Celeb Masterclasses & Industry Visits: 12 Weeks with the Multi-Media Genius Trainees

(From top to bottom: group photo with poet, rapper and academic Akala; all smiles on a visit to one of Media Trust’s corporate partners, Discovery Channel UK)

Halfway through my 6 month traineeship at London360, 30 fresh new people, who were passionate about working in media, entered the Media Trust office. They had enrolled onto Multi-Media Genius Training, a 12 week fast-track course covering TV, print and online journalism, which would involve masterclasses from industry experts and special guests, visits to Media Trust’s corporate partners and one-to-one mentoring to guide them towards their dream jobs. The fantastic thing about this scheme is that it gives people aged 18-25, who are not in employment, education or training, the chance to get their teeth into the industry, with the perks of meeting inspirational people and paying visits to some of the most renowned media companies. What’s even better is that no experience was necessary to qualify – only a proven interest in gaining the knowledge and skills necessary to become all-round media jedis!

The first thing I noticed when I entered the boardroom for the first time with my fellow reporters during their first week here was the sheer diversity of people. It may sound a bit cliche, but everyone was so different it terms of their background, personality, interests and ages. While some people in the group had only just left college, others had previously worked full-time or already had children. Some were outwardly confident and keen to ask lots of questions in the first hour, while others were perhaps more reserved and contemplative (this is starting to sound like an analysis of human behaviour). Nonetheless, they seemed to gel really well as a group right from the get-go.

At first, I wasn’t sure how much I would be interacting with the “NEETS” (Not in Employment, Education or Training – it’s probably easier to say this for now rather than referring to them as “the 30 young people”). Working full-time, we have a lot to be getting on with, from researching new ideas for future London360 shows to shooting and editing our latest TV packages. Fortunately, on Fridays, we were invited to attend the corporate visits with them. These included trips to Google/YouTube (see my previous blog about the visit to Google’s London Headquarters), Discovery Channel, The Royal Albert Hall and Hearst Magazines, which owns publications such as ELLE UK and Cosmopolitan. At the end of each action-packed week, it was nice to have some down-time on these outings with one of the most fun-loving group of people I’ve ever met.

In addition to this, I also worked alongside some members of the group when I went on shoots which included an arms fair protest against the world’s largest weapons exhibition, a visit round award-winning houses for Open House London and a bike project for refugees. It was fantastic to have some extra support with filming and to work alongside people that I can now call friends. Most of the NEETS already had extensive filming experience, whether it was through managing their own YouTube channels or producing their own short films, but some of them had never touched a professional camera before. Regardless of their experience, all of them were keen to collaborate and to pitch in with ideas, a quality that will ensure they go far in life, whether they aspire to be an Oscar-winning director, an on-screen presenter, a multi-media jack of all trades…or decide they no longer want to work in media. Even for those who perhaps realised that this wasn’t the industry for them, it was no doubt a highly useful introduction to pitching stand-out ideas, vlogging, blogging and editing videos among other skills.

We also had the privilege of meeting some of the industry’s biggest stars: BAFTA winning actor and filmmaker Noel Clarke, singer/presenter extraordinaire Alesha Dixon, multi-talented rapper, poet, journalist AND academic Akala and hip-hop sensation Tinchy Stryder. But rather than just posing for photos with them (which we unashamedly did at the end!) we also had the chance to pose questions to each of them on a range of topics, from the biggest challenges and opportunities so far in their careers, to their thoughts on the most topical issues in the news, including the European refugee crisis and whether attitudes towards body image are changing in the worlds of fashion and music.

As their 6 weeks of intensive training at London360 came to a close, there was only one way to celebrate their time here and the new friendships it had generated:- a big night out! (When I say “big” night out I mean a sit-down meal at a local restaurant rather than hitting the clubs but in my “old” age nothing beats a chilled out evening). For the next 6 weeks they will be receiving one-on-one mentoring and CV guidance once a week, and already the office feels a lot emptier without them. I’m not too worried about it though. Reunions will undoubtedly be planned and I’m sure we will see many of their names on the credits for some of the nation’s most-loved TV programmes and films. Watch out!

