Tweeting to Get Into TV

The 31^st 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

Us and Them

It takes a bit of time spent in Northern Ireland to discover the undercurrent of prejudice that is a part of life here. Sectarian attitudes are only steadfastly held by a minority but the fabric, structure and habitual behaviour in everyday life of Northern Ireland is informed by an entrenched conflict between what it means to be Protestant and to be Catholic.

There are severe cases of sectarian division such as attacks by dissident republicans on the Police Service of Northern Ireland, or violence against Catholic persons by groups of Protestants. Violent attacks are not usually calculated or planned and in some instances seem to be the anti-social behaviour of young people who have ignorantly adopted the cause of an older generation.

But it is clear in some of the more lighthearted banter of the majority here that there seem to be recognizable differences between Protestants and Catholics that can be objects of amusement for both. The Northern Irish will usually be able to quickly determine whether someone they’re meeting for the first time is a Catholic or another denomination. Names can be very clearly Catholic if they are traditionally Irish, such as the girl’s name “Grainne” or the boy’s “Daire/Darragh”. Catholics pronounce the letter “H” as “haitch”. Some even joke that they can tell a Catholic or a Protestant just by looking at them – red hair can be a give away apparently! Whilst wearing a Rangers top is on a par with singing the British National Anthem.

Other identifiers are where people are from and where they live within a city. Belfast is divided between North, South, East and West and each area has its own reputation. West Belfast includes the infamous Falls Road and is well known for being at the heart of the Troubles and where Catholics will live in the likes of Andersonstown. Whereas South Belfast today has a reputation mostly for being a more economically advantaged part of Belfast with new Protestant professionals taking up homes there. Derry is another city that is rife with interface areas: where Protestant and Catholic communities live side by side. What you call Derry is also indicative: saying “Londonderry” instead of “Derry” shows an alliance with Protestant unionism. There are rural areas with similar reputations for allegiances too.

Of course these are all assumptions and biases that most will not stick to or take too much to heart. But they do remain indicators to discover what relations you might experience with someone new.

A 40-year-old friend from Holywood told me once that people from Northern Ireland “don’t care if you’re black, white or green… they care if you’re a Protestant or a Catholic”. I think this comment is telling. My friend is also gay and I’d asked him if he felt the LGBT society in Northern Ireland came up against more prejudice here than it might in other regions of the UK. He didn’t think it did. He praised the Northern Irish people for their modern attitudes towards homosexuality and race… but the one distinction they couldn’t look beyond was religion.

The tensions between the religious ideologies can be felt if you walk through different parts of Belfast today. Like any other city you have “bad” areas right next door to “good” ones. And the “bad” should not be avoided if you want to get on with your everyday life. What’s difficult to see is if Northern Ireland will ever be able to shake off sectarian attitudes entirely. Even the most subtle assumptions about someone’s religion made simply by how they pronounce the letter “h” has become a habitual behaviour for many. Even younger generations inherit an awareness of differences (whether they think badly of these differences is dependent on numerous other individual factors).

Not least is it difficult to see when sectarian values will end whilst Belfast continues to make a tourist industry out of its sectarian past – the Black cab tours through West Belfast are expected to be informative of the clashes between Protestant and Catholic communities and charge around £9 per person for the privilege. Sectarianism is embedded in the society here and until authorities and independent organisations make a conscious effort to dig it out many may continue to just accept it as part of being Northern Irish.

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.

The Luck of the Irish

Coming from a background in London-centered media, it was hard to miss the media frenzy that is whipping around this region of the UK when I arrived in Northern Ireland two months ago. From the key note speech delivered by Channel 4 Chief Executive David Abraham at the Belfast Media Festival to the recent claims made by business commentators that Ireland’s TV and film industry could save Ireland’s economy, it’s been hard to miss the celebration of Ireland and Northern Ireland’s emerging creative talent.

I, amongst many, have observed a geographic shift in the UK’s television from out of London into the regions in recent years. Of course, not least as a result of the BBC’s move up north to Salford Quays, but commissioners have been more and more inclined to look outward to companies with exceptional talent in the regions.

