Production Manager
Self-employed

Clare G, New Moon Television

0.00.03 My name is Clare G, and I am a production manager, I am a freelance production manager but I am currently working at New Moon television. I’ve worked mainly in broadcast, so we organize shoots, production manager deals a lot, there is a team of people working around him or her and we organize everything from, we would go contracts employing crews, organising shoots, budgets for each programme, production schedules, everything that basically makes the program come together.

00.00.37 So we get everything in motion to then make it happen and then obviously do all the background work to make sure that it doesn’t fall apart. My father was originally a farmer and he didn’t go to university. My mother is still a special needs teacher for under fives. And then we lost our farm with kind of New Zealand, all the subsidies were taken away from farmers, so we were forced to sell, and then so my dad went back to university and then became a financial adviser.

00.01.09 So he has worked in the financial institution for I don’t know, 20, 30 years since farming. So they, the priority for their children was education. So from a very early age it was very important for us to get a good education. I have got four, three siblings and I was the one that didn’t think education was important.

00.01.32 So I was their most troublesome child. I was a good student when I was young in junior school but then I went to high school and was not a good girl. But then I just kind of worked out what I wanted to do, had a good teacher, kind of said, you know, should get into broadcasting or something that, you know, you are a good speaker, you are a good communicator, so that is why I decided to get into that. But school was not my strong point for a while and then I just kind of knuckled down and yeah.

00.02.04 If I hadn’t had that teacher, I would probably have had two children, you know, and be on the dole living, you know, pretty, not a nice life for someone who probably had a bit of talent. I went to university and started a BA in languages and then crossed over into journalism school.

00.02.31 And that suited me brilliantly and I think that is where a kind of came into my own. My siblings are all very in corporate jobs, so I’m the only one that is kind of more creative. My brother is a banker and my other siblings are in recruitment, so they… we struggle to understand or appreciate each other’s jobs, but that works well. As a freelancer, you do have to take the work when you can get it and then I try and make the most of when I’m not working, doing other things like whether it’s a photography course or cooking courses or seeing what is going on in London.

00.03.10 I used to do it in New Zealand, because I worked in sport, I used to work Saturdays and Sundays, and have Mondays Tuesdays off, and I couldn’t not work, so I would work Tuesdays in a Volunteer Centre. So that was kind of something that kept me busy but now I have thought no I just need to take time out and look after and relax, I am not very good at relaxing.

00.03.32 My mom would probably be my biggest role model. Yeah, she is a terrific woman. So she’s had a lot of adversity in her life, and it has kind of come through it, so I think if I can be as strong-willed and determined as her and she has got a lot of patience, so yeah I have a wonderful relationship. I think she still worries about me a bit, but I am doing alright.