Response from BVE North freelancer seminar

The seminar was full!  Photo: Alex Beaton

The response was amazing, the seating area was full with folks standing round the edge to pick up some tips. At the end some people waiting over 20 minutes to talk to me as well as folk coming up to me throughout the two days to continue the discussion.

Apparently there were over 2400 visitors across the two days and the event organisers are already planning for BVE North 2012. Event director Charlotte Wheeler said: “Exhibitors have already begun taking options on stands for next year, and we will be revealing plans for BVE North 2012 very shortly.”

The union BECTU who hosted the seminar on How to be a successful Freelancer have also reported on the success of the event....

The Panel  - Photo: Alex Beaton

John Crumpton, BAFTA-awarding winning freelance and union official, delivered the session with excellent contributions from Christine Pyke, an experienced programme-maker who now runs her own company, Puma Training; Mike Thornton, Pro-Tools genius and award winning audiomeister (our words not his!) with a string of credits across genres, formats and platforms; and Faisal A Qureshi, established writer and editor, associate producer of the award-winning feature Four Lions, producer of Khalil the Great for FACT Liverpool and a visiting lecturer at the Northern Film School in Leeds.
Reviewing the seminar, John said: “These days being a freelance means considering oneself an ‘owner/manager’ who effectively is running their own small business. As such I felt that after the audience had learnt what the panelist did and why they worked freelance, they’d want to know about the practicalities of freelancing.

Key questions
"How frequently did they do their accounts to keep an eye on cash flow? How did they decide their rates for work? What did they feel were the benefits of social media and how much time did they spend on ‘cultivating’ their online presence?

John & Mike  Photo: Alex Beaton

"Mike Thornton told how in the space of two years and through training opportunities provided by the union, he’d learnt how to blog, and later delivered training to FEU members on uploading audio-podcasts. In the process he developed the skills to launch two successful blogs, one of which has just secured commercial sponsorship.
"These types of success stories were contrasted with accounts from all the panelists of having their fingers financially ‘burned’ by bad and non-paying clients early in their careers.
"Such tales of woe certainly hit a chord with the crowd. A number of new entrants told me later that when they’d been on the receiving end of similar bad treatment they’d felt foolish, humiliated and alone. They felt a bit better that it had also happened to others who’d learnt the lesson the hard way but gone on to create thriving careers."

I certainly felt we struck a chord with our honesty and openness and the genuine advise we gave.

Mike on the panel at BVE North on 16th Nov

BECTU are kicking off the seminar programme at BVE North on 16th Nov and I will be on the panel. The session is entitled "How to be a Successful Freelance".

If you work in the North and you have registered for BVE North (16-17 November at Manchester Central) don't miss BECTU's seminar How to be a Successful Freelance.
Our learning organiser John Crumpton has devised the session with the great help of panellists Christine Pyke, Mike Thornton and Faisal A Quereshi.
The seminar helps to kick off the first ever BVE North; join the discussion at 10.00 am on Wednesday 16 November. If you have yet to take advantage of free registration, here's the link.

For more info on this seminar go to the BECTU web site.

Fast Train – free training day for TV freelancers May 18th

This is a press release from the BBC that came from an email from my union BECTU

Fast Train, a free training event for TV freelancers, will be held on Wednesday 18 May 2011 at the BBC Academy in White City. This ground-breaking initiative will provide freelancers with the unique opportunity to sample a wide range of high quality professional training from the industry's leading providers. Short training sessions will be provided by the BBC Academy, the Indie Training Fund, DV Talent, VET, NFTS, BECTU, Four Corners, The TV Collective and Skillset Media Academies, with the support of many independent production companies. Skillset will also be on hand to discuss training bursaries and guide freelancers through the application process.

This new initiative, which will be open for up to 500 freelancers, is in direct response to Broadcast's TV Freelancer Survey in which training was highlighted as an important factor in career progression. Of those questioned, 52 per cent listed it as being far more important than professional support bodies, commercial recruitment services or online social networking.

Fast Train will comprise practical workshops, day and half-day courses and short "taster" sessions covering all aspects of production; camera, self-shooting, editing, HD, multi-camera, scripting, legal, digital, cross-platform, social media, H&S, production management, making the web work for you, business, leadership and people skills, editorial policy, pitching and much more.

There will also be updates on key industry issues – such as tapeless production, the BBC's Digital Media Initiative (DMI) and connected TV; leading industry figures will give master-classes on hit shows and, importantly, the day will also provide networking opportunities with commissioners, controllers and indies. 

Lets hope this doesn't remain a London centric programme.

BBC On line cuts jobs and sites

Jemima Kiss from The Guardian has reported that the BBC plan to cut 360 jobs from BBC On Line.

