Tag / Work

by Gareth

Time for a change…

I started working at MUTV exactly six years ago this week, and today I handed in my resignation letter to try my luck in the world of freelance production. It’s a pretty big decision, and something I’ve been contemplating for quite a while, but now it’s all very real, and I finish working there at the end of the month.

This last year I’ve been able to build up some good contacts by doing various bits of work, and get myself known a bit with different companies and producers, so I feel now is the right time to take the plunge and go totally freelance.

It’ll be weird leaving MUTV after all this time – especially not working with some really cool people every day – but I’ve just got quite bored working on football stuff, and I’m really looking forward to doing a greater variety of work, and getting back to doing some more camerawork as well.

Anyway, it’ll probably be quite scary at first – especially since there’s no guarantee of a regular wage, and all those bills still need to be paid… but hopefully it’ll all work out okay!

by Gareth

The rules

Just found these new company guidelines lying around in one of the edit suites, and had to post it here…

Company Policy: Effective from January 2006

Dress Code
It is advised you come to work dressed according to your salary. If we see you wearing Prada shoes and carrying a Gucci bag, we assume you are doing well financially and therefore do not need a raise. If you dress poorly, you need to manage your money better so that you may buy nicer clothes, and therefore will not need a raise. If you dress just right, you are where you need to be and therefore do not need a raise.

Sick Days
We will no longer accept a doctor’s note as proof of sickness. If you are able to go to the doctor, you are able to come to work.

Holidays
Each employee will receive 104 Annual Leave days a year. They are called Saturday and Sunday.

Bereavement Leave
This is no excuse for missing work. There is nothing you can do for dead friends, relatives or co-workers. Every effort should be made to have non-employees attend to the arrangements. In rare occasions where employee involvement is necessary, the funeral should be scheduled in the late afternoon. We will be glad to allow you to work through your lunch hour and subsequently leave one hour early.

Toilet Use
Entirely too much time is being spent in the toilet. There is now a strict three minute time limit in each cubicle. At the end of the three minutes, an alarm will sound, the toilet paper roll will retract, the cubicle door will open, and a picture will be taken. After the second offence, your picture will be posted on the bulletin board under the Chronic Offenders category. Anyone caught smiling in the picture will be sectioned under the company’s mental health policy.

Lunch Breaks
Skinny people get 30 minutes for lunch as they need to eat more so that they can look healthy. Normal size people get 15 minutes for lunch to get a balanced meal to maintain their average figure. Chubby people get 5 minutes for lunch because that’s all the time needed to drink a Slim-Fast.

Thank you for your loyalty. We are here to provide a positive employment experience. Therefore all questions, comments, concerns, complaints, frustrations, irritations, aggravations, insinuations, allegations, accusations, contemplations, consternations, and input should be directed elsewhere.

The Management

Made me chuckle anyway!

by Gareth

Portsmouth

I’m feeling really tired, but I’ve got loads that I need to get done this weekend…

With work this week, I had to go down to Portsmouth to give a presentation to some call centre staff who are handling a telemarketing campaign for us.

Mo and Pete’s wedding.

I’ve never had to do anything like that before, so was quite apprehensive… and the reason I was having to do it was because Pete Searle who would normally do that sort of thing is off on his honeymoon (photos from his wedding are here). You’d have thought he could have put off his wedding to Mo by a week or so to help me out…

Anyway, the presentation was to take place at 11.30am on Thursday morning, so I was at Manchester Airport for half seven to catch an 0845 flight to Southampton. But whilst I was waiting in the departure lounge, I noticed the screens changed to show that the flight would be delayed by just over half an hour, which meant I’d be pushing it for time at the other end. So I waited until 9.20, when we were then told that there were technical problems and we’d be getting more information at half ten. Obviously this caused me slight problems since it was going to take me half an hour to get to Portsmouth from the airport, and the earliest I was going to get to Southampton looked to be 11.30 – the same time as the presentation!

We actually got our update at quarter past eleven, and we were told that a new plane would be arriving at noon, but there was really no point with me getting on it – but apparently if you remove yourself from a massively delayed flight, you don’t get your money back… they only do that if it’s cancelled! Anyway, what eventually happened is that I rearranged to travel on the same flight on Friday morning, with the return flight first thing yesterday morning because the guys I needed to meet wouldn’t be around until 6pm!

Friday’s journey went a lot smoother, and since the presentation wasn’t until the evening, I had a few hours to look around bits of Portsmouth, and went to take a look at HMS Victory, and also around Gunwharf Quays which is where I was staying overnight at a Holiday Inn. The talk went okay I guess… it was a bit awkward because firstly it was someone else’s presentation, and I didn’t have Powerpoint or our DVD to use because it was rescheduled last minute!

