Paul Interview

EVENT: Personal Reflection

In regards to my role I think what worked was I was always able to listen to other peoples opinions and problems during the planning stages of the event. I think that being able to hit certain targets on time and keep some organisation in the meetings was also a good strength. I think that some of the problems with my role were that I didn’t have enough time to personally tend to all the activities and rehearsals prior to the event as some problems arose that I couldn’t deal with, the best example of this was the introduction of new software for the green screen room two days before the event. I thought that the team in the green screen room had got to grips with the software but they were still encountering problems and getting to grips with using it during the event, if I’d known that they weren’t confident with the software I would have told them to stick to the original plan which involved using a vision mixer instead. I think during the event were where my biggest weaknesses came out, from before the event I made it clear that I didn’t want to be a main speaker as I felt uncomfortable talking to big groups of people. This meant that during the event I shyed away from speaking a lot when I would have been required to speak. I also think that in terms of planning, in the last session before Easter (and technically before the event) we went through the event and marked down every small detail and made sure the event would work effectively step by step. I think that if we had done this in earlier meetings then the planning and event would have ran even better as we would have had more time to prepare for our own roles. I think it was also a shame that we didn’t have any pamphlets or handouts for the people in the work experience room.

I think that overall there was a good effort from the team from the planning stage to the actual event. During the planning stage the class was particularly helpful when discussing the event and working towards our main objective. I admired the fact that Jake volunteered for a lot of the tasks for the event but it became apparent that he was taking on too much, it got to the point where he was volunteering for every task. I think that overall the class work together really well and some people definitely have strengths that the roles of the event served to highlight. For example the green screen room personnel were Rob, Jake, Lance, Chris and Will, who are for the most part interested in the technical elements of the course so it seemed a good fit that they signed up to do the technical demonstration segment of the event. People like Mike and Balve are confident speakers and this served them well in the Gatehouse for the work experience presentations.
It’s hard to say how well the green screen team worked together as I was not present for that section of the event, I think the general opinion is that they failed to get the students involved with the activity and this is probably because they needed someone a bit forward to take the initiative. I’ve seen them do presentations and I think they’re all very capable public speakers so I trust their presentations for the equipment went well. I also admired the fact that Will provided some hands outs on lighting and green screens. I think that the biggest room for improvement would be that we needed practice and that would have helped us all more confident and assured with our delivery of presentations and the event as a whole.

I think that the experience with event organisation was helpful for me. I am interested in different roles in the media such as producing, editing and writing. I think that this management opportunity has helped me with gaining skills for a producers role, as this role is most similar to a managers role when film sets are concerned. I think I will continue to actively pursue all three of these career paths and continue to learn about the roles into my third year at Paintworks. I would not rule out doing management in a different sector, I think that being an events manager has helped with a more broad experience of learning about management, and I've been told many of the principles are the same. As far as events management goes I would love to do it again, particularly a media event like a film festival or live music event. But at the moment I have produced some material for my showreel, as well as my multiplatform project D.O.A. which was a short film. So I plan to pursue my interests in producing or writing television drama and film.

EVENT: Pictures

Here are some more pictures from the event...

Here we are preparing for the event, I'm still editing the Bath Film Office Video.
Balve, the face of the event, meeting Tim Hammond the guest of the event and tutor at City of Bath College.


Some of the college students. They seem unimpressed.The event was recorded so that we could be assessed at a later dateOur lovely CRB ambassadors, Sian and Gemma.
The Green Screen Set-up, with Lance as News Reporter.Chris talking to the students about lighting.Will Wynn, the other half of the lighting presentationReuben using hand gestures and personality to get the students involved.
Reuben is the prettiest girl at the ballOne of the students Boinxing it up

Filling out the evaluation forms.
The students unwind, with some Bath Spa goodie bags.

