Well its been a fantastic start to the year, and I’m really pleased to say that things have gone swimmingly. At the very start of 2012 I was lucky enough to do some live presenting work for the Visa International Women’s Artistic Gymnastics at the O2, in front of 6000 people (wow!), and I’ve also been part of the Olympics and Met Police’s Forward Defensive exercise which you may have seen on the news last week in preparation for the games ahead.
Well, I’m keeping my options open, exploring as many different types of opportunities as possible to make sure I find where my niche really is, and where I can make a difference as a presenter. Although I’ve had some great opportunities so far, these don’t mean anything unless I can showcase my talent to all the future producers and production companies who are looking for the next person to fill your daytime / entertainment slots.
Filming in the Everyman Cinema
So you may have seen on my previous post at the start of February I was very pro-active and decided to collect together my footage from 2011 and put in on show to the world. I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing all the great people I’ve been lucky enough to interview thus far, I’ve had a blast and due to all the excitement of it, I’m pretty sure that with all the best intentions I was slightly trying to run before I could walk.
What do I mean by this? Well, my advice is although your instinct is good, having only been in the field of presenting for less than a year, my understanding of the need of the television industry is not as experienced as people who have worked in it for a good number of years and are top of their game.
The people I’m talking about here are my mentors of sorts, The Presenters Studio.
This company helps turn aspiring presenters into confident and working presenters, not by magic, but by invaluable and inspiring guidance. My very first presenting taster tape was created by The Presenters Studio and was my biggest asset last year. It allowed me to surpass all the other showreels sent to Leicester Square TV and get a phone call and a meeting the next day and ultimately land the job!
Throughout the year I’ve been lucky enough to stay in touch with Gareth and Leon, the founders of The Presenters Studio and they’ve been wonderful in supporting what I’ve been doing to date, but also in providing further guidance and recommendations.
So, this is where we are now, having sent my latest showreel to them, they were very straight down the line with what did and didn’t work. Yes, I have had a lot of work to showcase from the last year, but it wasn’t collated together in an engaging and stand out way.
One year on, my brand has evolved, my style in presenting has become much more confident and experienced and I need to get myself to the next level. Cue taster tape 2. Last week, I spent a gloriously sunny day re-shooting on location a brand new taster tape which will not only incorporate all my best work from the last year, but will hopefully help me to get to the next level by presenting it in a way which is engaging and once again will stand out from the rest of the pile.
Getting your ammunition right is the key to success and investing in yourself is the best investment you’ll ever make, so as you can
Presenting and driving isn't as easy as it looks...
see from some of these pictures attached, working with the best will, fingers crossed, give me a new taster tape to die for! As we all know, I love film, chatting about it, writing about it and gossiping about it, so what better setting than to be based in a cinema! With the help of the wonderful Everyman Cinema who sponsor my radio show http://www.facebook.com/filmfridayridgeradio we were able to invade the premises for one afternoon and provide a couple of presenting links that even Mark Kermode would be jealous of!
So there you have it, I’m sure when you see the finished product you’ll agree with me in saying that it was all worth it, and that you should never take criticism as a negative, but as a learning point, and you should most importantly work with the best if you want to be the best, and that’s what I’ve aimed to do.
Aspiring presenters, you should check out http://www.presenterstudio.com and get some valuable advice from the people who really know the industry inside out.
Thanks for reading.
Fanatical about Film in a Perfect Way... 
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