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INDEXTV Opportunities
8 years, 5 months ago - Chris Bogle
hello all. At a bit of a loss and looking for some advice. I'm currently approaching producers and execs for work shadowing opportunities in continuing drama in the UK - I've been told that shadowing is the best approach to get a foot in the door on a show, get a handle on the turnaround requirements (especially on the high output soaps) but it's a pretty scattergun email approach and I'm not sure exactly who I should be approaching. I am getting responses from a few execs but they are, as expected, deflecting me towards schemes like BBC Writers Room, which has a handful of opportunities, very small % success rate and only runs once a year.
I'm experienced, with 15 years in promos/corporates/commercials and have two decent quality, tier 2 festival shorts on my reel.
Directors I've spoken to at the rare networking events that happen in Scotland have told me to just keep banging on doors until I get a reply, but I'm not even sure I'm approaching the right people.
Are there any experienced TV directors in here who can give me an idea of who's door to I need to keep hammering on to find a crack and a finger hold? Producers, series producers or execs? Or all three?
Cheers,
Chris
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8 years, 5 months ago - Mark Insoll
Hi Chris, the Directors Guild run - or certainly used to run - an observer director scheme. Cheers, Mark
Response from 8 years, 5 months ago - Mark Insoll SHOW
8 years, 5 months ago - Chris Bogle
Thanks Mark, I'll give them a shout.
Response from 8 years, 5 months ago - Chris Bogle SHOW
8 years, 5 months ago - Angela Peters
Also Directors UK might be useful. Are you a member? or do you have any friends who are? Perhaps you can get along to one of their events. They're usually excellent (the few I've been to as a plus one).
Are you up in Scotland?
Response from 8 years, 5 months ago - Angela Peters SHOW
8 years, 5 months ago - Chris Bogle
Hey Angela,
Yeah I'm a member and go to the events when they happen up here in Scotland. They are very, very good indeed, but the attendees, as talented as they all are, tend to be directors at the same career level as me, or from factual trying to move over to drama. There are occasionally one or two people there actually working in television who have given me some great advice, but they're also very busy and getting responses when you follow up can be tricky. And the advice is always to bang on doors. The problem is knowing which door to bang on. Sending emails out to producers without an introduction feels like a recipe to end up in a lot of junk email folders.
I think I need to come down to more of their London events, I imagine that's where there are more connections to be made.
C
Response from 8 years, 5 months ago - Chris Bogle SHOW