Management said the job cuts break down across the corporation and only a small number relate to currently vacant positions. Of 360 posts to be cut, 120 are from Future Media & Technology, up to 90 from BBC Vision, up to 39 from Audio & Music, 17 from Children's, 24 from Sport and 70 in journalism from national news and non-news posts on regional news sites.  The corporation also outlined five editorial priorities for BBC Online and clarified its remit. The BBC aims to meet all these objectives, and make 360 posts redundant, by 2013. The restructured BBC Online department will consist of 10 products including News, iPlayer, CBeebies and Search. Editorial will be refined, with fewer News blogs, and local sites will be stripped of non-news content.

In another Guardian article they break down the changes in more detail...

• The closure of half of the 400 top-level domains (with 180 closing ahead of schedule later this year)
• The replacement of the majority of programme websites with automated content
• The automation of bespoke digital radio sites 1Xtra, 5 Live Sports Extra, 6 Music and Radio 7
• The closure of RAW, Blast, Switch, Video Nation and the disposal of h2g2
• The removal of non-News features content from Local sites
• A substantial reduction in show business news on the News website
• Fewer News blogs, with more focus on the updates from leading editors and correspondents
• A reduction in the overall amount of Sports news and live sport
• Standalone forums, communities and message boards and blogs to be reduced and replaced with integrated social tools
• The closure of the 606 community site and the closure of the BBC iPlayer message board

BBC Online will not:
• Launch its own social network
• Offer specialist news content for specialist audiences
• Publish local listings
• Develop encyclopaedic propositions in Knowledge
• Provide continuing professional development materials for teachers or a managed learning environment for schools
• Become a video-on-demand aggregator in BBC iPlayer, although it will link to other on-demand providers
• Produce online-only music sessions
• Offer track-by-track music streaming
• Invest in exclusive online sports rights

The BBC Online service licence budget will be reduced by £34m from £137m today to £103m by 2013/14.

Clearly this has as much to do with pressure being bought to bear on the BBC to reduce the size of its we site so as not to compete as much with commercial rivals, as it does with the need for the BBC to reduce its costs as a result of the recent license fee settlement.

How-Do has also reported this story and asked about the impact of these cuts on Media City...

a division-wide reduction of staff and budgets by 25% is expected to be felt as much in Salford as it will be in London. At the time of writing the BBC had been unable to provide How-Do with tailored information as to the regional ramifications of the cuts.

BECTU have reacted swiftly saying they will be on hand to support staff with on line changes.

"Staff in BBC Online need to join BECTU in large numbers to demonstrate just how serious they are about representation during the talks announced today,” said supervisory official, Helen Ryan.
The top line headcount reduction of 360 posts actually impacts on approximately 200 staff given a number of unfilled vacancies and the deployment of short term and contract staff. “Whilst we expect the BBC to respond positively to our concerns that absolutely every effort should be made to avoid compulsory redundancies, the fact that several departments are affected, and to different degrees, means that staff will need to work with their union to get the best outcomes from this reorganisation,” Helen Ryan concluded.

It is good to see the union on the case and lets hope they are able to help staff through this difficult transition.

Union describes the BBC cuts as "appalling"

BECTU have said...


BBC staff will be left reeling at the announcement that senior management have accepted a freeze in the licence fee until 2017 at the same time as agreeing to fund BBC World Service and Welsh language channel, S4C, from these reduced resources, says BECTU. The changes, apparently agreed just today, are said to amount to a 16 per cent cut in the BBC's income, equivalent to some £550m. Only yesterday (18 October) there was speculation that the BBC was to be instructed by government to fund free licences for the over-75s. Commenting on today's announcement, BECTU general secretary, Gerry Morrissey said:

"BBC staff will be in a state of shock at the scale of today's announcements. We'll be seeking an urgent meeting with senior management to discuss the implications of this appalling news. From where we are standing, senior executives appear to have entered into negotiations on the hoof and the result will be largescale damage to the BBC's services with the Corporation taking the flak for badly judged government decisions."

Morrissey also told the Press Association: “It seems as if the BBC is now doing the government’s dirty work. They have thrown in the towel, so they will now have to justify the cuts to staff. How can you cut 16% off your costs without affecting jobs or services? Morale at the BBC is already at rock bottom, but now there is little or no confidence in the management.”

Bectu has also comdemned the decision to include responsibility for Welsh broadcaster S4C into the BBC's pot, saying it shows an “ignorance of Wales, and its people, and most importantly, of the importance of democracy and plurality in Wales”. Bectu national official, David Donovan, said: “[Culture minister Jeremy Hunt’s] statements and actions serve as a clear warning that Wales is set to be controlled once more by a political elite with no interest in its people, its culture or its language. At a fundamental level, the statements show scant regard for the democratic process. It is clear that everyone who is committed to public service broadcasting and to the language and culture of Wales has to prepare to defend these interests against this government’s actions.”