Grit

Live Dale Fasting is a recent graduate , and is now working as a Production Manager for 00Nation. Having grown up on the internet, she never decided if she wanted to do music, film, tv, gaming, streaming or Youtube. With the media-industry evolving, 00Nation emerged, bringing the best of all youth culture and merging it. Being new in the business, she shares her experiences working in an ambitious start-up with the internet at its core.

Alison Grade, spent 15 years working at senior level in many media companies — predominantly in international television and film production, rights management and strategy — but she also has formal academic training and is a Nesta-accredited Creative Enterprise Trainer. Alison is also an entrepreneur who has established her own businesses and is in high demand by many creative businesses as a consultant and non-exec. She is also in demand teaching the next generation of entrepreneurs how to turn their creative passion into a career — hence the publication of her Penguin book The Freelance Bible in early 2020. The book covers starting from day one as a freelance, helping you develop your personal brand, pick up the financial essentials, grow your client base, manage your work — life balance, negotiate deals and value your time as you become more established. The Freelance Bible is your complete guide to turning your talent into a fulfilling and sustainable career. In this episode we discuss in detail insights, tactics and things to consider in being a successful freelancer. Alison brings important perspectives that can help new and established freelancers up their game in the competitive world of the creative industries. FInd out more: alisongrade.com

Matt Campion is the Founder & Creative Director of Spirit & #IAMWHOLE. Spirit Studios is a purpose-driven content business on a mission to effect change through entertainment and storytelling. Creating and distributing ‘Content With Spirit’, their TV, digital, audio and branded output aims to positively impact people’s lives through entertainment. Matt’s work at Spirit includesThe Stand Up Sketch Show for ITV, Comedy Against Living Miserably for Dave/UKTV, BAMOUS, SHAMED: You Are What You Tweet and Instagrammification for BBC, Trigger Happy, The Whole Truth and First Impressions for Channel4. Along with podcasts Private Parts with Jamie Laing & Francis Boulle; Teenage Mixtape with Joel Dommett & Steve Dunne; Homo Sapiens; Vicky Pattison’s The Secret To…, Russell Kane’s Man Baggage and ‘UOKM8’ with the LADbible Group. In this episode we talk about how to develop format ideas, grow an audience and navigate the ever changing landscape of the content creation space.

Chris has worked in the television industry for over 20 years, initially as a Runner, Camera Assistant, Camera Operator and most recently, over the past 13 years as a freelance Lighting Cameraman, Director of Photography (DoP) and Lighting Director (LD). As a Camera Operator he has covered all genres of live television; producing DVD’s for the likes of Beyonce & REM to Superslo-mo coverage of the Brazil World Cup Final in the Maracana. He has worked all over the world as a Camera Supervisor for clients such as ITV, BBC, Sky and BT covering the Olympics & Commonwealth games, along with Football tournaments including the Champions League and Premier League. He’s covered live opera and theatre from The Royal Opera House, Shakesperes Globe and the RSC and worked on shows such as Question Time, Crimewatch & Young Musician. ​As a Lighting Director & DoP he has won innovation awards as part of the Discovery & ITV teams for mixed reality studios in Korea & Russia, Baftas as part of the ITV Horse Racing and Rugby World Cup 2019 teams, along with winning the prestigious Knight of Illumination award as LD for ITV’s Euro 2016 presentation studios in Paris. In this episode we talk about working ina multicam environment, remote production and mixed reality studios, along with a deep dive into tips and tricks Chris has learnt over his years in the industry. 

Colin is a Grierson nominated Series Producer and Director who has worked across a number of genres including talent-led travelogues, investigative documentaries, observational documentaries, factual, entertainment, music and formats. His work has been broadcast across Netflix, BBC, Channel 4, ITV, Channel 5, TLC and Sky has worked for most of the UK independent production companies. In this episode we chat about the role of the Series Producer and directing documentary, particularly focussing on his work on Netflix’s Dark Tourist series, with insights on how to manage all the complexities one can find when working with factual productions.