Multi-Media Genius Training in pictures:

The group with music superstar Alesha Dixon

Posing with the boys on a recent visit to ELLE UK at Hearst UK’s headquarters

On a shoot for The Bike Project which helps refugees with Michael, Sarah and Susheel

Filming voxpops outside Open House London with Ranel

The “NEETS” giving excellent feedback on the London360 reporter team’s largest ever Monday morning pitch meeting!

Lights Camera Action! Selfie with the team that assisted me at a busy protest: Michael, Savan and Jodie

Having a tour of another of Media Trust’s corporate partners, The Royal Albert Hall

London360 sure know how to pose with rapper Tinchy Stryder

Some of the London360 reporter team, who shared their experiences of being on the 6-month traineeship, with actor/director Noel Clarke

Work hard play hard! Celebrating the last full day of the Multi-Media Genius Training course. Good luck everyone!

What the “Typical” Day of a Multi-Media Journalist Looks Like

ESSAY ALERT! Without an editor here to tell me to stop rabbiting on, I can write for England. As the cliche goes “no 2 days are the same” in media. This is largely true although once you settle in to it you get used to hopping from one task to the next!

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The saying goes that no 2 days are the same in the media industry. Having completed my first 2 weeks of training in the London 360 Reporter/Producer role, this couldn’t be more true! It’s tricky to sum up a typical day, as it can vary greatly from day to day, but I will try my best to do so in order to give a bit of an insight of what it’s like to be a journalist in training.

My day at work begins early, as I have an hour and a half commute into White City. Sometimes, with the nightmare rush hour traffic it can take up to 2 hours! (Word of advice: NEVER trust Google Maps’ estimation of time, particularly when using buses). I get to the office and usually the first thing I will do is check through my work emails, to see if anyone I have contacted regarding potential story ideas or filming dates that we find in local newsletters. I’ve made it my mission to keep on top of my emails, organising them into categories, from important documents to story contacts, in order to avoid ending up with a back-log of unread messages.

On a Monday morning, we will have an editorial meeting with the executive producer and project manager for London360, our show which broadcasts on the Community Channel and London Live. We talk through our new story ideas, pitching them to the group, talking about the 5 W’s (Who, What, Where, When and Why). It may seem simple, but it’s an effective way of ensuring we have all the important details of our story covered. As soon as they are green lit, we get to work researching the idea in more depth looking at a range of sources for information. We then email or better still pick up the phone and make a research call to someone who can give us access to certain locations or people to interview.

Once the organisation part is sorted, and the dates for filming are arranged, I then begin writing up a call sheet. This is a simple but highly useful piece of information, as it states the exact location/s of the shoot (including a map of the area) as well as contact details for those involved in the filming on that day. This is followed up by creating interview questions for the people whos answers will form the basis of my feature. It will also feature questions to ask the public when getting quick-fire responses, often called voxpops. The final document to prepare before the shoot is the video grid script. This is essentially a plan of how the feature will roughly look like, from the types of shots I will use (e.g. wide, panoramic, close-up, piece to camera) to the script I will use if I am doing any presenting in the feature. I will also try to include a rough guide for the timings of each section of the feature, from the introduction to the concluding part. Once these are completed, I show them to my managers to go over them and they give suggestions for how my questions can be improved or suggest different angles that I could use to give my piece more originality.

Then next stage is the fun (and sometimes daunting!) part: – the filming I find someone on my reporter team, or a keen member of our work experience group, to accompany me on the shoot. We grab a camera and tripod kit and head down to our location. After introducing myself and my team to our point of contact, we go about setting up the camera on the tripod. We then browse around the site to see what we have to work with and what shots would look visually appealing, as well as location scouting to find suitable places to film interviews. One of the things I had taken for granted before I joined London360 was how long it can take to shoot in order to get 3 minutes worth of footage and interview soundbites!

