I Am Victoria Burbridge

I am a dedicated, positive and commercially aware media enthusiast, who enjoys the logic attached to advertising. I have highly extensive experience in assisting production, editing, planning, delivering audience insight, and tailor made market research as well as people management. I am currently an undergraduate studying ‘Advertising and Media’ in the hedonistic haven that is Newcastle. Currently employed as a top level at Topman where I assist the running of the store, including online promotion and sales, I have worked alongside various teams at Box TV, an amalgamation with 4Music – a joint venture between Channel 4, the UK’s number 1 music TV network and music television group.

Recent success stories include supporting the digital marketing communications, overseeing the creation of an innovative cross media campaign targeting the youth, 13-34 audience demographics, launching the enterprise of The Box+ app, a creative on-air refresh of 4Music. I am experienced in balancing and executing multiple projects and handling them at any given time, in line with agreed deadlines.

I opted to take a placement at Channel 4, working under the roof of 4Music with Box Tv, an industry which is totally committed to being the UK's no.1 innovator in music TV.
I knew that it would leave many doors open for when I confirm which career path is going to be ‘the one’ in the foreseeable future. Working there allowed me to develop myself professionally from celebrity clienteles to industry specialists and display a level of proactivity in marketing strategies to strive for established company objectives. I was given the opportunity to have responsibility in monitoring and analyzing ‘BARB’ analytics to present and report trends in user behavior in conjunction with the social networking team. Working with this team allowed me to extend my knowledge in achieving frequent, timely and positive media coverage across all available media channels, an element which I have been able to hone back into my part-time job at Topman to push services and expand our revenue by identifying market requirements for current and future products within the area.  Likewise from the potential strategic partner relationships, I conducted research in order to identify and implement some 4Music branded merchandise within the agreed budget.

You can download my CV here or get in touch:

 

 

 

Kick start your media career

 

"We are delighted to offer you a placement here at Channel 4"

 

  

It's no secret that as a first year undergraduate of 'Advertising & Media', there is a burning ambition to successfully thrive after graduation. The degree title itself, paints a glorious picture of an attractive and promising career prospect, idealised by many, who day dream of writing content for highly sought after magazines or news articles, or perhaps creating award winning films, or even breaking the casket on the next big online viral sensation.
Yet, increasingly there is a wealth of graduates who support the pessimistic claims that this saturated and competitive industry, contributes towards a progressive preoccupation where the vast majority will fall by the wayside and give up on their aspirations.

The key point to make here, with regards to becoming a media graduate, is to do it the right way, a graduate who showcases promise and who will be more likely to succeed.

 At the core of this hyperbole from April 2012 came Glynn Ryland, the industry talent manager at Channel 4, who preached to us through his glossy 4Talent presentation, that if you position yourself above the uninspired and invisible masses, then your prospects get infinitely brighter. Granted, if you can research, be specific about where you want to be in the industry and create your own opportunities, then you can leapfrog thousands of rivals who are looking to climb the media ladder.

This was a portrayal of what was going on in my head right about now...

My enthusiasm to work at Channel 4 was instantly elevated

.

 

 

18 . 02 . 13

C H A N N E L 4 / Application.

After a lengthily debate in my own head, one year on from Glynn's inspiring lecture, I took the plunge and began to submit myself to the online 4talent pool, an invaluable platform with which to express yourself and your talents. I spent enough time getting myself acquainted with every open ended question and engaging with every 'ticky' box. I had so much determination not to be one of the infinite, bland clones who lacked individuality, clogging up their responses inbox.

12 . 04. 13

C H A N N E L 4 / Judgement Day.

It was judgement day and I was feeling sceptical. There was no life within my inbox, at times it would have seemed that my phone was almost surgically attached to my face and admittedly I was just
 steps away from resorting back to the drawing board.
Needless to say that as the day dawned on me; my afternoon was quickly consumed by copious amounts of time and effort spent emailing any kind of 4Talent recruitment team address available. At the time I was by no means an expert or even slightly knowledgeable in the field of firing off emails to industry professionals, however I was taking no prisoners. I'm a big advocate for Twitter, I believe that creating online presence is absolutely paramount and tweeting is perhaps most essential, so at the time it didn’t hurt to tweet @Gylnn4Talent, I realised if I didn’t do something conventional about the matter at hand I was going to be disappointed. Shortly after I tweeted about how I was willing to embark on a work placement...

