Television not for everyone

Having worked in TV for 6 years, I have many stories about my time in the industry, its taken me a long time to get where I am today (mainly because I don't have a family member in the industry already to get my foot in the door) and I have had some funny experiences along the way. So where do I start?

At the beginning I suppose. At the ripe old age of 18 I had to choose which university I wanted to attend. All that pressure on one so young. What do you want to study, where do you want to go, what do you want to do for a job for the rest of your life, what are your career progression plans, which universities will even accept you?

I decided I liked doing amateur dramatics and art, so what university course can I do?

Performing arts? Well the acting industry is far to difficult to get into and there are way to many people in it sat at home waiting for the phone to ring with that one job as a character in Coronation Street. And anyway could I deal with all that rejection? No was the answer and so I kept looking for that ideal course.

Forever dressing him up as a girl and calling him Katie

Maybe I could write plays. I liked making up stories and acting them out. My sister and I were forever dressing my brother up as a girl and calling him Katie and acting out stories in the back garden. So thats it then. I need a course that offers Script writing.

Trawling through prospectuses and shiny brochures I find two courses that sound right for me. One is creative writing. Good I thought but doesn't offer anything else if I don't like it and its in Cardiff. I have nothing against the Welsh but do I really want to live in Wales?

The other course is Film Production Technology, one of the modules is Script writing but there is other stuff to it, like cameras and presenting and web design. This one is ideal I get to try script writing and if I don't like it there is other options that encompass my other passions, art and acting.

So thats it I'm off to university to do Film Production Technology. Three years of my life taken up with drinking, playing hockey, drinking, hockey tours, drinking oh and lectures.

To cut a long story short I graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Film Production Technology, £12,000 of student loan debt and a new career plan.

Whilst doing the course I hated the script writing module and decided it wasn't for me, I'm more a spontaneous improviser than a structured writer. But I did enjoy the camera modules and decided I want to be a Camera Operator.

So thats it then I'm going to be a Camera Woman now who's going to give me a job.