Course leader given all the credit
Published February 2013
A professional DNA running through some of the UK’s most popular TV shows including EastEnders and Holby City can be traced to a senior lecturer at the University of Brighton in Hastings.
Joanna MacDonnell’s skills as leader of the FdA Broadcast Media and the FdA Television Production courses have helped a host of students into top jobs.
Joanna puts the success down to the course: “I consider it one of the best in terms of student employment and feedback from the employers on how ready for the workplace and industry our graduates are.”
But students and graduates credit Joanna and colleagues.
Kiril Isajevs graduated last year and has already worked on various Live and Entertainment television shows. He has also worked on the National Television Awards and this years BRIT awards. He said he was inspired by Joanna MacDonnell: “She taught me that self-discipline is the key to becoming a successful professional.”
Joanna, who studied theatre stage management at Central School of Speech and Drama in London, joined the University of Brighton in 2006 and took over as course leader in Hastings in 2011.
The Hastings courses have chalked up many other notable successes: Graduate Basia Lalik, a Post Production Coordinator with Holby City, recently finished a contract as Post Production Coordinator on Made in Chelsea! Joanna Pirie is a Production Coordinator at Ricochet Productions in Brighton working on Cowboy Builders and Cowboy Traders; she also worked at Holby City, EastEnders and Flog It for the BBC. James Phillips beat hundreds of applicants for a camera and sound trainee position at the London Studios on the Southbank and is now a camera operator working on Daybreak. Scarlett Richards Whitehead has worked her way from a production secretary to a production manager for Campaign Films, managing film shoots on locations around the world. Dale Gorman and Grace Saunders both started at Envy Post Production House in Soho and now Dale is an offline edit assistant whilst Grace manages one of their post-production facility houses. Luke Fuller has just secured a contract with Cbeebies’ Mister Maker, the arts and crafts TV show for pre-schoolers having previously worked on a host of TV productions and the latest Tom Cruise film, All You Need Is Kill.
With all these successes perhaps it’s no surprise that the courses have grown, and will continue to grow, in size. The Broadcast Media course started in 2006 with just 19 students and now has 72; the TV Production course began in 2009 with 11 students and now has 34. Students get to enjoy some of the most modern and advanced equipment and facilities in the country.
