Executive producer & commissioning in TV & online| Guest: Mish Mayer 🍑 Ep 13
As heard on 🍑 Bitesize Bodacious Babes Podcast 🍑
🎧 LISTEN HERE TO PODCAST
🎧 LISTEN HERE TO PODCAST
My guest Mish Mayer talks about her path to her role at Vevo as Executive Producer & Commissioner and gives advice and insight into TV & Online Production from her time on Big Brothers Little Brother, Two Four Group, and more.
Mish and I met whilst working together at Vevo in London. She’s been a mentor to me in relation to production know-how and I’m thrilled that she has joined me on the podcast. Mish is Isreal- British; her parents came from Israel to the UK in the 70s where she was born. She studied Economics and Economic theory in Manchester. At her University you also had to take an art module, Mish chose film studies and she loved it! And here we now are, together in London, chatting over Crosstown doughnuts and tea.
Current role Executive Producer & Commissioner for Vevo, UK.
- In her current role Mish oversees production as a whole, its quality control
- Mediating between Vevo’s global teams is an important part of the role.
WHAT WE TALK ABOUT:
✨Tell us what you do now in a few words
✨Mish’s previous experience pre-Vevo, aka her path to now
✨Advice about production roles
✨Shout outs to other bodacious babes in production she admires
WHERE SHE HAS WORKED:
✨ Runner | BBC Entertainment Department
✨ Runner | 12 Yard Productions — then was promoted to Researcher on that program. Then Promoted to Assistant Producer
✨ Assistant Producer | Big Brothers Little Brother (for a company called Endemol)
✨ Producer | Fashionare
✨ Development Producer | Maverik TV — Worked in TV development which you come up with show ideas / formats and sell then to TV. Good experience in public speaking and pitching your ideas.
✨ Producer | Two Four Group — worked with with a team of researchers and assistant producers. Developed an idea for T4 called ‘Taking New York’
✨ Head of Development | Seven Wonder — (company got sold and now called Wonder) for a year then became Executive Producer
✨ Executive Producer | Vevo
ADVICE:
✨ Be available and willing to learn. Show people you are interested to learn what they do.
✨ Sometimes you need to move sideways to move forward and sometimes just being in the building is the way to do that
✨ Don’t be afraid to ask
✨ Look after yourself!
✨ Hiring is 90% around personality and attitude, the experience is always something you can get. Shoots are long, you need to get along with people!
✨ Don’t get bogged down with where you want to be. Best ops can come from taking a side-step. And you may surprise yourself with what you end up loving.
✨ You can always leave a job, you can always change your mind. Nothing is permanent.
SHOUT OUTS:
❤️ Sasha Nixon who runs her own prod company called Forever Pictures. She used to be lead rep at Partizan
❤️ Yemisi Brookes who is a British Director based in New York
❤️ Joy Elton who was Creative Director at Polydor until quite recently. Now freelances as a Commissioner, Producer, Creative Director
✨✨EXTRA INFORMATION ON PRODUCTION ROLES ✨✨
PRODUCTION ROLES WE MENTIONED (in TV / Online):
- Runner (at this time) — eyes and ears on the set, get release forms signed, get contracts from the crew. One of the jobs get takes from cameras to the editing room.
- Researcher: (role is what it says on the tin, research).
- Assistant Producer: assist the Producer and you would also have ownership over smaller items aka producing elements of the show. For example a ‘VT’ (videotape) short 3 mins piece.
- Producer — writing the script, tie up the episode and run that episode. In live TV you would be the one sitting in the gallery, looking at the monitors, telling the host (in his ear, for example) what is coming up next.
- Series Producer — you are running that show!
CAMERA TEAM ROLES:
- DOP — Director of Photography — has control over all the photography aspects of a film, such as choice of framing, lighting, costumes, angles, makeup, colour correction, and so on
- Steady Cam Operator — camera operator that specialises in steady cam (strapped on to them — heavy!). They are usually trained and experienced camera operators who learn most of their practical skills through hands-on experience on the job. The technology changes rapidly, so they need to be prepared to keep learning. Basic stills photography, which develops their visual and composition skills, can be a useful starting point.
- Focus Puller — the job is to make sure everything captured is in focus
- Camera Loader — someone so into cameras that they can build any kind of camera basically!
🎧 LISTEN HERE TO PODCAST
✨✨This Week’s ARTIST SPOTLIGHT ✨✨
POPPY AJUDHA ft. MAHALIA ‘Low Ride’
Love both these ladies and so thrilled to hear them on a track together. Soultry, star gazing vibes! The track came out late January and I’ve had it on repeat since.
Listen to ‘Low Ride’ HERE.
Please just hit REPLY to let me know what you think, give any feedback/advice and I’d love to hear any ideas for other guests or areas of the music industry you’d love to know more about!
Enjoy, do share any ❤️ and subscribe to the podcast!
Cheers!
Gabrielle Corbett
Website: bbbpodcast.xyz
