Editing in UK documentary and factual TV with Editor Gareth Williams

In this session, experienced editor Gareth Williams will be looking at examples from a wide range of documentary and factual TV to help aspiring, upcoming and recently established editors to learn the craft. He will take you through how to start, plan and structure stories in large-scale factual series, single documentaries and observational documentary.

The session will cover:

• Storytelling: how to spot where a story is in the rushes. 
• Working with actuality: how to craft a clear story from sometimes unclear rushes.
• How to manage huge amounts of rushes to find compelling narratives from what can feel like an overwhelming volume of material.
• How to work collaboratively with edit producers, directors, series producers, executive producers and commissioners.    
• Common mistakes made during the production – how to fix them and how to stop them happening.
• What directors and producers want from you and how to manage those expectations and how to cope with the pressures of those expectations.  
• How to get employed and how to stay in demand in a competitive industry. 

This session is for entry level editors through to those with a few years' experience and for Researchers/APs/Edit Producers with an interest in factual/fact ent storytelling. 
 
Speaker

Gareth Williams has spent 21 years working as an editor for all the major UK broadcasters as well as a number of US networks. He has cut over 200 hours of peak time UK programming.  

He started out cutting news packages at the BBC at the age of 23 he spent 6 years as staff at the BBC moving into current affairs and documentaries in his early 20s. After going freelance his credits have included CH4’s BAFTA nominated documentary Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields, BAFTA winning first series of The Island with Bear Grylls and also the landmark documentary series Prince Charles: Inside the Duchy of Cornwall. 

 
This event is supported by the ScreenSkills Television Skills Fund which invests in training for the freelance television workforce thanks to contributions from the BBC, Channel 4 and Channel 5.  

It is part of a ScreenSkills programme managed by the Indie Training Fund to support freelancers to upskill and stay connected, helping keep the industry resilient in these difficult times.

This session will take place online via Zoom. Click ‘get ticket’ to reserve your place: you must login or register before you are able to get a ticket for this event. A booking confirmation with a joining link to the session will be sent to you via email.