Edinburgh Fringe... Day 2

[note: this has been posted several days after the events it talks about ... In case you were wondering] 

Day two at the fringe. The day when I would pack in as much as possible....And we started early.

The Traverse theatre do a great thing to tempt people out of bed and to the theatre early... They provide bacon sandwiches and coffee along with a 9am play. It's a rehearsed reading rather than a fully staged play but don't let that put you off, the quality was great.  If you're ever at the fringe and willing to get up early check it out. Although I did have to ask for a bit more bacon in my roll. One rasher was a bit stingy for the huge bap it was put in I felt. 

We had some time before our next pre-booked show. All part of the plan to be able to discover stuff while we were there: through recommendations, being given an interesting looking flyer or even just ducking in somewhere random to get out of the rain (thankfully that last one never had to be inplimented).

So,using the very handy official iPhone app, we searched for what was on nearby. 

First we thought we'd check out a free  thing running at the venue of our next pre-booked show. All day they were running short films. Could be interesting.... But it wasn't the sort of short films I was expecting. They were more visual art pieces. Black and white, no dialogue, no real characters just grainy shots, weird camera movements and a soundtrack straight from the student horror film handbook. Not bad necessarily, but not what we really fancied at that moment. So back to the app we went to find another option. 

Now it's fair to say that most of what we had pre-booked were more my choices than Emily's. Sure there were things we both really wanted to see like Al Murray but I was aware there were things we had booked Emily really wasn't interested in and nothing that I wasn't interested in. In my defence to this I have been wanting to go to the fringe since I was 15, but never the less I still felt guilty which is why I didn't put up much of a fight when she said she wanted to go see the children's show "The Snow Queen". I would take this for the team   (After all i had managed to fight off a suggestion yesterday to go see a children's show, my reasoning being that with a child on the way we'll have much kid's theatre to come in our near future why subject ourselves to it now, and instead we ended up at the phenomenal -in both ort opinions-  Feral) 

My fears were realised as in general the plot lacked substance and the acting was hammy, over the top and with no subtly. And before I get shouted down with "yes but that's because it's for kids!" I've seen some really well acted children's theatre where the characters are developed and have emotional depth and the kids in the audience have loved it. The idea that all kids theatre needs pantomime delivery is one that should be stamped out as soon as possible. 

I did feel a bit sorry for the company though as they only had 5 in the audience. But that, I gather, is the way of the Fringe. You may get great word of mouth and packed houses or your advertising may fall flat, your flyers fall on blind eyes and you end up performing to your mum who has come up from wiltshire to show her support. 

Next up was a play by Oliver-Award winning Lucy Kirkwood: NSFW. I had booked this because I had read the script about two years ago. It had been one of my random play purchases from Samual French bookshop. Every so often I'll go into this wonderful shop in Fritzrovia, London and browse for 20 mins until I find a play I like the cover and synopsis of. Partly this is an always on hunt for something to direct, partly it's just entertainment reading pleasure. 

But a couple of years ago I had found NSFW (which stands for Not suitable For Work if you were unsure) and really liked it so when I noticed it was being performed at the fringe it went straight on my list. It's a play about the magazine industry and the negative culture towards women,  from both the men's and women's mags, inherent in it. 

It was a really well done production as well.

We had another big gap to fill now so back to the BBC area. Where we were treated to a free sample of a very funny show "one man Star Wars". Where funny man Charles Ross plays all characters, racing through the plot of the film at hyperspace speeds. I only wish I had time to go the full show. 

At this point i tried to get tickets to something that had been recommended to me. But it had sold out. I tried another of their recommendations, also sold out. The lesson here being if you really want to see something make sure you book. Sure it may end up with only 3 People in the audience but it also may sell out. So better safe than sorry. Defeated I returned to the pink tent and cheered myself up in the BBCs free greenscreen photo booth here are the results ....

I particularly liked the fact that they had a W1A one and, as I happens to have my staff lanyard with me, I could really look the part in the pic (I was directed to pull a "think your better than everyone else" pose by the way, that's not normally how I pose... No really) 

I rounded out the evening with two productions from The Lincoln company, the company formed from current students and alumi from the university of Lincoln's Drama courses. I used to go to lincoln (although I studied media rather than drama) and my sister currently IS studying drama there (though she isn't part of The Lincoln Company this year) so I defiantly had to go see some of their productions (they had 6 on at the festival) . I went for MoJo by Jez Butterworth, because I had heard good things about this play from when it was on in London, and the ridiculously long titled "The Cosmonaut's last message to the woman he once loved in the former Soviet Union" (hence forth refered to, for the sake of all our sanity, as simply "Cosmonaut").

