Andy Halley’s offer on media training is unique - both in the experience he has in broadcast media and Images of Light’s approach. Images of Light believes that most media training has the wrong priorities and is based on a false assumption that folk need to deal with the media under a cloud of fear. Wrong.
Elsewhere on the website is a chronology of Andy’s work which makes him among the most experienced camera operators in the UK. He’s worked for the BBC for years but has a host of independent film productions on his CV. He has filmed interviews with Presidents and Prime Ministers, has organised thousands of “lives” from all over the world and worked on two Olympics and a veritable host of other major sports events. The point being he knows how the camera side of the business works. Inside out. So he also knows how the opportunities offered by broadcast can be seized if you know how. His partner in Images of Light Media is Bob Wylie.
Bob Wylie worked in television and radio news with BBC Scotland for almost 15 years. He specialised in investigations - crime stories and news exclusives. He won awards reporting from Pakistan and for an acclaimed radio series on South Africa. He has been at the sharp end of the business. He is as far away from a bluffing always been in PR know-it-all that you could get. He’s been in communications since he left the BBC. That time included almost two years as the chief of staff of the then leader of Glasgow City Council. So he’s got the tee shirt for getting the boss’s name into the media spotlight as well as handling the media’s most difficult journalists. And how.
Bob and Andy have worked on contract media training and as independents for a list of heavy-hitting clients. That includes Barclays, Royal Navy Faslane, Diageo, Quilter Cheviot, Glasgow City Council, Visit Scotland, Highland Water, ATOS, Royal Mail, IPSOS/Mori, Historic Scotland, SACRO, the Wise Group, Lothian Buses and the Governor of Punjab, Pakistan. Their most recent commissions came from the Scottish Trade Union Congress and Scotland’s GMB union.
Images of Light believes most media training today is falsely biased towards crisis intervention. This is a false paradigm - usually used to justify exorbitant fees. Rather we believe that media training should be about explaining the broadcast medium works and building people’s confidence about how to deal with it.
Most TV journalists want a nice clean sound bite of 20 seconds as your opinion, on record, for their story. They are not trying to destroy your company’s reputation with trick questions. Radio features are longer but for the most part are an opportunity not a threat. Anyway that is what we try to convince those we work with.
Morning 0930 - 1230
Today’s media - the printed press;
Today’s media - social media;
Today’s media - broadcast, and related online;
The Good the Bad and the Ugly - radio and TV clips from real life;
Why is broadcast so important? The all-consuming news website.
Scenario interviews - each trainee will be given a story scenario based on your own company’s field, its reputation and current issues. These will be fitted to personal remits in discussion with leading company executives and managers. Those on the course will then be interviewed on the scenario in role play - a radio interview in the style of Today / Good Morning Scotland (GMS), after which they have to produce a sound bite interview ostensibly for the TV lunchtime programme on the same subject.
Today / Good Morning Scotland is still mportant in this sense because it is an agenda setter in many cases for broadcast later in the day. The role play also allows a vital introduction for the trainee into time and the broadcast media.
What is the message we want to deliver?
How can we make that stand out?
If you don’t prepare, prepare to fail.
Verbal discussion of the GMS interview; Review of the morning TV soundbites;
For the afternoon sessions those being trained will know the subjects and be able to prepare for more challenging interviews;
TV interviews - these would be on similar scenarios to the morning but this time with a more pointed variation involved; it is most likely that we would set this up as a down-the-line interview along the lines of what is now common in broadcast news where the person being interviewed is in a remote studio ‘down-the-line from the programme presenter. Alternatively a ‘factory gate interview’ where the programme presenter ‘throws’ to a reporter for a live interview - “Our reporter Bob Wylie is at Str Andrews House in Edinburgh…Bob intro - I’m joined now by Fiona Hyslop the Government’s Business Secretary.
Review of the longer TV interview performance followed by group discussion - “What have we learned today”
In the post COVID-19 world it is clear that set-up interviews using smart technology on live cameras will become more and more important. This section will consider how to use this type of media, how to present, and the major do’s and dont’s. This will include why you should not do Skype interviews in your bedroom and why the wedding photos don’t work.
Images of Light is of the view that 5 is the maximum number of people for a media school to make sure it develops with pace and there are not long intervals where people are hanging around. You may want to train more people than that over time because the training overlaps into areas of self presentation, self confidence and public speaking;
Costs are confidential obviously but our rates are extremely competitive what is an over-priced market. That can be discussed if there is interest in a commission.
