"WHAT WILL WE PRODUCE TODAY?" - ESKAY TODAY - A SERIES OF 14 PROGRAMMES - September/October 2008

Mark writes: "Originally I was at Stockport College where I studied on the ND Media course. I completed the course and loved every minute of it, well maybe not the more theoretical elements! When I finished the course I chose to go to university and study ‘TV Production’ at a university in the middle of nowhere. Don’t ask me why, I suppose I just felt the ‘uni thing’ was what I wanted to do at the time. And as for the uni itself, let’s not get onto that subject...
I did a year there and had to admit to myself it wasn’t right, so I emailed Andrew and organised to go and see him to talk about studying on the FD course. Now I’m here and I’m kicking myself for not staying on in the first place after the ND.
The course is hard to describe to outsiders. Its like no other course out there, you don’t drag yourself in every morning and sit and listen to a teacher waffle on, drifting in and out of sleep, you wake up and think, what challenges will today bring? What will we produce today?
We have just finished our first assignment, which was Basic TV Studio Operations. In this we each individually directed a 10 minute show based around a TV news programme. If it wasn't your show, we would rotate job roles so that everyone had a go on all the equipment. The 3 weeks this took for us all to direct our shows was so exhausting, but at the same time so fun and so educational.
Now we have so many more things lined up I don't really know how it will all fit in! Filming the Christmas pantomime, producing our feature package programme (20 minutes long this time), working with the BBC in Manchester & Birmingham in early '09, and any other work experience that crops up!
I recommend for everyone and anyone to come and have a look at what we do in the studio, you will be amazed and understand that it's not like any other course out there."