The Creative Cities Internship was a four-week paid programme, in Clapperboard’s scripted development team.
The programme focused on devising concepts to match channel briefs, which were pitched in person to commissioning editors at Channel 4 and 5. It was open to applications from Bradford and the wider metropolitan areas, from groups underrepresented in TV. It included two weeks at head office in London, with all travel and accommodation paid, and two weeks remote work, plus an ongoing monthly mentorship on completion.
Mike Benson, MD of prolific TV drama production company Clapperboard Studios, is from Bradford, and wholeheartedly embraced the opportunity to deliver the first Creative Cities internship.
Creative Cities is bringing the model to Liverpool for this year’s event.
Mike Benson – MD Clapperboard
When I grew up in Bradford I had no idea a career in Television could be a possibility. Even when I went to University I was none the wiser – I never once met anyone who worked even vaguely close to the industry. The reality is, for most people, a career in media is shrouded in mystery – only available to those who stumble across it by meeting someone on the inside– which is what luckily happened to me as I moved into a flat share in London with someone in the business. But this was pure good fortune and happenstance.
The more we can communicate how it actually works, what it looks like and how you might get there the better.
These barriers to entry are especially true out of London. But there exists here a wealth of talent – new voices, fresh perspectives, untold stories and ideas – bursting at the seams to be found.
So that really was the ethos for the internship. Given the creative cities conference was in Bradford last year it felt like an opportunity to partner up and set up an internship for a young person from the area to give them meaningful experience and awareness of the industry. We also were firmly committed to it being both a paid internship – the era of unpaid “experience” should be in the past – as well as the travel and accommodation for them to be in London with us for a good period.
We also wanted it to build to something tangible and meaningful. The Internship was development focused with the aim being to build to an in person-pitch to UK network commissioners for our successful candidate. Both Paul Testar at Paramount and Louise Donald at C4 were kind enough to offer up this opportunity.
After the application process one candidate stood out which led us to the hugely talented Leibonie Hutchinson. She was full of verve and creativity even from her initial application and once she joined us immediately pitched us ideas which had a freshness to them with a perspective we wouldn’t have had within our London macchiato bubbles! We developed two of the ideas up and took them to the networks with Leibonie leading the pitch and doing an incredible job. Both pitches went really well and we are now in active development with one of the ideas which if it happens will offer Leibonie to opportunity to help us bring it to screen.
We want to repeat the internship this year again with Creatives Cities who were wonderfully supportive – especially Rosie Perry who is so passionate about this area.
In terms of the bigger picture of opening up the industry to new voices our internship is just a drop in the ocean – more direct and paid experience needs to be offered. But we were proud of what Leibonie achieved and believe work experience is best served by immersing young people in the industry and opening up their eyes to how it works and how they might get there.
Leibonie Hutchinson
I’m Leibonie, and I love TV. Television has been my whole life for as long as I can remember. When most kids were out playing, I was binge-watching Call The Midwife.
I love how powerful storytelling can change a perspective, a vision, and maybe even someone’s opinion. I always knew I needed to incorporate my passion for story into my everyday life; there began my dream of working in TV.
I heard Mike talk about the Clapperboard Development Internship at the Creative Cities Convention in Bradford. Being from Bradford myself, the internship really felt like something that fit me perfectly. I wanted to tell stories and learn desperately, and the internship offered just that.
London felt exciting, and the place where I’d truly learn what TV was ‘all about’- but I was an outsider. London is, as expected, very different to Bradford, so it took me some time to settle into things, but eventually, I got there.
The internship was a combination of in-person down in London, and remote. The time I spent in the office helped me to get to grips with how development worked, and the ideas generation/discovery stage. I spent lots of time reading scripts, pitch & development decks, even full books- all while learning the development and commissioning process in a hustling and bustling production company.
As I went further into the internship, I had the chance to develop my own ideas with the Clapperboard team, to take to Channel 4 and 5. This was a spectacular opportunity to be free and calculated with my storytelling, and let my creativity shine as much as I could. As my ideas evolved into real stories, the team helped me shape them into something I could take to the commissioners to get a flavour for a ‘real-life’ pitch.
My pitches both went really well! They both gave me excellent feedback, and it was an unbelievable opportunity to go to a place that felt so out of my depth. Every person I met at Clapperboard was so eager to help me, tell me their journey, and answer all my questions. They pushed for me to succeed, something I worried I wouldn’t have. My confidence throughout blossomed, I feel more ‘in-tune’ with the way the industry works, and how to independently grow my career as a creative. I met people who enabled me to learn from their journeys, and took each person’s advice.
I didn’t grow up knowing things like this existed for people like me. I’ve never had the ‘knowing someone’ as a way in, or the chance to take on work experience unpaid. Bradford is only particularly notorious for bad driving and serial killers; it’s not really like Guy Ritchie is doing open crew calls in the depths of West Yorkshire.
Internships like this one at Clapperboard are vital for the up-and-coming pool of creatives across the UK, and especially from those deprived areas like Bradford. Economically deprived places house just as much creativity as the wealthier ones; why not offer people an equal chance at thriving? That’s what internships like this do. They level the playing field and push for young people to understand, if they work hard enough, they can get to where they want to be.
This internship has genuinely taught me so much. I left my 4 weeks at Clapperboard feeling grateful to every team member who gave me so much of their time, proud of what I managed to achieve in a short stint, and ready to take on the north’s TV industry with a little spring in my step.
London was amazing for the time I spent there, but the north is my home, and it has so much more to offer. I am continuing to build my career in Bradford/Leeds, and am pursuing my dream to produce. I am so humbled to have been given this opportunity and excited to have an ongoing mentorship with Clapperboard and Mike. Just a girl from Bradford getting to learn down in the big smoke, and to bring that knowledge back home.
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