Students were given the opportunity to listen industry experts about their craft.
From cameraman Steve Robinson describing how to portray personal moments on camera to editor of BBC One's The Missing explaining how a show comes together in the cutting room, the two-day masterclasses provided advice and insight into the television industry.
Available on BBC iPlayer
The show ended in revelatory fashion this week on BBC 2. Written by Tom Rob Smith, it tells the story of Danny, played by Ben Whishaw (James Bond), who falls in love with a mysterious man, Alex (Edward Holcroft – Kingsman: The Secret Service, Wolf Hall.) After Alex disappears Danny begins to look into the life of his partner, revealing a twisted tale of murder, betrayal and espionage. A fantastic supporting cast including Jim Broadbent and Charlotte Rampling enhance this tense thriller.
TV sound engineers are used to keeping a low profile. Only if something goes amiss do the people responsible for the sound emerge from the shadows. Paradoxically, minus the sound track a TV show would be unwatchable.
This point was made by the two veterans delivering an RTS Craft Skills Masterclass on sound, Chris Ashworth, Production Sound Mixer, and Mike Felton, Sound Designer.
“You only get shouted at when things go wrong,” Felton observed. “Sound is a masochist’s job. Basically you do it for your own satisfaction.”
Over almost two decades at the BBC and Sky, Lucy Lumsden has commissioned some of the country’s best-loved comedies, including Outnumbered, Miranda and Moone Boy.
But the commissioner has recently swapped sides – having made her first short film last year, Lumsden is now in the business of creating comedy.
The seeds of her future career were sown at Edinburgh University, explained Lumsden, who was giving the RTS comedy masterclass.
Morgan Matthews has taken his camera in to places that most directors shy away from; into lives torn apart by mental illness, bereavement and addiction.
There is, however, another side to the award-winning documentary film-maker; one that delights in the quirky worlds of pigeon fanciers, Elvis impersonators and teenage maths prodigies.
His films, said the chair of the documentary student masterclass, Ruth Pitt, revealed “the extraordinary in the ordinary and the ordinary in the extraordinary.”
Television is at its core a visual medium and the cameraman exists at the very heart of it.
Tim Palmer, a cinematographer working predominantly in TV drama, and BAFTA winning documentary cameraman Steve Robinson turned the viewfinder on themselves to deliver an RTS craft skills camera masterclass.
The session was chaired by former Yorkshire Television high flier Helen Scott.
When it comes to producing great television, a good editor is where it all begins and ends. That was the clear message for students attending the RTS craft skills editing masterclass.
Ben Stark, a feted documentary film editor and Una Ni Dhonghaile, who has won plaudits for her work editing TV drama, delivered the masterclass chaired by media consultant Alex Graham.
Stark and Dhonghaile each discussed three examples of their work.
BBC One has commissioned a new six-part series from Luther writer Neil Cross.
Hard Sun will be a pre-apocalyptic crime drama set in contemporary London.
The series will follow detectives Elaine Renko and Robert Hinks as they attempt to keep order in the city and protect their loved ones as the apocalypse approaches.
The new Creative Skillset Series Producer Programme is open for applications, offering the opportunity to make the leap from Producer to Series Producer.
Backed by the BBC, Channel 4 and Channel 5, this year-long scheme will find the next generation of SPs to help the industry advance and grow.
Revered or feared by everyone at this time of year, the Christmas TV season is almost upon us. While we have a few weeks to wait before we're settling on the sofa with a selection box, the schedules are being announced and there is much to look forward to.
