careers

There has long been a technology skills gap in TV due to the competitive recruitment of graduates in related fields, and despite the best efforts of employers, that gap remains.

As Freeview’s Head of Technology Partnerships, Alex Russell, acknowledged, “It’s certainly true that companies like Google and other tech giants can pay higher graduate salaries. As a smaller company though we offer a different sort of environment with the same benefits around flexible working, an exciting range of projects, a great pension. It’s just about getting ourselves noticed.”

Sam Bowers from RTS Futures and film-maker and lecturer Athena Mendis discussed the opportunities available to young people in the media industry. 

Mendis teaches production and screenwriting at Queen Mary University of London’s Department of Film Studies Department. She has made short films and documentaries, which have been screened at film festivals around the world.

She is currently in pre-production on two short films, Losing Grace and Daughter and in post-production with a documentary on the Greek diaspora of North London.

Voltage Television executive producer Amanda Lyon, who looks after BBC Two hit Inside the Factory: said: “I’ve never felt I’ve missed out on anything by being female.”

She was talking at the “Wonder women” session, which brought together successful female TV executives in conversation with presenter Ria Hebden.

The broadcasting company is offering six training placements for talented TV professionals with a disability, and those from black, Asian, and minority backgrounds, to develop their commissioning skills.

Now in it’s third year, the six-month programme will place applicants into one of the BBC’s commissioning teams, including BBC Two, Arts, Drama, Entertainment, Popular Factual and Specialist Factual.

A record 1,400 tickets were sold for the late January event, which featured expert panels and presentations from some of television’s leading lights.

Forty broadcasters, production companies and industry bodies set up home in the exhibition hall, dispensing advice to a stream of people hoping to break into the industry.

IMG Studios – whose clients include the Premier League and World Cup Rugby –brought six execs to a session on sports production.

Finding a new job is a common start to the New Year for many thousands of people in the UK. In the time-honoured tradition of scrolling through LinkedIn alerts, checking through the weekly newsletters and trade publications and arranging numerous cups of coffees with business colleagues, family and friends – the ritual is familiar.

Mash has worked widely on US series House Hunters International and also shot an interview with Stephen Hawking for US talk show Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. Warrington, who usually works in natural history on programmes such as Channel 5 series Ben Fogle: New Lives in the World, recently shot CBBC drama Wolfblood Secrets, his first outing as a drama DoP.

The ScreenSkills scheme invites 75 more recruits for film and 40 more for television, from a variety of backgrounds, to apply for the scheme that offers paid work opportunities across the UK.

Previous film trainees have worked on Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, Peterloo, Stan and Ollie, and Lady Macbeth.