EVENT: Event Day Part 2

I arrived in the Work Experience Room (Upstairs in the Gatehouse) in the middle of the Charlie Brooker clip that was shown as part of our intro:-


I think the Gatehouse talks went well Mike’s introduction was great and I think he’s particularly good at public speaking and being able to think on his feet. He’s also very funny which makes his presentations great to watch for us as well as the visiting students. I was supposed to be the first person to do my presentation however because my video was still sitting on a computer that wasn’t connected to the widescreen tv Balve did his presentation before me…

I think Balve’s presentation was great he showed a good clip of Friday Night with Jonathan Ross which featured his interview with Chris Moyles, his Powerpoint had some good visuals but I don’t think he used all the stills he had taken which was a shame. Balve is an extremely confident public speaker and I think he extremely well, which was expected. You can see the episode that Balve worked on here:-


Jakes presentation was on the company Benderspink and was also a powerpoint presentation with a youtube video showing a clip from American pie a Benderspinks production. I found Jake’s presentation was extremely interesting as most people are interested in the inner workings of Hollywood and his story was particularly interesting for people who want to do scriptwriting and also to demonstrate that it is far from impossible to get your work out into Hollywood. Jake provided some helpful information for the students as well as being entertaining.
When it came time for my presentation I showed them the Bath Film Office video, I was a bit worried that my presentation would not be as interesting as the others since they were about scriptwriting in Hollywood, the jonathan ross show and the special effects company the mill. As the video was playing I noticed some problems in the edit that were only slight and not as bad as I had anticipated. I think a few of the students noticed too. I’m usually nervous during presentations but I think of all the presentations I’d done this one I felt the most comfortable, potentially because I was making it up as I went along and the worries of sticking to a script weren’t bothering me, so potentially I think I will try and be less scripted in my presentations.

I will upload a version of bath film office that doesn’t break copyright laws soon, as I included some clips from The Duchess and Chocolat.

I think on the second groups run through, the group themselves were less receptive and didn’t laugh much but this is potentially just because they were a bit tired. I think that Mike, Balve and Jake did a better job on their presentations, however I think when it came to mine I was not as keen on doing it, I’d done it once and put slightly less effort but I doubt it was noticeable. For the second run through I wanted to changed my order from being last to going 3rd as I didn’t think Bath Film Office was such a great video to end on as there was less to talk about if we needed to fill the time.

We had to fill the time often which I think Mike did the best, leading off and asking the students questions trying to get them involved there seemed to bit a bit of reluctance on their part and I think if we had a bit more experience in dealing with these situations that we would have been better off as I think a discussion type setting was definitely a good thing to have.

We took the students to the Student Union for a 15 minute lunch break. This caused a massive disaster as now the students were free to roam we had a hard time getting them back into the two groups for the campus tour. Eventually Mike and Jake led a group of about 9 people in a tour which left Reuben, Balve and myself with a group of 20 people for the tour. Luckily our CRB ambassadors Sian and Gemma were happy to take over the tour.

And that was the end of the event, it happened fairly quickly and I have to admit that I was glad it was over although it wasn't nearly as bad or disastrous as it could've been, apart from the tour going slightly wrong I think it was mostly successful.

EVENT: Event Day Part 1

The day started with a lift from Reuben as I had a huge amount of equipment to return to the University and failed to do so the day before thanks to a hangover (EDIT: A hangover that would last for the next week)

I got to the Gatehouse with Balve, Mike and Lesley to find the upstairs room locked, and Lesley pointed out that on the schedule Rob and I were supposed to pick up the keys for NE G08 and the Gatehouse, so we were already off to a good start.

I had unfortunately been unable to finish editing the Bath Film Office video and as soon as I got in the room I was busy editing that. As the CRB ambassadors arrived I continued to edit until about 10:20 when Tim Hammond called me to say they had arrived on campus. Now this was technically about 20 minutes early and I had anticipated this but failed to inform everyone else which was another example of my great management and organisation ability.

As Balve and Lance escorted the students to the Italian Garden, Lesley came up to inform me that it was too chaotic downstairs and I had to intervene, which I tried to avoid because I was still editing the Film Office footage!

When I got outside I spoke to Tim Hammond and admitted we were running ahead of schedule, he assured me that everyone was relaxed since the weather was so nice. This really helped put my mind at ease and I simply told Balve to start with his introduction to the event and begin the icebreaker in which the students had to throw a ball to each other and each student would be put in either Group A or Group B. This could have gone better because for one thing the students weren’t even in a proper circle and I don’t think the game was explained well enough for them to even understand what was happening. I was just relieved I didn’t have to throw or catch a ball, as this was the source of my most embarrassing high school moments.

