Graeme Aldous insists that the pictures are secondary!
A good degree in a subject that interests you is always preferable to a modest degree in media studies.
Many people may never have needed a CV, particularly if they've been in the same company all their media career. Others - and I found myself in this position - probably have a CV that is totally out of date.
Always do your homework before a job interview. There is nothing more annoying for an employer than to discover the applicant has scant knowledge of the product.
Networking is probably one of the best ways to expand and improve your career. It's not always easy, but I reckon you need to be pretty pro-active, particularly if you're making a career change.
Northern Film & Media was established in 2002 to build a vibrant and sustainable moving image industry in the NE of England. NFM is funded by the UK Film Council, One North East, European Funds and the media industry itself, via Skillset. It has achieved the Skillset kitemark to become Skillset's Approved Regional Training Partner.
Aim For The Stars, Keep Your Feet On The Ground
We rarely get the budget we'd like to have to achieve the end result we can picture in our heads. As a result you can end up just making a programme 'by the book' with no experimentation.
When producing a series of similar items all at once, it can be useful (all others things being equal) to start with the third episode, and only produce episodes 1 and 2 when the others have been completed.
Have a clarity of purpose and realism in achievement.
If it isn't right at the script stage (of a scripted programme) it will never come right in shooting or editing.
Don't over-shoot
The Sony PD150 DVCam camera is rapidly getting established as a professional tool for budget productions, and many cameramen/women used to more expensive kit come away very impressed at what it can do.
Filming alongside some very noisy quarry machinery, we were having problems with the presenter's radio mic placement.
A distinguished freelance cameraman I worked with made a point of turning up on location 10 minutes after everyone else.
A lot of importance is attached to the preparation for interviews - but often reporters forget a very basic rule.
Make it Easy on Yourself (and Us!)
I'm going to try and highlight some of the problems that we repeatedly come across dealing with projects.
This probably sounds like teaching grandmothers to suck eggs - but with television the pictures should usually be your most powerful means to reach your audience.
Capturing non-Stereo Audio through FireWire
One feature of the new breed of small digital cameras (such as the Sony PD150) that has helped their acceptance in the professional world is the provision of specialist audio facilities, with XLR inputs to separate Left and Right tracks.
Look at Output like the Audience
We all tend to get very involved in preparing our output. Through knowing too much about the production process, sometimes we view our rushes or a final edited programme too keen to see how specific elements have worked out, rather than judging the overall effect.
Allowing for a 'buffer' sequence of music and pictures, that could equally well last from 10" to 30", can help to ensure the programme runs the right length when you run out of editing time!
Thumbnail Pictures in Pinnacle Edition
One of the useful aspects of film editing that's been lost with the advent of computers is the ability to pick up a physical bit of film and see what images are on it!
Test your DVD Authoring Before you Burn
Blank DVD discs may be cheaper now than they were a few months ago, but still no-one wants to waste them by burning an incorrectly-authored programme onto them.
'Invisible' Buttons on DVD Menus
A DVD project called for a special treatment for the menus — it was the be part of an AV presentation with a logo screen staying constant between the inserts as the presenter spoke. There must be no black frames or picture breakup — just a smooth transition from one insert to the next, even though the duration in between was unknown.