By having all the camera modes set to manual, there are no shortcuts to getting that perfect shot! We are responsible for ensuring that the focus, lighting and framing of each shot is as good as it can be. This can be a difficult task when juggling other activities, including casting people for quick interviews, sound operating and choosing the right equipment for different situations (e.g. using a clip mic for professional looking interviews and controlled environments or using a reporter mic in uncontrollable and crowded outdoor conditions) and well as making sure that every different type of shot on the video script has been recorded. Even small details, such as getting a shot of a postcode of the local area, matter! It is also important that we obtain filming consents by asking people to sign consent forms and location agreements that give us permission to film without the threat of legal action against us!

Before we go home after a hard but reward day’s work, we hand out promotional material letting people know when our shows are going out on TV and how they can get in touch on social media. It’s important that we showcase what we do to as many people as we can, particularly to people that were directly involved in the events and stories that we filmed.

Every shoot is different. Depending on what kind of information is needed and how many of the interviews are organised in advance, a shoot will usually take anywhere between 3 and 8 hours to finish. For more in-depth features, a reporter will often go back out to a different location to get extra footage to add a different dimension to the feature.

The final part of the production process is the editing. We usually have 2-3 days to put together a “rough cut” or a timeline of how we want the feature to look, using the editing software we learnt about in our training, Premier Pro. We will add the images, sound and music we want to use and then, every other Thursday, will be the last official day to work on our rough edits to transform them into 3m15sec long features that are of broadcast quality. We sit in on the edit with trained professionals who tweak the sound quality and apply colour correction to some of our shots. We also record voiceovers to help to narrate our story.

For each feature we develop, from initial idea to production, we are expected to give it a “360” makeover. This means that we turn a 1-dimensional piece (such as  TV feature) into a story that can also be told through blogs and vlogs (or video blogs). So first of all, we will do a quick write-up of the piece, giving the low-down on what happened and why it was important. We will often come back to our first versions as we get more and more information. For instance, we usually put in a few of the soundbites that are unique to our features to add detail to our articles, which we then publish on the Community Channel’s website. We will often embed our finished TV packages in our blogs as well when they are finally edited. We are also expected to make a vlog, a shortened version of our TV feature (usually 1 minute or so in length) which can be put onto London Live’s website, alongside our regular TV programme.

Once our output is broadcast and online, the final thing to do is to go social media crazy! We tell all our friends and family as well as contacting all the people who we spoke to as part of our feature about when our programme airs (Mondays 7pm on the Community Channel and Sundays at 6.30am on London Live). If they miss the programme on TV, they can catch up on the Community Channel’s YouTube page as well which is handy, as I’ve often been told by people they’d missed it going out!

It’s fair to say that all of what I’ve just mentioned does NOT happen in the space of a 9.30-5.30 working day (if only!) However, we do fill out days with as much of these tasks as we can to ensure that we can meet our deadlines and get as much of our content out there. But although quantity is important, I think quality is even more so. The more time and preparation we put into our features before we even pick up the camera in terms of planning who we will speak to and what our angle will be for the piece, the better our finished output usually is. That is arguably one of the most important lessons I’ve learned since working at London360. That, and also not being afraid to make mistakes. You can learn a lot more about what works and what doesn’t work when things go wrong. One thing is for sure:- practice does make perfect and as time goes on, I hope that our Series 9 team will continue to grow and develop as budding reporters and producers.

Teach Me How To Pitch For TV

Pitching is often a taken-for-granted term in the TV world. It’s business jargon for how you go about selling your idea. But it is so much more than simply coming up with a programme idea that sounds great in your head. Do you have the resources, contacts and funding available to realise your dream?

Nav Raman, the Creative Director of Sugar Films, is arguably a queen of the TV world. Having been an Executive Producer for CBBC and Endemol UK, a Commissioning Editor for Channel 4 Factual Entertainment as well as a Director of Development for indies Pioneer Productions and Nutopia, it’s fair to say that she’s racked up a fair bit of experience over the years.

She visited the Media Trust offices to speak to past and present London360 reporters and other TV enthusiasts in an intimate but informal Q&A chat. Here are the main hints and tips I took from the interactive session.

1. Get to grips with TV jargon – changing your tone to match the commissioners you are pitching to could make you stand out. Show you know the industry better than most. Speak their language.

