ALICE WASS
Exploring Media

This week contained a couple of big and exciting projects, which have helped to inspire and open my eyes to the world of Radio and TV.

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Going back to normal work after the Appeal week was great as it is a position where I am happier knowing what I am doing and what my role is. I hosted guests for Ruth, organised interviews, recorded and edited Impact Stories, uploaded people who donated during the Appeal to Raisers Edge, recorded and edited Christmas Traditions for the Drive Show, wrote up transcripts of God Spots for listeners who requested the content and attended production meetings.

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On Wednesday and Thursday, it was the shoot for ‘Mark and Mark at Full Volume’. I have mentioned this in a few reflections, discussing the preparation and planning I was involved in but the bulk of my role was on the actual day of the shoot. It was being audio recorded to go out as a Podcast during Lent 2019, but also to be used as hour long radio shows once a week during that time as well, and also filmed by the TV team to be put up as a study series on the app. As the content was needed for three different purposes my role of Floor Manager was very important. This was because I was in charge of making sure everything on set flowed smoothly and that nothing interrupted the recordings, as well as looking after the ‘Talent’ and their guests. Normally, the role of a Floor Manger is much more complex and high pressure, but as I had never done it before I received support from the Producer to give me space to learn the ropes. It was an amazing experience, and a great space to learn about how content is produced, I would have probably enjoyed being thrown in the deep end a bit more but due to the importance of the shoot I understand why there was a lot of support. I really value the opportunities I get at UCB, and love trying out new tasks and hope that if they decided to shoot another series of the podcast whilst I am still here that they would let me be involved again but that I would get some more responsibility.

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As I spent two days on shoot it meant that Friday was an extremely non-stop busy day as I had two days of work to catch up on and also the work I needed to do on Friday. I had four recordings scheduled for that day, I managed to edit and upload seven pieces of audio, I booked in a lot of new interviews meaning that for Ruth’s show we are now full up until January. However, the other exciting project I am now involved in is with Simon Tuck one of the UCB2 Presenters. He has agreed that I can start helping him on his pre-recorded Friday night show ‘The Weekend Starts Here’ which airs on UCB2 7 -8pm. Long term I will start speaking and contributing to the show content, which means I will be presenting on National Radio! However, to ease me into learning I spent Friday learning how to use the radio desk and Zetta. I had seen both being used and heard explanations during my time shadowing, but it is completely different when you are the person in control of the desk. I really enjoyed learning which controls do what and trying out all of the buttons and faders and practicing with editing on the Zetta system. Next week I will be doing the same for Simon, so hopefully I remember how to do everything so that I can start improving my skills. This experience is a massive privilege and not something I would have imagined doing as part of my placement year. I am excited to start working on the show with Simon and to develop my skills from doing student radio into doing national radio.

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Next week is a more normal work week, which is exciting to have time to unwind form all the new projects.