Shooting with Gail Porter

Posted on: 12/08/2014

Gail Porter shot

Last week our production team had the pleasure of shooting with Gail Porter, the presenter for our Career Focus TV site. This site is a step-by-step guide into a new career, with entertaining and amusing videos.

On a baking hot Tuesday morning, our production team was excited to meet Gail and see her bring our careers scripts to life. We set up the camera, green-screen and autocues and were ready to roll when we met Gail. Sometimes it can be awkward meeting someone who’s well-known. I once met Simon Beaufoy, who won an Oscar for writing Slumdog Millionaire. Whilst, chatting to him, he passed me his Oscar statue, and I somehow managed to dislodge the plating on the bottom of it.

Thankfully meeting Gail went a lot better, and the only thing that was quickly broken was the ice. She is a bundle of energy and immediately entertained us with an anecdote about someone she encountered that morning. After introductions were made, coffee drunk and mics were readied, we started filming.

Gail presented the scripts which we’d written for our programmes and then we moved onto the scripts for our Career Focus TV site. Gail’s energy and enthusiasm was infectious and we all had a lot of fun on this shoot. Her unique blend of humour, energy and soft Scottish tones brought each script to life. At one stage the creative juices were flowing so much that we were all reduced to giggles by the word “franchisee”. A little strange, but normal things can sometimes become very funny when filming.

After quickly getting over our giggles, Gail told us about how she got her first job within the media. She got her Mum to film her spinning around in a circle and then edited the shot into another one where she was dressed as Wonder Woman. She then sprinted at a fence, and instead of flying over it like Wonder Woman might, she clattered into it head first. This slap-stick video caught the eye of Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer, who are well versed in weird humour, and they hired her.

So it goes to show that sometimes it pays to have a unique approach. Gail also impressed the importance of having a varied skill-set when working in the media. For instance, currently she is writing a novel and preparing to star in comedy play 69 Shades of Black. For tickets and more information about 69 Shades of Black visit their Facebook page here

As we moved into the afternoon Gail’s energy levels only seemed to increase as she presented most scripts in a single take. A very productive afternoon left us with all the footage we needed, and lots of extra material that gives a fun and interesting insight into the UK media industry.

We’ll be sharing short videos of Gail, so keep an eye out.

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