Later on that evening, I went to the cinema (which handily was right next to the hotel!) to watch ‘Cinderella Man‘ – Russell Crowe and Renée Zellweger’s new film, and it was excellent. Quite violent in parts I guess because it’s about boxing, but it all took place within the ring, so the context allowed for it. I’ll be really surprised if it doesn’t pick up a few Oscars next time round.

Then yesterday, I had to get up at 4.30am to get to Southampton for my flight back up to Manchester… so that’s 3 early mornings in a row. I feel wrecked now! I’m not a morning person at all!

by Gareth

Underground and other stuff

Been away working at Soul Survivor, and I guess during that time I’ve been pondering about a few things, which I’m going to mention briefly at the top of this post.

I’ve been writing this blog now (on and off) for nearly three and a half years now(!), and I suppose in the last 9 months, I’ve been thinking a bit more about what I actually put on here. I think it’s because I read some blogs of people I know who are loads more open and honest in what they write, and in some ways I really wish I was more like that. But part of the problem is if you start writing really personal stuff that also affects other people, is it fair to put it in a place where anyone can see? I know you can change names and stuff like that, and can be careful about how you refer to people, but at the end of the day either they, or others, would probably be able to work out who you’re on about. Also, I’ve always been a quite private person when it comes to personal things – and maybe reading blogs by people who seem to have broken through that barrier makes me realise that I’d like to be more like that. Not sure. But I’d say that some of the stuff I’ve written this year has been more open than it would have been previously, and maybe it’s something I’m going to work on in the future… not promising anything – it’s something I need to work out!

Anyway, back to what’s been going on recently. I got home from Soul Survivor yesterday afternoon, and was so worn out I fell asleep as soon as I got in! I was there for 16 days – and it felt like an eternity! For the 2 main Soul Survivor weeks, I was working in their new hip-hop and urban venue run by the guys from the 29th Chapter – Underground – doing all the videos and visuals for the evening sets. I was working with a girl called Kate, who I hadn’t met before, but came recommended by John Roberts, and she was really good. She’s just finished a degree in Media Performance at Salford University, and it was so helpful having someone around who could do media stuff because there was SO much that we had to do.

As well as doing live vision mixing of the performances onto a big screen at the back of the stage, we were filming and editing mini-programme segments to be dropped into the set each night. We did a couple of MTV spoofs… “Bling My Youthleader” (based on ‘Pimp My Ride’) and “Tents” (a rip-off of ‘Cribs’ but without the celebrities and luxurious pads), plus every day they were running “Urban Academy” auditions which we recorded and then edited into a highlights package. It was all just so intense – really long days, but enjoyable as well.

In between the two weeks, I stayed on-site for Momentum, and some guys from Tamworth were there for that, so spent a bit of time with them which was cool. And they had a baby with them which kind of distracted everyone (in a totally good way) all week! Even though it was supposed to be more of a rest that week, that didn’t really happen because I ended up spending some of the week in our edit suite doing preparation for week B!

The photos from Soul Survivor and Momentum are here.
_________________

I guess the major thing that’s happened since I last posted on here was on the night before I left for Soul Survivor, I got a call from my mum to tell me that a really close family friend had committed suicide the night before. It was someone who I’ve known for about 20 years, and she really was part of the family, and it’s horrific.

I think I’m still in a bit of shock because I don’t think I’ve really accepted it yet… I’d only been talking to her 4 days before at my nan’s funeral, and it was totally the last thing I expected. I wasn’t able to go to the funeral because I was obviously working down in Somerset when they held it, but I think in a strange way, I’m kind of glad I didn’t because I’d rather remember her as she was the last time I saw her.

by Gareth

New camera

Drove down to Studley in Warwickshire (a small village just south of Birmingham) yesterday with Craig from work to get a demo for the camera I’ve been considering buying. It was a boiling hot day – so not the most ideal weather conditions for a long car journey! But it was a good chance to chat with Craig, because you don’t always get that much time to have a decent conversation at work.

Anyway, we were given a demo for about an hour, going through all the features of the camera, and I decided to take the plunge and buy myself a camera kit!! It’s a Sony HDV camera – which means it can record in High Definition, as well as DVCam and DV – so the quality’s really good, and hopefully it should be pretty future proof as well. And I’ve bought it on 12 months interest free credit, so I don’t have to worry about paying for it just yet!

There are still a few more bits that I need to buy to make it into a full kit, but it’ll do me for now, and I’ll get the rest when I can afford it!

by Gareth

‘United’ States

Has been a bit of a funny couple of days at work – if you don’t know what I’m talking about, take a look here.

Anyway, aside from that, I’ve been to the gym just 3 times this week to try and get prepared for the 10K a week on Sunday.

I’m still not enjoying it one little bit. I’m struggling to run more than 1km at a time, so goodness knows how I’m going to do on the day. And the trouble is, when I’m there, it just makes me even more down with the realisation of how useless I am. I’ve also been doing at least 6km each time on the cycling machine to try and help with the whole fitness thing, but I don’t think it’ll be enough.

