production

Our Friend in the North West: Cat Lewis talks production centres in the UK

Cat Lewis

As TV producers, we’re facing more global competition than ever before. Whenever they wish, viewers can watch one of many programmes from around the world on Netflix or Amazon, rather than one of our shows. Or they can stream or download dozens of feature films available via their TV sets.

I genuinely believe that the best response to this difficult situation is to embrace the creativity of the whole country, and not just rely on London­based programme-makers.

Belfast workshops season a ‘huge success’

The "project children" featured in the documentary "How To Defuse a Bomb – The Project Children Story" (Credit: RTÉ)

Alleycats head of production Judy Wilson kicked off the season with the session, “How to manage a production”. Over almost five years at the indie, she has worked on many projects, including the BBC NI/ RTÉ documentary, How to Defuse a Bomb: The Project Children Story.

 

Ryan Kernaghan, the director of photography on revenge thriller Bad Day for the Cut, offered a crash course in camera and lightning techniques, explaining to the students in the audience how they should prepare for a shoot. 

 

Leeds hosts RTS masterclasses with Hollyoaks production team

(Credit: Channel 4)

More than 150 students from 20 universities heard Lime Pictures’ Hollyoaks production team and a panel from Leeds-based factual indie True North give two masterclasses. Both panels stressed the importance of work experience placements as a way in to the industry.

 

True North development producer Eleanor Wight, editor Luke Rothery and Hollyoaks editor Jake Whiston were all snapped up as a result of successful placements.

 

RTS Midlands Centre Awards 2016

MIDLANDS AWARD CATEGORIES 2016

Best Promotional Programme

  • This Award recognises production excellence and creativity in programmes intended either for general or specialised audiences made either for corporate purposes or retail/mail order sale.

  • They may have promotional, public information, training, educational, entertainment, special interest or other purposes.

  • They must not have been broadcast other than as an insert to a separate programme

The power of Poldark: Anatomy of a hit

Reviving a much-loved drama series from a less competitive and less knowing TV era was never going to be easy. But everything fell into place for the team that resurrected the swashbuckling period romance Poldark, originally a big hit for BBC One in the mid-1970s.

Even the notoriously unpredictable Cornish weather played ball – and the show went on to spark a media sensation when the rebooted Ross Poldark took his top off.

Watch industry experts discuss their craft at the RTS Student Masterclasses

Morgan Matthews (Credit: Paul Hampartsoumian)

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. 

RTS Student Masterclass: Documentary production

Morgan Matthews, Minnow Films, television, documentary, drama, student, masterclass, RTS, Paddington Green, Fourteen Days in May,

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.”

Julian Bellamy's speech to the RTS

Good evening. I’d like to start with an apology to Monica and Karen, our two signers tonight.  They maybe from Signpost - our multi-award winning Gateshead-based signing business -  but I bet they’ve not signed Anglo Saxon before….until tonight. Standby for a speech that can link Ant and Dec to the West Germanic version of Old English…yes, really.