Simon set himself a new year’s resolution in 2020 to get onto Tik Tok. Within months his account had grown and made a hit with his character Kent-Simon. Now with over 6million likes and nearly 150k followers, Simon is one of Norway’s growing clan of influencers building a cross platform media career for himself. In this episode he explains his rise on the platform, some of the trials and tribulations of being an influencer as a full time job, along with the perks.

Harvey started filming at 18 years old. He shot his first feature length documentary following DJ Carl Cox from London to Sydney then onto Hawaii, welcoming the year 2000 in two different time zones. He has traveled the world shooting for the BBC, National Geographic, Discovery and many more. In 2008, he transitioned into shooting commercials and scripted work. He was based in Dubai shooting high end commercials until 2015 then moved to LA, where he shot Netflix Specials, Comedy Series and Commercials with many high profile actors and comedians. Harvey is currently based in London and represented by Berlin Associates

Tyler studied Digital Media at Full Sail University before embarking on a career in post production at The Mill in New York. He later joined Grey Advertising working in Motion Graphics and cinematography with Canon. Since going freelance Tyler has worked with a wide array of clients across advertising, documentary, music and dance videos. In this episode we talk about the ins and outs of Motion Graphics, remote working and the art of being a freelancer. 

Nick started his career as a Researcher, AP and Producer in Children’s TV with Carlton Television. Here, he began studio directing, before joining CBBC Presentation, then moving on to direct programmes including Tikkabilla and Newsround. Nick has specialised in fast paced, technically complex live programmes and worked for BBC News, TRT World and CNBC. He has directed live OB debate programmes, including The Press We Deserve for Thomson Reuters at the height of the UK phone hacking scandal, a Brexit debate featuring British Prime Minister David Cameron to launch Facebook Live in the UK, and Ask Attenborough for the Eden Channel. His forthcoming work in 2021 includes directing new sporting concept Aphetor in Greece, and directing Olympics coverage of Tokyo 2021 for Olympic Broadcasting Services.  In this episode we catch up about the  ins and outs of producing multi camera production, the mindset needed, the challenges and how Covid has impacted the industry. 

Marco North is a filmmaker, photographer, author and musician based in Moscow, Russia. Born in Brooklyn, and educated at SUNY Purchase. In this episode we talk about the production and recent release of his award-winning episodic series Blackbetty. His recent debut album Heaven Get Behind Me, and his Songbird podcast, a brutally honest, behind the scenes look at the songwriting and recording process. We deep dive into a fascinating chat about the trials and tribulations of creative personal work, the mindset and attitude that goes with it and some of the frustrations that go with it.  You can follow his work at marconorth.com

Prior to starting Season 3 of Grit, I caught up with Martin Ruby of Songbird Podcast for a little chat about the joy of podcasting.

Zillah is an Emmy-nominated creative leader and strategist with a long and varied professional life in the media industry. Most recently as the Director of Content at Satore Studio. She was Commissioning Editor for Virtual Reality at the BBC and headed up the BBC VR Hub following being the Executive Editor for BBC Research & Development. In this episode we discuss innovation within media and journalism, how VR can change both the creative and production process along with the importance of critical thinking with emergent technology. 

Daniel Stewart trained at the esteemed California Institute of the Arts in LA, where he continued to live and work in film and television, then extensively in regional theatre (On and off Broadway) in NYC, along with a thriving career as a go to Brit for voice over work.  He returned to the UK in recent years with shows in The Royal Shakespeare Theatre, The National Theatre and The West End.  He has co-starred as a series regular alongside his father, Sir Patrick Stewart in the Starz series Blunt Talk and is the co-host of the esteemed podcast series The Foxhole Companion, a compelling history of World War 2 cinema.  In this episode we talk to Daniel about growing up surrounded by acting royalty, the differences between US and British approaches to acting, the future of the arts and the role of the jobbing actor.