Masterclasses

Sound masterclass with Matt Bacon and Kate Davis

Matt Bacon and Kate Davis (Credit: Paul Hampartsoumian)

Davis received a Bafta nomination this year for her work on the BBC Four documentary Amy Winehouse: Back to Black. Bacon specialises in formatted and entertainment series such as Channel 5 reality show The Bachelor and the BBC’s Masterchef.

Editing masterclass with Emma Lysaght and Matthew Gray

Matthew Gray and Emma Lysaght (Credit: Paul Hampartsoumian)

How to get into editing: Emma Lysaght: “I left school at 16. My father was a film editor so I grew up watching my dad cut film. It was something I’d always wanted to do.

“It was quite a male environment, I was very nervous and very shy. I didn’t get into the cutting room until I was 19. My dad knew of one female editor.

“She needed an assistant so I stepped in and became her assistant. Within the first few months I was cutting news for Channel 4, which was very pressurised but you know exactly what you’ve got to do in those three minutes.

Journalism masterclass with Rageh Omaar

Nuala McGovern and Rageh Omaar (Credit: Paul Hampartsoumian)

Why he wanted to be a journalist: I was born in Somalia where my father was part of the independence movement and a businessman who spent a lot of time in the UK. He moved us to the UK where I was educated.

Around our kitchen table we’d discuss what was happening in the world. That was where I first became interested in international news and the day’s big issues such as apartheid and Nelson Mandela and revolutions in the Middle East.

Comedy masterclass with Nerys Evans

Sarah Asante and Nerys Evans (Credit: Paul Hampartsoumian)

How her career began: "I’m from a very small town in Wales. No-one I knew ever worked in TV. I had no in. I just followed my dream and worked really hard to get my foot in the door.

"I’m not an extraordinary person. I am very lucky to work with some quite extraordinary people. It’s hard to get into telly and it’s getting harder.

"I am a massive comedy fan. I wanted to do something in comedy although I didn’t know what that would be. I read politics at Liverpool’s John Moores University where I joined the student radio station.

Documentary masterclass with Arthur Cary

Arthur Cary (Credit: Paul Hampartsoumian)

From comedy to docs, via reality TV: “With my writing partner from university, I was writing script-based comedy… we got close a few times to getting things away but it wasn’t quite working,” recalled Cary.

He landed a job as a runner at Endemol, working on BBC Three show Celebrity Scissorhands and then Big Brother: “I exploited every connection I had at Endemol and got a job at North One, which used to make a lot of Cutting Edge [documentaries] for Channel 4.”

Drama masterclass with Daniel Fajemisin-Duncan and Marlon Smith

Daniel Fajemisin-Duncan and Marlon Smith (Credit: Paul Hampartsoumian)

“It all started in sixth form college,” recalled Daniel Fajemisin-Duncan. “We were already friends, having grown up in the same area, and we discovered we were very much into movies; not just watching them but actually wanting to make them – and, specifically, to write them.

“We would write scripts on notepads… and I would exchange my pages with Marlon and we discovered we were ripping off… the same film-makers and doing really bad versions of their movies.” 

RTS Craft Skills Masterclasses

SCHEDULE

 

10.30am                              Registration opens

 

11.00am                              Introduction and Welcome                                               

                                                          

11.00am – 12.15pm           Masterclass 1 – Editing

                                            Speakers: Matthew Gray, Editor

                                                             Emma Lysaght, Editor