RTS student masterclasses

RTS Student Masterclasses: Factual Entertainment with Nav Raman

Nav Raman (Credit: Paul Hampartsoumian)

The secret of a successful TV format

“Simplicity is the key. When I was pitching, if I didn’t know what the idea was in two or three lines, I’d tell the producer to ask them to rethink it.

“As a commissioner I’d sometimes get a beautifully presented five-page document and get to the end of it and think ‘So what’s the show?’

“For me, the other big thing is purpose. As yourself "What’s the point?' Just because you can do it with TV cameras doesn’t mean it’s a TV show. You should be trying to answer a question.

RTS Student Masterclasses: Drama with Sophie Petzal

Sophie Petzal (Credit: Paul Hampartsoumian)

She shared the pleasure and pain of writing drama with EastEnders boss John Yorke at this year’s RTS Student Programme Masterclasses. 

Script editing “was an invaluable way to learn about television production and writing … Having that ‘production head’ gave me an advantage in writing [my] first episode [of Wolfblood) …but I was still very much learning the ropes.”

RTS Student Masterclasses: Documentary with Brian Woods and Katie Rice

Brian Woods and Katie Rice (Credit: Paul Hampartsoumian)

The duo were in conversation with Alex Graham, joint chief executive of Two Cities Television, who argued that True Vision “takes on the really important subjects, whether that’s poverty or human rights or inequality, but in a way that takes you directly into the heart of the human stories”.

RTS Student Masterclasses: Journalism with Clive Myrie

Clive Myrie (Credit: Paul Hampartsoumian)

The importance of role models

 “I’m a Northerner (Myrie was brought up in Bolton) and didn’t come from a media family. I was a second generation immigrant. (My parents) didn’t want me to become a journalist. 

"They wanted me to be a lawyer or a dentist, a respectable middle-class job for their first-born child born in the United Kingdom.

"Around the age of nine I had a paper round, I read the products that I was lobbing over the garden fences and as a result of that got interested in the world.  

RTS Student Craft Skills Masterclasses 2018

Please see the timings for the RTS Craft Skill Masterclasses below:

10.30am: Registration opens

11.00am: Introduction and Welcome

11.00am – 12.15pm: Masterclass 1 - Sound

Speakers: Phil Bax, Sound Recordist and Mixer

Greg Gettens, Head of Broadcast Factual Sound, Molinare

Chair: Emma Wakefield, Managing Director, Lambent Productions

12.15pm – 1.00pm: Lunch

1.00pm – 2.15pm: Masterclass 2 - Camerawork

RTS Student Programme Masterclasses 2018

Please see the timings for the RTS Student Programme Masterclasses below:

10.30am: Registration opens

11.00am: Introduction and Welcome

11.00am – 12.00pm: Masterclass 1 - Journalism

Speaker: Clive Myrie, Journalist and Presenter, BBC News

Chair: Naomi Goldsmith

12.00pm – 12.45pm: Lunch

12.45pm – 1.45pm: Masterclass 2 - Factual Entertainment

Speaker: Nav Raman, Founder and Creative Director, Chatterbox

RTS Midlands hosts Channel 4 masterclass in developing factual formats

Dunnett was able to draw on her vast experience of developing and making programmes for all terrestrial channels. She joined Channel 4 from Scottish indie Raise the Roof in 2016 where her credits included BBC One’s Holiday of My Lifetime with Len Goodman.

The masterclass helped students understand how different types of programmes fit into the schedules by unpicking popular programmes to show the simple rules of formatted factual.

The RTS Midlands event was held at the National Motorcycle Museum on Solihull on the same day as the Centre’s Programme Awards.

RTS Craft Skills Camera Masterclass with Sophie Darlington and Christopher Titus King

Wildlife cinematographer Sophie Darlington (the BBC’s Planet Earth II and documentary feature African Cats) and director of photography Christopher Titus King, who straddles the documentary (BBC One’s Seven Ages of Britain) and drama (the History mini-series, The Bible) genres, discussed camerawork at the RTS Craft Skills Masterclasses.