3am phone interviews
I was in my hotel room in Hong Kong. It was 3 o’ clock in the morning - and I was having a WhatsApp voice call with Sas Bonser, the Natural History Unit’s Talent Executive.
“Thanks for having a chat with us at this time Tay! How late is it for you over there?” she asked me.
“Oh, not too late, don’t worry!” I was so nervous and flustered - but quickly tried to allay her worries in case she wanted to postpone our call. I’d worked really hard to get her on the phone and I didn’t want to lose any chances of talking, no matter what time it was and how sleep deprived I was feeling…
But let’s backtrack a bit. Why was I in Hong Kong, having a phone interview at three in the morning?
Jumping over hurdle, after hurdle… after hurdle
The beginning of my journey into wildlife filmmaking is nothing like most people’s - I’d never read David Attenborough’s wildlife books, or gotten any animal sanctuary experience, or even done a degree in Zoology for that matter - I only really started to consider it as a potential career path much later in life.
Filming the Bloodhound SSC for our MSc Science Communication film project.
Back in 2016, after finishing a BSc in Human Physiology and feeling a bit lost in life, I moved to Bristol to begin a MSc in Science Communication at the University of the West of England (UWE). I will be forever grateful for that course and my brilliant lecturers, because it was the first time I realised a job in wildlife filmmaking was even a thing. Nobody had told me I could make money by geeking out about animals and having my name in the credits on TV!
I had originally chosen to do Science Communication as I knew I loved science, storytelling and outreach - I was always a keen reader and writer as a kid, but my experience with cameras up until that point was only a measly GCSE in Photography - I’d never made a ‘documentary’ before (and I don’t think the cringe-worthy home videos I made as a kid on our family camcorder count.) However, the MSc course was a fantastic bootcamp to provide me with experience in lots of different types of science communication - from writing journals and performing at public festivals, to radio and TV. The 'Science on Air and Screen’ module was the first time I’d ever made a science film before and I LOVED IT. I seriously fell in love with the process of researching a topic, meeting new people, filming interviews and building it all together into a story on something I was passionate about.
After completing my MSc, I had more of an idea that filmmaking was a path I wanted to steer my career towards - but I still needed to make a living in the meantime, so I worked an array of jobs - from stacking shelves at Tesco, to delivering science activities in schools with the UWE outreach programme. In my spare time, I tried to meet as many people as possible and make my own films just to get some experience, and it was by doing this that I met the underwater camera operator Jessica Mitchell - a fellow wildlife filmmaker who I am great friends with to this day.
Having someone like Jess as a friend during the early days was invaluable, as she was just as passionate and driven as I was to just make stuff - even if it wasn’t wildlife-related. We made a bunch of videos and films all about Bristol, the 2018 March for Science and more, and shared our experiences and worries with each other along the way. If I hadn’t met Jess back then, I don’t know how I would have gotten over all those feelings of self-doubt that plagued me so much at the beginning and I might have never made it as far as I am now.
Creative Access and a rollercoaster recruitment process
After two years of making my own content and networking as much as possible, so many job applications were still getting rejected and I was feeling disheartened - what if I will never get a TV job? What if I’m just not good enough? I was worried that my lack of experience, and the lack of funding to get any experience, was going to end my journey before it had even really started.
But then, in early 2018, the persistence finally paid off - I found out about the charity Creative Access, an organisation which helps those from under-represented backgrounds get into the creative industries - totally by chance. I found an ad on their Twitter page which stated they had partnered with the BBC’s Natural History Unit to provide opportunities as Junior Researchers on various productions.
I still remember the exact moment I saw that website and how I felt - it was like someone had seen the 30+ applications I’d sent off, the hundreds of emails and texts and ‘can we meet for coffee?’ messages I’d sent and offered a bit of a boost for people like me, to make things more equal and fair. I shoved down the doubts and pessimism in my head and spent hours trying to write the most perfect application I could, before sending it off with all my fingers and toes and eyes crossed.