I really liked MoJo. As a play it's interesting, tense and keeps you guessing. Shane Humberstone was the stand out performance of this piece and seemed perfectly at home as the smooth talking Potts. 

This finished at 8:45pm. We hadn't yet bought tickets to Cosmonaught but I knew they were available cheaply  at the half price hut which, according to google maps, was a 15 min walk away..... And it shut at 9pm. 

I wonder if this is a sprint many have done at the fringe in an eagerness to get some cheap tickets? I bolted down to the hut and JUST made it in time. I was literally the last person they served before shutting up shop. While there I also got tickets for the following day for The Addams Family musical. 

We actually then had a bit of time to kill before the start of the Cosmonouts after meeting back up with Emily (funnily enough my pregnant wife hadn't wanted to sprint down to the half priced hut with me) we for once had a leisurely stroll to the venue and a nice sit in it's charming courtyard area. This was C cubed venue and I would defiantly recommend checking out it's courtyard cafe at some point on a nice (non-raining) night if you're after a bit of atmosphere. 

Cosmanauts itself was a very surreal play. One of those ones where your not always sure what's going on but despite that it's fascinating. With eariy use of music and lighting that made it more about the mood than the plot. You either love things like that or you don't. If they are done well I do. Emily very much does not. 

But you can't please everyone. 

She did have one positive thing to say about it though: the Russian accents were very good. I would have to agree. Especially those of the cosmonaughts themselves. (One of who had also been in MoJo) 

So that rapped up our longest day at the fringe. In my head planning the trip I had imagined all days would have been packed like this.  practicalities stopped that idea but I hope one day I make it up for a whole week when I can have many days of very busy theatre going (although I may die of exhaustion by the end) 

Ed Fringe Day 1....15 years in the waiting. Losing my Edinburgh fringe cherry.

About 15 years ago, when we were teenagers, a very good friend of mine went up to the Edinburgh festival with her dad. It was the first I'd heard of this festival in the distant land of the Scot but based on what she told me when she came back i knew I too wanted to go. 

Unfortunately, due to a variety of reasons (although most of them being "money"), it's taken me till now to get here. But with a baby on the way in Jan (have I mentioned that? I don't think I have as I haven't blogged since I found out) I thought it should be something I'd better get off the bucket list  while it's easier. 

In a way I've gradually worked up to the  Ed fringe. For the last couple of years I've been attending the Camden Fringe in London. A much smaller (although growing every year) festival with a similar array of types of show: plays, musicals, stand-up, dance.  

So, this year I took the plunge: booked accomedation, flights and pre-booked some tickets to shows (making sure to leave room in my schedule to discover stuff while I was there)

And I've made it through my first day. And boy was it a long day! Up at 4am to leave the house by 5 to get to Gatwick and catch plane at 7am. We were in Edinburgh City centre by 10am already tired and ready for caffeine. But not before paying a quick visit to the half price hut to pick up a bargin. 

That Bargin was well worth it too. Tortoise in a Nutshell productions' "Ferall" was a brilliantly inventive show that used puppetry, multi-media filming, soundscapes and drawings to tell a moving tale of Britain's  seaside towns in decline. The puppet town (gradually built up piece by piece in the first third of the show) is expertly filmed live and projected up on a screen in such a cinematic way, utilising multiple camera, transitions between then as well as  pans and sweeps . It much have taken a lot of planning and practice.

Next up was a talk on Arthur Conan-Doyle which I can't tell you much about ..... Because I was mostly dozzing off during it. Whether this was due to my 4am start or the content of the talk I'm honestly not sure. 

Finally though we could check in to our accomedation. Which we promptly did and had a bit of a much needed siesta.

Back into town for the early evening we checked out the BBC area (checking up on my lovely employers). Their area is a really nice one to go to just to relax. As well as their main ticketed event tent they have the "pink tent" with seating, a small stage for a programme of free events and bookshelves full of books if you feel like whiling away the time. Also in their area are food stalls, a bar, table tennis and a free greenscreen photo booth that I defiantly plan on coming back to have a go at. 

