Bob Dickinson.

Bob Dickinson is a freelance radio 4 producer, broadcaster and journalist who has worked for Radio 4 for over 10 years. He came in to talk with the group, and was one of my favourite guest speakers yet.

The reach of Radio 4 is around 10.37 million listeners, Radio 2 around 13.68 million, and the gender ratio is 50/50, a much bigger platform than I had expected, as I don’t listen to the radio nearly as much as I used to, and Bob mentioned that Chris Moyles and Chris Evans were both losing listeners.

Radio 4 is based in London with various control units around the country. One of the major ones is situated in Manchester that offers positions for freelancers, permanent staff and non permanent staff. I would love to try and get some work experience here, but the competition must be fierce as I have so far been unsuccesful trying to get the BBC interested. However, some big BBC departments are moving from London to Manchester in 2011. Aiming smaller has helped though, and I reccomend others in my position to try and get some work experience with a local radio station first.

Bob really sold a carrer in Radio production to me, you can work as art of a small team (eg, you and your presenter) or on your own. He mentioned how you can taylor your own interests into getting features commissioned for a show, and the time and attention to detail that is involved when crafting a show was very intriguing. Sometimes a feature must be planned over a year in advance prior to when it is to be broadcast.

An interesting example of a feature on Radio 4 was the ‘Art of Pop’, presented by Jarvis Cocker. It would be great to write something like this for a show and have a great presenter broadcast your work.

Printworks

Today we were out of the classroom and off to the cinema! The Odeon cinema in the Printworks is a multiplex boasting 20 screens over 7 floors, 3608 seats and an IMAX screen. Impressive as this is, it’s a little pricey for me, at over £6 for a student ticket I’d rather go down the road to the Great Northern and pay £4.50, that’s £2.25 on Orange Wednesdays!

The talks we were given from the members of staff were very interesting.

Sarah – Marketing and Events Manager, covered a wide range of things such as,

• The distribution of films
• The exhibition of films
• How does a cinema create awareness? –
• P.O.S
• Radio
• Press
• Online
• Local events

• Retail –
• RPH
• Up-selling
• Suggestive selling
• Min stock loss/theft

She also mentioned how customers are treated as guests not just customers to maximise the amount of guests who will return to the cinema.

• Guest Service –
• Friendly and efficient staff
• safety for guests (CCTV)
• At least 150 team members
• Screen hire–
• Conferences
• Meetings
• Stag and Hen parties
• Birthdays
• Big screen gaming
• Alternative content

Until now I was unaware that cinema screens could be hired out, wwe were told that in the past, the screens had been used to host a karaoke night, and that they could be used to show alternative content such as ballet, opera and major sporting events. A hit with many people was how the screens could be hired to host big-screen gaming.

Alison- Regional Marketing Executive.

Alison used to have Sarah’s role but is now one of three of the countrys regional marketing executives for Walt Disney Pictures UK. Her main role is to create a good relationship between the company and all the cinemas in her section of the UK. There are around 75 distribution companies world wide and each has different branches, for example, Pixar is a branch of Disney. The most recognised names are, Fox, Universal, Paramount, Warner Brothers and Disney, and each company can release between 0 and 20 films per year.

The release date for a film is also very important. Films are usually released on a Friday as the opening weekend figures are the most important, and other than an Orange Wednesday, the weekend is a cinemas busiest time. Alison also highlighted that if a major blockbuster is about to be released then no other film should dare to be released on the same day. All films beware of Harry Potter!

Some signs that a film is about to be released:

• POS items (posters, standees etc) appear in the cinema around 4-5 months before release.
• Trailors are shown 3-4 months before.
• More POS items appear 2 months before.
• Retail promotions 1 month before.
• The cast of the film do a publicity tour appearing on TV, radio, press junkets around 2 weeks before.
• The UK premier of the film is held 2 weeks before cinema release.

Ben- Technical manager.

Ben talked to us about the technical aspects of screening a film at the Odeon, his talk was very interesting as he touched upon things we as an audience may never even think about. At the Odeon there is a variety of ways a film can be screened.

• 35mm
• Began in 1892
• Was used as standard in 1909
• Every projection system runs the same
• Print costs £3000
• Made up of 4-9 reels
• Takes an hour to make up
• Can be damaged easily

• Digital
• Film comes as a hard drive
• Only costs £90
• Takes 30 minutes to ingest
• Can be shown in 3D

• IMAX
• 15/70mm
• Digital
• Print costs £150,000
• Film comes as 60-90 reels
• Takes 24 hours to make up
• Offers the largest screens with the most powerful sound system

Now the bit we were all waiting for, the screening of Let Me In. The American remake of the Swedish film Let the Right One In. As a fan of the origional film I was interested to see what the American director Matt Reeves had come up with. Unfortunatly it was as I’d thought, not a patch on the Swedish film. Watching the film it seemed there was no point to it, a stunning version had already been made, so why try and do it again? It felt as though you were being shown the same film you had already seen, but of a much poorer quality. Let Me In was definitly upstaged, I reccomend Let the Right One In!

 

Frazer King

Yesterday was the night that Wythenshawe’s finest musicians took to the stage at Gullivers to launch their debut EP. The stage was set for the six-piece to create a ruckus in the packed out venue, and as the buzz crept higher and the crowd became more and more restless, Frazer King finally made their way through the crowd and took to the stage.

Opening their set with ‘Abstract Talking’ the mood was electric and exciting, numerous familiar faces were scattered around the room, hailing from Frazer Kings loyal friend/fan-base, with plenty of new blood there too.

The crowd was not for the faint of heart, or the short for that matter, drinks and arms in the air, everyone was there to enjoy the music, dance and definitly sing along. Punk pundit John Robb has been known to comment, “wild eyed charisma that fires a generation, underlined by a great impassioned songwriting”.

Only a few quid entry fee, and the EP chucked in free, not just a copied CD with Frazer King scrawled on it in marker either, this was the real deal (it should be, as recording began almost a year ago). What more could you want from the night? A great band, stunning tunes and great people. Amazing gig.