Emma Bridgewood, Class of 2016 | Top 10 Tips on Getting TV Work

Emma: TV Runner/Researcher

Emma: TV Runner/Researcher

As a graduate now working in the television industry, I thought I would share with you my ten tips about what it’s like to work in TV land! Whether you’re a prospective Runner, just generally interested in TV, or if you’re just procrastinating about writing an essay, hopefully this will be of some interest to you! Obviously if you have any more specific questions, feel free to give me a tweet or facebook message, I’d be happy to help.

1. It’s okay if you don’t know what you want to do! When you leave university, there’s a lot of pressure for you to suddenly ‘know’ what you want to do with the rest of your life, but you don’t need to know right away! When you work in TV, most people start off as a Runner, working on programmes in all kinds of genres. This is a sort of ‘try before you buy’ stage, you can see what genre(s) of shows you enjoy working on, and hopefully you can specialise into that as you progress. That also includes trying out different roles, and you can decide whether to go down an Editorial (PD / Researcher), Technical (Camera / Sound) or Production (Production Manager / Prod Coordinator / Prod Sec) route.

 2. There isn’t a set way to get into TV.  From talking to people who work in the industry, it is clear there are many different ways to get into TV. Some people are lucky enough to know someone, a few stumble into it from other industries, and others (like me) have worked hard to get where they are! Continue reading

Jo Ashman, Class of 2002 | Freelance TV Producer/Director

JoAshman-pic1It seems almost unbelievable to me, that’s it’s been around 15 years since I graduated from Lincoln. 15 years was once an impossibly long time frame, and being 35 … well let’s face it, who wants to think about being in their mid-thirties when they’ve just graduated?!  Well I can honestly say, now I’m here, I’m loving it.  I’m currently a freelance producer / director, based in Bristol, doing the job of my dreams.

I just about scraped a 2:1 degree, BA (Hons) in Media Production.  We were the first graduates to do the course and have University of Lincoln on our certificates. I knew it would be tough to break into the industry, and I think I sent my CV to almost any company I could find.  In those early months I did my fair share of work experience and runner jobs, just to get any experience under my belt.  But for me, I desperately wanted to go into wildlife filmmaking, and to do that was going to be even harder.  Several conversations had left me under no illusions that the only people who were successful in this field, were those with a scientific degree, not media…   I was getting frustrated and despondent by the whole system, so when a friend called to say he was going to trek to Everest Base Camp, I jumped at the chance to join him, and spent the next few months travelling across Central Asia and Russia.  I’d recommend time out travelling alone or with friends to anyone, it certainly gave me the time to really evaluate what I wanted.  Strangely it also taught me to trust my instincts, and that’s something I still completely rely on in my job today, particularly in stressful filming situations. Continue reading

Luisa De Rienzo, class of 2005

 

Luisa on Wipeout

If I had never set foot in that small television studio at Lincoln University, I wonder if I would be doing the job I do today.
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