Earlier this summer Channel 4 announced its plans to commission more programmes from the regions, hailing companies like Double Band Films in Belfast as producers they had enjoyed working with in the past. Additionally, Northern Ireland’s Producer/Director Alison Millar was given a personal nod during Abraham’s speech at the Belfast Media Festival in October. Channel 4’s relationship with the Northern Irish TV industry may be a recently renewed affair, but the BBC has been paying more attention to this part of the UK for a while longer now with John Ferren’s 360 Production giving archaeology a reinvigoration the likes of which it hasn’t seen since the longest running history programme on TV, ‘Time Team’, dug their way into our homes.

It’s not just the UK networks that are sitting up and paying attention to what regional talent can offer. HBO’s ‘Game of Thrones’ has been called a “game-changer” for Northern Ireland’s media industry. Northern Ireland Screen’s acquisition to produce and shoot this hugely popular fantasy series on the shores of the emerald isle was a great triumph. It appears the organisation’s Irish affability has paid off as their relationship with the American giant looks set to be even more profitable in the future. Perhaps with a tinge of green, CEO of Screentime ShinAwiL production company, Larry Bass, from the Republic of Ireland, has claimed that if Ireland’s producers opened their nets wider to international networks the creative industry could boost the Republic’s economy significantly by creating 5,000 jobs and bringing Ireland to the attention of tourists globally. Indeed, the Irish Film Board recently released news of a pact it has made with the BBC ‘Storyville’ strand to co-produce five feature docs over the next year. The pact deliberately aims to support Irish talent and crews.

It’s not the only scheme looking to invest in talent in Northern Ireland. The training scheme that I am on is also a sign that Northern Ireland is looking to expand and nurture young and new talent in the region’s television industry. There is a yawning gap in the workforce between producers in the higher grades and those just entering the industry as in recent decades very few have been brought into Northern Irish television, and stayed. But that is changing now with several schemes on offer in the north and south of Ireland for those looking for a career in the creative industries.

To those London cynics who wished me “Good luck…”in my new job here in Northern Ireland with a facial expression that said “…cos you’re gonna need it!” I would say come over here and try it – there’s something in the rainwater…

The Day the Digital Immigrants Left

A few months ago I was introduced to a term I had not heard before – ‘digital natives’. It is perhaps because I, along with everyone else who was born in the 80s or after, am considered to be a ‘digital native’ and therefore would not be self-conscious of the characteristics that identify me as such.

Those who are digital natives will, by definition, have a better chance of grasping what this label means. Another way of looking at it is by putting it in juxtaposition with its opposite, the ‘digital immigrant’. Together they represent a generational divide in behavioural patterns. A native to digital mediums is the person in your family who adopts the latest gadgets and their apps like a duck to water. While the immigrant is someone else who takes a bit longer to grasp the newest platforms and tools.

Personally I find these terms incredibly patronising. ‘Digital native’ draws up the image of a mute, pale-faced child with absolutely no social skills, existing almost entirely through some form of screen. ‘Digital immigrant’ suggests a wrinkling grandparent, all fingers and thumbs who can barely work their portable home telephone to say nothing of an iPad. However, I can see how these labels are useful for designers and producers thinking about the audience they are trying to reach with their content or products – the kind of broad audience that encompasses both natives and immigrants. But lets forget the stereotypes and remember that Steve Jobs was not born in the 80s and had the capacity to imagine what we would all want in years to come, and that there are those in their twenties who deliberately avoid social networking.

Rather than claiming a preference over one side or the other, I feel both sides have much to learn from the other.

The seeming attachment of natives to their mobile devices as though they were limbs, is making a digital archive of the world today the likes of which historians and sociologists could only fantasise for former periods. By Twitter’s fifth birthday in March this year, users were sending 140 million tweets a day and the founders had donated its archive of tweets to the Library of Congress. That’s a huge amount of data about the values, beliefs, behaviours and issues that are important to us.

