TV Presenting For Beginners: Day One

Another week and another course, this time it's something a bit more practical and hands-on than Philosophy.

Similar to the acting course I did a while back (also at City Lit), the course was aimed at "beginners". I use quotes since this didn't necessarily mean that none of us had some experience in television or a related field.

The general format was to be given a task, which was then filmed and played back to the group as a whole (and at times painfully so). Feedback would then be given that we would take with us to the next task. This iterative process proved to be quite productive and most of us had changed loads by the end of the day.

In detail, the tasks included creating: a personal introduction, an audition, a ten second slot, a twenty second slot and a two and a half minute interview with a partner. The timekeeping was especially difficult for us; we found it difficult to do more than one thing at a time! Other difficulties included us failing to keep our concentration up, our breathing controlled and our smiles always switched on.

The people making up the class itself were pretty good - and not just because I was one of the only two guys there. Well, okay, it was because of that, but we didn't have any duff players either. It was a fun seven hours and I learned loads. I can't wait till day two - luckily it's being held tomorrow.