The Shine Marathon!

Tonight I'm walking a full marathon (26miles) in aid of Cancer Research around central London through the night! Please help me reach my target and sponsor me as much as you can! You can do so here on my just giving page! All donation are gratefully received! Thanks Guys!

http://www.justgiving.com/AshleyKay

Working for the BBC: Later... with Jools Holland

I think it's about time I write an entry about my time working on 'Later... with Jools Holland' at Maidstone TV Studios. Before the start of series 42, I was told that there was a chance for me to work on the show through the contacts at Maidstone Studios and my Uni course. I was fortunate enough to get the opportunity to be a runner on the show for the duration of the series. This was an amazing opportunity for me, not only to be working on a live BBC show, but also a chance for me to meet some real experts in the industry and get to become part of the team who create such an amazing show.

I would work every tuesday for 8 weeks, as a runner during the live show and the record for the friday night show. I would provide drinks to the VIP guests, work with the audience team and also run for the production team and the gallery. Getting the chance to stand in a television gallery during a live performance being aired on BBC was the most incredible and surreal experience. Having interaction with series directors and producers gave me the chance to ask any questions I had about how things are done and why they are done that way.

This picture shows Director, Janet Fraser Crook and Executive Prodcucer, Mark Cooper discussing ideas about the new home for the show at Maidstone Studios.

Working on the show meant I received call sheets and schedules for each weeks shows, plus access to scripts, running order and risk assessments for each week. This was great for me as I could get a better understanding of how things were meant to look, what needed to be included and what the purpose was for each bit of paperwork (and there was lots!). It also meant that I was part of the crew, so I had the opportunity to talk with members from each area, whether it be camera, lighting, sound, or even other important people like make-up and wardrobe and the warm up guys! I had such an amazing time working on the show and was able to meet so many talented people. I now understand what goes into making such a large scale production and also how each sub-section of the crew comes together to make the show.

My first night on the show was amazing! I came home buzzing with excitement, and believe it or not, the first person I met on set was the man himself, Mr Jools Holland. As I walked in the production office, there was a large group of people singing Happy Birthday to the production manager. Jools turned around, saw me at the door, walked over and shook my hand and introduced himself. We had a brief chat about the show and what I would be doing, had a piece of birthday cake, and he thanked me in advance for the work I was about to do and it was quickly onto getting me used to the studio, having a look at what was around and getting my bearings before the audience arrived.

As a runner, I was paid for each shift. I had a BBC Contract, which was very exciting as this was the first paid role I have had within the television industry. I also got to meet a lot of the talent on the show, the likes of Dido, Liam Gallagher, Cerys Matthews, The Eagles and Jamie Cullum, to name a few. The was a great experience which I will never forget! As well as being paid to work on such an amazing show, I also got to see performances from such amazingly talented artists!

This was an experience that I will cherish, although may seem silly to some people, but for me, I had the most incredible time and feel truly grateful for such an amazing opportunity that the UCA Broadcast Media course provided for me.

Professional Practise: Location

So, I have spoken with my client for my commission piece and we are currently looking for a location to film our shoot. My client is looking to hire a space/venue for the shoot and I have been looking for suitable places! I have found the most amazing venue and would LOVE to shoot here. We are now in contact with the venue to enquire about prices of hire. This would be an amazing experience to shoot in this type of venue and would look stunning on screen.

So here's the venue.... it's called Wilton's Music Hall and it's in Whitechapel, East London. This is handy too as I know the area so well, having been born in Whitechapel!

This venue is stunning and would be amazing for a shoot, especially a music piece. I'm really excited to hear back from them to see if it is available to us within our clients budget.

Major Project Presentation

Major Project: Presentation Preperation

Today I am with Mel at the studios to prepare our presentation for Thursday to the rest of our group about our ideas for our major project series.

We are going to include our initial ides, characters that we would like to include and build upon and also what format and style our series will take. Have a look my other posts which describe our ideas in detail. We have decided to present our presentation in the style of how we want our series to be perceived. 

Once we have presented it on Thursday I will post the full presentation on here for you guys to check out! Please leave any comments and ideas you have, this will help us get some feedback! Thanks!

Professional Practise: Dissertation Proposal Ideas

So, Ive been thinking more about what I am going to focus on for my dissertation in my final year. I have to produce a proposal for my dissertation this semester, outlining exactly what it is I am looking at and how I will research my topic.

I have decided that I would like to focus my Dissertation on children's television. For me, this is something I have always been interested in (and have certainly watched a lot), whether it be production, style, content, I have always been interested in why children's television is made in the way it is.

I started looking at the ideas of realism within children's television. I asked myself why are there so many children's programmes that do not feature humans within their content and why are the characters we see often a fantasy type creature which has been imagined by a writer or producer instead of having a real human being. Why do producers of children's television do this? What are the benefits of this? Is this for educational reasons? Are there psychological reasonings behind this?

These are all sorts of questions which I would like to look at and think that this could be these start of the development of my dissertation question/topic.

I have also been thinking about violence within children's television and how this affects the child at specific ages. Also, the change in children's television over time also interests me and I'd really like to look at how the production values within the genre have changed, how technology has changed the content which we see today and the use of puppetry within children's television.