 

the unthinkable happened.

The subject box read: 'Work Placement: Open day invitation' with a bundle of itinerary emails to follow, as I absorbed this wave of excitement, I recall reading the closing statement, the kind regards of "Congratulations once again! Have a great weekend." I could not have felt happier. 

Guess it was time to develop the mantra that patience is a virtue.

Next stop, Channel 4.

First Day For Thought

 

19 . 05 . 13

C H A N N E L 4 / The Avid Traveller.

So there was something a little different today. I was on my way to London! I look to my first placement with enthusiasm. As a guise from being an utter newbie to London, I was able to fit into the role of a tourist, getting myself better acquainted with the city and of course, go a little snap-happy at the city's attractions. Amongst the fast pace streets of London, there is such a healthy spirit of enterprise, and imbued recognition of business meets the values of innovation, everybody I met was not just a complete design savvy but also had the same attitude, a story to tell, or had otherwise established a viable business goal for life, this made me very career conscious. Coming to work in London made me versatile, it was another indication of that 'real world' fear that needed to be confronted, underpinning this advance was just the beginning of equipping myself for life after graduation. 

Day 1. What Does Nicki Minaj's Butt Feel Like?

 

 

20 . 05 . 13

C H A N N E L 4 / 4 Music @ Box Television.

 

 

 

 

From humble beginnings came 'Box Television', a musical phenomenon!

My first day for channel 4 could not have gone any better! Having been at university the last two years, the 6am alarm was a shock to the system. On my first day I was scared about boarding my first array of over-ground trains and tubes, however it was not long until I became used to that sardine-like feeling of rush hour central London.

The variety of questions that I got asked on my first day generally summarise my experience quite well, they ranged from the complex to the absurd. "Welcome to 4Music Vicky, *Soft handshake*, what do you think our brand personalities are here?", "What do you think is right/wrong with our business tone of voice?" and my personal favourite "What do think Nicki Minaj's butt feels like?". The 4Music office could only be described as a state of hyper-productivity spread across a large floor, fresh young talent certainly excelled here and there was a real sense of camaraderie in the air.

 

My first day was spent with the web team at 'Box TV', they are responsible for all elements of 4Music.com. The teams manage the media presence behind '4Music', with a strong focus on Facebook and Twitter. They also create video and written content for the website. The Box team amalgamate across the board with other  music channels, such as Kiss, Magic, Heat, Smash Hits, The Box and Kerrang, combining the efforts of production, programming, the music team, commercial sales and TV promotions to ensure that 4Music.com offers users all the latest music news and popular culture gossip, as well as a variety of information readily accessible about '4Music' shows. Their mission statement is to represent the '4Music' brand in an exciting and fresh way online.

‘Melissa Pine', floor director for the Box Television’s online sector, provided me with a light introduction to life at 4Music, she implemented my first initial task. This was to oversee and develop a brand ethos, which detailed the services from ‘BoxTV’ in conjunction with the organisation's fast output demands; I had to meet Melissa's agreed deadline which was the end of the day. In order to do this, I was advised that I analyse the relationships with partner channels, look for weaknesses within their existing content and conduct some research in order to identify market requirements for current products, how the company achieves positive media coverage across all available media channels and use ‘BARB’ analytics to present and report trends in user behaviour.


Not only was it my first day, it was my first cooperate media based industry role that I'd worked for, executing everything I'd learnt throughout my Advertising and Media degree. I'm nervous, I tried not to show it, everybody around me specialises in their niche, this is a big deal here, and I had to get this right. Where did I start?

