Aim High to Cannes

This month marked one year since the Aim High Production Trainee Scheme began, and appropriately the trainees made another field trip. A far cry from BBC Wood Norton in Worcester, England we were flown to MIPCOM, Cannes.

Twelve months on from the intense training we had received at the BBC Academy “bootcamp” to give us the skills we needed to begin in TV, we were given the chance to see the value that one idea can have in the international television market. The market place itself was overflowing with ideas for scripted and unscripted TV programmes from the four corners of the world.

Amongst the most popular shows was unsurprisingly SYCO’s ‘Got Talent’, the number one selling format being broadcast in 54 countries – so the looped trailer repeatedly informed us. The drama ‘Homeland’ was also the talk of the market (both the original Israeli version and the American hit), whilst Belfast-set, and shot, BBC drama ‘The Fall’ was making its first appearance before it had barely left the cutting room.

We were privileged to meet some of the best distributors, agents, and broadcasters in Europe and the USA. Pat Quinn of Quinn Media was a very attentive listener being a self-confessed fan of Northern Ireland’s productions, eager to find out what programmes we had been working on. Google’s Joe McDermottroe, YouTube Sales Development Manager based in London, gave us a very honest and excited look into the future of content making. YouTube London has just launched the YouTube Creator Academy to support “partners” (YouTube channel owners) to become the next stars on the platform and help them enhance their, often already popular, content.

To balance out the sometimes overwhelming commerciality of the market, Ruth McCance of Sparks Network told us about the fascinating and insightful benefits beyond the dollar and euro signs, of working in programme distribution.

These are just three of the inspiring professionals we met. We also had the chance to pick the brains of UK and Ireland distributors; Derry O’Brien from Network Ireland, Tim Morley founder of Content West, Helen Jackson from BBC Worldwide, Andrea Jackson of DRG (Digital Rights Group); and the film music library and rights specialists, AudioNetwork.

All of the industry professionals we met had ambitions and dealings beyond the boundaries of our established comprehension of TV. But they all had a link or connection to the work we are doing back in Northern Ireland, whether it be acting as an agent for many of the companies we have worked for, or selling the documentaries and dramas made for audiences back home, to untapped international broadcasters.

The whole experience raised our perspective on developing ideas and stories for broadcast onto a much bigger scale. But it also reminded us that the humble beginnings of those ideas are the universal experiences and values that appeal to global audiences and translate into countless languages and formats.

We also left with some especially trendy bags sponsored by French company, Banijay. You’ll see us rocking these in and around Belfast!

The Titanic Legacy

Across this weekend, 13^th – 15^th April 2012, Belfast is frantic with celebratory concerts and memorial masses and services to commemorate the sinking of the White Star Line’s world famous Titanic and those who went down with her. MTV return to Belfast to put on a concert at the site of the great slipways where Harland and Wolff built their two massive liners, the Titanic and the Olympic. The Waterfront Hall is putting on a live BBC concert with music and readings by renowned artists and ‘Requiem for the Lost Souls of the Titanic’, composed by Belfast born Philip Hammond and performed by premiere Irish voices, will be performed for the first time to a sell out audience at St Anne’s Cathedral. On the final day, masses and memorial services will be going on across the UK throughout the day.

You might think this weekend’s respectful services are right and proper to mark the centenary of such a tragic event. If you do, then you might also find the huge build up to this weekend a rather morbid profiteering. March 31^st heralded the long awaited opening of Belfast’s most expensive visitor attraction to date, Titanic Belfast, and what ensued was a festival of arts, music and activities that well and truly ensured that no one in Northern Ireland would be able to avoid the great legacy that is Titanic.

Costing nearly £100 million, I heard one local ask, “why didn’t they just rebuild the Titanic itself?” It is instead 150,000 square feet of world-class exhibition space. The biggest and most ambitious attraction built about the Titanic in the world, the new site really puts Belfast on the map in 2012. I went to see it in the opening weekend and the historian in me loved it. What I loved most about it was that it kept the city of Belfast at the heart of its story. It used interactive and entertaining techniques to tell the story of ‘Boomtown Belfast’ at the peak of its industrial success. Nowhere else I have visited has told this story to the full. I was aware of Belfast’s linen making, tobacco, and ship building history but I had no idea that it dominated the world markets as it did. Nor did I realise that in addition to these, it was also leading the world markets in rope making, fans and tea exports! All the “wow” figures that really set this home are all there to be seen in the exhibition.

The exhibition then continues to use avant-garde presentations to relay the building of the Titanic from the scaffolding in Belfast’s shipyards, to its fitting out, and eventual passage to Southampton, England, Cherboug, France and Queenstown, Ireland. Before sharing the real distress signals sent between the Titanic and nearby ships and exploring the inquest into the sinking. The real highlights for me that set it apart from an ordinary museum is the cable car ride that takes you through the sites and sounds of the shipyard and the cinema room that shows footage of the wreck as it is now.

