I spoke to three students on the NFTS Producing and Directing TV Entertainment MA to get a feel for the kinds of work placements they get to go on and what they get out of them.
The Producing and Directing TV Entertainment MA is the only one of its kind in the world and is designed to fast-track students into the industry. Work placements are a key part of this and help get the students’ work recognised as well as build industry contacts. Former students have sold three entertainment formats to Warner Brothers and ITV in the last three years alone and we regularly win prestigious awards at ceremonies such as the New York Television Festival and the Royal Television Society Awards.
Juliet Braunstein spent a month working as a Runner and Production Management Assistant at BBC Music Television. “I had such a valuable learning experience there, I can't thank them enough! I was pleased to discover it was all systems go and that I could just get stuck in straight away; I prefer it like that. I picked up so much useful knowledge from working both on shoots and also in the office with the production team - I'm already putting what I learnt into practice. “
“My team (who I still consider to be "my team"!) consisted of a wonderful bunch of highly-skilled and lovely people, making the experience all the more enjoyable. I'll miss working with them! My placement certainly lived up to my expectations, and more, and I'll definitely keep in touch with everyone. They even invited me back to the same show the following month for a few days paid work. I'd certainly love the opportunity to work with them all again in the future.”
Anastazia Pieniazek went to the BBC in White City to work with the Entertainment Format Development Team. “I really enjoyed the experience as I learnt how varied development can be. It was fun to get involved in all of the brainstorming sessions and I got to improve my researching skills covering a range of topics and shows. I also got to help out on a couple of shoots, which was all really useful.“
“I think this placement will help me in the future as I got to experience development first hand in one of the leading TV companies in the UK, and the team were very welcoming and friendly and are keen to keep in touch. As for the course in general, I am really enjoying it and would recommend it because I have learnt skills such as multi-camera studio directing, which I would not be able to get anywhere else. “
Lucy Smith:“My placement was at BBC Creative Label, essentially a micro-indie within the BBC. The team develops and pitches new content ideas, and then hires in freelance production teams to produce shows that get commissioned. When I joined, they had four shows in production so everyone was nose-to-the-ground in the middle of pre-production!”
“When I joined the team, I was assigned to the casting teams of two new commissions and immediately got stuck in researching contributor profiles, distributing flyers, compiling contact databases and writing up character biographies. I also got the chance to travel the country, with street-casting stints in Birmingham, Manchester, Brighton and East London. This experience gave me a great insight into professional casting strategy which will undoubtedly prove really useful with my graduate show.”
“I made it clear at the beginning of my placement that I was really interested in development, so Head of Development, Charlie Nicholson made sure I was included in a team development brainstorms which I particularly enjoyed. In my evenings after work I wrote up a number of treatments inspired by these brainstorms and a document including around 50 top-line log-lines for shows. Charlie was really nurturing and said I’d be great working in development post-NFTS. The Creative Label people were really lovely, but obviously very busy!”
“I will definitely be keeping in touch with Creative Label, and they have said they would like to attend our grad screenings in February.”
If this course sounds like your kind of thing or you would like to work in the television entertainment industry, then you can apply for the Producing and Directing Television Entertainment MA up until the 7th July 2016.
