Four days. Six masterclasses. Twenty four hours to produce a show. The Network 2015 at the Edinburgh International Television Festival whizzed by in a blur of intense hard work and fun!
I arrived, excited and raring to go, on Tuesday 25th of August. I didn’t have to wait long to get started, as we went straight into CV clinics, in which I spoke to various Talent Managers about my CV. The tweaks they recommended were very helpful, but it was the advice I got about what steps I need to take next to get into the industry that were the most useful. Within the first twenty minutes, I already had a much clearer idea of what I want to do in the industry!
In between clinics, I ducked out to take part in my Presenter Experience. Run by a team from CBBC and CBeebies, we had been put in pairs and given the task of presenting a two minute interview in front of the camera. As the interviewee, I was asked questions about my volunteer work with the British Humanist Association. It was quite fun, but went by far more quickly than we were expecting – two minutes really isn’t very long!
The afternoon was filled with an ice breaker quiz and tips on how to network and how to get into the industry. The evening brought together the two talent schemes at the festival – us Networkers joined those on the Ones to Watch scheme – to take part in a quiz run by the QI Elves, which also had a little bit of Only Connect thrown in. My team, ‘No Such Thing As A Quiz’, reigned supreme!
Wednesday brought a variety of masterclasses: Jay Hunt, the Last Leg team, David Glover, and producers of digital content all gave insight into their fields. We also attended the opening of the festival: ‘Edinburgh Does Big Brother’ hosted by Emma Willis, which gave us the impression that people in this industry are a little mad but have a good sense of humour!
That afternoon we split into our workshop groups for the first time. I was part of the Production Skills workshop, and it was our task to produce the final show, ‘The Network Live’. This is the big finale of the the four days, and is the time when all of the groups present what they have been working on. It seemed a little daunting – there was a lot to do – but we had that night to come up with ideas to fill the 75 minute show.
Then came one of the highlights of the festival: the MacTaggart lecture. This is the biggest event of the festival, and this year it was delivered by Armando Ianucci, who gave an inspiring yet humorous speech about the current state of the British television industry, and the BBC in particular. If I didn’t want to protect and work in the industry before, I certainly did after listening to his rousing words.
That night I faced the one thing I had been dreading: actual networking! All of us industry newbies were blown away as we stepped into the ITV drinks at the National Museum of Scotland – so many people in such a beautiful room! I left at the end of the night feeling very proud of myself, as I had actually managed to talk to a few people and even exchanged business cards!
Industry newbies attend the ITV Drinks
Things got serious on Thursday, as it was time to start working on our show. We began at 8am by bringing together our ideas to create a running order. My idea to do a spin on ‘Blind Date’, in which three Networkers compete to go on a coffee date with a Talent Manager, went down well, and ended up in the final show.
After all having a go on various equipment – cameras, sound desk, and vision mixing desk – we had a few practices of a news segment. We were then given our official roles for the show – I was named Director and Vision Mixer. This meant that we could start preparing in earnest: the Producer and researchers finessed the content of the show, whilst the camera operators, VT operator, Sound operator and I started blocking and running through segments. We were very lucky to have Blue Peter presenter Lindsey Russell with us throughout rehearsals – her experience and professionalism were utterly invaluable to us as we all quickly got to grips with our new roles. We managed to have a full run through by the end of the day, which put us in very good stead for Show Day.
First rehearsals for the show
But the day did not end after ten hours of work! We then attended the Edinburgh Television Awards, which were hosted by Frankie Boyle. His typical style of acerbic humour had everyone on edge! I was also lucky that night to attend a screening of ‘The Magician’s Apprentice’, the first episode of the new series of Doctor Who. No spoilers, but I very much enjoyed it!
To round off the long day, we headed to the 40th Anniversary party, during which I accidentally stepped backwards into someone, only to discover that that someone was Martin Freeman! My first nightclub experience will certainly be a memorable one!
I didn’t party too late, as we were up early the next day for Show Day! We had just over four hours to bring everything together and rehearse. The problem was that we were waiting on material from other groups, most of which didn’t arrive until right before or even during the show. This meant we had to change the running order right before we started, and then changed it many times during the show itself.
This increased the pressure, but I had a fantastic time nonetheless. There were four cameras, and the operators were great, all making sure I had good shots to work with and responding well to the sudden changes we had to make.
A (totally posed, as it was taken after the show) picture of me in position at the mixing desk
Before I knew it, it was over! I was on such an adrenaline high, I wanted to do it all over again!
After four days of being on the the go almost non-stop, we suddenly had to say our goodbyes and head back to reality. I had an utterly incredible experience, one that I will never forget, and my determination to break into the industry has been well and truly reinvigorated.
Many thanks go to Jane, Ewan, Sheila, and Sarah who ran the Production Skills workshops, to Lindsey for presenting, to the technicians who put together all of the equipment for us, and to everyone who spoke in the masterclasses. Thanks also to everyone at The Network: to all of the stewards who looked after us, especially Alice who was with us in the Production Skills workshop and who ran around Edinburgh getting supplies for us, and also to Campbell, Holly, and Rhiannon, who organised everything (special thanks to Holly for interviewing me and deciding that my passionate, nervous ramblings were enough to give me a place!).
If you’re looking into getting into TV, I highly recommend that you apply to the scheme next year. One of the best experiences of my life so far!
The Production Skills team take a relieved selfie with presenter Lindsey after the show
Charlotte John 