By Georgia De Souza, Production Coordinator and Researcher (Royal Holloway BA Film Television and Digital Production, 2020)
Georgia has worked in Sports Broadcasting for the last 4 years. Starting at Whisper in 2021 as an Office Runner, she has worked her way up in Production across a variety of sports including UEFA, W Series, Bellator, international tournaments such as Paris 2024 Paralympics, Women’s Euros 2022 all whilst covering the Women’s Football coverage on BBC for the last 4 seasons.
How I started
I was luckily enough to get onto a mentorship scheme with Whisper and Royal Holloway. Keeping in contact with my mentor after I graduated and through COVID, she gave me advice on where to look for jobs, how to update my CV, schemes I could apply for and then finally a Runner job I could apply for at the company. Having the relationship with the company obviously worked in my favour – however I also did my research. I knew they worked on the Women’s Football coverage (which at that time was an hour show every Sunday evening at midnight). In my interview I talked about their coverage and why it made me want to work at the company. Once I got the job, I was adamant to make it to every and any Women’s Football shoot. I spoke to everyone in the company and began to understand the roles in each department. After 4 months I had been offered a position in the Women’s Football team and haven’t looked back. I believe it was my persistence, initiative and determination putting myself forward for everything as a Runner – the gritty jobs, the laborious tasks that proved to the company I was worth investing in. I have found it much easier to develop in my role, especially as I move into a more editorial role this season, with a company that believes in me and my development, but with that came a lot of work, and here’s what I have learnt....
Ask the questions
People that stick out to me, those that have made an impression on productions I have been working on are the ones that have asked questions and wanted to get an understanding of how these productions work. Everyone started in the industry not knowing what certain roles were, what specific machines do or what the frequently used terminology means. Engaging in this side and asking questions shows you are proactive and want to learn and develop in that area. As long as you are asking the questions at a sensible time and not interrupting, people are usually willing to engage and answer questions.
Use your initiative
- Being onsite can be quite demanding. I often have a lot of talent asking me to do different things at the same time. Having a runner with me that has initiative makes such a difference and is the reason they will be contacted again for future work.
- Always ask if people want teas or coffees: talent, production crew, camera crew, everyone! You can never make too many teas.
- Memorise the schedules so you know where you need to be, but also understand that things change, and whilst the timing is on the schedule it may not be exactly accurate once the work begins.
- Don’t just be a shadow. Whilst it is good to learn proactively from someone, following them around can sometimes make them uncomfortable and shows lack of initiative.
- Do your research – show an interest in the production, know who the talent are, what they look like. Know what you’re working – I’ve worked with a lot of people (on WSL matches) that come onsite having no understanding or knowledge of women’s football.
Diversity schemes
Especially as a woman of colour, there are lots of schemes that are coming out to support people of colour making their way into the industry. The change is going to take a while but it has to start from lower positions: Mamma Youth / Merky FC / Brentford x Whisper / BBC / Sky