They even had funky branded headphones to listen to the large outdoor  sceen they had. Look, here me in all my BBC branded glory, doing my bit for my employers.

We had pre-booked tickets to the evening for Al Murray. We used to watch his weekly show 6 or so years ago and always were in fits if laughter watching it. So it had been the first thing we had pre-booked coming here. We weren't disappointed. Al Murray was as ever very funny as the pub landlord character with ever so slightly out dated views who you'd be slightly nervous to have as a real friend and yet can't help chuckling along to many of the things he says. 

So, after that, at this point it was only 9:30. Part of the reason I had booked an early flight was to be able to pack a whole days worth of shows in... But we had been up since 4am and despite a couple of Naps through the day I do still have a pregnant wife who was starting to get a bit grumpy about me dragging her from venue to venue. It was time to call it an early night, and save the real packed day for tommorow......

 

First they came for ....

So BBC 3 is going (subject to BBC Trust approval)
I won't go into detail about my thoughts about it. Many of them are summed up quite well in this Radio Times Article...

http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2014-03-15/never-mind-saving-bbc3-the-bbc-itself-is-in-danger#.Uyrdxj6Zav8.twitter

Reading the article it struck me that a famous quote works quite well adapted for this....

"First they came for the Asian Network, and I did not speak out--
Because I do not listen to the Asian Network.

Then they came for the BBC 6music, and I did not speak out--
Because I was do not listen to BBC 6Music.

Then they came for the BBC three, and I did not speak out--
Because I do not watch BBC 3.

Then they came for the BBC service I use, and no one was left to speak out for that."

Something Evil has arisen this Christmas

Something horrible seems to have crept up on us this holiday season. It’s clearly been lurking, biding its time since the 80/early 90s and has decided that now is the time they will strike.

I talk of course of the Christmas Jumper!

No Colin..... just no. 

It has to be mind control. Surly no other rational explanation makes sense as to why suddenly, out of no-where, this year these hideous abominations of knit-wear are appearing in every shop window on our high streets. In usually quite stylish chains, on attractive models who look like they would normally be seen in slinky dresses or sharp suits. They model their large reindeer heads or repeated snowflake patterns as if they were the height of style. Its all part of their mind control agenda. 

Don't be fooled ... she would look hotter in something else. Anything else

 

This is how the invasions start in sci-fi you know. First they take over the high street shops, then they come at you through the windows. I mean, Just look at the Autons!

The mind control has clearly already spread beyond the people running the shops. In recent weeks not only have I seen actual people on my commute wearing them but have also heard of charity wear-a-Christmas-jumper days and Christmas Jumper Parties!

Worse still I've been invited to one. Even worse still I think my wife has fallen under their control. She keeps mentioning them. I fear I will wake up one morning and she would have put one on me in my sleep and then it will be too late. 

It won’t be long before they’ll be made compulsory school and work uniforms and a slave force of workers is forced to churn them out 24 hours a day (actually that one is probably already happening).

And then my friends the evil wool aliens will have won.

Unless we fight back now.  The resistance starts today. Fight back against the oppressors and mind controllers and shout from the roof tops “Down with the novelty Christmas Jumpers!”

"Bonkgate" - Twitter, The innocent photo and the tabloid scandal

“Be careful what you post on twitter” is a warning often given to those that work for high profile places such as The BBC, you never know when your tweet written in anger will come back to bite you on the bum. There have been a few high profile cases where something someone has said has embarrassed them later (The recent motorist and their seemingly boasting of knocking a cyclist) , gotten them fired or forced resignations(The “youth Police Commissioner”) lead to Civil legal cases (even not explicitly accusing someone but just putting  *innocent face* after an otherwise harmless question can get you done for libel apparently) and even land you in prison (The frustrated traveller who joked they would blow up the airport if their plane didn’t board soon).

It’s a bit of a mind field to say the least.

And that’s just when you tweet something you shouldn’t. You see Twitter is a public platform. Tweets are there for everyone to see, take and use out of context. Completely innocent tweets can be hijacked and used against you. Even worse, tweets by someone else can. Something you have absolutely no control over.

And sometimes, every so often, it might embroil you in a tabloid scandal.

A few months back I attended the BBC Television centre staff closing party. It was a fun evening (despite the fact that I had a stonking cold, was on water the whole night and left early). We enjoyed the nibbles, chatted, had a bit of a dance and even got our photo taken with Scott Mills who was there to DJ. Genuinely a fun but uneventful evening, I wouldn’t say anything out of the ordinary happened.

