It’s tough to get a start, let alone carve out a career in TV. Yet, the panel of telly execs assembled for the latest RTS Futures event – “From runner to superstar” – offered proof that talent, hard work and persistence can take you a long way.
The panel, questioned by TV and radio presenter Matt Edmondson, revealed some of the dos and don’ts of getting on in telly.
“It’s a hard business to get into because it’s so random,” said Ash Atalla, who numbers the hit comedies The Office and The IT Crowd among his producing credits. “Once you get a job it can only last three weeks – at times I was getting contracts for a week. You have to keep looking for that little niche and eventually you will find somebody who will look after and look out for you,” added Atalla, who now runs his own indie, Roughcut TV.
Thames entertainment head Suzy Lamb, executive producer of ITV dating show Take Me Out, suggested that starting as a runner – TV’s most junior role, doing odd jobs on a production – offered a good route into telly, because it helps newbies “find out how the production [process] works and which role is made for them”.
Lamb added: “Lots of people come in as runners and we nurture them – there are producers now at Thames who started as runners.”
Elsa Sharp, talent manager at Dragonfly Film and TV said: “I look for skills and whether they match what I need. We make a lot of science shows so I’m always looking for people who’ve got that knowledge and background.”
Personality, though, is as important as what you know – maybe more so for certain TV genres. “We make bottom-of-the barrel, fluffy stuff,” said Jonathan Stadlen, founder of Knickerbockerglory TV and creator of the RTS award-winning Pineapple Dance Studios. “I try really hard not to look at people’s CVs before I meet them. I meet people if their covering email makes me laugh or I think there’s something interesting about them.” The key question, he added, is: “Do I want to spend eight hours a day with this person?”
“Personality is a massive thing,” agreed Atalla. “There are no proper qualifications for coming into telly – that’s the truth. At the beginning most of what you’ve got to offer is your personality – so don’t be annoying.”
“If you get yourself in the door make yourself invaluable, because you can’t stay forever at a production company,” he added. “You need to find your niche within the company, so when your time runs out the person at the top says: ‘We can’t let them go – let’s find something for them.’”
The RTS Futures event, ‘From runner to superstar’, was held in central London on 27 February and produced by Emily Gale and Susie Worster.
Report by Matthew Bell
Pictures by Paul Hampartsoumian
