I’ve been monitoring a few forums recently and it seems ‘How to get a foot on the TV ladder?’ is one of the hottest topics out there. A TV career is inevitably going to be a rollercoaster ride of a journey. Now, with the credit crunch, falling advertising revenue and competition from the Web it’s going to get tougher.

But don’t let all that put you off. TV is being made and will continue to be made and why shouldn’t you be part of it?

I mean you’ve got the drive, the energy, a never say never attitude and bags of natural talent so why not you.

Let’s assume you are aiming at a Runners Job, or a Junior Researcher role and have done the basics, contacted all the main Independent Production Companies, worked all the personal contacts you can thing of, joined the UK jobsites like Productionbase, TV Teams, and if you’re in the US Media-Match. Not to forget scouring Facebook for the new TV Production groups that have sprung up, and checked Mandy.com regularly. What next?

I advise you to aim high but if it doesn’t work out and you are prepared to compromise you could get exactly where you want to but by a different route. Many people aim to get an early break on a big show like ‘The X-Factor’, ‘Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares’ [insert your favourite show here] but the competition is immense, the time might come when you might need to try a different angle.

Here are 3 ideas to get your career plans back on track:

1. Take out a subscription to Sky TV (or spend a few hours on a friends Sky Box) and look out for the lesser known Channels that have sprung up, for example, Wedding TV, E! Entertainment, Nuts TV, the 20 or so Afro and Asian Channels. Sometimes working on a small channel that produces its’ own content can really boost your skills. On a big Production the nearest you might get to a camera as a Runner is a speed camera on the M40 - but at the small Channels it’s often all on hands on deck and you could get creative opportunities a lot faster. One of my early jobs was on the Sky Technology Channel [.tv] where everyone learnt to shoot, light and even Present. I have seen people who began on the tiny channels end up Directing top shows like ‘Jimmy’s Farm’, ‘Pop Idol’ and in my case ‘Wags Boutique’! Once you have proven Camera and Edit skills it’s a lot easier to move on up to posher telly.

2. Think Web. A great way to get creative and technical skills that don’t always involve a kettle and mug is to work for the video based Web company. For example Video Jug, Channel Flip or Channel Bee.  (There are dozens more). You could be sensible, work your way up and stick to the expanding world of online Video Production.

But if your goal is TV then it could still lead you in the right direction. These days Independent TV Production Companies are building online teams and winning Web and so-called 360 degree (Web and TV combined) commissions from Broadcasters. As more established TV types are sometimes reluctant to work on Web Video - they prefer to watch their work on 42 inch Plasmas with their Aunties - the competition is less severe. Hit lucky and you could end up shooting and editing short videos, before you know it your little Web project might migrate to TV and bingo you’ve had a breakthrough. Whatever happens you will still be inside the TV fortress and will be able to charm HR and the Executive Producers to work on their TV output.

3. Head East. A bit radical I know but whilst Western Europe is in credit meltdown, Eastern Europe is ticking along quite nicely. Several countries have original English Language output on their TV networks so if you are a native speaker you will charm them to bits and have an advantage straightaway. Many years ago I did 18 months at TV Belgrade. Within weeks I found myself directing a full crew and Producing VT packages for an English magazine show aimed at foreigners. I won’t pretend it’s easy to get back into UK TV after a stint abroad but with new skills and a bit of lateral thinking it can be done - in my example returning from Belgrade I would be trying to get onto the crew of ‘A Place in The Sun’ - the Serbia and Montenegro Episode.

Good luck, I will return to the subject of careers again on jules.tv. Please feel free to Digg this post if you like it, add a comment or ask me a question by hitting the large button on the right.

One of the favourite programmes I have directed is ‘Picture This’ - a Photography Reality show which aired on Channel 4 in the UK. It was tough shooting photographers at work as I was trying to get memorable TV shots on my Z1 whilst they were looking for equally great shots (stills) to win the competition.

It meant even more to me as I actually trained in Photography and many years ago started off as a News and Magazine Photographer before breaking into TV. The show merged two of my media passions.

‘Picture This’ made be think how important visuals are to TV and Video and how Photography is so interlinked to the moving image.

Making TV and Video needs a complete range of skills which is why it’s so challenging a medium to master. One of the key skills is developing a visual eye.

I took this picture during a Summer break in Montenegro.

In the world of TV as more and more productions are self-shot by Directors and AP’s (Assistant Producers) the ability to have camera skills has never been greater. I estimate I self-shoot around 50% of all the TV shows I Direct. Sometimes I will shoot a whole show more often it will be a combination of self-shooting and using crews.

