No mate, Fairfield Hospital in Bury but it also broadcasts to Rochdale Infirmary and this other hospice, the guy said they get between 80 and 90 thousand listeners a week so not bad.
www.rochvalleyradio.org.uk
Does anyone work in media?
- Thread starter anksta
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No mate, Fairfield Hospital in Bury but it also broadcasts to Rochdale Infirmary and this other hospice, the guy said they get between 80 and 90 thousand listeners a week so not bad.
www.rochvalleyradio.org.uk
add http://www.the-manchester-studios.tv/ to your list of places to get your CV to, it's the joint studio project between ITV/Granada and the BBC, a lot of the staff involved work for one or the other but they do have some of their own staff I believe, contact details on there for different depts
Ah right, a mate of mine, who's also on here has been at Northern Air for a couple of years now, broadcasts out of north manchester general but also gets played in Hope, not sure how much he's taking from it but definitely a decent CV entry.
I was born at Hope Hospital. Do you know if he gets paid for that mate? Its voluntary at Fairfield but the guy also works at Rossendale Radio and he said if I'm half decent at the hospital I might be able to get some paid work there.
No he doesn't Northern Air is entirely voluntary as far as I'm aware
yeah cheers mate just looking at their website now. The other emails I sent to other places I just sent a generic email, hi I'm whoever and I want to do this this and this, I'm in Manchester and I'll work for free for anything going etc. but some people said that might be a bad idea and it would better for me to look up what they've done and whatnot then write them a specific email or letter (which?) about they're projects and why I'd like to be involved with them.
I thought that was just a bit of base flattery thoguh and thought it would be better to send a general enquiry and then if anyone got back to me with a why do you wanna work with us type email i would look up all I can and then go from there.
These people could get anywhere from 5-50 applications like yours a day. If you don't even bother to look up what they do then why would they bother even responding? You don't have to spend hours on each. Have your letter set up and just change the odd detail towards what they seem to pride themselves on, or simply what they do.
was he looking for that? I'm on the dole at the minute (got an excuse though, was made redundant and then moved to china for 4 months) and there were actually quite a few alright opportunities on those computers they have. I've applied for them but I always think it sounds dead bad to say "I found your advert at the dole office"
He wasn't specifically looking for it. His main interest was in radio and sound. But he did it anyway to buff up his CV. He was doing an 80 mile round trip to Belfast every day just to do the scheme, so I think his dedication and enthusiasm for the course landed him getting hired by the BBC Blast team. The other people on the scheme where only really there because they had to be.
Soldato
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As far as wanting to be a writer goes, well...just write, write and write.
Forging a career as a writer doesn't require becoming a runner and getting yourself "in" in prodco's etc. There's no need. THAT side of things is for people wanting to get into being an on-set presence in the filmmaking world.
Get a ton of scripts under your belt. Get yourself an agent. Get signed on to industry mailing lists to find out which companies are open to unsolicited spec queries ("Creative Screenwriting" magazine is good for that - every month they give you a list of companies), and get submitting. You'll be rejected hundreds, if not thousands of times...but if you're good enough you'll get there.
Have a look here every now and then to start with. Some really golden opportunities pop up there that, while not paying much (if at all), could open doors.
Forging a career as a writer doesn't require becoming a runner and getting yourself "in" in prodco's etc. There's no need. THAT side of things is for people wanting to get into being an on-set presence in the filmmaking world.
Get a ton of scripts under your belt. Get yourself an agent. Get signed on to industry mailing lists to find out which companies are open to unsolicited spec queries ("Creative Screenwriting" magazine is good for that - every month they give you a list of companies), and get submitting. You'll be rejected hundreds, if not thousands of times...but if you're good enough you'll get there.
Have a look here every now and then to start with. Some really golden opportunities pop up there that, while not paying much (if at all), could open doors.
Cheers mate, I'll definitely do all that.
I know what you're saying, for years I told myself I was gonna do it one day and then I only even wrote maybe once or twice a month and even then not much.
Now I feel like I am giving it a proper go, I know that given enough submissions and study I should get at least something picked up but I reckon that if I learn the industry better, see it first hand then not only will I be a bit better equipped with the knowledge of the limitations and running of certain things, I might also have a few hands to slip a script or 2 into that maybe might bypass a read or two before reachign someone that actually matters.
It sounds like you write mate, is that right?
Soldato
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Still working on it being pro.
I write regularly for Dread Central as their UK correspondent and am currently trying to make my way into the pages of some hallowed publications in the genre (keeping tight-lipped about the particulars, though
).It NEVER hurts to just fire off a query to editors of publications you're interested in. If you have good ideas, you'll be surprised how often they'll be interested.
Contacts are key. The right people can put you in touch with THE right people - it's all about networking. Spending time in a prodco making tea might get you some exposure to them, but you'd likely go mad before anything big happens. Open your mouth, don't be afraid to approach key people, and sell yourself.
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is that something you do on the side or is it your job?
I think that writing is my passion and films are my church, so to speak. I reckon I'm gonna end up doing most of my writing in my spare time (at least at first) so I'm gonna have to be working either way. So if I can maintain the writing and also work in an area I love then it'll be twice as good.