Part of me is still tempted just to forget about it and not turn up on the day, even though it would mean I’d lose the entry fee – though that doesn’t seem such a big sacrifice at the moment! Like I said before, the only nagging thing is the sponsor money, but it’s going to take a lot to convince me to run it, because I really have absolutely no motivation for it at all.

by Gareth

Very tired!

It’s been a very tiring few days!

I was up all last night in Bolton filming James doing his best Tom Cruise impression for an opening video for Investor Relations magazine we’re doing. They hold big awards ceremonies around the world, and they’ll be using this for the next year, so the pressure’s on to come up with something good!

Also, we were doing some preparation work for it on Monday night, and some git broke into my car, just up from my house… They nicked all my CDs (which luckily weren’t the originals) and also caused some damage to the door itself when smashing the glass. So that’s an expense I could have done without. I’ve had the glass repaired on insurance (although I had to pay the first £50) but it’s going to cost me to get the door straightened out, and it resprayed.

by Gareth

Christmas Party, plus Dave & Ceri’s Wedding

Well it was the MUTV Christmas Party last night, and for the first time in the years I’ve been there, I actually enjoyed it!

This year, we’d all been invited along to the main Manchester United staff Christmas party, so it took place in a massive marquee in one of Old Trafford’s car parks, which was done out in the theme of Rio (apparently!) We got a four course meal, and then there was a disco, free bar, and a mini fairground! There were loads of people there, and it was a bit weird have Sir Alex Ferguson just 3 tables away from where we were sitting! I took some photos of the night and you can see them here.

Two days earlier and it was Dave and Ceri’s wedding! It took place at Ivy Cottage in Didsbury, and it was packed!

It was a really nice service, and saw a few people I hadn’t seen for a while.

Then we headed up to Bolton for the reception, and because it’s nearly Christmas, the decorations had quite a festive feel, and was all really arty! It was a nice day, and Dave and Ceri obviously were really enjoying it!

You can check out the photos from the day here.

by Gareth

Christmas comes early!

Had my first taste of Christmas last night at Old Trafford!

We had a shoot for MUTV’s Christmas TV commercial, and it involved 7 choirboys from Manchester Boys’ Choir singing ‘The 12 Days Of Cantona’ (which unsurprisingly is sung to the tune of ‘The 12 Days Of Christmas!) being conducted in the stands by a guy called Pete Boyle, who is a quite well-known United fan.

I didn’t have that much to do with the organisation of it – the creative was handled by our ad agency – so I was there to check everything went okay. There was quite a large crew there, and it was being shot on film rather than tape, which is better than we normally work with!

It only took a couple of hours – but it was absolutely freezing standing there at the side of the pitch! Now I just need to get the ad edited and sent for clearance as soon as possible because it’s supposed to start running on Sky from the 13th! No pressure there then!

by Gareth

Learning to ski…

Just a quick update… had a ski lesson down at the Snowdome last week, which was pretty smart! It was really hard work, but I did end up being able to do a snowplough!! I drove back up to Manchester after my lesson, and had to go straight to work to do the final edit of MUTV’s Christmas TV commercial, and ended up staying in the office until 4am because of the amount of stuff that needed doing! When I woke up the next morning, I couldn’t move a muscle – my calves were really sore, and I was struggling to walk!! If that’s what I’m like after two hours of skiing, I dread to think what it’ll be like after 6 days of it!!!

by Gareth

Edale walk

I can hardly move this morning because I went on a walk in Edale in the Peak District yesterday with Jamie, Ben, Cathy, Sarah, Celia and Ali… and I reckon it was the longest walk that I’ve ever done!!! We worked out that we did between 10 and 11 miles, and there was quite a bit of up and down with that as well! My legs are really aching, but it was a very good day.

We started off from the village at 10.30am, and we got back to the cars at about 4 o’clock, so we basically walked for nearly five hours not including breaks!

Anyway, the highlight of the day was a very funny moment that was pretty unfortunate for one person, but had everyone in hysterics! We were walking over a really large section of pretty boggy land, and we were having to be quite careful where we stepped because it was very muddy. So walking along, we’re all getting quite a bit of mud over our boots as we sink a few inches, when suddenly Sarah makes a step which ends up in her dropping through the mud… and she ended up stuck in the stinking bog with the mud now up above her knees!! And as she was there trying to get out, but being pulled back by the suction of the mud, the first thing that people shouted was “Get a camera out!!”. Hence the photo of Sarah being pulled out by Ben and Jamie! To see what those white trousers looked like after she was pulled out, check out the rest of the photos here!