 To a degree I had read through a stream of branding and brand equity literature, I noted a few simple critiques and typos, arguably relatable to the 4Music's brand identity, whilst evidentially absorbing the professionals around me. 'Box TV' was difficult to find a niche on which to focus ones efforts & cognition on because the objective of the brand, was to manifest into diverse personalities, I was able to comply existing theory such as 'Al Ries & Ries (2000)' to generalise the community as having 'The Law of the word' however arguably the brand disputes 'The Law of Contraction'. ..But then I paused for a second. It was almost as if I was trying TOO hard to incorporate second year knowledge, I was being too theoretical for this stage, so instead I utilised my points of view as an outsider ready to feedback to Melissa.

Having linked a layer of theory to my instinctive understanding, this was my result: Click me.

 

Whilst executing my primary task of the digital strategy, I took the time to engage and integrate myself with my stimulating desk space neighbours: 'Trent', 'Jenny' and 'Nicol' who's intent it was to increase the hits and dwelling time spent on the 4music media drivers, they do this by exceeding themselves to reference quality content, whether that is producing pregnant Beyoncé speculations to Madonna flashing her pins on the red carpet. Their pioneering ideations really drive the digital marketing world to upper the ante from their competitors, such as MTV, and innovate the music celebrity online presence. By excelling 4music's resources to regularly execute and update the content on social media, they make this beneficial with a steady stream of interesting and witty material, consistently suitable for the needs and wants of the brands target segmentation.

 

 

Digital media becomes complicated, if I've learnt anything from my own experiences of running social media for my part-time job at Topman, I would urge them to remember that the digital world and the trends within it are always changing. I should refer to it as a universe, as it is never ending. Change with it and change your formula, don't be scared by it, embrace it! You can't loose out.     
     Monitoring 4Music as an outsider, the sufficient tools and wealth of media the brand has to offer in this regard, heavily optimises their equity. However, truthfully my beliefs of the popular culture music broadcasters are stigmatised. It is apparent that BoxTV corners the music market on all levels and caters for more traditional revenues of music television. Channels such as 'Kerrang' seemingly have less of a profound measure of consumer traffic and popularity, having collectively noticed from 'BARB'. In addition, how long will it be before this profound threat establishes the other channels. Matters at hand suggest a loss of traditional routine, contemporary culture today is heavily dependant on travel and the tangible experience, hence there has been a marketing boom in devices which convey readily available information, especially amongst the youth culture. This can be transcended into user-generated content such as 'Youtube' which provides users with that sense of tailor-made taste and less of a focus on celebrity. 'Youtube' is user friendly and suggests 'videos you may like' to its viewers as opposed to having to wait for the preferred choice's airtime.
Nevertheless in despite of the criticism, subsequently it appears that 4Music acts to ensure music stays for the long run, it is ubiquitous and fan driven, the artists mature with their audience and the most dominant USP is the nature of celebrity adornment, this will continuously provoke commercial interest for the brands long and prosperous reign.

Bibliography: Ries, A. and Ries, L. 1998. The 22 immutable laws of branding. New York: HarperBusiness.

Day 2. Music To My Ears. Music Scheduling.

21. 05. 13
C H A N N E L 4/ Music Scheduling.

Four underground tube change-overs, one London rush hour of grand proportions and a Redbull breakfast later, I was greeted back again into the latter of energetic celebrity interrogators. 

On reflection of my surroundings, I began to understand just how interlinked each department was. From the online micro-blogging speculations of songstress J'LO to understanding airplay platforms and their personalities: Is she an RnB diva for 'KISS.fm' or a famously curved figure which moulds into 'HeatWorld's' next punchy gossip column. Each creative was thoroughly involved in several different initiatives and collaborations with different teams across the sector. This was a big stepping stone in my understanding of the marketing mixes of the business and the way in which they all come together to create a standardisation of service. 


  Today was the day I worked with 'Paul Mack', the music station commissioner, Paul's role provides administrative support for his scheduling team, acting as a liaison between departments ensuring that everything runs smoothly and efficiently. Paul was also the dominant mouth within these weekly meetings, more critical than Simon Cowell when it came to viewing new musical talent and generally not just the voice behind the final decision but also witty banter.   

