Assistant Producer: About the role

The main duties of the role are to assist senior production staff in all stages of a television production or series, with specific responsibility for the execution of a specific programme brief within editorial guidelines.

An assistant producer has to interpret ideas accurately and convey them on screen. During the production phase they must understand editorial roles in order to make balanced editorial decisions. They must also work with researchers to make reseource material accurate and relevant to the programme. After collating the material gathered the must identify key facts and trends and present them accurately while bearing in mind political sensitivity. Any unexpected problems fall first to them, causing them to have ot think concisely about how to solve such problems, however they may refer to mjore senior levels if needed. Budgeting is also key, they must plan within the budget, therefore it is essential to know market values and curretn production costs. This role clearly requires an understanding of all levels of production in order to comunicate with different parts of the crew, providing feedback and motivation when needed.

An assistant producer must be coherent communicators able to act decisively, diplomatically and sensitivly at the same time. They work with many creative people so must be able to view creative ideas in a logical and practical sense, ascertaining ways of collating and portraying this on screen. They are not legally required to be responsible for health and safety procedures however they must be able to complete health and risk assessments. As every member of teh crew they do have a responsibility to ensure their own actions do not cause health and safety problems.

Ed Charles is an Assistant Producer for Wild Horizons Ltd, he has worked on Saving Planet Earth, Springwatch, Nature's Great Events, which won the Best Series award at Missoula Wildlife Film Festival 2009. His current projects are Wild Planet: North America where he is the Assistant Producer on two of the episodes, Mountains and Great Plains.

For me specifically, wanting tHe has worked in natural history television for the last 5 years since leaving university with a degree in zoology and a masters in wildlife photography. He began his career working as a camera assistant for various wildlife cameramen on productions such as the David Attenborough series Life in the Undergrowth, but has since made the move to work more in an editorial role. He has spent the last 4 years working at the BBC’s Natural History Unit on a wide range of programming, including Springwatch, Saving Planet Earth, and the multi-award winning series Nature’s Great Events.


For me specifically, wanting to work in natural history, there are a variety of productions on going at any one time which i can strive to become involved with. Specifically Wild Horizons are given a lot of work by the BBC Natural History Unit. These are two companies i would most like ot work at. Without having a Biological degree i am most likely to gain work through creating a thorough showreel and gaining work experience through the exhibition of this and my knowledge of wildlife film firsthand.

Decisons, decisons...

After much research and deliberation concerning my context 2 assignment I have decided on a career goal I want to work towards, Wildlife Film Locations Researcher/Producer. This is due to my love for Nature and productions concerning it. I also think it will put me at an advantage having a specific niche in mind with which to slot into. I have emailed various respected individuals working in the industry and have had replies from two so far, one purely advice based and the other very helpful indeed. Here it is:

Hi Ollie,

Thank you for your email, see my answers to your questions in bold below. Ultimately this is a hard industry to break into but it IS possible and in my view it has a lot to do with how passionately you want it. This very often involves a great deal of persistence, don’t be surprised if it doesn’t happen instantly and stick with it. The more experience you have (in a variety of ways) and subsequently the more you stand out from the crowd, the more chance that you have.

Feel free to contact me again if any of my answers are unclear or if I can be of more help.

Enjoy Frozen Planet tonight!

Kind regards,

Jonathan

On 01/11/2011 21:20, "ollie@part-x.co.uk" wrote:

Jonathan,



Firstly I'd like to congratulate you on the work you've done so far, Saving Planet Earth, Seawatch and Life were all fascinating productions. I've found a brief trailer for Beneath The Reef on youtube but can't find the 35 minute version. Is there anywhere I might be able to watch this?

It’s on Vimeo, I see so many mistakes in it now but it was a lot of fun to make and I still think OK for our first attempt and with only a VX2000, laptop and 6 weeks: http://vimeo.com/10933396



Secondly, I am a Film student at Nottingham Trent University. I would very much like to become a researcher/producer of Wildlife productions. I have looked into all of the staff at Wild Horizons Ltd and your role amongst the team is definitely the type of work I want to strive to be part of. I'm sure you're very busy but if you could just take 5 minutes to answer a few questions for me I would very much appreciate it:



I know you've come from a science, specifically marine biology background. Would you say it's particularly hard for me to compete to be a researcher coming from a film degree?