2. Know the schedule slots – you can pitch a show idea for a daytime slot (usually less money but a higher volume of content) or the night-time audience. Early peak time is from 6-8pm, with family orientated content and popular quiz shows such as Countdown. Peak time is at 9pm, when commissioners will pay more for your programme. But beware! Competition is at its fiercest at this time.

3. Think about the gaps – which days and times are fewer people pitching ideas for? The smaller the competition, the more likely they are to consider your proposal in depth.

4. Consider your audience – people often tune in to ITV for broad based entertainment, Channel 4 for more relaxed programmes and comedy, whereas they may go to the BBC for more fact-driven informative content. Which channel suits the type of programme you want to make?

5. Realise “there is no original idea” – try not to cling to the belief that your idea is so unique and that someone might steal it. What are you going to bring to the table to make them realise that you are the ideal person to see it through and not a different production company? Use post-it notes with different genres and themes and throw 2 of them together and see if you can come up with an idea that blends them. You could surprise yourself and find an interesting angle that hasn’t been done before.

6. Have a unique selling point – this could include access to something (e.g. a secret filming location) or someone (e.g. the talent that could present the show).

7. Know what you want – keep the pitch as short as you can while still answering the all-important 5 W’s (Who, What, Where, When and Why). Be clear in what it is you want from the pitch.

8. Know what the commissioner wants – do your research on the company and the genre that you think is best suited to your show. Consider the format as well. Will it be a chat show, a fly-on the wall documentary…or a more innovative format? Commissioners are concerned with ratings, audience (broad or niche), reputation and whether your work fits with the channel’s brand. Show genuine knowledge e.g. what worked and what didn’t in a programme.

9. Make a sizzle reel – shoot, edit and make your own trailer for your show! Make them trust you that your idea has been well thought out and is plausible. Plus everyone enjoys a good visual representation to break up a pitch. After all, they are all humans who enjoy a novelty aspect as much as the next person!

10. Describe your core proposition in 5 sentences – or don’t bother pitching it. Less is often more. Think Dragon’s Den for the media industry. Talk about things such as the genre (documentary, factual, specialist factual (history, science etc), current affairs, drama etc. Also talk about the format you want it to take (e.g. The Farmer Wants A Wife and America’s Next Top Model are highly successful formats which have been used across the world).

11. Be attached to an indie – commissioners will very rarely take you on alone. They often go through professional production companies. Teaming up with an independent one is more likely to help you get your idea developed to the stage where it could be broadcast on TV. Start making industry contacts now!

12. Don’t sell what you can’t deliver – ultimately, TV is a business, and your pitch is like a negotiation.  But you need to have a proposition that you can follow through with, making yourself and the company that backs you money.

13. Have fun with the pitch – Inject your personality and not only will it calm your nerves, it could also keep the commissioners talking about your idea long after you give your presentation.

Follow these tips and you are sure to stand out in front of the commissioners! Now go kick some (media) butt.

10 Things A Young London Reporter Is Thinking

I’ve cheekily nicked some of my upcoming blogs from my work account on Community Channel’s website

More and more young people are trying their hand at journalism, from signing up to fast-track courses and internships to working freelance for a range of written and broadcast platforms. As a reporter for London360, a youth news show on the Community Channel, here are just 10 things that I feel resonated with the reporter team. How many can you relate to?

1. The newspaper is your Bible (or Koran, Torah etc)
You’re on the road to journalistic stardom. Research is everything. If you are a Londoner, The Metro and Evening Standard become your go-to sources of knowledge. You will be absorbed in their pages on the tube, in bed…even in the bathtub. Keep them close to you. You never know when they could come in handy for a story idea. Or as fuel for the fireplace.

2. You don’t have to run with every idea you think of…
So you’ve picked up your free copy of every media source you lay your hands on. You’ve grabbed your highlighter pens and enthusiastically circled every story that looks half decent as a basis for an article. It turns out that nearly everything, from the Greek crisis to the latest football signing, has grabbed your attention. Do you seriously have time to cover all of these? Of course you don’t. Be a bit realistic!