Commissioning and scheduling decide which videos the music stations are going to broadcast. It is centred around a team of schedulers, each addressing a specific area of programming for the internal departments such as Kiss, Magic, Kerrang etc. They acquire all of their content as they do not have in-house production facilities. The majority of the outputs derive from the independent program - 'FastTracks', exerting never-before-seen music videos. I was granted the overwhelming prospect to attend the meeting that day, acting as the eyes and ears for 4Music, this was a big opportunity to show a level of eagerness for a career pathway I was developing a taste for, as the old adage goes: You only get one chance to make a first impression. 

  On the agenda, the day involved sitting back and basically viewing copious amounts of music videos, some of which were amateur whilst others had more high profile positioning. Below I've noted some of my own accepted and rejected favourites for 4Music...

 

  My sultry, personal favourite - 'Russ Chimes - Turn Me On' ♥ No ordinary music video montage, it's also a bit of a mess. In a good way.
 

The meeting was paused due to sore sets of ribs from the eruption of laughter of this dreadlock charm, tickled by the enigma of these ingenious lyrics! The verse 'Do a Sh*t' is very much awkward, funky and just plain weird. ✕

There was something fittingly tasteful behind this infectious alternative track, grabbing my attention with its air-tight composition the group were very much left-wing towards my opinion.    And of course you are never far from the catchy crescendo of a 'Pitbull' video. Featuring lots of androgynous glamour and a complete overloaded of luxury brand endorsements.
 

 

By the end of the viewings the team had humorously gone off topic and once the pitching meeting was finalised, I proactively made sure I had a clear understanding on how to implement a proposal report, a response which outlined the most desired music videos your channel wished to sanction. Before I could contribute to this, my choices had to be approved by the correct level of authority (Lets not get too ambitious, I had only worked there two days!)Embarking on my lunch break with my office space colleagues, gave me some downtime to catch up on their career implications and educational backgrounds.    
  The leisure time also gave them a chance to learn more about the placement from my perspective which probably added value to their role too. They asked me why I picked London, although it was difficult to answer at the time, I realise now that it was all about gaining life experience as much as work experience, London was a city I knew nothing about, so it really was going to be an adventure for me, thus I have discovered it's a really great place, with really great people. Lunch also gave them time to judge my mighty northern ways, besides the several efforts made to imitate my accent, there was also an exchange of disgusted looks as I added crisps to my sandwich filling - What a misconception!      

 

Upon returning I spent the rest of the day with the scheduling team, getting to grips with compiling the timeline for music videos broadcasted on 4Music for that current day. Ideas about juxtaposing and binary opposition were running rapidly through my mind, but the process was in fact much more straight forward. I had certainly gained a greater understanding of scheduling and the commissioning process and the possible opportunities which included: attending meetings either internally or externally with independent production companies, attending viewings and even attending an edit.

 

 

 

The Marketing Flare Of Day 3.

22 05. 13
C H A N N E L 4/ Marketing Marcoms.

I have officially matured, appreciating the morning and my lengthily travel routine into Oxford Circus. By 11.00am, I was awake, dressed, furnished with ‘Pret a Manger’, been crushed on the tube, read and replied to 8 emails, tested 1 new feature for the ‘listen live’ online digital 4Music channel, as well as addressing a communication problem with the facility AND made tea for 5 people, all within the timescale before I was due an introduction to marketing with ‘Victoria Grosvenor’.

    Within the marketing sector there is no such arrangement of a ‘typical day’, the role examines press release, promo briefings, campaigns, brainstorming of ideas for social networking concepts, arranging trade events or booking presenters for shows at Channel 4. The marketing department is predominantly made up of research & online, managing communication awareness internally and externally, reinforcing the public exactly what Channel 4 is and giving the brand that ‘Something to shout about’ factor. The marketing team are given a lot of valuable advocacy, airtime and inventory into commercial platforms, which is a central part to coordinating the promotional mix. They create impactful on-air and off-air campaigns to promote key programmes or otherwise partnership collaborations, to leverage support for their priorities, working closely with the sales team to ensure advertisers are getting the added value they need. Last of all using fully integrated PR into strategy’s to raise awareness and drive the profile of channel4 forward.
    Having discussed what Channel 4 do in terms of their current projects and youth client base, Victoria really challenged me more to think big without neglecting the smaller details which are paramount to content production, and having started out her career as a freelancer for 7 months before being made permanent, she embedded into me that perseverance really pays off. Victoria highlighted the current creative process and communications, and proceeded to define market research trends into consumer behaviour using ‘Bite’ consumer trade press. She touched very briefly upon changing the identity of the music station ‘The Box’ within the foreseeable future, whilst this might have seemed irrelevant, I was able to express with a level of theory and knowledge how altering brand identity rapidly can prove dangerous to the brand persona, acknowledgements from my university brand preacher that is 'Lee Barron'.