The digital footage and records produced by these natives is also starting to be fully exploited by media producers looking for the next statement about our worlds today. First there was Kevin MacDonald’s feature documentary ‘Life in a Day’ that invited anyone to send in their footage from a day in their life – 24^th July 2010. Directly inspired by MacDonald’s feature the BBC quickly followed suit with Morgan Matthews’ ‘Britain In A Day’, a film that will bring together life from all over Britain from the particular day of 12^th November 2011. Other TV projects are in development to use the material that is at their finger tips – terabytes of the stuff uploaded to countless public forums, its potential for power and influence not yet realised.

There is of course a risk in the investment in what the digital natives can bring to a programme. ‘Embarrassing Bodies: Live from the Clinic’ broadcast its first series earlier this year but it was not a good example of the use of so-called “cutting edge technology”. The use of the well-established tool, Skype, to provide consultations by doctors within a studio to contributors in the comfort of their own home via webcam, did not add another layer to the format but in fact made the show visually static and unenticing. It was also an unreactive method of addressing the issue of the reluctance of some to attend their GP due to any embarrassment they might feel – it kept the patients firmly within their homes.

The new digital environment in which we work and socialise in can bring us within the reach of more people than ever before, and yet it also takes us further away from what matters – real human interaction. In the work place, decisions can be made in a chat over by the water cooler, relationships built over time through physical presence and communication. In our personal lives too how often has miscommunication occurred over the language used in a text or an e-mail? The times are too often to count and what a revelation it is to discover someone’s true intentions from their manner and way of being when met in person.

I am someone who will anticipate the next step in technology and digital trends with great curiosity but I will be wary of a day when the digital immigrants have left and taken their personal ways of communication with them.

Welcome to Belfast

If someone had told me six months ago that at the end of the summer I would be packing my bags to start a whole new life in Belfast, Northern Ireland, I wouldn't have believed them. If they had also told me that I would be attending the MTV European Music Awards with the best seats in the house amongst all the celebs, I would have laughed at them!

Isn't it incredible what can happen in six months?

Choosing to move away from my researcher job at a London based indie, away from my close family in Surrey, and my wonderful friends in London to start a new job - and a new life - in Belfast was the bravest decision I have ever made. I had spent less than 48 hours in the city and didn't know a soul in Northern Ireland. The job however was an opportunity of a lifetime, and it has not disappointed me with the incredible possibilities it has thrown my way.

Attending the MTV EMAs last night symbolised so much of what I have experienced in just the short time I have been living in Belfast. In the three and a half weeks I have been here I have really fallen for this Irish city. Belfast is a young town that wants so much to show the rest of the UK and the world what it has to offer. The friends I have made and the colleagues I have met are all full of hope and promise for what they feel Belfast can achieve.

Being awarded the accolade of playing host to an international music event was a chance for Belfast to shine and it truly rose to the challenge. The people of Belfast embraced all the star studded visitors it received over the weekend in the same way I have been welcomed here – with warmth, sincerity and open arms. For Belfast, tourists are still a novelty. To hear anyone deliberately choose to move here is virtually unheard of. They are so interested to hear what newcomers think of the city and I have only ever been complimentary when I have described my impressions.

The MTV EMAs are celebrated by a younger generation and it is this generation that is driving forward a new era for Belfast. Young people don’t want their hometown to simply be known for the troubles. They’re not reluctant to talk about their history, but they want to move on from it. They want to leave it in the past.

There are so many groups, organisations and initiatives being set up in this multi-layered city. There are events, projects and exhibitions happening every week. The city is brimming with new ideas, fresh perspectives and enthusiasm. There is a subconscious determination to heal old wounds and a will to never repeat past mistakes. On the surface however is an energy and a momentum.

That energy has filled the city for the past few weeks in anticipation of the EMAs and it made Belfast overflowing with excitement last night. Belfast showed 600 million viewers around the world that it wants to be taken notice of and be known for its huge warmth as a host and the great spirit it has to pull off a spectacular and impressive event. I was proud to call Belfast my home last night. I can’t wait to see what else is in store for me here.