3. …in fact some ideas are almost completely unachievable (almost)
Traversing the Houses of Parliament to get a fantastic panoramic shot as David Cameron enters the building sounds like a good idea. So how are you going to coax the security guards into letting you do that? Exactly! Keep thinking.

4.  You don’t know how to sell yourself yet
How am I going to introduce myself to prospective employers or people I meet? “I am a London Reporter and Producer for a local TV channel”. But wait, we’ve only done 2 weeks of training how can we possibly be at this stage? How about “I am a reporter in training”? No, that sounds like those Baby on Board stickers people stupidly put on their cars. “I’m volunteering as a reporter?” That doesn’t sound authoritative enough. OK, so I AM a multi-media journalist. Sometimes you’ve just got to fake it ‘till you make it. I’ll run with that.

5. Having in-jokes with your fellow reporters helps
“Oh Akim, man he makes me laugh” says every reporter in the newsroom. “Who’s Akim?” says everyone else in the office, with perplexed expressions on their faces. “Oh no one! It’s just a joke that he’s the 7^th secret reporter”. Ha. Funny. But on a positive note, it can be good to refer to “jokes” from time to time that help the reporter team to bond…and leave the rest of the staff wondering who let you into the organisation. Bunch of weirdos.

6. Every event in your life becomes a filming or networking opportunity!
A media industry party did you say? Time to eat some canapés like there’s no tomorrow and mingle with the crème de la crème of the media industry. Going to Tesco’s for your lunch? You never know when you’ll bump into that all-important contact from across the road that will seemingly stumble into your world and give you that life-changing job offer you need to survive in London.

7.  Thought of a great idea? So have the top guns
So the BBC is just on your doorstep (or ITV, Channel 4, Sky or whoever) and you aspire to work for them one day. Yet at this moment in time they are your arch nemeses. Why is that? Because every time you come up with a GREAT news feature, one day later the biggest media corporations have gone and done that exact feature, possibly with less heart than you would’ve put into it, and broadcast it to millions of people across the country. Time to get those pieces turned around quicker than Usain Bolt can run the 200m (because the 100m wouldn’t give you nearly enough time).

8.  Spending the maximum lunch budget of £5 becomes a daily challenge
Who’s going to get the closest to spending the maximum of £5 on lunch? After all, spending less than £5 doesn’t mean you get more money in your pocket, so you might as well blow your budget on whatever you fancy: sushi, katsu curry, grilled chicken or avocado salad. It doesn’t matter what you pick, over the course of the traineeship you’ll no doubt try every single thing they sell in the supermarket. And never want to shop there again.

9. You begin assigning characters to each of your reporter team
Choose a popular TV show or film. A common one is Friends. In a team of reporters, one of them will always be the ditzy Phoebe or the joker Chandler. Stereotyping will happen at some point, even if it’s just a way of teasing each other and allowing “banter” to flow through the office.

10.  You wonder how you will survive financially until the end but smile and enjoy the ride anyway!
You’ve accepted that the nature of the scheme means that you’ll get fantastic multi-media journalist training but will probably be living off baked beans at home for the next 6 months. But the prospect of doing fantastic things, from interviewing high profile stars to attending events that bring the media industry and communities together, and growing personally and professionally alongside a team of enthusiastic young reporters makes it all worthwhile.

Google Getaway: A Visit to the London HQ

Visiting the Google offices in London had been on my bucket list for a long time. So when I entered the building where their London headquarters are based, I turned from a smartly dressed young professional into an excited schoolgirl for whom Christmas had come early.

As me and 30 others from London 360, including in-house reporters and those taking part in the Multi-Media Genius training initiative run by the Mayor’s Fund, arrived at the 9th floor, the shameless photo-taking with the Google entrance sign began. This was to continue throughout the visit, as people attempted to vlog and live tweet about their experiences from the get go.

I would describe the situation as a stampede of highly enthusiastic and happy wilder beast descending on the Australian outback. This is no ordinary office environment, as we discovered when given a walking tour by members of Google London’s staff. My preconceptions of Google before I came was that it would have quirky working spaces, complete with an indoor slide, and that the employees would be laidback, dressed in smart-casual clothing, potentially wearing trendy thick rimmed glasses and be sipping on a chai lattee while browsing the internet on their Apple Mac. On the whole, I wasn’t far off!