Lesley asked me to check that the Green Screen room were aware that the students would be there soon and they needed to be ready. (If only there were green screens to tend to during my high school PE classes…) When I got to the Green Screen room I had enough time to ask them how things were going and to learn that things weren’t going well. Then the students arrived and Lance herded them in, (Richard Wood later suggested that at that point I should have told Lance to hold on and keep the students out until the others were ready, I told him that I would’ve but I felt that it wasn’t my problem and that I had to be in a completely different room at the time)

Continued in Next Post...

EVENT: Day before the Event

The day before the event was a slightly stressful one for most of us. While Mike and I were editing our videos for the presentation room, Chris and Reuben were getting to grips with the new software (BoinxTV) to be used in the Green Screen Room. It looked like using the software would render the Vision Mixer completely useless in the setup, at first we tried to see if we could still incorporate the Vision Mixer into the setup as Lance had a presentation based on it and in most live green screen setups the Vision Mixer is a key part so we wanted to include it. In the end it was decided that Lance would speak about Green Screen's (or the software, I forget) instead.

Here are some screen shots of the software in use taken from Softonic:-

As far as the Work Experience Room was concerned we just needed to decide who was going to head the room. It seemed like Mike and Balve were both up for the job but eventually it went to Mike. We spent the session continuation with our tasks and Rob, Chris, Reuben, Will and Lance went to set up the equipment in NEG08, which the next morning at 11am-1pm would be “The Green Screen Room” or “The Fun Room” I really don’t know what to call it anymore...

I think we were all quite disorientated to some degree by having to deal with the imminent event after being off university for three weeks.

For more information on Boinx TV you can visit their site here

EVENT: Poster

Here's the Flyer sent to Tim Hammond of City of Bath College, it was created by Jake Martin...

WORK: Bath FM - Day 5

I sat in on Paul’s show again, this time I spent more time analysing the show and it’s running order and asked a few more questions. He obviously really enjoys presenting the show and when the question came up of whether he would ever leave the show to focus on managing the stations he said it was unlikely, unless of course Pat Sharp offered to take over!

At around 6:30 Paul reads the headlines of national papers. Luckily there is a website that has this information for him to read out which saves him from having to buy ten newspapers every morning and leaf through them.

Every hour of his show he reads the local news, a traffic update and reads from the local diary, which are some local events that have been emailed to the station. I think the local diary is vital for the stations community-friendly image.

The national news is read during peak hours like 8am-9am where the listenership is highest because of people driving to work or dropping their kids to school.

As part of their programming policy Paul’s show contains a local themed feature every hour. These features are:-

Where am I? – A location in Bath is described and the listeners have to guess where the location is.

Bath’s Big Vote – A topic that affects the local community is open for listeners to call in and share their thoughts. An example of this was when there was a possibility of the Bath rugby grounds to relocate; there was a huge response to this.

Bath FM Coffee Break – 15 minutes of back-to-back music with features from local sponsors.

Paul also uploaded the Marmaduke’s track onto the companies’ FTP site so that the track could be added to the companies playlist. While uploading the song he had to quickly run from Studio 2 to Studio 1 as the song playing on air was finishing.

After that I spent time watching Paul record the Vinyl Countdown idents by editing the background song with the pre-record presenter voice over. This was done so that it was available in time for the Vinyl Countdown show on the weekend.

I was extremely happy with my experience at Bath FM, the work environment is good, everyone who works there is very friendly and I would love if I had the chance to work with any of the people I met there again. I am now more interested in management either in a business setting or potentially utilising the skills I have observed and using them as a producer for television or film, which is another role I'm interested in. I think it's a shame I'm not more interested in actually managing for radio. I am very passionate about music however I listen to wealth of different styles of music and bands that usually aren't commercially successful. I think from this experience I have learnt that Radio is a business and having commercially listenable music that appeals to people is what drives the business. I think that there isn't really a place for more underground types of music to be as successful as a company like Bath FM, however I would be very interested in the programming and content management side of a radio station that caters to a more niche market, if this oppurtunity ever arises I think what I've learnt from Paul will definitely come in handy.

WORK: Bath FM - Day 4

Today Paul and I drove up to Swindon as there was a problem with the offices broadband connection which needed to get fixed, mainly because the presenters needed the internet for aid them with their shows. This was especially important with the Bank Holiday weekend approaching where there would be no office staff at all apart from the presenters and therefore no-one to help if they had any problems.

