Hello!

Today was my last day working with the online department at Channel 4 and whilst it was sad saying goodbye to everyone, it was a much better day than yesterday!

Waking up was definitely more difficult this morning than it has been for the rest of this week, it doesn’t help that feeling ill meant I couldn’t sleep before 2am but it wasn’t the best start to the day. But I got dressed, did my make-up and got ready for the day – I left to head to Channel 4, determined to make the most of the day since I’d wasted half of it yesterday.

I got back to my desk and watched a few more of the shorts series on All4 whilst I was finalising my own ideas for shorts ready for my pitch that afternoon. But because I was so happy with the ideas I’d come up with, it didn’t take me long to finish drafting out the ideas for each episode and then I actually got some uni assignment research done before I went for lunch.

A few of the work experience lot sat together and we were all starting to get a little sad about leaving our departments and having to say goodbye after spending such an intense week together (at least… I thought it was intense!). I then went back upstairs to wait for James to come back and, essentially, give me something to do for the rest of the afternoon until my pitch. While I was waiting, I observed two fire engines, five ambulances and a police car rock up at the building site across the street from Channel 4 because someone dropped a rotating saw or something. Either way it made for something to watch whilst I waited for James!

We went and spoke to a couple of apprentices who were so lovely – they let me talk through a couple of my short ideas and they were so friendly and chatty and I didn’t feel like I was ‘just’ on work experience; I felt valued and it was just so comforting. James introduced me to a few other people and we escorted some guests to a meeting before I went to do my pitch.

I was nervous, I won’t lie – I was talking to two shorts commissioners and two other members of Channel 4’s Online team and they’re all important people. I could tell I was really nervous because I was talking too loud and talking really fast and I didn’t really give them a chance to butt in but they seemed to like my ideas a lot and asked me a lot of questions and again; it felt like they respected me and valued my opinion. It meant a lot considering I have nothing at face value that would earn their respect – no title, no portfolio (that they’ve seen anyway!); no nothing but they listened and engaged with me and it was so nice to have such an open conversation. It was such a good pitch meeting!

After that I had no need to brainstorm any more ideas so James and I mostly just wondered around chatting to people and meeting more people. We ended up sat back at his desk comparing YouTube channels and talking about YouTube. I’m so lucky to have got this placement (though… I guess I earned it?) but I’m luckier to have been working with such an amazing and chilled out team! It was an amazing environment to be in, especially considering how anxious I was for the week. It highlighted to me that formal situations can often make my anxiety spike because the expectation on me is so high but it wasn’t like that at all this week.

Channel 4 are an incredible, hard-working company making some amazing content and I have a real new found respect for them and will definitely be following what they’re making much more closely in the future!

Definitely hoping to be doing more work with them at some point, whether it be soon or a little bit further down the line.

What made this brilliant day even better was that my boyfriend Lucas came to visit and is staying the night here in London with me! So I treated us to room service (I had the best burger!) and we’re just having a really nice night in.

I’m both excited and sad to be having our ‘conclusion’ day tomorrow because I don’t want to say goodbye to everybody and leave but also I’m excited to go back to my home in Southampton… before going off to Birmingham for the weekend! It’s such a busy week!

But I’ve loved every second of it!

Thank you for reading,

Sophie xx




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