icould - Careers Advice, Choices & Ideas

I was the lucky winner of one of Futurelab and icould’s Dream Job competitions and had the chance to spend a day at Mentorn Media, a TV production company which produces lots of instantly recognisable programmes, including An Idiot Abroad, Question Time and My Beautiful Face.

We started the day by sitting in on a meeting with the television development team, where they quickly outlined what was happening that week. We then sat with the team as they flicked through the morning’s newspapers in search of any stories that could be useful and possibly used in a TV programme. I found out that it takes a lot of work for an idea to become a programme, and usually only one out of every three hundred gets selected. I couldn’t believe that Deal or No Deal was apparently pitched to broadcasters for a couple of years before it was commissioned and Strictly Come Dancing was apparently rejected about six times before it was finally commissioned!

Following that, we had the chance to see some taster tapes. These are short clips that are used to explain to a broadcaster what a programme or documentary would be like before they commissioned it. It’s like a visual way for the development team to express their ideas, and some of the documentary tapes were particularly powerful, including the initial idea for My Beautiful Face.

My first brainstorm

We then took part in a brainstorming session to come up with new ideas for programmes for BBC 3. BBC 3 is targeted at 14-25 year olds, so being 15, I was able to contribute what teenagers my age like to do and enjoy watching. Maybe some of the ideas we discussed might end up on the TV in the next few months!

We stopped for lunch with Cara, a production manager at Mentorn and found out that she’s responsible for making sure everyone is organised and things are running smoothly when a programme is in production. Afterwards I had a brief chat with the Chief Executive of the company, John Willis and had a quick photo with him as a souvenir of the day.

Tougher brainstorming

We then took part in another brainstorm, trying to find ideas for a new show for BBC 1 or Sky 1 in the evening during the week. This was a lot harder, as the channels needed an Apprentice-style show that had a sense of aspiration which everyone could relate to. Because this isn’t targeted at a specific person, it was a lot harder to find ideas.

We ended the day by going down to Mentorn’s in-house post-production company, and it was amazing to see the different editing suites and the amount of footage they have. I’m really interested in the more technical side of television production so this was great for me to see.

Before I left Emma Morgan, Head of Development at Mentorn Media gave me a top tip for anyone wanting to work in TV. She said, “Just watch TV. Observe and be critical about every programme you watch. Think about why you like or dislike it. Don’t just be a passive viewer!“

Overall, I had a brilliant day, and it was a great opportunity to see how things work and how much more happens than one would think on the inside of a television production company. Thanks icould and Mentorn Media!