To my delight, I got offered an interview - finally! I was so excited to finally step into the BBC Bristol building and meet some of the people working there in person. My naive self even hoped I’d bump into David Attenborough in the building (hilarious, I know!) I did as much preparation as I could squeeze into my brain in the days leading up to the interview: re-watching hours and hours of documentaries, reading about the history of the NHU and going through all my employment history to note what transferable skills I had relevant to the role of a researcher. When the day finally arrived, I was so nervous I felt like I was going to explode - I still remember doing breathing exercises in the toilets and ‘power posing’ in a cubicle because I’d seen from a TED talk that it could make you feel more confident.
I did my absolute best in that interview and walked out feeling pretty pleased with myself. A few days later, I was travelling to Hong Kong with Anturus to deliver science workshops in schools and film YouTube content all about the natural world, so I didn’t think about my interview for a while until an email dropped into my inbox on the 5th March:
Dear Tay,
Thanks very much for coming in for an interview for our Creative Access Internship.
I’m afraid on this occasion we offered the internship on to another candidate.
But we were really impressed with you and we are working hard to secure some extra placements.
With you and a couple more of the applicants I would like to set up some informal chats with other productions.
Would you be interested and available to meet with these productions?
I was on one hell of a rollercoaster of emotions when reading that email - as devastated as I was, I was over the moon that I’d made a good impression and still had a chance, so I quickly asked whether I could have a Skype calls with the other productions as I was on the other side of the world!
Which brings us back to my hotel room in Hong Kong, at 3 in the morning, frantically reading up about how TV development works and finding out what I could about Seven Worlds and The Natural World series from TV contacts and friends - natural history productions are notoriously secretive, so this was a tricky process, but I researched the producers I was to be interviewed by and their work, and watched any available content I could find on BBC iPlayer. I had four phone interviews back to back, over my dodgy hotel WiFi, sitting on the cold floor outside my hotel room trying not to wake the other guests or betray how tired I was to the big scary BBC big-wigs on the phone.
My last interview call was with Roger Webb, the executive producer of Natural World, which is a series of one-off documentaries telling wildlife stories from around the globe. He was incredibly easy-going, funny and warm and immediately put me at ease, which really helped soothe my nerves. I told him about what I was doing in Hong Kong, all the random videos I’d made in the last few years and of course, told him what my favourite Natural World episode was. He was really impressed with my tenacity and outreach work, and just hearing that from him made the sleep deprivation worth it.
Finally, a week later, I got the email I’d been working two long years for - Natural World wanted to offer me a six month placement! I’d gotten a job at the BBC!
I spent the rest of the morning in my hotel room alternating between crying and jumping on the bed, before heading out to do another day of school shows in a gleeful daze. And as they say, the rest is history 😊
A really thick skin
I certainly had an unusual beginning into wildlife filmmaking, but in some respects, one thing is always the same - it is not easy to get that first job in TV. In fact, it is really, really hard - you have to be ready to face countless rejections, disappointments and frankly, look stupid in front of a few people before you learn how the industry works and what people are looking for, not to mention all the jargon and ‘TV lingo’. A thick skin is so important to deal with all those rejections at the start and as your journey in TV continues - you have to be tenacious, persistent and driven to carry on no matter what obstacles you face and how many times you get looked over for a job. Having an amazing friend like Jess who can help you weather every storm is also invaluable to keep your spirits high (and the bubbles flowing during those late night existential chats.)
I hope my story entertains and inspires you, and I really, really hope that my future posts will help to offer some useful advice on the skills you need, so you don’t make the same mistakes that I did - but the main thing is to just keep trying. I said yes to an interview at 3 in the morning because I was willing to take any opportunity that was handed my way, and finally - it paid off.
“A rejection is nothing more than a necessary step in the pursuit of success”
- Bo Bennett