A Month In London: The Internship
Following my previous post, I mentioned that I was in London for an internship. I had the opportunity to work with a documentary company for a month and get a taster of what it would be like to work in the TV industry.
I managed to get the internship at Rogan Productions through my connections with The Royal Television Society, which I was thankful for because I needed to do a placement to pass my final year at university.
I went on set for filming The Refugee Diaries (A documentary that is on BBC Three) and had the opportunity to meet the director and cameraman for the documentary. I found filming on set completely different to what I was used to doing at university. Usually, I would be assigned a news story and I had to get still shots and an interview. But when on location, I got to see first-hand how everything has been planned out and how everything comes together. I saw how the director ensures everything is in place before rolling, and there wasn’t a deadline to have the clips ready and edited like I usually have when doing the news days at university.
I think the most difficult task I had to do whilst at Rogan Productions was researching information for a new show that would air on BBC 2. I had the basics. I knew what the producer wanted and what type of information he wanted, but other than that, the research had little to no direction. I created three different documents with a variety of information that could be considered for the show. I then created a draft pitch that would be needed when presenting the idea to the BBC.
Whilst working on the Refugee Diaries project, I was asked to create a schedule for social media posts. This included what the posts should consist of and what time they should be posted. It was great having this opportunity because it allowed me to see what type of tasks I would need to do in the job I would like to have in the future. It was like a taster of what I should expect. I must have done a half decent job because later, they asked me to create a social media schedule (with written posts included) for another documentary, Waiting For Invasion.
I took my trip to London as the perfect time to get the remaining interviews needed for my dissertation. I managed to get interviews with the head of social media at BBC Radio and Global Radio. And while I was there, I decided I wanted to broaden my dissertation question. Instead of it just being about social media in radio, I decided to do TV too as I had managed to score interviews with the exec producer for digital and social at Somethin’ Else and the Co-Director at Social Media Makes Sense. It was a weight off my shoulders having managed to complete the interviews in time to start writing my dissertation.
My last week consisted of me being on set for the Craftsmen’s Dinner with Michel Roux Jr. It singlehandedly had to be one of the experiences ever! Seeing the camera crew and the sound crew in action was (I couldn’t think of a better word) exhilarating. The Langham was one of the filming locations and I was star struck by everything I had witnessed in that final week with Rogan Productions.
I’ll have to admit that while learning these new skills was a great opening for me, what I enjoyed most was the people that I met. I met directors, cameramen, lighting crews, producers and co-ordinators. It was amazing seeing all these talented people doing what they do best. I’m thankful for how they made me feel like a part of the team and included me in the pre-production and production as much as possible. I’d like to say a big thank you to Rogan Productions for making me feel a part of the family! And a big thank you to the Royal Television Society for helping me get the internship!
Stay lovely .x
