Sunday 5 February 2012

Tweeting to Get Into TV

The 31st January 2012 was an important anniversary for me. The day marked 12 months since I began my first ever paid TV contract. At that time, I had been a graduate for 6 months and was pretty exhausted from working seven days a week for almost all of that time. As a result, I have a great deal of sympathy for current graduates because I remember that time in my life well. I had some real highs and some very low lows. But all the hard work was worth it when I achieved that first contract.

12 months on and I am proud of where I have got to, working on a BBC training scheme and with good experience in both TV development and production. I have a great deal more to learn, but I am very grateful that I seemed to have got a hold of the job market when I did.

The TV industry is a very particular beast. Most production staff will work on a freelance basis for most of their careers, moving between short-term contracts of about 6 months. These jobs are not advertised as in other industries by an HR team. Instead, opportunities are spread via word of mouth or through very specialist websites.

I was recently asked for advice by an undergraduate at the University of York, on what he should do to get a job in TV after he graduates later this year. Whilst I was thinking about how it was that I kept abreast of what opportunities were out there I realised what an important tool Twitter is for this. It is exactly because TV jobs are typically heard about through word of mouth (literally) that Twitter is a media platform well suited to simulate this online. So one of the most useful tools I could have given this student was to suggest he look at my Twitter page and see who I follow.

But one of the other most important tips I could tell anyone is to WATCH TV and watch lots of it. It sounds very simple and almost too easy, but if you want to make television you need to know what is out there already. You need to have an opinion about it and be thinking about what works well and what doesn’t. Again Twitter can be a great aid to help you with this. You can use Twitter as a sort of virtual diary to note what you’re watching and what you think about it. The power of Twitter lies in the conversation that it insights between even complete strangers. Using the hashtag # means you can find out what the rest of the audience is thinking, something else that people in the industry need to know.

I have plenty more top tips for anyone looking to get into TV, but I will save those for another time. I feel honoured to have been invited to attend a careers event at my old university, York, in March 2012 and will no doubt build up a list of these before then. But in the meantime, I have included a list of the best Tweeters to follow if you’re looking for a job in TV:

@MandyfilmTV
@bectu_ym
@IndieTraining
@ProductionBase
@itvjobs
@ColinC4People
@Bro_Greenlight
@NickyCANorth
@creativeengland
@Creative_Boom
@Step2JobsTV
@bectu
@CreativeToolkit
@mediaparents
@TheTVCollective
@TheNetwork_TV
@EdinburghTVFest
@artsjobs
@theunitlist
@realscreen
@Broadcastnow
@BroadcastF
@Channel4Jobs
@4Talent
@SkillsetSSC
@mediaguardian
@Film_London
@screenyorkshire
@roundhouseLDN
@IdeasTap
@MediaCityUKJobs
@MediaNationUK
@EndemolUKJobs