Sitting in the office chatting on the phone to an old friend, I was oblivious that this was the start if an adventure. However, two weeks down the line and I've just finished filming and editing a TV feature about him. Leonard Smith is a photographer based in Brantham, and I went down to talk to him about the impact that digital technology is having on his day. But I wasn't thrown completely in the deep end, I had Gareth George to guide me along the way. Gareth is a reporter for BBC Look East and so he was able to give me loads of great ideas. The first thing that I learnt was that you need to have a really clear line that you want to take with the piece. With TV there is no time to waffle, or be vague about your point. You need to be really sure what you want to communicate. The second key thing was to keep the pace of the piece up so that the audience don't get bored watching the same images for too long. For just a one or two minute piece, you need tons and tons of varied footage. We had to capture Len doing loads of different things, as well as some stills and the ever dreaded piece to camera. I hadn't realised how hard it was to say one sentence to a camera. I had to say it sooooooooo many times to get the right tone and stress on the words. And the same was true when I was laying down the script in the office. I had to try and over and over to get it just right, which was really tough. Overall, I had a great day and it was a brilliant experience. However, I realised that showbiz isn't at all glam, it’s a long day and it’s really hard work. Filming is hard enough, but editing is really challenging too. So before you set your heart on presenting, listen to my words of wisdom... it’s much harder than it looks! | 