Paul issued the studios with broadband dongles, which worked fine (eventually) and will hopefully hold out till the end of the bank holiday at least. The next task on the agenda was to visit the new Swindon offices with builders to arrange soundproofing the offices to move the studios into. The empty studio space looked good and both office spaces seemed big enough for two studios.

I think one of the best experiences of the day was meeting the builders who knew exactly what they were doing and were completely up for the job even though the work had to be done really soon. The builder Paul originally consulted gave him a high price quote and so he consulted his Uncle and Cousin to do the job, which they seemed more than happy to help with. Paul obviously knew a great deal about construction and I’m not sure if this came form working with his Uncle previously or perhaps his farming background but I thought it was extremely helpful for him to understand the in’s and out’s of construction and I wondered if I was ever to be a manager if I would need to have similar knowledge as construction is something I know absolutely nothing about. Paul seemed sceptical about whether it was possible to get the studios built in time before their eviction date from the current Swindon office. Both his uncle and cousin replied at numerous times “nothing’s impossible” which such certainty that I now consider it fact.

Paul's job seems extremely hectic, he could have a day planned but have to drop it at a moments notice to tend to emergencies like the Broadband incident today. I think one of Paul's best qualities is his ability to remain calm in highly stressful times. I think his job is exciting as he always has something to do which is the kind of job that suits me. I think that if I had the kind of knowledge and experience that Paul has with Radio for Television or Film Production that I myself would be interested in setting up a production company as it seems to be very fulfilling to work on a project like Southwest Radio and watching your own company grow and flourish seems exciting. I can tell Paul does this job for his love of Radio and I think his passion for the medium is what makes him a good manager.

WORK: Bath FM - Day 3

Today Paul was preparing for a board meeting so couldn’t do his morning show again. Once again Oliver filled in for him. Our day was cut short because of the meeting however Paul managed to fit in an informative talk as we looked over the groups programming policy. As the document is confidential and contains information sensitive to the company I will not be reprinting any of the contents.

WORK: Bath FM - Day 2

I had an early start with Paul today and sat it on the breakfast show, which he presents, I also got to meet Steve who does the early morning breakfast show.

What’s notable about watching someone on the air on the radio is the need for some precise timing as Paul had to often backtime what songs were being played before certain segments like the news, which starts one second after the hour. Paul stays true to his companies catchphrase "keeping it local" by hosting a competition, "Where am I?" Where he describes a nearby location and the listeners have to call in to guess the location. There is a definite sense of community in the station as most of their competitions have prizes to local shows like the Drive-Thru screening of Grease and the Katy Setterfield concert who is a Dusty Springfield tribute act. Paul also supports the Bath Comedy Festival by giving information on the upcoming gigs and plugs the upcoming Joke-off between himself and fellow presenter Kate Constance.

After the show Paul dealt with invoices for a while and answered some emails before launching my favourite part of the day: Listening to new music. I learnt that invoices usually need to be checked by Paul before going to Head Office to get processed.


We listened to new singles to see which he would choose to potentially get played on air. The artists included U2, EG, Daniel Merriweather, Kelly Clarkson and Marmaduke Duke and I found it pretty exciting as he was getting early listens to new singles.

He decided which songs would go on his A or B list for this week and possibly the following week and which songs would not be played at all.

He had to update the playlist for the other station programmers to see as well as the band's publishers.

We spoke about the PRS, I was curious to find out how artists got paid for their music being played on air. He explained that PRS take a percentage of the companies’ annual gross for playing copyright music.

Paul took calls from the manager/promoter of a band who had sent him a promo CD for the band Grasshouse (or something like that). He listened to it while still on the phone to the manager, which I thought was extremely courteous, he even admitted there was a chance of the band getting some airtime since he liked the song. A lot of the choices Paul makes regarding the music depend solely on the song and whether its good or not, it seems that even being a big name doesn’t secure you airtime as we discussed with Steve that some of the songs by artists like Pink and Justin Timberlake weren’t suitable for the stations image, however they do have some songs that they will play because the audience like it like Justin Timberlake's "Senorita".

Most of what he did today was regarding the radio side of things; he also spoke with his sales department about looking for weather sponsorship. It's a shame I couldn't spend more time with the Sales team as they seemed like nice guys and I think that knowing about Sales and having some experience with it would be vital for business management.