TV Fast Train 2012

Free training event for media freelancers TV Fast Train 2012 was a success. Hosted by BBC Academy in partnership with Creative Skillset and other industry partners, the day saw more than 500 attendees attending 24 masterclasses and 160 practical training sessions.

My first Fast Train session was Using Social Media to Grow Your Brand. It was about reaching, building and engaging audiences. It featured my online idols: BBC’s Social Media Lead Dan Biddle; Telegraph Hill‘s Barry Pilling and Twitter Guy Stephen Saul. It was chaired by Sara Brailsford from Atomized. Check out the podcast from the session.

Next session was Where’s the Next Big One? Features and Formats. It aimed to give those who wish to find the next big thing on telly tips on where to start when devising features and format hits. Panellists include Remarkable Television‘s Colette Foster; Bridget Boseley of Outline Productions; Alan Brown of Chocolate Media; Karoline Copping from Channel 4 and chaired by TV exec Anna Richardson. It was interesting to hear their own programme highlights from their careers and programmes that they wished they have come up with. What became apparent was that these shows were or a combination of the following elements: aspirational, relevant to the people and the times we are in, have good talent, good characters, good home take out and some element of jeopardy and pay off. A good narrative would not go amiss!

Then there was Social Media and second screens. Here are some interesting stats:

• Media multitasking: adults using two or more media in the same half hour 79%
• Nearly half of all adults and three quarters of 15-24s access the internet on their laptop while watching TV
• 20% of adults and 40% 15-24s watch TV via internet while watching another television programme on the main telly
• 6% of adults and 17% of 15-24 year olds like to chat about a programme online while viewing it on TV

I really would have loved to have made it to Meet the BBC Controllers. Luckily, there’s a controllers’ session podcast.

So there you have it, thought I’d share with you my TV Fast Train experience. It truly is wonderful to have events like this to really help with continuing professional development.

- TV Fast Train 2012: the round up
- BBC TV Fast Train Storify
- TV Fast Train on Flickr

The Million Pound Pitch

This July, RTS Futures is all about creating the perfect gameshow. So, if you’ve got tons of TV gameshow ideas or want to learn how to create a hit or simply want to hear from and pitch to the experts, The Million Pound Pitch is your chance:

Find out everything there is to know about how gameshows are created and what leads to success or failure, before having the opportunity to work up and pitch ideas to the biggest names in the business.

Controller of BBC Daytime, Liam Keelan will be joined by David Flynn, Managing Director of Remarkable Television and creator of Channel 4’s Million Pound Drop and BBC Two’s Pointless, to give an exclusive insight into the key lessons of gameshow development.

Then show off your own creative talent, working in a team with a highly experienced development guru to devise a gameshow concept pitch to the experts at the end of the session.

What makes the perfect gameshow? How do they get on TV in the first place? Do gameshow developers live the life of riley in rooms filled with toys and puzzles, or is on-screen success the result of years of toil, fruitless pitches and rejection?

Here are the details:
Monday 4 July 2011
6.30pm for a 6.45pm start
Hallam Conference Centre, 44 Hallam Street, London, W1W 6JJ

How to Book:
This event is open to all RTS Futures members but is designed for those with no more than two years’ television experience. The cost is £10.00. To book a place you (and any guest/s you book a place for) MUST be a member of RTS Futures. If you are an existing member please ring Callum Stott on 020 7822 2822 with your Credit/Debit Card ready or email cstott@rts.org.uk providing your name, postal address, email address and phone number (RTS will then contact you to request credit card details), otherwise please register as a member at www.rtsfutures.org.uk before attempting to book.

Fast Train

As BBC Three’s Karl Warner put it, Fast Train, held last week at BBC Media Village, was like a mini MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival.

Organised by BBC Academy and Skillset, the day saw hundreds of freelance telly and online bods who were able to choose various sessions and masterclasses led by those who are at the forefront of their field.

Here’s a short film summing up the day:

I went to six sessions. My highlights were:

Sweating Your Assets – led by Shine’s Co-MD Jamie Munro, it was a very interesting talk about the evolution of MasterChef and how it has become an internationally successful 360 brand that it is today.

Jamie talked about brand values:

MasterChef is a factual entertainment how based around food – but does not tell you how to cook

Understanding the brand values and how they link to consumer products is essential to overcoming the obstacle

The MasterChef series around the world may vary but at its core MasterChef is about: entertainment, changing lives and a journey to achieve excellence in food.

Loved the session on how to get diverse contributors chaired by Simone Pennant from The TV Collective. It was interesting to hear from various programme makers (Executive Producer Sarah Eglin from Maverick Television, who works on Embarrassing Bodies, Producer Riffi Khan for Come Dine With Me and Matt Rudge who directed So What if My Baby is Born Like Me?), whose shows are very much character-driven.

There was also an interesting debate chaired by Broadcast’s Editor Lisa Campbell on The Future of Documetaries. The panel consisted of Neil Grant from Mentorn, Richard McKerrow from Love Productions, Andrew O’Connell from Channel 5 and Stuart Cabb from Plum Productions. What has become apparent is that documentary-making as a genre is becoming more broad however as with anything to do with programme-making, good story-telling is always at its core. So, call it observational doc, reality a la The Only Way is Essex, straight doc, one must not forget about high production values.

It’s always very interesting to hear what the telly bosses want and so I went along Let Me Entertain You. Chaired by George Lamb, Katie Taylor (BBC), Daniela Newmann (ITV), Greg Barnett (Channel 5) shared their insights on what they want and what they think works as an entertainment programme.

Then there’s Hat Trick Digital’s chief Jonathan Davenport’s session on Devising and Monetising Successful Apps. He used the Fonjacker app as a case study and it was interesting to hear about the importance of joined up thinking and technical partnerships as well as revenue sharing.