It wasn’t long before we found out the first perk of working at Google – UNLIMITED FREE FOOD! We needed little encouragement when offered the chance to “help ourselves” to whatever food and drink we fancied. Like kids in a candy shop, we tucked in to a range of food, from sushi to Google-branded cupcakes.

As if free food wasn’t tempting enough, there is an outdoor terrace and gym which both offer stunning panoramic views of the whole city. They have cosy chairs in all of their work spaces, and even a bed for Google creatives and techies to catch up on their much needed beauty sleep. But one of the things that really excited me was the massage room, where (you guessed it) employees are treated to free treatments whenever they wish. Where do I sign up?

We were then taken around the YouTube Creator studios by Luisa. This is where YouTubers who have amassed more than 5,000 subscribers are invited to use YouTube’s in-house studio equipment and editing software for free, taking their passion for filming from the bedroom to the big screen. In the office boardroom, we were treated to a presentation by Phil Jones, the Global Agency Business Leader, who talked about the company ethos and working culture at Google. First and foremost, innovation can come from anywhere, and Google actively embrace this. For instance, the idea for OK Google (the voice-enabled search service) came from an engineer working at the firm. As long as you have the creative, analytical, teamwork and leadership skills, Google welcomes people from all backgrounds and academic disciplines.In the Q&A session that followed, a question was asked about privacy surrounding content sharing and whether this created issues for Google. Phil said that Google was different from other organisations because you own your own data and therefore can opt to have it removed from search results if you want to. This was followed by a chat with Nicole, an intern from Arizona, who has had a chance to work with some of the biggest ad campaigns in the world. It’s visible, from her energy and infectious personality, that she loves her job. Not only does she work in a comfortable open-plan space with an array of services that any working professional would die for, she works alongside people who share the same passion for innovation and working with people.

Freebies aside (we also got a free Google mug on our way out), the most important message I took from the visit was that it’s ok to fail in life, as long as you fail quick and learn from it! Take risks and it can pay off in a big way, and it’s arguably the main reason for Google’s global success story. Thanks to the Mayor’s Fund, Media Trust and of course to the Google staff for making this visit happen.

UnBEElievable! Londoners unite in efforts to protect the honeybee

It’s the latest conservation story to be hitting the headlines of newspapers, from the Evening Standard to the Telegraph. Attempts to save the honeybee are on the rise in the nation’s capital, as a increasing number of Londoners are growing aware of the problems facing wildlife and want to do their best to prevent the fragile bee population from dying out.

John Chapple from The London Beekeepers Association John installing a new beehive on an urban rooftop garden in Hackney , London

According to The Standard, the number of people in the capital who are hosting their own bee colonies in their back gardens has more than doubled in the last 5 years to 3,500. This, in part, is due to the success of several high-profile campaigns, for example The Co-Operative’s Plan Bee drive which was launched in response to the dwindling number of pollinating insects.

A promotional photo from The Co-Operative’s Plan Bee initiative

According to figures from the British Beekeepers Association, nearly 10 in every 100 colonies were lost between October 2013 and March 2014, claiming that habitat loss and rising pollution were the main factors in their demise.

Some have blamed the urban beekeepers for swarms appearing on London’s high streets. While bee swarms are generally considered to be harmless to the public, they still cause concern to the unsuspecting passerby. However this hasn’t stopped founders of beehive installation and management company Paul Webb and Chris Barnes from being inundated with requests to construct new hives, as the demand soars.

One thing is for certain. Londoners are taking the issue of conserving the honeybee population seriously and it seems many are keen to play their part in maintaining sufficient numbers of healthy colonies. After all, bees are vital to our food chain and at least one third of the food we eat would not be available if it wasn’t for the contributions of this highly underestimated insect.

A bee mural in London with the slogan “when we go we’re taking you with us!”

For more information about the importance of Beekeeping and how you can make a difference in your local community visit The British Beekeeping Association.