I was set an assignment by Victoria to oversee the launch stages of some minor marketing materials, sticking to budget I was to devote the day sourcing suitable and adequate manufacturers (Inside a city that I was completely alien to) and solve any contingencies using virtual proofs. The cross-media merchandise she requested were: Split branded memory sticks, Hoodies, Tote Bags, Lanyards, Pens and T-shirts for a new station launching ‘Box Africa’.  Once satisfied with the result, I had to utilise my findings into a spread sheet of expenditures before confirming orders.

 

 

 

I expected to leave Victoria’s office quivering in the corner of my desk due to the workload and deadline; however, I couldn’t have been more wrong. Handling and managing the tenders became easy, ensuring the firms I contacted strived to meet the demands of Channel 4’s marketing team became a doddle, and all it required was an attentive and friendly attitude, abundant phone calls and emails and with great power, comes great responsibility, consequently I stayed late for the first time, sitting at my desk at 6:30pm was an odd feeling, but it made me feel important! I wanted to succeed and this task was the most responsibility, I’d been given. Bound by the privacy agreement, some information is a little sensitive for the public eye and World Wide Web but voilà, by the evening I had cracked it and felt somewhat satisfied with my outcomes. Today’s tasking had definitely given me more direction to pursue a career within the marketing department.

 

Day 4. Televisions Best Kept Secret: Telling Stories That Are Not Big, Not Fat, But Real.

23.05. 13
C H A N N E L 4/ Regulations

The end was nigh for my first week here at Channel 4, fortunately I was beginning to understand my role in line with my Advertising and Media degree at Northumbria university, they felt as if they had a collective impact, hand in hand and I loved every second of it. My time studying all aspects of media and advertising fronted by my educational pathway so far, finally felt like it was starting to pay off. I’m now even more determined to fully grasp and embrace the role I’ve been given and make the most of this opportunity as I’m learning how much it will benefit me once I graduate.

“Advertisements should contain nothing that is likely to cause serious or widespread offence. Particular care should be taken to avoid causing offence on the grounds of race, religion, sex, sexual orientation…” (Wilmshurst & Mackay 1999)

The arrangements surrounding my role and workflow on this day were a little less active in terms of creativity, yet nevertheless underpinned much of what I had learnt during second year and echoed the ‘Advertising: Reception and Texts’ module, acting as a refresher to media studies. Today I joined ‘Adam’ for an introduction into compliance and regulations.  Prior to this, I already had a wealthy understanding of ‘ASA’, the assumed regulator whose responsibility it was for maintaining standards for advertising in the UK. Yet I was soon to learn, broadcast advertising was regulated separately by a statutory regulator: Ofcom. Acting like a sponge and absorbing all this information, Adam clarified the Ofcom structure as being a simplified regulation for consumers and businesses, and meant that decisions about ad campaigns or any media material running across all platforms was made by a single organisation.

 Adam’s duties meant that he maintained standards in the broadcasting of Channel 4, which some would argue as being challenging since Channel 4 is notoriously noted for its strong reputation in controversy, Adam must therefore pursue alternative forms of regulation where practical and applicable to shape and embody  the content, establishing a co-regulatory partnership with industry standardisation. In practice Adam is responsible on a day-to-day basis for broadcast advertising content standards to avoid an avalanche from Ofcom as a detriment to their reputation, the result of a major incident reported for further action. Amongst the system, he must monitor any obligations or indictors of any ostensible offensive footage, which includes swearing before the watershed transition, sexualisation, violence or explicit portrayals, imitable behaviour, privacy infringement, liable law of risky scripts during documentation or live shows and also justifiable brand or product placement.

