News & Events
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Graduate Andrea Hamilton is Commissioning Editor at Sky She tells us how The Media School kick started her career |
The cut and thrust world of television seems, to many, incredibly hard to break into, but one Bournemouth graduate has risen to the very top of the game.
Andrea Hamilton is Commissioning Editor for Entertainment, Sky One, Two & Three. She has been at the channel for two and a half years, and in her twelve years in the industry has worked with Richard and Judy, covered the Oscars, and interviewed Eminem.
"I graduated (with a degree in media) in 1994, and did a year in PR," says Andrea. "Then I went travelling for a year and while I was away I think I got talking to somebody about television production."
This stuck with her, and once back in the UK Andrea set about trying to get her foot on the ladder.
"I wanted to get into television because I was interested in the coming together of a production and how so many creative and technical elements combined to results in a programme broadcasting on television. It felt much more tangible than PR."
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"I think university gives you a confidence and independence. The Bournemouth name is mentioned a lot, and I think it's increasingly got a good reputation" |
Andrea says that working on Richard and Judy was great, but incredibly hard work. "The average working week is about seventy hours, it was not unusual at all. You'd have a team of a producer, an associate producer and a researcher that would do one show a week."
And she maintains that Bournemouth has a respected name in industry. "I think university gives you a confidence and independence. The Bournemouth name is mentioned a lot, and I think it's increasingly got a good reputation.
"You could always see the way industry was developing and there was this feeling that degrees weren't relevant enough to people once they got out. But things like international marketing and tv production, Public Relations etc, were really vocational, and they were going to relate very well to industry. I know people that have undergraduates from Bournemouth on placement years and they think they are much better prepared."
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"I know people that have undergraduates from Bournemouth on placement years and they think they are much better prepared." |
So what does she look for in job applicants? "If you're trying to get into television, I would advise that you just do a conscientious job on everything you're asked to do. People do notice when you do even the menial jobs with enthusiasm and those are the people who get moved up from say, a Runner's position, to junior Researcher, much more quickly."
For Andrea, a media-related degree would definitely stand out, she says. "You're going to have learnt some of the jargon, you're going to know what a digibeta is; what post-production means, and basics of how to use a camera, which all does really help. So that's why for me, in terms of getting a foot on the ladder, it shows you've been interested in television since you were 18. If you're really keen and enthusiastic and show initiative and want to learn, you can move up the ladder. The other thing is, because there's so many channels now, there are more jobs. I think vocational degrees are much more valid to the workplace than traditional subjects."
Story by Natalie Harrison
MA Multi-Media Journalism
