Some television, some advice
The other week I went up to Auckland to help out with filming on a new episode of Just the Job. It was an eye opener, both in terms of how much work goes into a few short minutes of footage, and also about all the roles that are involved in TV production. At the shoot, we had producer, a director, a camera operator, a production assistant and bunch of actors, as well as Sarah, one of our Kaik?kiri – Career Consultants, and a representative from Dress for Success, AND also me, a communications & marketing advisor, keeping an eye on things.
In the episode, job-seeker George, who we met last season, learnt about how to get ahead in the workplace with tips from Sarah. We covered things like timeliness, taking initiative and personal grooming. This meant we got to have a montage sequence, in which both Sarah and George were dressed in a variety of outfits by Dress for Success, so they could learn what would be appropriate job interview clothes for a range of professions. Everything is better with a montage!
If you’ve been watching Just the Job, you might remember waaaaaaaaaaaaay back in Season Two, we had an episode about a guy named Ben who was learning to be a production assistant. Super awesomely, it turns out that Ben was the production assistant on this shoot. Essentially this meant that Ben did pretty much everything. He fetched coffee, held the boom, arranged the talent, kept track of where we were at in the script, moved furniture around – you name it, he did it. The TV industry is one area where you have to be a keen hard worker to get ahead, and there’s not necessarily a prescribed path.
It was a couple of long days in Auckland, but it was really interesting to watch the show being made. Just the Job will be airing in the spring on TV2 so make sure you tune in. Oh, and one more piece of advice I learnt – the TVNZ cafeteria has really great food and it’s really cheap, so if you can get a job at TVNZ, I’d recommend it.
Filed under: Career options, personal stories Tagged: behind the scenes, just the job, television, tvnz