There are certainly people in the industry that do not have biological backgrounds. Although I do think that it probably helps to get in the door. Ultimately everyone has a different path to getting started and I really think that you are the sum of your parts. So, if you are lacking biological experience you need to make it up in other ways which will make people HAVE to employ you! Competition is hard to get in and therefore it is good to have an area where you excel, for me this was my underwater / sea experience and knowledge combined with a lot of field experience.


I am currently making and also planning to make more short nature productions of my own to demonstrate my passion for natural history, is this type of demonstration enough? And are there other things I can do to demonstrate knowledge of field work?

This is absolutely the right thing to be doing, I see a lot of showreels that are lot’s of pretty pictures but we really want to see that someone can tell a story / make a sequence. Being able to show short films is the perfect way to demonstrate your passion and ability. Other ways to demonstrate your field knowledge will probably show up on your CV through your past experiences. It’s hard for me to say now without knowing more about your background.


I presume you're based in the UK, if so, how much of your time do you spend here?

Yes, I live just South of Taunton. These big blue chip productions tend to take you away a lot. For example I did a trip to Antarctica that had me away for 9 weeks. I’ve been away for 5 months of the last 7. Generally speaking a cameraman will be in the field for at least 5 months a year and often a lot more. Researchers will be away for 6-8 months, AP’s for 4-6 months and Producers about 3 months. But, this does vary considerably between productions.


How would you describe your average day when in the UK?

It depends on what point of the production I’m at. At the start you are looking for stories which involves contacting a lot of people from scientists to people that spend a lot of time in the field or around a particular animal. By the middle you are running around like crazy getting shoots ready and trying to stay on top of everything. Toward the end you start to get things ready fro the edit. All of this involves being around the office.


What would your average day in the field consist of?

(I am aware that in this type of work 'average' is not something you can apply to it however any kind of example would be great)

As you say it varies so much between shoots that it is hard to answer. You’re generally assisting the cameraman, making sure that everything is running smoothly and normally trying to work out how you can film the impossible behaviour that you’ve been sent to capture!



I am very much wanting to work in Bristol at a Wildlife productions firm this coming summer, I would be willing to work for free and fund the accommodation and living expenses myself, is there any firms you would suggest contacting to enquire about this?

This is a very good way to start getting your foot in the door and to start to get a feeling for what the work will involve. So much of getting that break is about contacts and starting to get to know the right folk. I know a lot of people that started off with work experience at the BBC NHU, myself included. You can contact the BBC directly about this, get back to me if you can’t find the right people to talk with. Aside from the BBC, Tigress and ICON could be worth a shout although I do not have any contacts there to help you with. Also, we’ve had a few work experience folk here and there may be room for you. Try contacting the Series producer Huw Cordey: Huw@wildhorizonsltd.com and the Executive Producer Keith Scholey: Keith@wildhorizonsltd.com. Or alternatively send me your CV and I’ll pass it on.


Finally, is any of your work actually based on set at the time of filming?

We will sometimes do set work to augment a sequence of natural behaviour. Also some sequences may be completely set based, e.g flowering timelapse work or a macro sequence.


I understand that you must be very busy and am aware taking time out for a complete stranger is a lot to ask, however even if you only have time to respond to one of my question I would be sincerely grateful. Keep up the good work, and as a viewer, thank you for helping to bring such fascinating footage to screen.

Thanks!


Kind Regards

Ollie Solan
I was very encouraged by this response, particularly the career part. Although it is a very competitive industry, like all of film I am prepared to put in the effort it takes to reach this goal. I’ve since started a nature blog which I will build up over the next couple of years to document everything I find interesting about the animal world, here’s the link:

http://olliesolanwildworld.wordpress.com