From Creativity Works to the Coronation: How three young media industry stars made their royal mark

Clíona heard about Creativity Works through an email from their job coach at Jobcentre Plus. Yusra found a post promoting Creativity Works on The Dots, a networking site, and decided to apply. Meanwhile, Creativity Works was recommended to Daniel by his friend Elena, who had previously taken part in the programme (you can read about her experiences and how she was commissioned to write for Red Magazine here). She realised that this opportunity would be ideal for Daniel as well!

Highlights from the Creativity Works course

Clíona really enjoyed the range of work experiences: being able to visit different media organisations gave them invaluable insights into the day-to-day work and the different roles available across the sector. The day spent at VICE was the most interesting – exactly the type of work Clíona wants to pursue one day.

Similarly, Yusra’s highlight of the programme was the day at VICE, but she equally enjoyed sessions with The Podcast Guys, LinkedIn and ITV.

Daniel liked exploring roles centred on idea generation, writing, presenting, and content creation, including VICE’s YouTube content production process. Through hands-on lessons involving hosting, recording, and editing, Daniel gained a newfound appreciation for the effort involved in media production. What’s more, working on the graduation showcase scriptwriting team allowed him to share ideas with all the other teams and practice creating a project involving production, editing, designing, and hosting too.

Working on the Coronation with ITN 

On the first day of Creativity Works, Media Trust staff shared that production company ITN was looking for Runners and production assistants to help with their news coverage of the upcoming Coronation; Clíona, Yusra and Daniel all applied, alongside several other Creativity Works participants.

Clíona landed the role of a production assistant at ITN. Their responsibilities ranged from painting railings to conducting VIP tours. Clíona took the initiative to engage with program technicians, electricians, camera operators, presenters, and radio broadcasters, offering them a comprehensive insight. 

Yusra also had a wonderful experience at the Coronation. She saw the behind-the-scenes of the making of the Coronation broadcast, the various rooms and roles that took part in making this achievable, helped buy and take equipment to the venue and helped the coordinator with travel markings.

Daniel had previously applied to other runner roles in the past to explore his interest in television but had not had any success, aware that it was a competitive job. However, this time around, he got the job! His role as a Production Runner involved assisting the ITN Production team to successfully record and broadcast different News shows for ITV, Channel 4, and Channel 5. Although this was challenging work at times, Daniel felt that it was worth it for the friendly people he met from ITN who were often quick to offer him an insight into their role, and even let him get involved despite what was clearly a pressured time for them. To Daniel, these really felt like ‘pinch-me’ moments; one camera operator allowed him to help them when recording the News at Ten and showed him how to take different shots according to the live guidance they received from producers in their earpiece.  

He met so many different people in separate roles, including lighting technicians, hair and makeup artists, journalists, production coordinators, managers, and the news hosts. They all had something to teach him; during lunch one day, one of the presenters gave the runners the opportunity to watch her host a live weather report.

Next steps

For Clíona, Creativity Works and being able to work on the Coronation “somewhat started as a small snowball and rolled into a larger one.” During the Coronation, Clíona met a producer from Project4 who offered them position as a runner on a project for the Windsor Endurance Race. This then led to an opportunity for Clíona to be on a radio show at the British Grand Prix in Silverstone, as assistant producer. They have since been offered opportunities at MotoGP and Carfest. Clíona also completed work experience in Global’s Newsroom following the programme. Clíona feels that their time on Creativity Works allowed them to get where they are today, even down to sessions on CVs, LinkedIn and mortgages that proved so important in the long run.

Yusra’s biggest takeaway from her experience at the Coronation was discovering that she loved the art department: a new passion and possible career path to explore. She felt “clearer than ever before on her professional aspirations”, which was her main goal when applying for Creativity Works. 

Daniel has also taken up a work placement in Global’s Newsroom, where he hopes to learn more about broadcasting and the media industry in general. Reflecting on his time during Creativity Works, Daniel was so pleased he got these experiences and new skills that he would not have been able to find elsewhere.