As a self-shooter (and this term would apply to any of you who shoot for the Web or make videos at home) the burden is on you to come up with eye catching visuals - as well as think of the content, what’s being said, how does it fit your story and your programme or video.

You still need strong visual skills even when working with talented Camera people. An expert Operator will pick out great shots by themselves without direction, but their field of vision is often restricted to the limits of the viewfinder. As a Director you should be constantly scanning 360 degrees for interesting angles and killer shots.

If you are under TV deadlines then you’ll inevitably be short on time. It will be up to you to climb a hill to find a good GV (General View) or view the location for the next scene whilst your crew play catch up in another area. The ability to quickly identify the best possible shots is crucial.

But how do you develop good visual skills?

Back to where I started this post. You don’t even need to own a video camera to train your eye, any stills camera will do. TV and Video is the cousin of Film and Film is the offspring of Photography so I suggest going back to the roots and studying the work of the great Photographers like Cartier-Bresson, Sebastiao Salgado and one of my favourites Martin Parr (one of the ‘Picture This’ judges).

I also suggest you take up photography as a hobby. The more pictures you take the more you learn about composition, light, and the skill of timing. Making videos often requires a purpose, a script and planning. In short it requires more effort! What’s great about Photography is how instant it is. Grab your camera, shoot away and shoot anything that catches your eye and if all you achieve is a single memorable image it can be framed and enjoyed for what it is.

Don’t wait until you are stood in a field with a DV camera, a subject and a show to make before thinking about your visual style - start now.

How To Spot Reality TV Editing Tricks: Creating Conflict

This American made clip made me chuckle, it’s also a good example of how to Produce an engaging ‘How To’ Web Video.

Currently in the UK, the honesty of Reality and Documentary TV has been under intense scrutiny following the ‘Queengate’ scandal - in my view quite rightly. These days the way shows are cut are policed heavily and be warned many of the techniques in this Video are outlawed. This Video now feels more like an ironic tribute to Old School American style shows and is worth 4′30″ of your time.

These days to make it in TV, Self-Shooting (operating the Camera and Directing)  is becoming more and more important.

What’s really worrying is that DV Cameras are often thrust into the hands of inexperienced people, the risks are huge as in most cases of Reality TV and Observational Documentary (Ob Doc) there is no second chance.

A whole scene or even a whole series can be ruined by poor self-shooting, at worst it could fail the Broadcasters technical requirements and be untransmittable but more likely will just seriously annoy the Commissioning Editor and damage the image of the Production Company. If the shoooting is weak throughout you had better have good content and stories to get away with it.

It amazes me that people are sent on shoots without proven ability. If someone is junior then they won’t have a reel or even a solid shooting reference but if you need them to film they could be asked to shoot a couple of test scenes under pressure. 

Rushes (raw unedited footage) are a great way to see if someone can really shoot, a showreel with a minute of footage in a finished show can be deceptive as footage can be drastically improved in the online and the scene could have taken ages to edit around the errors.

As a PD (Producer/Director)  who supervises other shooters in the field and then sits in the Edit with the rushes I rarely get called to give a shooting reference. Editors are also a good sounding board for how easy a shooters rushes are to cut.

Once filming begins, no matter how hectic it gets during a Series, it’s always important to spot check the footage when it comes in at the start and throughout the shoot to ensure the quality threshold is being met.

I have to admit when I was an inexperienced Researcher I was desperate for a chance to show I had an eye for shooting, I would volunteer to stick by neck on the line and shoot anything that might make it onto the screen.

But the fact people are desperately keen doesn’t always mean that have the skill yet, so the onus is on the person sending them out to check their ability.

Sensible companies invest in training up their staff to shoot before they leave the building with a camera. One Indie (Independent Production Company) I worked at ran different levels of Z1 and DSR courses, audio courses and lighting courses for their staff.

I could visibly see my my teams shooting ability raise a few notches in just a couple of months. 
However, as the project was a new TV channel people were on long contracts and therefore perceived to be worth investing in. For shorter freelance contracts staff are often seen as too temporary to be worthy of training.

At another company they brought in a Cameraman for a morning to take the shooters through the likely filming scenarios they would face.

Great shooting is put second below great content, and I think this is right, but how about great content AND great shooting, it can be done if the right training and safety barriers are put in place. A TV show is after all only as good as it’s weakest link.