I went home. Enjoyed my weekend. Started to get over my cold. Woke up on Monday morning and, as I often do, reached for my phone to have a quick look at twitter before getting out of bed.

While scrolling down twitter I see a headline “British Bonking Corporation” with a link to an article in the Daily Mirror. “ooo wonder what’s been going on” I thought., clicking on the link.

Reading the article I discovered that at that party I had been at there had, allegedly, been various frisky attendees who had snuck off to the abandoned offices for a quick bit of fun. Chuckling to myself I was thinking “Wow, I didn’t notice any of this going on” while continuing to scroll down. It was all very amusing.

Then I reached a photo.

The photo of me, my friends and Scott Mills posing for the camera. The photo that another friend had taken on their phone, presumably posted to twitter and now was included in an article about BBC staff sneaking off for some Bonking fun.

It’s not often that my mouth is literally hung open in shock but this was one of them times.

There were a couple of other pictures in the article but just crowd shots of the dance floor. Ours was the only photo of people looking to the camera. If you were just glancing at the article you might be forgiven for assuming that we were the “Bonkers” from the headline.  (which we weren’t…. just in case that still needed clarifying)

 I wasn’t exactly sure what to do next. My feelings were a mix between being quite chuffed that my photo was on a national newspaper's website, to worrying about any potential damage to my reputation that might affect work prospects, to being amused that the caption to the photo referred to us as Scott Mills' “Pals”.

What I did do first was text my wife. She doesn’t read the Mirror as far as I know, but just in case I wanted to guard agasint castration and assure her the Headline was nothing to do with me. Next I sent tweets to everyone else in the photo, all who were equally shocked and amused.

At this point I only knew that it was online, so on the way to work I bought a copy of the paper…..

 

Only a whole page spread on page 9!!!!

I then, am not ashamed to say, bought three more copies. (Well, It IS probably the only Time I’ll get in a national newspaper)

Finally I tentatively started showing people in my office to gauge reaction. To my relief everyone found it funny and reassured me I shouldn’t worry.

It was at this point I felt a bit more free to share the hilarity with friends on Facebook and fully embrace the amusement of it all.  We even started refering to it as "Bonkgate"

But it is a great example of how twitter posts can be used in ways you wouldn’t have intended. There was nothing we could really do about it. It was an innocent picture posted to twitter by someone else and just taken by a tabloid to put with a headline we had nothing to do with.

Does that mean we should all abandon twitter and forbid our friends of posting photos of us? I don’t think so. I love twitter and have found it very useful, paticually in the media industry for networking, finding jobs and getting advice.  

Just be wary, when your friends are taking pictures, not do anything that might embarrass you later and if you do end up, innocently,  in an amusing tabloid scandal try and embrace the funny side of it. It makes a great anecdote for parties.

365 days later.....

On February 18th 2012, long before I was on the production talent pool and back when I worked for a gold buying company in shopping malls, I was in London for the day. While there I took a photo of Broadcasting House, the BBCs home of national radio. I posted that photo on Facebook with the caption "I want to work here".

Well, exactly a year later, to the day, I started working there. How's that for prophetic timing?

The last year has been epic for me. It's amazing to think this time last year, when I took that photo, I had spent four years working in jobs that had nothing to do with the industry I wanted to work in. The prospect of ever getting that elusive career had never seemed further away.

But I decided I needed to take a serious shot at it one more time and 2012 would be the year I dedicated to it.

Getting onto the PTP was that shot. If it wasn't for the PTP I would never be working today at that building I took a photo of a year ago.

Applications opened today for the next crop of PTP applicants. If you're sitting there in a dead end job wishing you had fulfilled your TV or radio dreams this is your chance. Apply today.

I have no doubt I will look back at the last year as one of the best in my life, for both career and personal reasons. As well as now working in radio drama department of the BBC I also married the woman I love and went on an amazing once in a lifetime honeymoon cruise down the west coast of south America.

It's amazing how things can change in a year if you put your mind to it. 

9 months in the PTP an' counting

It's February. Already. Time is flying by.

I've now been on the BBC production Talent Pool for 9 months and nothing is bringing home the fact that I technically only have a few months left more than all the twitter posts I see calling for people to apply for PTP2013.

