really good couple of days.

One of the highlights of the Expo were the music performances that ended up happening on the LAM Music stand. Thursday afternoon saw a few musicians from Argentine bands come together with the guys at LAM for a jam session which sparked an idea that formed into an open mic style session on the Friday afternoon.

Here's some of the talented entertainment we were provided with:



If next year's Expo could incorporate last year along with this year, it would definitely shape up to be the best one yet. It would certainly be good to see all the exhibitors back again.

Once again I've been lucky enough to be able to spend 2 days getting to know some fantastic people, forming new friendships and learning yet more about myself. Along with another Friday night out to remember, seeing some great new music. Bring on 1st-3rd May 2014!

Getting Noticed!

As a bit of a follow on from my FutureEverything blog post, the post has been published on the blog section of their own website and can be viewed here! Also, the videos that I put in the post have been noticed on Twitter after the YouTube links were sent to various members of the #futr production team. Here's what they had to say (or "tweet") about them:

A group of super bright 1st yr students from LJMU collared me RT @Ceri_Scouse @tomhigham here's vlog youtu.be/a2YffK5HQKE #futr
— Tom Higham (@tomhigham) March 24, 2013

Were you this bright at 18? @lofrost @lsslreid @petergreggs and friend sum up @futureverything youtube.com/watch?v=L8_2-S…
— FutureEverything (@FuturEverything) March 24, 2013