 

 A video Adam was working on how to make 'cleaner' for any daytime viewing, curse you explicit rap videos!

As the day itself was quite lax with Adam, he highlighted best practice and was able to share many insights into his own experience including how he sought after his role together with an exchange of some valuable contacts. He also shone some light onto his field and had some very interesting stories and outcomes to reveal including the imperial right wing views of Channel 4’s program ‘Dispatches’, journalism which lands scoop after scoop reaching a high in terms of audience delivery, however is often deemed a risky category for the network. Channel 4 can still shape social attitudes by confronting and exposing subjects that other broadcasters ignore which is why I consider Channel 4 to be highly admirable, this judgment can also be referenced to the emerging, captivating gypsy shows which despite the productions tackling criticism of the shows participants,  such as cleaning up their acts and way of life, Adam admittedly informed me that channel 4 was in peak with these documentaries even when competing with juggernauts ‘The X Factor’ and ‘Strictly’.

Today I learnt that the notion of where to draw the line is an increasingly complex issue. Channel 4 is implicitly strong and sustainable, bringing in great audiences and able to attract commercial funding that allows it to continue to stimulate debate, reinforce the stereotype and raise awareness of different sections of a very real society. So long live ‘Big Fat Gypsy Weddings’ and whatever the next ‘Big Brother’ might be, programs like these create debate and visibility for the minority communities that any charity can.

Bibliography: Wilmshurst, J. and Mackay, A. 1999. The fundamentals of advertising. Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann.p.32

Day 5. The Day I Got My Running Shoes

24. 05. 13
C H A N N E L 4/ THE MCDONALDS MUSIC MIX UP.

One value I took away with me, something I didn't expect was that, to initially gain some media production experience, you don’t necessarily have to have a supreme knowledge in the process. Production teams are very open to willingness, supply and a positive attitude when it comes to applying yourself. In addition to this I secured my first ‘real’ professional media production role as a ‘Runner’ and on this day, set out on my merry way for my biggest adventure of the week yet. Leaving the office on Thursday evening I reflected on my profile. I had always been a creative, the editor, the one who titivated the PowerPoint's, in the sense that I could while away the hours artistically doing something that I loved but as a career prospect, I’d just never yet considered them in that way. Now I was going to instigate a completely different pathway, and still within my placement time, I decided that it was a better time than any other to have a trial at another media production dream.

During my office rounds within the Channel 4 hub, I received an email. It was from ‘Harriet Breen’ a production coordinator who worked alongside Broadcast Design and Commercial Production. Having recently shared a conversation with her in the staff toilets (of all places), she invited me to be a runner on location over the production period of ‘McDonalds – McFlurry – 4Music Mix Up’. JACK POT! We had passed many times in the office too, but what had made me stand out was my personality as a freelancer. Funnily enough, the perception was that media undergraduates are more willing to use learnt skills to assist the growth of a big business. They already have creative bodies on board and just needed some assistance with general duties. I was happy. I had my foot in the door for Channel 4 Production. The greatest feeling of all was being submerged in active creative projects and subsequently I had my first job as a runner. Already I was depicting images of seeing the ad several weeks on TV later and had the first buzz that media production gives you – ‘I was part of that’. Professionals, of course, don’t have to give you this time or they may not be able to, so when they did, I ensured to give them plenty of thanks after receiving my call sheet and scheduling that evening.  

 

 

 

So what was the objective of this campaign?

