Back in February I wrote about researching failing projects for a TV programme called ‘Failing projects: the real picture’. Well, filming was at the Channel 4 Studios in Horseferry Road, London in May, and the programme came out recently. I’ll see if I can get a few clips to post here, but the make-up and hair team made me look great, if I do say so myself.
I wrote a research paper on the state of projects in the UK and the real story behind failing projects, and most importantly, what companies can do to ensure they don’t end up wasting time and resources on things that are destined to fail. That paper became the basis for the script, and then I was interviewed as the resident project management expert.
Einstein, the production company, isn’t a huge outfit. They make business and educational programmes (you can see their catalogue here; my programme is code 1932) which count as continuing professional development credits for various professional bodies. It was really interesting to see behind the scenes and find out how their programmes are made. Sitting in the Channel 4 reception I felt really out of place in my smartest suit. Everyone else seemed to be in hip media clothes, like fashionably torn jeans with the labels on the outside. The studio was in the basement and the runner who came to collect me looked like she was hardly old enough to be out of school.
“Where did you come from today?” she said, as she took me down in the glass lifts.
“Paris,” I replied, which seemed to throw her slightly. Another runner got in at the next floor down, so she spent the rest of the descent talking to him, about some super-cool party that he had cleared up the night before.
When we got out of the lift she switched back to what she was obviously told to do and made small talk about the weather until we reached the green room. I wondered if I could slip a free KitKat into my handbag without anyone noticing, but Joan, the editor I’d been talking to on the phone, turned up before I could pocket anything discreetly.
“Hello,” she said, shaking my hand. Finally, someone else wearing business clothes. Joan made me a cup of tea, we filled in forms and talked about the programme format and then suddenly it was time for make-up.
“Will my shoes be in shot?” I asked.
“No.”
In the tiny make-up room, the TV was showing the previous programme just finishing recording. The camera panned out as they re-recorded a question, and I saw the lawyer’s shoes. I changed my own from flat-travelling-across-the-Channel shoes to classy heels anyway, just in case. I’d carried them all the way from Paris so I might as well wear them, whether they made it onto the small screen or not.
The studio was surprisingly big, given that it only had two sofas and a coffee table as the set. There were many more cameras than I was expecting, and the presenter told me just to look at her “as if we were having a normal conversation.” I don’t have that many normal conversations where I spout figures about the Scottish Parliament building audit results.
We filmed and edited at the same time, which meant stopping and re-recording things as we went along, to minimise the need to edit later. The first time the presenter, an incredibly enthusiastic blonde woman who re-tied the bow on my jacket to make it sit straight, asked me a question I completely froze. After that, we managed just fine and only had to stop a couple of times.
Over the next few weeks, I’ll be posting up the results of my research that formed the basis of that programme, so hopefully they will be useful to you in making your projects better.
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