When we got back to Manchester, we went out to Nawaab in Levenshulme, which is a kind of fixed-price-all-you-can-eat-curry-house… which is ideal for me considering I don’t actually like curry! But I made an exception ‘cos we were there for three people’s birthdays – Dean’s, Kat’s and Susannah’s, and there were about 45 of us in total! I ate poppadoms, chicken and naan, and had 2 puddings to make up for the lack of main course!! Then a group went into the city centre to go clubbing, but all of us who had been for the walk were so done in, we just went home straight after the meal! Such party animals!

by Gareth

Spike & Su’s wedding

Was at Spike and Su’s wedding on Saturday down in Leyton in East London. I was ushering again, so had to hire a suit for the occasion… any more of this and I’m going to have to buy one!

I drove down on the Saturday morning, after picking up Jude from Stockport station who I was giving a lift to, and we got into London at one o’clock after a nice 4 and a half hour drive…

…hmmm… was slightly distracted by something then. Will come back to that in a minute…

It was a really nice day – although I was incredibly tired… especially since I’d only been able to get 3 hours sleep on Thursday night because of work. So travelling to London and back in a day was pretty hard going! It was nice seeing Rob and Lib again too – I’d not spoken to them since their wedding, so that was cool. Got back to Manchester at about 2am, so it was a VERY long day! There are some pictures of the day here.

Now to tonight’s distraction. I’m currently at work late doing a few bits and pieces, and my car’s parked right outside the office, and some git’s put their foot through my car window. Luckily they haven’t got away with anything because our building’s security guard saw him and chased him away, but there’s glass everywhere! Total nightmare! Now I’ve got to drive back with no window…

by Gareth

Spending a day with cheerleaders…

It’s been an absolutely mad few weeks! I’ve had to produce a TV commercial for United’s USA Tour which has been a real nightmare! We’ve done this thing with a group of cheerleaders in a virtual studio to make them look like they’re on an American football pitch, followed by some Manchester United football action. The making of the commercial wasn’t too bad (it’s tough having to direct 5 cheerleaders for an entire day, but hey, someone has to do it!!) – but it’s just all the paperwork and stuff that I then need to do for clearance and the like! At a normal place, you’d have a whole team of people doing it, but here, it’s just me! Anyway, it started running on Sky on Wednesday, and runs on Granada sometime next week!

The house is still the same! Actually, the builder’s been in touch with regard to sorting out the fireplace, and he’s going to ring me when he can come around and re-quote me for the work. I really want to get it all sorted, but it just takes up so much time – and I really don’t have any of that at the moment!

by Gareth

Celebrity soccer

Spent all yesterday down at Old Trafford filming a soccer school and tournament to make a promotional video for Manchester United Merchandising. Luckily the weather was pretty good, so it was nice working outside! It was a bit of a celeb-fest as well, as there was a team of TV bods in the tournament, and they ended up winning the whole event!

Time to do a bit of name-dropping here… there were a few ‘celebrities’ that I didn’t recognise at all, but the ones that I did were Ralf Little, Will Mellor, James Nesbitt, Harvey from So Solid Crew, Andy Whyment and Alan Halsall (Kirk and Tyrone from Coronation Street), Michael Grecco and Judy Shekoni (Beppe and Precious from Eastenders), and some Brookie guys whose names I don’t know! It was a pretty long day though – I ended up doing 11 hours yesterday, so I’m going to try and get some time back today. We’ll see if that actually happens!

by Gareth

Portugal!

Spent part of last week in Portugal which was really nice! I flew out to Lisbon on Tuesday night, and got back to Manchester late Friday afternoon. However, it wasn’t really a holiday… I went out there with Paul from work to give a presentation at a distributer’s conference for Digital Vision, who supply MUTV’s music.

The conference took place on the Wednesday, and we had to give a 20 minute talk on how we use their music in our programming, and we used a mixture of Powerpoint stuff and video clips of our output. We then had all Thursday and Friday morning to ourselves, but I took a DV camera with me to do some filming in Lisbon because Manchester United are going to be playing Sporting Lisbon in a pre-season friendly in August, so the stuff I managed to get should be some use when I’m making promos.

The place we stayed in was amazing – it was all paid for by Digital Vision, so we were put up in a 5 star hotel – which unsurprisingly is something I’ve never done before! It was like a stately home – nothing like a Travel-lodge! And you did feel slightly underdressed walking around in jeans and a t-shirt, although I did manage to rustle up a shirt and tie for our presentation!

The weather was really good at the start… the sun was blazing down on the Wednesday (when we spent most of the day indoors…), and then on the Thursday afternoon, it got quite cloudy although it was still pretty hot. But by Friday lunchtime when we waiting to get the plane back, it was raining in Lisbon! And to make matters worse, when we got back to Manchester, it was hot and sunny, and had apparently been like that ever since we left the UK! Typical!

There are some photos of the trip here.