Ageism in TV: A Perception or Reality?

Judging by the constant debate on our discussion forum, it seems this sensitive topic of ageism just won’t fade away. Looking back over the previous weeks’ threads it seems there is a genuine fear that anyone over the age of 35 is finished in this industry. Is this being fuelled by the high profile spates covered in the media of late or a genuine belief that talented, hard working people are being overlooked simply because they can be easily replaced by someone younger?

I’m sure you all remember the Arlene Phillips/Alesha Dixon debacle and the more recent ranting of Kirsty Young which implied that it was women in particular that were being discriminated against. And as Brucie signs up for another series of Strictly Come Dancing (what is it about that show?) alongside the much younger, Tessa Daly, its easy to see where that opinion manifests itself. Its probably fair to say that there are not too many shows of aging women working alongside younger men.

What does the research say? A recent Daily Mail article claimed that the average age for female presenters appearing in prime time slots has jumped from 32 years and 7 months from the 1950s to an average age of 40 today. In contrast, the average age of men on TV has actually fallen slightly from 46 years and 9 months in the 1950s to 46 years today.

Working For Charities

Working for Charities

With the state of the industry being what it is, many of you may be looking for a little something to give your CV a kick, or just a productive way to spend some free time. So why not try something that gives you both of these, as well as some good karma.

The Media Trust offer media professionals the chance to utilise their skills for good. Not only will this look fantastic on your CV, but it will also give something back. Roles range from mentoring young people, to sharing your experiences at live talks.

Have a look at the Media Trust website for more information, and to sign up!

Give Yourself Credit

At PB we have noticed that quite a few members have opted not to fill out the Credits section of their profile, opting to complete the Employment History instead. Credits and Employment History should be used differently. Make sure you detail all of your broadcast credits in the dedicated credits section, all of your other general experience should be detailed in the Employment History.

Entering your credits in the appropriate section will allow you to be found by employers who use the Credit Search. That’s why credits should be entered here rather than in your employment history. If you have a video clip to accompany the credit why not detail it in the additional info section of your credit, so that employers can see the finished masterpiece!

The Whole Truth And Everything But The Truth…

The Whole Truth And Everything But The Truth...

This week, award winning editor, Joby Gee, discusses the moral dilemma of showing people in their ‘true’ light.

I like the clip where she says, “He’s not an a***hole”…. can we just take the “not” out”. (From the Facebook page, Edit Suite Stories).

The most frequent question I am asked when I meet non-telly people is the “truth and honesty” one for want of a better phrase. Often, their first question is “why do you spend your days trying to contort people in the film your cutting to create some sort of twisted version of reality for our entertainment?”. Decent, hard working folk assume that it happens to almost everyone (including the Queen).

Well, recently the BBC interviewed me about editing (I babbled on) and I said all sorts of nonsense which hopefully someone can extract into two minutes and make me look like I know what I’m talking about. But it got me thinking; if I was a contributor in a documentary then what should I expect? What will those people who came round to film me do when they get into the edit suite? I’m starting to worry about all the things I’ve said on camera now. Oh my God, what have I done….?

Filming Documentaries ‘IDE Cambodia’ and ‘Asia’s Monarchies’

Producer/Director Jonathan Elliot shares his documentary filming experiences while in various Asian countries.

Asia’s Monarchies – As Asia continues to be the fastest-growing economic region in the world, will Asia’s monarchies be able to keep the pace?

Introduction to the shoot you were on
For ‘IDE Cambodia’ I was asked to put together a team to make a short awards film. It was about a development charity working with poor farmers on the Cambodia/ Vietnam border. It was a fast turnaround shoot, we were only in the country for four days.

For the film ‘Asia’s Monarchies’, I was producer director and writer for two one hour documentaries about the history of the monarchies of Nepal and Bhutan. We had two weeks each episode for shooting.

Disability & Television – Why Does It All Still Feel So Difficult?

I’ve been banging on about this for years. If 1 in 5 of us is disabled why are there so few disabled people on the telly? And even fewer making our programmes? I guess the two things are almost certainly connected.

Yes I know there’s the argument that you can’t see lots of disabilities so there are alot more disabled people ON telly and IN telly than you think, and that’s probably true. But I doubt either figure gets anywhere near the level you’d expect if TV was reflecting real life, as many of us programme makers like to think it does.

Researchers recently took a snapshot of three weeks of programming across British TV. Against the 20% of the real population with a disability, only 0.9% of people in TV land had one. Not good. The current data suggests that disabled people make up only 2% of the TV industry workforce. Not much better.

Success, Zeitgeists & The One Man Band

This week we are pleased to welcome freelance producer/director, Abi Kelly, who highlights the joys of multi-tasking and the lows of being everything to everyone.

When I was fumbling through my teens, dreams and ambitions were usually grounded in being part of something really exciting. If it was buzzy, creative and fun and didn’t involve Pythagoras’ Theorem or Bunsen Burners, then I was happy and motivated.

When I was at school and uni, success leading to immediate happiness stemmed from a whole spectrum of events: mastering lead roles in plays and musicals, writing ‘A’ grade poetry, organising a charity fashion show and winning The Effort Award in assemblies (“well done Abigail for scoring maximum in that whole ‘trying’ thing, but The Success Award once again goes to Beatrice Van Horn Alkema”.)

Editing ‘Inside Hezbollah’, A Documentary Film

Freelancer Anthea Harvey, is and experienced Film Editor who recently finished the documentary film Inside Hezbolla, an MI2 Production. Anthea shares her work experience while editing in Tunisia.

Inside Hezbollah

Inside Hezbollah is an observational documentary looking at the popular support for Hezbollah in South Lebanon and following the build up to the 2009 elections. The Director was looking for a British editor to collaborate on the film in order to add the Western perspective to his own experience, and to add UK television high production values and documentary style to the film. The film was to be privately funded and sold to worldwide distributors/broadcasters on completion.

The Currency Of Ratings

This week, Steadfast TV’s Paul Crompton, delves into the black hole of audience ratings.

You’ll have seen those city workers on the train each morning with their blue suits and pink newspapers. They scour the FT to see if they’ve still got an office to go to. Has the gross domestic product of Portugal gone for another siesta? Has Sterling been sushi’d by the Yen? It’s the same for us TV lot, we’re obsessed with overnight figures too. The main difference is that when city workers screw up, the world caves in. When we screw up… it’s worse… AA Gill slags us off.

It’s said that television is democratic. The viewer votes every night with the remote control, singley affecting our careers as they flit from one channel to another. If your latest programme rates well it puts a spring in your step and gives you a strong bargaining tool for the next commission. The overnight ratings are TV currency.

Creating a TV Brand

This week, Shine TV’s Jamie Munro, explains the importance of brand-power when developing a hit series and demonstrates its significance in the domestic and international marketplace.

At Shine TV, creativity is at the heart of everything we do, from the creation of new ideas, to the execution of our hit shows but crucially, the way that our commercial and creative teams can interact to bring a new life to content both in individual markets and overseas.

There are 3 key components we prioritise as we push forward to propel our existing global franchises and fast track the best new ideas to screen: ‘Brand Creation’, Brand Building’ and Brand Exploitation’.

When do you start to think of your programme as a ‘Brand’? From the moment the programme idea is conceived, we are thinking about what it will mean to viewers and the relationship it will have. We are thinking right from the start in terms of ‘Brand’.

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