I have been looking at some websites and have been doing some research to see how much information there is on these subjects. I'm not quite certain on how I want to focus my Question, and I'm hoping that my tutorial this week with Chris will help me focus my ideas and start to build a question which I can shape as my dissertation comes along.

Here are some of the reports I've been looking at for some inspiration...

http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/1397497/index.html

http://www.aacap.org/AACAP/Families_and_Youth/Facts_for_Families/Facts_for_Families_Pages/Children_And_TV_Violence_13.aspx

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/apr/06/in-praise-of-kids-television

http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Documents/earlyyears/Edgar_Paper_20081223.pdf
(This document is a report/case study looking at 'Television, Digital Media and Children's Learning'. This report is really informative and contains a lot of statistics which I am interested at looking at. Although focused on the US, the paper also looks at the affects within other countries including the UK. This also refers to video gaming and commercial television which is something I could also touch on.)


I am going to discuss my ideas with Chris to see if he cant advise me on which areas would be most suitable for writing purposes. I am keen to start research on the subject and looking forward to learning more about the theory behind the production of children's television.

Major Project: Ideas and Planning

So, for my Major project, I'm collaborating with Mel! I've never worked with Mel before and I'm really excited as we have some great ideas and have come up with some really creative and original scenarios for our Project!

We have decided to make a 3 part mini series of 5 minute episodes and are looking at the idea of producing a mockumentary style programme about everyday life in a busy cafe/coffee shop.

We have sourced a cafe that we would like to film in and plan to discuss this with the owner next week. We have been thinking about characters as well as content, and have tried to take some inspiration from other mockumentary style comedies series suchs as....

'Twenty Twelve' 

 Starring Hugh Bonneville, Jessica Hynesand Amelia Bullmore, the programme was a spoof on-location documentary (or mockumentary) following the organisation of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.  

'The Office' 

 Created, written, and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, the programme is about the day-to-day lives of office employees in the Slough branch of the fictitious Wernham Hogg Paper Company. 

'Trollied'

Trollied is a British sitcom about employees in a fictional supermarket named "Valco", which debuted on Sky1 on 4 August 2011 

'Come Fly With Me'

Come Fly with Me is a British mockumentary television comedy series created by and starring Matt Lucas and David Walliams. 

These have given us a great idea of what a successful mockumentary needs. Hopefully, we can take our ideas and put them into a series of this style. We are going to have another meeting this week to discuss our ideas again before we speak to any contributors. We would ideally like to start casting for our characters as soon as possible because we have set ourselves a tight filming schedule with this semester. It would be ideal for us to start filming in week 8, which means we only have about 6 weeks left to plan, write our scripts, form a crew and cast our characters.

Professional Practise: Dissertation Proposal/Critical Perspective Essay

Today I had my first session with Chris Hunt, a senior lecturer at UCA who was talking about the preparation for my dissertation proposal. We went into detail about the structure and research for the proposal and what I need to include. We also spoke about our initial ideas for our dissertation and what sort of areas we are looking at researching.

We highlighted the ideas and themes that everybody was looking into, and surprisingly, everybody talked about completely different ideas when it came to what we would to focus on. We spoke a lot about theories and analysis o subjects and how we should start to research the affects of these in relation to the specific areas of what we are interested in. After todays session, I have decided to start some initial primary and secondary research into 'Realism' and the affect it has within television, specifically, Children's television.

This is a subject which I am quite keen to look at and think that I may be able to gain some great analytical research. I am particularly interested in how children's television has changed from the introduction of television, through to today's rather surreal children's viewing experience, and also how this may change in the future, asking why it has changed and is there any psychological or theoretical reasoning behind it.

I have a tutorial next Thursday with Chris which hopefully will help me start to narrow down my ideas for the rather vague subject I have at the minute and even start to look at forming a question for my dissertation.

Back to Work: First Day Back at Uni

So Yesterday was our first day back after what seemed to be a very quick summer. Although it had been great to have some time off from studying, it was also great to be coming back into a new semester and to start some really exciting hits of work.

We were briefed about the two new units before the summer so we had a chance to think/plan what we were going to focus our work on. We also had the opportunity to seek work placements for our professional practise unit, which for me, proved to be so hard to do. After applying for lots of different placements with a number of different companies,I've still only received rejection emails and have been unsuccessful on finding a work placement suitable to this unit.

So... Ive decided that I am going to look at the 'Commission Piece' option for the unit which will mean I will be commissioned by a private company/regulatory body etc., to make a video/film for them. I think this will give me great experience in working for other people, producing something that will be beneficial to them. I am currently in contact with a local singer, Adam Chandler, who has some really interesting ideas/plans that he may need corporate videos for. This could be a really exciting venture and would get the chance to produce something of high quality which would be used to advertise, hopefully, a very successful band/events company! Checkout their website...    Musical Orphans 

Also, I am currently thinking about my Major Project Unit. This seems to be a difficult one for me, and I'm really undecisive about what it is I want to do. Hopefully, the workshop I have this Thursday might influence me and get me thinking about my possibilities.