Meet your tutors

In terms of multi-camera studio television broadcasting, I’ve pretty much done every job there is! After finishing my undergraduate degree, I got a job in the television industry. I worked in a studio in Manchester, and then for ITV in Carlisle. I was a multi-skilled operator, which is where you can specialise in editing, in vision engineering, in vision mixing, directing, sound engineering and camera. And I’ve done all of those things to various degrees.

After working for a while, I decided that I would like to get into education. I wanted a meaningful occupation where I could give back all the skills and knowledge that I had learned over the years. I came to work at York, and did a Masters in Postproduction with Visual Effects here as well. I am now a lecturer in screen production and postproduction.

I grew up in a deprived area in Manchester. I didn’t have many skills, and I worked in a job with few future prospects. I decided to go to university as a mature student. I had some experience of film and television before my degree, filming and creating film backdrops for music concerts, but it is a competitive industry, and I wanted to make a career out of it.

Doing a degree changed my life, as it showed the industry that I had a commitment to the field, and taught me the underlying theory that I still draw upon in my own teaching. I’m proud of the fact that I’m now here in York, working in a prestigious institution.

My role is mostly on the production side, the fun stuff! In 1st Year, you’ll be working with me, learning how to edit film and television. Learning the practical process of making stuff, and what you need to construct a compelling story. Then we'll work in the television studio, where you’ll be directing, and operating the sound and vision mixers like you would for a live broadcast.

It’s very exhilarating, and it’s very immediate. It gives you loads of transferable skills, such as working together as a team - the production can’t survive without that. You need everybody to function as one unit for something to be created. It gives you a lot of skills that you don’t even think you are learning. They will make you a better person, and a better production person - somebody who has production sense, as we call it: knowing what the audience needs to see.