Applications open on the 18th Feb. so it seems a good time to review what I have gotten out of the scheme myself in the last 9 months. Perhaps if you are thinking of applying my musings will help you decided.

In fact I'll make it simple for you in case you don't want to read further....

If you want to work in TV and radio. APPLY.

Seriously you have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Saying that don't expect to be constantly employed by the BBC during your year on the scheme should you be lucky enough to get on.

I was, with no exaggeration, ecstatic when I found out I had got a place. I literally jumped about my living room for a good five minuets. I couldn't wait to get started and getting started first meant 3 days of initial training. Some of this is long and tedious (a five hour health and safety on-line module or example) but I wouldn't have given up those 3 days for anything. It was a chance to meet my fellow PTPeeps (what we ended up refer to ourselves as on twitter) and as I soon learned networking is everything in media. It really is who you know and you'll make some good friends at the training.

At the training we were told they had a whole host of BBC programme makers  clambering at the doors to hire us and waiting for us to be trained and that while they couldn't guarantee it they expected most of us to be in some kind of placement with the first couple of weeks.

So it was a bit hard to deal with the silence of my phone for the weeks afterwards. Even harder when the weeks turned to months and no call came.

And it wasn't just me. No one from the Bristol group of PTPeeps had had anything and only a handful of others had.

I don't for one second blame the fabulous people running the scene for this. I think they may have got carried away in their enthusiasm for the scheme and their enthusiasm for us in predicting demand and I also suspect that demand told to them was over exaggerated but when they said it i do think they believed it.

The two people running the scheme: Don Kong (yes that is really his name, isn't it great!) and Simon Wright are your closest allies and best friends in starting out in your media careers  They are always there when you need it at the end of a phone line (or more often at the end of a tweet) With advice and friendly words and they will do everything in their power to get you that first job.

You have to do some work yourself as well of course and a lot of those first two months I spent e-mailing people within the BBC, telling them we were here and asking to meet for a coffee. Also attending Networking events, some organised specially for us, some external.

Finally I did get an interview; For a five week placement as an IT co-ordinator in drama. It wasn't the production or editorial role I had been hoping for. But after two months of waiting for an opportunity I wasn't going to scoff at it and during that month I learnt a lot about BBC systems that I may not have learned in another placement.

The moral there is don't refuse the roles in areas away from where you are aiming. You never know what you might learn.

It was five months till I was offered my next BBC placement. A 10 week contract as production management assistant in Radio Drama. It's my ideal role and I very much look forward to starting it next week.

But it is worth remembering that there may be long periods where you get no work form the BBC.

And now I'll tell you why none of that matters. Why if you REALLY do want to work in tv and radio why all the positive of this scheme outweigh the one negative of not knowing when you'll get your next pay (and really that's a good thing to get used to anyway, the whole media industry runs on short term contracts)

For starters you’re not restricted to just working for the BBC. If you get a full time job elsewhere that you love that's fine.  You might also get other short term work. During the 5 months between BBC contracts I filled my time working as a day-runner for various independent production companies. which ties in quite well to my next point....

Contacts! The PTP is amazing for making contacts in the industry. People within the BBC will (mostly) be more willing to meet with you for a coffee and a chat, which may not lead straight to a job but in a months time when they need someone they may just remember your enthusiasm.

Then there is your fellow PTPeeps. I've made some great friends through the PTP and some of those friends have gotten me jobs on other productions outside the BBC. The first runner role i had was because someone from the PTP who was already working on it recommended me. From that I got more work with that production company and my CV started to look appealing to apply for day-runner jobs off my own back.

And perhaps the best reason to apply for PTP is the opportunity to then apply to the PTS, the Production Trainee Scheme, the prestigious 18 month fast track that only those on the PTP can apply for.

I didn't quite make it onto the scheme  I did however get to the interview stage, not getting on to it may be my biggest disappointment to date in my life but I feel honoured that I got that far. To the last 33 from which the 11 trainees were chosen. That opportunity alone is worthy of applying for the PTP.

My 9 months on the scheme has been a roller coaster of ups and downs. And the only decision I've made that I might be tempted to change if I had a time machine might be to apply to London instead of Bristol. There were many more placements coming out of London (and also Manchester) than the others locations However there was probably also more competition in applying to London. Maybe I wouldn't have made it onto the scheme at all.

It would be a tough call to make. What isn't a tough call is to apply at all. If you have any desire to work in this industry do it. You won't regret it.