Watching a show you’ve Directed go out for the first time on TV is quite a weird experience, you have lived and breathed the show for anything between 3 and 6 months but it hasn’t been seen by anyone except a close circle of people comprising, yourself as Producer/Director, the Editors (Online/Offline), Audio Mixers, the Series Producer, the Executive Producer from the Production Company and most importantly the Commissioning Editor/Exec Producer from the Broadcaster. 

I have read about Flim Directors who can’t bear to go to screenings and Premieres so why not humble TV Directors? Sometimes I want to hide behind the sofa.

The problem is that I can see things in the show that the viewer doesn’t notice. I know the hurdles I had to overcome, why a particular shot looks the way it does, why a scene is cut shorter than it deserves. I can’t just watch the episode as a piece of entertainment and enjoy it at face value.

To make it worse I often visualise the contributors who have appeared in the show sitting at home watching it for the first time on their plasmas, along with 100 of their friends and family, work colleagues and of course their boss. No doubt I am sure they scream out loud:  ”JUUUUULESSS ! Why did you put that bit in?” or ” That Jules has made me look soooo ugly!”

So how do I watch my own show go out, mostly behind the sofa, audio turned down glimpsing at my screen every so often, smiling when I see a good shot, sometimes I view it between a crack in the door or even stand outside my house and look through the window! Of course I do record everything I make on my Sky Plus and it’s only a few hours later when I feel ready to watch it properly.

Then afterwards I scour the Web. These days with the myriad of TV related forums, and discussions related to the topic of the show it’s amazing to be able to read some instant feedback from viewers, especially if they liked it.

I value this feedback and actually keep the points in mind for the next programme I do.

To be honest one of the amazing things about making TV shows is knowing people in their hundreds of thousands (sometimes millions if you are lucky) are sat at home watching your hard work. I remember once going into a newsagent. The shopkeeper ignored me, he was concentrating on one of my shows on his TV behind the counter, it was great. Come to think of it next time an episode I have Directed goes out on telly maybe I should stand outside one of those huge TV shops in Central London and watch it on 20 widescreens at the same time!

The latest show I Directed is on TV this week in the UK. “Don’t Tell The Bride” (Renegade Pictures) will TX on 2nd September at 21:00 on BBC Three. It will be repeated several times (see times below) and will also be available on BBC iPlayer to view afterwards online. You can also view the BBC’s YouTube clip above. My episode was edited by Nick Reed.

If you live in Australia you should be able to catch the whole show in a few months on “The Lifestyle Channel” as I know the first series was broadcast on the Channel this year.

I really enjoyed making this show and working with my couple Paula and Rodney. The shoot was intense as I filmed most of it myself using the Sony DSR570 (pictured), a high end DVCam camera which weighs a fair bit but is my favourite camera for reality shooting. The reason I love this camera is the fact that it’s shoulder mounted and easier to keep shots steady, the viewfinder is crisp and it’s easier to focus, also the J9 Wide Angle Lens I used is truly wide unlike the adaptors on the much used Sony Z1.

One negative, in car shots of the driver are a nightmare as it won’t fit in the front (unless your contributor drives a truck),  so it was back to the more compact Z1 for chats inside the car shooting towards the driver.

Tip: Always comply with safety requirements and make sure you and the camera are strapped in tight.  If you are filming the passengers only then a larger format camera pointed backwards will give you a steadier shot than a Z1, hire a people carrier like the Chrysler Grand Voyager used in ‘The Apprentice’, remove the head rest, make sure the camera is harnessed and shoot away.

If you haven’t heard of it before here is the BBC’s own description of “Don’t Tell The Bride!”:

“Series in which the groom must choose every detail of his upcoming nuptials, from venue to cake to wedding dress. Childhood sweethearts Rodney and Paula are about to get wed but are strapped for cash. In return for 12,000 pounds towards their wedding, they’ve agreed, in the presence of a lawyer, that Rodney will organise the wedding alone. They’ll have absolutely no contact and the bride won’t have a clue about the wedding plans until the big day three weeks hence. Can Rodney find the perfect venue, will he ever make a decision or will making his mind up tip his bride over the edge?”

It’s quite rare to pin down a TV Producer for a proper chat, they are usually so busy firefighting their latest series. That’s why if you want to know the mechanics of making a Reality show this interview is worth watching. Top US TV Producer, Richard Hall of Great Blue Productions doesn’t mince his words.

If this doesn’t put you off working in TV then you’re made of the right stuff to make it in one of the toughest media industries.