Box TV had partnered with McDonald’s McFlurry to commission a new music entertainment show,-‘McFlurry Music Mix Up.’ The showcase is presented by 4Music duo Rickie Williams and Melvin Odoom, featuring celebrity culture, performances and pop music knowledge. The show is billed as “a funny, tongue-in-cheek, irreverent and entertaining show for all discerning pop fans”.  I was involved, (and also starred in!)  the advert which would act as a teaser for the show’s activation strategy. To complement the programme, an interactive consumer experience had been developed, giving McDonald’s customers exclusive online content when they purchased a limited edition McFlurry, scanning the QR codes on the McFlurry cup, in combination with the consumers smart phone, users were directed to the McFlurry Music Mix Up online hub, created by ‘Bauer Media’s’ digital team, a fresh and fun way, where they could view unique content and be in with a chance to win ‘money can’t buy’ prizes including VIP tickets to the live gigs. In addition to the product integration, the show was promoted through bespoke TV commercials as well as mobile platforms and online Facebook activity. Many acquaintances asked me after the experience – what was the connection with McDonalds and Channel 4, I described it as being a perfect example of how networks can work with innovative brand partners, to create an engaging, fresh format of TV and online content. It’s another step in offering brands extensive promotional options and McDonalds will experience the benefits of Channel 4’s brand equity to add an extra dimension to McDonald’s customer experience and also create more exposure using their commercial integration opportunities. The McFlurry Music MixUp was cleverly juxtaposed on the screens, relevant to the peak of the summer festival season, engaging the surge of music fans who are actively seeking new music content. Unfortunately I have not been successful in locating the online viral this year, so my amateur phone videos will simply have to do!

 

 

 

Having set a good alarm and bewildering myself in an array of train journeys in an effort to be at Croydon’s central McDonalds for 8:00am, I realised instantly today was going to be a long one. I was the first one on set with texts rolling in of what the team wanted for breakfast (It doesn’t sound too glamorous yet, but bear with me). There was time to better acquaint myself with the production team where not only did I jot down reminders on a scruffy piece of paper on who-was-who, but I also found that a lot of these high-powered executives and directors were once runners themselves and had climbed the ladder to get to where they were today, this was a prosperous opportunity for networking, not many people before me can say they shared a McDonalds breakfast with the brand marketing manager of McDonalds – ‘Thomas O’Neill’, working for one of the world’s leading globalised brands. The tasks were menial, one job saw me running through Croydon’s town centre to find a camera ‘squidgy’, however I soon realised one of my main duties was to simply quench the teams thirst, with coffee order after coffee order, I was fetching masses of cappuccinos, frappuccinos, ccinos I’d never even heard of and other fancily named beverages and snacks, heaven forbid I forgot the directors mint chocolate en route back to the set, there was an immense sense of pressure. My tip to anybody becoming a runner would be, if you can’t face heading back and forth to ‘Costa’, remembering mass orders, then this job isn’t for you.

The setup was an interesting and exciting one at that, because we were filming with two charismatic celebrities, our space attracted much of the passing public eye, in many circumstances, causing great disturbance to the filming time, however from my Applied Media studies, I understood the difficulties when filming around the public, keeping a close eye on the health and safety of the team and for risks immediate to our high-profile celebrities. Still, I was happy to be part of the crew, I had practically no crucial decision making involved in the overall day, other than the best standing position to keep Rickie Williams’ head sheltered under my umbrella from the rain, they expressed that I should politely urge the public to proceed around our set rather than through it. On the flipside, being told what to do, meant I was able to step back and appreciate the world I was working in.

After a disrupted lunch of young girls queuing outside the restaurant for autographs and photos, we commenced filming before the McDonalds scene was wrapped up. From being at university I know what it is like to struggle carrying several books back from the library while my legs are ready to crumble. Being a runner is often like this, because one thing was for sure: I was carrying a lot of equipment on a regular basis that day, a camera in one hand, a boom in the other, sometimes all whilst the director could merely walk back to the tour bus. On the plus side I knew I didn’t have to meander around London to look for a gym and it then occurred to me for the first time that people did this type of thing for a LIVING. Another point one might add is to not get offended if producers are having a conversation right next to you and they don’t acknowledge the minor roles. Or whether senior crew ask you to do something without referring to you by your name, conforming into a specialist workspace can come as a culture shock, but I realised not to take it personally, these were professionals and it was a matter of taking a deep breath and smiling throughout. (Even if it was through gritted teeth)