A work placement at Kirklees Local TV by Claire Hudson

Claire Hudson is now a third year History student. At the end of her second year she undertook a six-week work placement at Kirklees Local TV, a company based in Huddersfield whose videos can be viewed via their website or YouTube channel. This placement was designed to provide me with experience in working in television production and to give me the edge against others applying for jobs within that area. In this blog, she describes her experiences and the skills she developed – and showcases the film she made about Slaithwaite Brass Band

This placement provided an opportunity to create a project based entirely upon my own ideas of what would make an interesting piece, not only to future audiences but also myself, bearing in mind that this would be part of my workload for the entire six weeks. I was given the opportunity to create a video about Slaithwaite Brass Band, a band in which my family and friends play, and whose concerts and events I regularly go to. In March the band became Yorkshire Third Section Champions at a contest known as “The Area” and have qualified for the National Finals held at Cheltenham Racecourse in September, a contest the band needed to raise £5,000 to be able to attend. After a discussion with my placement manager Milton Brown I decided that the aims of my video were to promote the band, through providing a short history of the band and talking about the National Finals. Also, to try to help the band gain some funding through providing a link to their fundraising page and talking about their aims for the future.

After creating an editing worksheet (a plan which will be followed during the editing of my piece) I decided who I wanted to be interviewed during my video. Milton suggested to include some people from the local community of Slaithwaite as well as members of the band itself. I decided that I would interview a lady who had lived in Slaithwaite for over 89 years, as I thought she would have some great memories of the band not only recently due to having a family in the band, but also from when she was younger. She did and I used most of her interview in my piece as the interview was very hard to cut down as so many of Hilda’s stories were relevant, and her enthusiasm really helped to lift the piece! I also chose David Hoyle who hosts a radio show for BBC Radio Leeds and BBC Radio York about Brass Bands, as I thought that his insight into what he believed the relevance of Brass Bands in society today were would be interesting. Also David has close connections to Slaithwaite Brass Band. I also interviewed four members of the band, including the Musical Director and Band Manager, as this helped to deliver a more personal view of what the band’s achievements meant to the members and what they thought the future aims of the band were. I thought it would be interesting to ask each interviewee what they thought of when they thought of Brass Bands as an introduction to my video; allowing a moment where the audience can also think about what they thought of when asked this question.

I wrote a script which not only helped to provide extra guidance for the editing of the video, but was used by me to create my own voiceover which was recorded after filming. One of the most enjoyable parts of placement was filming the band, who played some pieces which I requested. This gave me the opportunity to direct the cameras, being stationed with one which didn’t record sound, I could tell the camera operator what I wanted to be filmed and if there was any sections I thought should be captured during a piece as they happened. The band were great and I was really pleased with the clips produced.

After all the filming had ended, the voiceover was added in and I was given the chance to sit with the editor, making suggestions of what I thought worked and didn’t work at various stages of editing. When the piece was finished I wrote the credits and the description of the piece before watching the final product to make sure I was happy. I then gave the band a preview before the video went live, which was a very proud moment and the band really liked it.

This placement was great for providing an insight into television production and the organisation and research which goes into a piece before filming even starts. It taught me to be organised but more importantly to be flexible, as not every project finishes as it was intended at the start, they constantly evolve, something which is important to keep in mind for this next year’s essays!

History at Huddersfield uses research-led teaching and a commitment to public engagement to ensure that what we do is both useful to society and beneficial to the employability of our students. We see our students as researchers  –  partners in the development of knowledge with academic staff, often through co-production of knowledge with community partners. For more information see http://www.hud.ac.uk/courses/full-time/undergraduate/history-ba-hons/  and http://www.hud.ac.uk/research/history/

You can email us at historyadmissions@hud.ac.uk