I don't want a job I hate and writing to become an escape route out of that life if you get me. If I can work somewhere I like, and I'm not sure which area of media I'd like to work then I can write what I've always seen myself writing which si comedy. When I'm depressed or fed up my writing always descends into introspective private stuff that will never get sent anywhere, which is why I haven't written anything for the past 2 days.
I think that writing is my passion and films are my church, so to speak. I reckon I'm gonna end up doing most of my writing in my spare time (at least at first) so I'm gonna have to be working either way. So if I can maintain the writing and also work in an area I love then it'll be twice as good.
I don't want a job I hate and writing to become an escape route out of that life if you get me. If I can work somewhere I like, and I'm not sure which area of media I'd like to work then I can write what I've always seen myself writing which si comedy. When I'm depressed or fed up my writing always descends into introspective private stuff that will never get sent anywhere, which is why I haven't written anything for the past 2 days.
like everyone else said, contacts contacts contacts
but also work for free as much as you can as it will often lead to paid work...
if you're under 21 and want to work in tv/film, try and get onto this scheme:
http://www.mgeitf.co.uk/home/thenetwork.aspx
also you want to be reading:
- media jobs section on guardian.co.uk
- http://www.mediauk.com (jobs and forums)
- jobs.bbc.co.uk
- mandy
- grapevinejobs
I started off broadcasting to friends after school using shoutcast when i was 16 and my dream was to have a bbc email address
6 years later after lots of work placements (paid and unpaid), a music degree and some hard work I was a bbc sound engineer.
and i got my email address
good luck!
but also work for free as much as you can as it will often lead to paid work...
if you're under 21 and want to work in tv/film, try and get onto this scheme:
http://www.mgeitf.co.uk/home/thenetwork.aspx
also you want to be reading:
- media jobs section on guardian.co.uk
- http://www.mediauk.com (jobs and forums)
- jobs.bbc.co.uk
- mandy
- grapevinejobs
I started off broadcasting to friends after school using shoutcast when i was 16 and my dream was to have a bbc email address
6 years later after lots of work placements (paid and unpaid), a music degree and some hard work I was a bbc sound engineer.
and i got my email address
good luck!
Soldato
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It's on the side. I get expenses, but that's it at the moment. Of course, printed publications pay by the word.
As far as writing movies goes, it'll take a while to break into that (if you do) as it's almost impossibly competitive. Stick with it, though, but you need the accept the reality that you'll need to work a standard job while you try to break through.
As far as writing movies goes, it'll take a while to break into that (if you do) as it's almost impossibly competitive. Stick with it, though, but you need the accept the reality that you'll need to work a standard job while you try to break through.
Soldato
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Any progress OP?
Arite mate, thanks for the interest.
I don't know what you could call progress really, I mean I'm not working anywhere so no definite clear progress but sort of clawing my way slowly and hopefully surely.
Just been entering competitions recently, none of which I've won, there was one at this company in Salford that I proper had my heart set on and I didn't even get to the first stage so I was really gutted about that.
Put an advert on Gumtree though for anyone interested in helping me make a film and got loads of replies from that, even had a professional editor give my script to a small production company who said they were interested in it. So I got dead excited about that but then they started backing out by saying they wouldn't be ready and the actual guy from the company said he hadn't even read it, which I was not happy about.
Also going through my Writers and Artists Yearbook I found a literary agent that listed special interests as China and the Far East (I've just come back from 4 months in China and wrote a journal) so even though it said contact only by recommendation I sent them a quick email and they replied straight away asking to see the first 50 pages.
I wasn't even expecting a reply let alone a request to see it, I'd only typed up like 4 lines at that point so I'm just doing that at the minute, ridiculously slowly though, only just crossed 10 pages today and its nothing like what I intend the final product to be.
Also start back on the radio tonight, hopefully proper training so we will see how that goes.
Phew, quite a lot really but considering I'm still sat in on the dole (also lost a jbo last week) its a bit demoralising really.
Thanks for asking mate, nice to think you're interested.
I work in the Film industry myself and started off as a Runner also.
Personally, I'd say with how the industry is right now, it's not a great time to be a Runner, as more jobs are going than being available at the moment. It's still experience though.
Most importantly, I'd agree with what a few others have said, if its script writing you want to do, I don't think being a Runner is going to aid you in that. The benefit of being a Runner is that you get to see job opportunities and have a chance to work on things coming up for the company you are a Runner for, while also learning who all the other companies are and what they do.
As a script writer, you need to just write and send them off to production companies and I believe there are also websites where you can list them so that they can be found. Also if you've got short film scripts, try and get one made yourself, or find somebody willing to make one of it.
Personally, I'd say with how the industry is right now, it's not a great time to be a Runner, as more jobs are going than being available at the moment. It's still experience though.
Most importantly, I'd agree with what a few others have said, if its script writing you want to do, I don't think being a Runner is going to aid you in that. The benefit of being a Runner is that you get to see job opportunities and have a chance to work on things coming up for the company you are a Runner for, while also learning who all the other companies are and what they do.
As a script writer, you need to just write and send them off to production companies and I believe there are also websites where you can list them so that they can be found. Also if you've got short film scripts, try and get one made yourself, or find somebody willing to make one of it.