As an attendee, it is really important to have events like this that are accessible to those who do not have the capacity to go expensive masterclasses or training. Continuing professional development is absolutely essential and it is great to hear from other industry bods who are happy to give up their time to talk about best practice as well as what also failed. As a side, it was brilliant to finally have met Fanta Jarjussey. I’ve only been chatting with her on Twitter and it was lovely to have met her in real life.

Looking forward to the next one already and thank you to the organisers and speakers.

BAFTA TV Awards 2011

Here are the winners from last night’s British Academy Television Awards, which was hosted by Graham Norton. The BBC did very well, winning 16 out of possible 24 awards.

LEADING ACTOR
Daniel Rigby, Eric and Ernie, BBC Two

LEADING ACTRESS
Vicky McClure, This Is England ’86, Channel 4

SUPPORTING ACTOR
Martin Freeman, Sherlock, BBC One

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Lauren Socha, Misfits, E4

ENTERTAINMENT PERFORMANCE
Graham Norton, The Graham Norton Show, BBC One

FEMALE PERFORMANCE IN A COMEDY PROGRAMME
Jo Brand, Getting On, BBC Four

MALE PERFORMANCE IN A COMEDY PROGRAMME
Steve Coogan, The Trip, BBC Two

SINGLE DRAMA
The Road to Coronation Street
Production Team
BBC Four/ITV Studios

DRAMA SERIES
Sherlock
Steven Moffat, Mark Gatiss, Sue Vertue, Beryl Vertue
BBC One/Hartswood Films

DRAMA SERIAL
Any Human Heart
Lynn Horsford, Lee Morris, Sally Woodward Gentle, Michael Samuels
Channel 4/Carnival Films

CONTINUING DRAMA
EastEnders
Production Team
BBC One/BBC Productions

INTERNATIONAL
The Killing
Søren Sveistrup, Piv Bernth, Birger Larsen, Sofie Gråbøl
BBC Four/DR/ZDF Enterprises

FACTUAL SERIES
Welcome to Lagos
Will Anderson, Gavin Searle, Chris King, Andrew Palmer
BBC Two/Keo North

SPECIALIST FACTUAL
Flying Monsters 3D
David Attenborough, Anthony Geffen, Sias Wilson
Sky 3D/Atlantic Productions

SINGLE DOCUMENTARY
Between Life and Death
Nick Holt, Meredith Chambers, Marina Parker, Ben Brown
BBC One/BBC Factual Wales

FEATURES
Hugh’s Fish Fight
Andrew Palmer, Will Anderson, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Frankie Fathers
Channel 4/Keo Films

CURRENT AFFAIRS
Zimbabwe’s Forgotten Children
Jezza Neumann, Xoliswa Sithole, Brian Woods, Deborah Shipley
BBC Four/True Vision Productions

NEWS COVERAGE
ITV News at Ten: The Cumbria Murders
Production Team
ITV1/ITN Productions

SPORT
Formula 1 – The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
Production Team
BBC One/BBC Sport

NEW MEDIA
Wallace and Gromit’s World of Invention
Production Team
http://www.bbc.co.uk/Aardman Digital/BBC

ENTERTAINMENT PROGRAMME
The Cube
Adam Adler, Nathan Eastwood, Andrew Newman, Andrew O’Connor
ITV1/Objective Productions

COMEDY PROGRAMME
Harry and Paul
Harry Enfield, Paul Whitehouse, Sandy Johnson, Izzy Mant
BBC Two/Tiger Aspect Productions

SITUATION COMEDY
Rev
Production Team
BBC Two/Big Talk Productions

YOUTUBE AUDIENCE AWARD (voted for by members of the public)
The Only Way Is Essex

Well done to all the winners and nominees.

Dance and Screen Collide

BAFTA and Big Dance 2010 co-produced an event called Dance and Screen Collide, which was held yesterday at BFI Southbank. Attendees were a mixture of those from the dance industry, mainly choreographers, and filmmakers/producers. It was very apparent that both worlds have this massive desire to collaborate in order to produce more dance on screen.

The aim of the afternoon is to enable  to get the conversation going between the dance and screen sectors. The speakers talked about how producing dance on screen is a collaborative process. They discussed the practical and conceptual challenges they face as well as the different approaches in choreographing / capturing dance on film/TV and music videos/commercials.

The speakers were (as seen above from L-R) Litza Bixer, Kate Wilson Prince, John De Borman, Rob Leggatt and Briony Hanson. Briony is from BFI, who chaired the event. Litza is a director, writer and top choreographer. Have a look at her impressive showreel below:

Kate heads up ZooNation Dance Academy UK. She is also the lead choreographer for British smash hit StreetDance 3D. Here’s a trailer of the film:

She was also a choreographer for top BBC dance show So You Think You Can Dance? She praised it because she said that there is so much respect for choreographers in both the US and UK shows and appreciates the fact that what they do is seen as an art form. Here’s a video of what she choreographed for SYTYCD in the UK:

John is a Director of Photography and has worked on The Full Monty and Shall We Dance? with Jennifer Lopez and Richard Gere. Below is a clip of the Argentinian Tango scene J-lo and Richard did for the film and he briefly touched on the importance of ensuring that not only do the technical aspects such as lighting and camera positioning are important, but a conversation with the choreographer is essential too to get the overall feel for this sensual dance.

Rob is from Blue Source and has directed the MTV Europe Music Award-winning video featuring The Avalanches‘ single Since I Left You:

Listening to them talk made it apparent that this is an exciting time for dance. In order to be innovative, conversations and collaborations must take place. Actions must be taken and celebrate the rich dancing talent we have in this country and beyond.