Personally, I don’t agree with the furor around the Great Staircase. Belfast’s newspapers and radio shows erupted with complaints from local residents that they couldn’t see a replica of the Great Staircase during the public visitor experience. I fall within the camp that argues the only reason people want to see it is because of its prominent use in James Cameron’s ‘Titanic’ film. If posing on the staircase a la Leo and Kate is the main priority of visitors to a Titanic exhibition then they’re really missing a trick…

The Northern Ireland Tourist Board is criticised for its emphasis on what is essentially, a very tragic demise. Donegall Square North in the center of Belfast, which is the street lined either side with high street stores, already has symbolic iron statues that each represents a sunken ship. The way I see it is that Northern Ireland is taking possession of an awe-inspiring ship that was literally built in its biggest city, and rightfully so. After all, an Irishman built the Titanic but it was an Englishman who sank it…

Since visiting the exhibition I have placed the Titanic Belfast at the top of my five things to do in Northern Ireland. The list is by no means firmly set, is currently Belfast-biased and will no doubt evolve, but for now it stands as the following…

1)    See the Titanic Belfast for a world-class exhibition and the industrial history of Northern Ireland.

2)  Drive up the Antrim Coast and take in Northern Ireland’s breath taking beaches, cliffs and the stunning Giant’s Causeway.

3)   Set aside an evening to enjoy the craic of Belfast’s traditional pubs including the Cathedral Quarter’s Duke of York and John Hewitt Bar as well as the Garrick and Maddens. If traditional Irish music is what you’re after then Maddens is the place for a Guinness.

4)   Book a Black Taxi Tour and see the murals of West Belfast. The drivers of the Black Taxis were eyewitnesses to the Troubles and will give you a real sense of what life was like in that time. But beware, the drivers tend to give their own version of events.*

5)   Take a walk from South Belfast into the city center, you’ll get a real sense of modern Belfast if you do this. Start at the Botanic Gardens and walk down Botanic Avenue, stopping to take in the arty, alternative feel of the Queen’s Quarter. Carry on down Dublin Road for the compulsory stop at Filthy McNasty’s and then on down Bedford Street to reach Belfast’s City Hall. Walk right round the square with some form of guide** to tell you which buildings are what – if you do you’ll realise the historical significance of the architecture and what happened within those buildings.

* For a recommended guide then get in touch.

** There is an app you can download for access to tours around Northern Ireland here. Or you can download itours presented by Patrick Kielty for all parts of Belfast for free.

2012

I am spending the day after the New Year bank holidays clearing up after 2011: cleaning, sorting, getting healthy food in and taking time to say my “thank yous”. So it felt like a good time to have a think about some of my hopes for 2012. I am reluctant to set hard and fast resolutions as things are still so changeable that I don’t think I can rely on being able to achieve specific targets. Instead I’d rather think about some priorities for the coming year as well as what I am looking forward to most.

Top of my list is to see much much more of Northern Ireland. Since I moved about three months ago I have spent most of my time in Belfast, only venturing to Holywood, Larne and Newtownards once each. I have yet to explore the Black Mountains, or see any of the coast and Derry remains unknown to me. Having said that there are some key events happening in 2012 that would be silly to miss in Belfast. The biggest of which being Belfast’s commemoration to the sinking of the Titanic ship in April 1912. I’ve already booked my ticket to the brand new exhibition opening in the Titanic Quarter on the 31^st March 2012. I also have to admit that I am looking forward to St Patrick’s Day on 17^th March. It might be a cliché but I’ve taken part in celebrations of the patron saint in London in the past and I can’t wait to see how the Irish really do it – especially on a Saturday!

Another priority this year for me is to continue to meet and make new friends over here. Whether it is in new work environments as my placements change, or through new housemates or new hobbies. I have met some enormously friendly and generous people already and it’s their welcome that has encouraged me to broaden my social scope. I know there are so many sides to life in Northern Ireland that meeting new people will be one way of introducing me to the sides I haven’t seen yet.

Professionally, my aim for this year is to consolidate the existing networks and ties I have and build new ones. Tomorrow I will be starting my second placement working with a whole new team. I am excited at the prospect and am ready to work hard to contribute well to the project. I may work for two more companies before the year is out making the experiences I will have had working in a team, with different companies and different styles and approaches, varied and diverse. I intend to leave each placement knowing that the company and team I worked with want to work with me again.

As long as I can keep these aims in sight then I will be able to make the most of the 12 months ahead and feel like 2012 was a year well spent.