Hello!
My name is Louise Joy and from here on out I'll be helping to run the blog. I've been on board with the amazing team at TV Bedfordshire for about a month now but I'm so excited for all the upcoming projects we're planning and everything we're up to. I'll be blogging about everything that goes on behind the scenes - different events we attend, upcoming news and a little more information about what we're doing.
I'll also be doing an introductory post soon so you can learn about the team and the many contributors we have on board but for the meantime I'll tell you a little bit about myself. I'm a 23 year old local blogger/writer/journalist, although I technically work part time in retail at the moment. In my spare time however, I'm constantly writing and blogging, networking on websites like Twitter, writing and just generally trying to be as media savvy as possible. Offering a helping hand to TVBedfordshire is a very exciting project for me as I love anything to do with the media. In college I studied Media Production, which covered everything from filming a music video to directing a documentary - it's going to be really fun using these skills again. I also love that I can be quite creative too - I've had many different ideas up my sleeves and I'm pleased to say the team have been on board for all of them. Soon I'll do another post about what these are and how you can get involved at a later date.
During my first official meeting of the team I got to visit the studio, where I was pleasantly surprised to find lots of really professional equipment including flashy cameras and lighting and even a green screen. We'll be moving to another studio soon though because the one we're at now is up a million different flights of stairs so a) that's a lot to climb up when you're carrying equipment and b) we're all too lazy to walk up them all on a regular basis anyway! When I met Toby, Margaret and Kofi I got to sit in and watch the weekly news bulletin being recorded, with Toby presenting. It's a longer process than you think, especially if you mess up or mispronounce something and have to start reading from the very beginning of the script again! Nonetheless, it's important to get things just right because we need to be professional. Luckily it helps to be patient.
We also discussed the fact that over Easter and onwards we'll be launching and recording a comedy show which will be really fun. We'll be getting local comedians in with a small audience as well as hopefully providing a few drinks and nibbles on the night. It's nice that we'll be holding some exciting events too and I'll keep you all updated about when we are filming this as we'll probably need some extra audience members!
Finally, last Thursday I went on my first official outing/filming session for TVBedfordshire with Margaret. We visited The Burnaby Arms, a pub in Bedford that hosts local music, to cover their PR session they were holding. The whole event was because the pub had won the PRS For Music Music Makeover award. The scheme behind the campaign is all about supporting local music and getting local artists playing in pubs again. The Burnaby Arms won a £5,000 cash prize to help spend on professional music equipment so that when artists perform in the pub it sounds as good and professional as possible.
The whole event will be summarised in the news bulletin later tonight (including my presenting/interviewing debut - scary!) but attending on the day was a lot of fun. The landlords had put on a lovely spread of nibbles and we were offered champagne (classy!) and the pub had such a great friendly atmosphere. Some very talented local artists put on a performance for us, and we were even treated to a brief visit from the mayor of Bedford!
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| Local artists Cicero Buck |
I got to interview some really great people - including Guy Fletcher - and admittedly I was nervous to begin with! I thought it would be quite daunting but actually I found once I began interviewing, I started to enjoy myself! It was a lot of fun researching good questions and interviewing interesting people and it's something I'd like to continue doing. I was really pleased when I was even told that my questions were apparently really good!
Filmed on my phone so not the best quality!
All in all it was a great day and better yet we got our name out there and did a bit of networking too. Keep your eyes peeled for the news bulletin tonight showing the footage filmed on the day.
I'll be blogging again very soon about more behind the scenes business and other events and things we have coming up! As always, we are always after contributors so if you'd like to be on board or even if you have an event you'd like covered by us, please don't hesitate to email us on info@tvbedfordshire.com.
