“Setting up a media production company” with Simon Horniblow

My final talk was on Friday 21st with Simon Horniblow, who graduated from the University of York 10 years ago with a degree in Film and TV Production. He knew it was important to get work experience so he would stand out from the crowd, even though he didn’t know exactly what he wanted to do. He did a 12 week unpaid internship with True North Productions in his third year and even ended up getting some paid work from them.

Simon told us about his journey of moving to Leeds and setting up a company with his friend and now also business partner Oliver. He said that the two of them are quite opposite in what they’re good at doing, which helps make them a good team. They started a series of student cooking programmes and later set up ‘Campus Life’, and now work with 85 universities in England, although not Leeds Trinity yet! 90% of their work is university related, but they have also made videos for HSBC and the gym Xercise4Less.

Simon said that they have about 15-20 people employed and working at any one time, and that they’re happy to take on students for placements, even if it’s just for a short period of time. I think this would be a fantastic work opportunity for anyone interested in the industry, particularly with it being a name often recognised by students all over the country.

Campus Life website: http://www.campuslife.co.uk
Campus Life Twitter: https://twitter.com/@campuslifeuk
Student Cooking website: http://www.studentcooking.tv/

“Journalism: why work for someone else when you can start your own company” with Simon Wilkes

My second talk of the week was on Wednesday 19th with Simon Wilkes, who went to the University of Central Lancashire from the years 1994-1997 where he studied journalism. He now runs his own business which he started two months ago, ‘SJ Wilkes Media Ltd’, and brands the business as ‘Digital Media Content Specialists’.

Simon is a Sports Journalist and worked for the first ever football website, Team Talk, from 2001-2014, which is a company bought by Sky Sports 6 years ago. There was 1900 people in Leeds alone working for Sky until the company decided to move itself to London. He was given the option of moving to the capital or being made redundant, and as he had built a family life for himself here in Leeds he decided to leave the job and start up his own company here.

When Simon was talking us through everything he has done so far with his business I couldn’t believe he’d only had it running for two months. There’s been so much work put in already, it sounded like a very busy schedule for him! I was also surprised at some of the costs he had mentioned. Although there are some high expenses, it only cost him £180 to set up a Ltd company, which was done through an accountant, and his website costs £10 a month through Vistaprint, which he said is a similar format to WordPress.

After attending this talk, I still don’t think setting up my own company is something I’m interested in doing, I think I’d find it too stressful! I found it really interesting though and he said that although you need to define your strong point, most jobs now bleed into others and so he talked about the importance of having multiple skill sets in the industry.

Simon’s website: http://www.sjwilkesmedialtd.co.uk/

“A Career in TV – BBC and Celebrity Big Brother” with Sean O’Brien

On Monday 17th November I went to my first talk of Enterprise and Employability Week! The guest speaker was Sean O’Brien, who was previously a student at Leeds Trinity University until he graduated in 2012 with a degree in Television. He is currently working on ‘Celebrity Big Brother’ as a task researcher, and has had some of his ideas commissioned to be used on the next series of the show.

I really enjoyed this talk, Sean made it interesting and helpful while also keeping it very entertaining. I can definitely say I wasn’t the only person who gained valuable information from the session – the lecture theatre was full and it seemed like everyone left feeling entertained and inspired by Sean’s working life.

He talked us through his work since leaving university, emphasised the importance of getting as many work placements as possible, gave us some pros and cons of the industry and tips of where to look for jobs, and talked us through writing CVs and cover letters that employers will want to read. On top of this he also told us some interesting stories – he once worked on Comic Relief and went outside for a cigarette with Olivia Colman!

Sean explained how he did a placement at BBC Entertainment North during his time at university, along with a two week placement for the BBC3 show ‘Snog Marry Avoid’. He also did some day runner jobs for shows including ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ and recommended Manchester as a place where lots of opportunities are available. He says he wouldn’t be where he is today without this extra work he put in to do more placements, as the more experience you have, the higher you are placed by potential employers looking at CVs.

As a part of Sean’s talk, he had a PowerPoint presentation prepared for us. One of the slides said “Your hard work gets seen by millions”, and this really stood out to me. As he had mentioned a few minutes earlier, you can do literally anything in this industry, and I had never really looked at it as something that so many people will see. When I do some work, whether it’s filming or editing, and one or two people see it, I get a great sense of accomplishment, so after Sean spoke about that I felt really excited… This is definitely what I want to be doing!

Follow Sean on Twitter: @gottagothatsme

Employability and Enterprise Week at Leeds Trinity University

This week it’s been Employability and Enterprise Week at uni. There’s been different talks going on where industry professionals have visited to talk to students about their experiences and career so far. I attended three sessions related to both my degree and my interests this week, and as well as finding it fun, I’ve gained some really useful information from all of them.

I’ve been writing about all three of the talks I went to, and they’ll be up on my blog to read tomorrow.

My Favourite Film Franchise

I started reading the Harry Potter books when I was 6 or 7 years old and my class teacher introduced me to the first book (Philosopher’s Stone). It quickly became a nightly routine that my dad would sit with me in my room and we’d read a chapter of the book before I went to sleep. Soon my bedroom was decorated with Hogwarts wallpaper, I had bedsheets and pyjamas, Harry Potter toys everywhere, and a potions set.

When the films were announced I had never felt so excited for a movie to be released. I had the same excitement every time another book or film was released, and I practically lived and breathed Harry Potter.

Even to this day, after it’s all over, I still have just as much love for the franchise as I did when I was a child 14 years ago. I love the characters and the cleverly thought out plots and character backgrounds. The ideas are so original and every time I watch the films I feel completely engrossed and involved in the story.

I really did grow up with Harry Potter and have always been a massive fan. I feel like it’s played a huge part in my childhood and growing up and for that reason, it will always be my favourite film franchise.